Is It Me...or is it MSC

[MsTabbyKats]

So, I am a native speaker of English....but I think there may be a communications problem.

 

I want to book a cruise for April 2023.  I asked the first rep...."until when is the deposit refundable?".  She said I have 89 days after booking the cruise.....so I could get my depost back until June 2022 for April 2023.  I repeated this many times...and she said that's their policy.

 

Called back:  Rep #2 said something like 90 days before sailing....so April 2023 cruise would be refundable until some point in Jan.  Sounds better.

 

Then I ask the price of the cruise........I get about $2000 on the website.  She tells me $2500 because it's more expensive when they book it.  And yes, she had my membership number.

 

Could someone please clarify the "deposit issue" and the high cost to book thru on of their agents?

 

 

[mscdivina2016]

6 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

So, I am a native speaker of English....but I think there may be a communications problem.

 

I want to book a cruise for April 2023.  I asked the first rep...."until when is the deposit refundable?".  She said I have 89 days after booking the cruise.....so I could get my depost back until June 2022 for April 2023.  I repeated this many times...and she said that's their policy.

 

Called back:  Rep #2 said something like 90 days before sailing....so April 2023 cruise would be refundable until some point in Jan.  Sounds better.

 

Then I ask the price of the cruise........I get about $2000 on the website.  She tells me $2500 because it's more expensive when they book it.  And yes, she had my membership number.

 

Could someone please clarify the "deposit issue" and the high cost to book thru on of their agents?

 

 

Of course it MSC.

Its 90 days before sailing unless YC, then 120 days but you still lose $250 for YC no matter what.

 

Book online that way its not screwed up by them. Imagine getting your confirmation from them and its wrong? Back on the phone, you know the drill!

 

[MsTabbyKats]

Oh yeah....another thing rep #2 said:

 

I asked her what the cost would be for a specific cabin.  She said it was only available as a randomly assigned cabin.

 

I checked another website....and there it was.....flashing green.

 

Seriously....is there absolutely NO training??????

[cheeseheads4ever]

As I’ve stated many times on this site. MSC has the worst customer service on the planet. No one knows anything and none of their customer service people can make a decision. Doesn’t matter what room you book they will change it and not even tell you. So as I try to tell people they are a cheap cruise line but cheap for a reason. If you are like myself and mscdivina2016 you will spend hours with phone calls and emails to try to get it right. It doesn’t have to be your mistake MSC will screw it up for you.

Once they have your money they could care less about what’s wrong.

Save yourself the stress and anguish. Don’t book a cruise with this cruise line. Yes there will be people that will come to their rescue and say it’s been absolutely flawless well these people are few and far between.

Read the reviews and you will see the horror stories. Btw it’s not you it’s them.

 

[Robkat]

2 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Of course it MSC.

Its 90 days before sailing unless YC, then 120 days but you still lose $250 for YC no matter what.

 

Book online that way its not screwed up by them. Imagine getting your confirmation from them and its wrong? Back on the phone, you know the drill!

 

From MSC's Terms & Conditions page (USA bookings), it looks like YC deposits are non-refundable:

For Yacht Club, a non-refundable deposit equal to: cruises 4 nights or less - $99 per adult; cruises 5-14 nights - $199 per adult; cruises 15 nights or more - $300 per adult, is due and payable by the Passenger at time of Booking.

 

[cherylnj]

I would suggest using a travel agent that is familiar with MSC and their "quirks". 

[deliver42]

Of course, finding one that deals with MSC may be  a problem.

[momrox1]

43 minutes ago, cherylnj said:

I would suggest using a travel agent that is familiar with MSC and their "quirks". 

When I was booking my second msc cruise with my TA she said, Really, Mrs. Kerrigan, do you really want to book with them?  She said they are the worst cruise line she has to deal with lol.  Of course, I went anyway and had a blast and have another two booked this season 😉

[MsTabbyKats]

I did 2 cruises with them....loved them!

I tried with a TA in the past....TA didn't want to get involved.

 

Prior to covid the reps were not this bad.  I mean, seriously...it was like just making things up.

 

A surcharge if 25% if I book with the rep??????

 

So I read the terms and conditions and it looks like my non-yacht deposit is refundable until 90 days before the sail date.

 

It's gonna be a "do it yourself" booking........

[mscdivina2016]

18 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

 

 

So I read the terms and conditions and it looks like my non-yacht deposit is refundable until 90 days before the sail date.

 

It

I can tell you from experience is 120 days for YC .

If you book a cruise look at the last page. 

[mscdivina2016]

3 hours ago, cheeseheads4ever said:

As I’ve stated many times on this site. MSC has the worst customer service on the planet. No one knows anything and none of their customer service people can make a decision. Doesn’t matter what room you book they will change it and not even tell you. So as I try to tell people they are a cheap cruise line but cheap for a reason. If you are like myself and mscdivina2016 you will spend hours with phone calls and emails to try to get it right. It doesn’t have to be your mistake MSC will screw it up for you.

Once they have your money they could care less about what’s wrong.

Save yourself the stress and anguish. Don’t book a cruise with this cruise line. Yes there will be people that will come to their rescue and say it’s been absolutely flawless well these people are few and far between.

Read the reviews and you will see the horror stories. Btw it’s not you it’s them.

 

Cheeseheads is spot on. Don't book a cruise with them!

[lovemycruisetoo]

Hope this clarifies non refundable deposit. YC is now non-refundable no matter how many days prior. I was able to charge back with my cc for a canceled cruise even though I made a deposit over a year ago because I could prove at the time of booking it was only non refundable less than 119 days and I canceled at 146 days.
 

Now it seems it’s all depending on number of cruise nights that will determine how many days prior to you will have to cancel for non YC. It’s on the chart below. 

[MsTabbyKats]

28 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

I can tell you from experience is 120 days for YC .

If you book a cruise look at the last page. 

No YC for me....just a plain old balcony.

Anyway....I booked on line....got the cabin I wanted.  I really have a problem with "stupid" and I just couldn't bear being misinformed by "the expert".

 

 

[titangas]

See attached 

this is from my cruise documents for cruise April 2023.

look at the bottom, non refundable is on certain cruises, not all US cruises in Yacht Club.

[Janet&Carl]

1 hour ago, titangas said:

See attached 

this is from my cruise documents for cruise April 2023.

look at the bottom, non refundable is on certain cruises, not all US cruises in Yacht Club.

 

 

We have different terms and conditions in Australia - our yacht Club booking confirmation states "Deposit: A deposit of $200 per person, per cruise is due and payable by the Passenger within five (5) working days (or earlier if advised at the time of Booking). For the World Cruise, a
non−refundable and non−transferable deposit equal to 15% of the price of the cruise fare including port charges is due and payable by the Passenger within seven (7) working days to secure
your cruise fare.
Balance Booking Due: Booking must be paid in full by the due date to avoid your booking being cancelled with cancellation charges according to our terms and conditions being applied"

[Janet&Carl]

Just now, Janet&Carl said:

 

 

We have different terms and conditions in Australia - our yacht Club booking confirmation states "Deposit: A deposit of $200 per person, per cruise is due and payable by the Passenger within five (5) working days (or earlier if advised at the time of Booking).

 

My friend is no longer sailing with us and has received her deposit back. Also a YC booking.  

 

[cruiseguyinorl]

4 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Prior to covid the reps were not this bad. 

 

Prior to COVID they were actually MSC employees. Now MSC has hired 3rd party "call centers" and the agents aren't familiar with cruises in general - all script based. There are still some true MSC agents that answer the phones and you might get lucky with one of those.

[perakcruiser]

2 hours ago, Janet&Carl said:

We have different terms and conditions in Australia

They are totally different for all markets. Not surpising as they have to follow totally different laws. 

[Janet&Carl]

1 hour ago, cruiseguyinorl said:

 

Prior to COVID they were actually MSC employees. Now MSC has hired 3rd party "call centers" and the agents aren't familiar with cruises in general - all script based. There are still some true MSC agents that answer the phones and you might get lucky with one of those.

 

The people I talk to in the Sydney office are the same people I spoke to when booking my first cruise with MSC 12 years ago.  

 

[dexddd]

7 hours ago, cruiseguyinorl said:

 

Prior to COVID they were actually MSC employees. Now MSC has hired 3rd party "call centers" and the agents aren't familiar with cruises in general - all script based. There are still some true MSC agents that answer the phones and you might get lucky with one of those.

Who are the concierges that have randomly started calling late Fall, third party or MSC?

[deliver42]

Another example of MSC,s fine customer service.

[Bluewake]

It's really quite sad that MSC's poor/inept "customer service" is becoming so detrimental to the cruise line.  We've truly enjoyed the onboard experience on the MSC cruises we've taken regardless of whether it's been in the Yacht Club, inside cabins, or balcony cabins.  The appearance and quality of the ships has been stellar, the entertainment wonderful, and the crew members professional and helpful. We have one more upcoming MSC cruise to use a credit from a cancelled 2020 cruise which MSC took more than a year to process.  After that, despite how pleased we've been with the actual cruises, because of the challenges we've had with the seemingly misnamed "customer service" unit of MSC, we just don't know about booking MSC.  In fact, I cringe whenever I think about calling MSC myself and the agent we use is equally reluctant. As Carly Simon once sang, "I haven't got time for the pain".   

[MsTabbyKats]

Just to add....I booked last night on line and got a confirmation of payment immediately.  But...no promised "confirmation of booking".  So I called this morning as spoke to a rep who actually sounded knowledgeable.

They have been doing a lot of advertising here (NYC).  If I was new to the company ..I would be sooooo mislead.  Like paying $2500 instead of $2000!

Not good PR....

Edited March 12, 2022 by MsTabbyKats

[cheeseheads4ever]

I just can’t imagine how many customers MSC loses because cruisers just don’t want to deal with their customer service. It certainly turned us off to them. You can read all the negative reviews and you have to ask yourself no matter how cheap the cruise your time and frustration has to worth something. Yes I’ve heard the ships are impeccable and staff is very good but customer service represents the first step in what a cruise line is when you have an issue.  You just can’t get past the horrible customer service.

I thought our January cruise price was good and thought we would try another cruise line. But it didn’t take long for us to bail on the cruise and it was due to omicron but felt we would move it out to later in the year.. But after dealing with their customer service we decided to get our money back and move on. 
Good luck Mstabbycats hopefully you will have no issues!

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by cheeseheads4ever

[deliver42]

We're booked on the Seashore for May, and have had a multitude of problems with customer service. This will be our 3rd and last time with MSC. They just don't care, period.