Worst customer service experience with Princess Planner -Where to from here?

[Kaylacool]

Last month I booked 2 cruises as part of the Princess early release for 2024 and 2025 cruises.  I booked these through my Princess Holiday planner had never used him before but been assigned as previous planner left.  I've tried to resolve numerous times over the past month this just not sure where to go or who to contact to get this resolved and to communicate to the extremely poor level of customer service that I've experienced.  Would hate for anyone else to have to go through this.  Never before have I ever had to experience such lack of commitment, professionalism and lies from Princess staff in regards to getting back to me.

The saga so far.....

On the day I booked these cruises I noticed errors in the booking listed below:-

• Not applying the Future Cruise Deposit resulting in no on board credit applied for me
• Me not listed as Elite but another level (husband and I both Elite)
• Husband booked Plus fare and he was charged over $200 more for both cruises than what was listed that day for this category fare
• Husband should have received additional OBC as he booked plus fare
• Incorrect OBC for both of us as this was during the 'Twice is Nice' promo only received $50 each where as I should have received $100 and husband $200

I phoned the planner on the day and advised him of the errors and he said he would look into this and get back to me.  I followed up with email clearly outlining errors and additional mistakes a couple of days later and still no response.  Phoned him but unable to speak with him so left message for him to call me back.

I emailed him and also the princess customer service email address hoping to get some action this way.  I was contacted via email about 4 days later from Princess advising that I would need to call as this involved an existing booking and I need to be ID'd so they could speak further about this.

I phoned and was advised that as I'd booked this with a Planner I would have to speak with him, despite my protesting that he appeared to be incompetent as was not returning my call and could someone else assist.  NO this was not possible had to be with planner the caller advised they had passed on a message to him directly and he would call me.  That has not happened and I have repeated this process again to be told that he would call me after 4pm on the given day but still nothing from him.  I am at breaking point of frustration with the poor service I have received and just don't understand why he is not responding to me and fixing the errors in booking.  I even 'threatened' to cancel both cruises but still NO response from Princess.

If you've read this far I'm hoping you may be able to offer some advice or an email address of who to raise this with in a higher authority as clearly I've not made any progress so far and would appreciate any positive input on where to from here.

Thanks

K

 

[happy42cruise]

Try these:

jswartz@princesscruises.com,Customerrelations@princesscruises.com

csteinke@princesscruises.com,lwarren@princesscruises.com

 

Good luck & if you talk to customer service ask for his supervisor.

 

[pompeii]

Here is what my pvp suggested when someone is unhappy with their planner:

 

Hi S----,

 

I am sorry to hear your friend is unhappy with her vacation planner, she can call our (800)901-1172 number and press 0 or stay on the line until our support agents answer and can request a new vacation planner and they will transfer them to our supervisors to be reassigned.

 

If you have any additional questions or anything I can do for you please give me a call.

 

Kind Regards,

K----

[Guest ldtr]

4 hours ago, Kaylacool said:

Last month I booked 2 cruises as part of the Princess early release for 2024 and 2025 cruises.  I booked these through my Princess Holiday planner had never used him before but been assigned as previous planner left.  I've tried to resolve numerous times over the past month this just not sure where to go or who to contact to get this resolved and to communicate to the extremely poor level of customer service that I've experienced.  Would hate for anyone else to have to go through this.  Never before have I ever had to experience such lack of commitment, professionalism and lies from Princess staff in regards to getting back to me.

The saga so far.....

On the day I booked these cruises I noticed errors in the booking listed below:-

• Not applying the Future Cruise Deposit resulting in no on board credit applied for me
• Me not listed as Elite but another level (husband and I both Elite)
• Husband booked Plus fare and he was charged over $200 more for both cruises than what was listed that day for this category fare
• Husband should have received additional OBC as he booked plus fare
• Incorrect OBC for both of us as this was during the 'Twice is Nice' promo only received $50 each where as I should have received $100 and husband $200

I phoned the planner on the day and advised him of the errors and he said he would look into this and get back to me.  I followed up with email clearly outlining errors and additional mistakes a couple of days later and still no response.  Phoned him but unable to speak with him so left message for him to call me back.

I emailed him and also the princess customer service email address hoping to get some action this way.  I was contacted via email about 4 days later from Princess advising that I would need to call as this involved an existing booking and I need to be ID'd so they could speak further about this.

I phoned and was advised that as I'd booked this with a Planner I would have to speak with him, despite my protesting that he appeared to be incompetent as was not returning my call and could someone else assist.  NO this was not possible had to be with planner the caller advised they had passed on a message to him directly and he would call me.  That has not happened and I have repeated this process again to be told that he would call me after 4pm on the given day but still nothing from him.  I am at breaking point of frustration with the poor service I have received and just don't understand why he is not responding to me and fixing the errors in booking.  I even 'threatened' to cancel both cruises but still NO response from Princess.

If you've read this far I'm hoping you may be able to offer some advice or an email address of who to raise this with in a higher authority as clearly I've not made any progress so far and would appreciate any positive input on where to from here.

Thanks

K

 

At this point probably easier to cancel and rebook, then to try and get each error corrected.  There was probably an error in the data entered, resulting in the system not being able to find and apply the fcd, also probably resulting in a new Captains circle number being assigned.  One step will be for that to be corrected.

 

I have always found that it is better to book online, make sure everything is correct, place the booking on hold, then have your PVP check if there are any better details and apply the fcds to finish the booking.

[voljeep]

4 hours ago, Kaylacool said:

• Husband booked Plus fare and he was charged over $200 more for both cruises than what was listed that day for this category fare
• Husband should have received additional OBC as he booked plus fare

Same cabin? - then both 'must' book PLUS fare - unless he actually booked a 'beverage package'...

[DHP1]

1 hour ago, ldtr said:

At this point probably easier to cancel and rebook, then to try and get each error corrected.  There was probably an error in the data entered, resulting in the system not being able to find and apply the fcd, also probably resulting in a new Captains circle number being assigned.  One step will be for that to be corrected.

 

I have always found that it is better to book online, make sure everything is correct, place the booking on hold, then have your PVP check if there are any better details and apply the fcds to finish the booking.

We also booked online and then a few days later we’ll call Princess to see if there are any promotions and pay our deposit. 

[ontheweb]

Can you move the booking to a TA, and then have him or her deal with the errors on the booking?

[Steelers36]

7 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Can you move the booking to a TA, and then have him or her deal with the errors on the booking?

I don't agree.  That's like asking someone - likely a stranger to the OP - to clean up their mess. 

 

I would phone in and cancel both bookings - insist they just be cancelled NOW.  Then I would start over again with someone new.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Steelers36

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, Kaylacool said:

• Not applying the Future Cruise Deposit resulting in no on board credit applied for me
• Me not listed as Elite but another level (husband and I both Elite)
• Husband booked Plus fare and he was charged over $200 more for both cruises than what was listed that day for this category fare
• Husband should have received additional OBC as he booked plus fare

Can you provide more info here?  Husband cannot book PLUS alone unless you are in separate cabins/bookings which doesn't make sense.

There is well-known bug that the Princess App often reflects the incorrect Captain's Circle level for guests which can cause other side-effect issues.

 

We should all be aware this is a poster from Australia and they will have different promos and pricing schemes than us in North America.  Not defending the CVP, because there are turkeys there for sure, but if based in USA, a bit of a time challenge there in contacting one another.  Anyway, I would get yourself cancelled and begin anew.  Do you know a good TA in your area?

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I don't agree.  That's like asking someone - likely a stranger to the OP - to clean up their mess. 

 

I would phone in and cancel both bookings - insist they just be cancelled NOW.  Then I would start over again with someone new.

I of course meant for the TA to take over the booking. If you think the best way to do that is to start over and use a TA fine, but sometimes perks disappear and/or prices rise after the time of the original booking.

[Kay S]

9 hours ago, happy42cruise said:

Try these:

jswartz@princesscruises.com,Customerrelations@princesscruises.com

csteinke@princesscruises.com,lwarren@princesscruises.com

 

Good luck & if you talk to customer service ask for his supervisor.

 

Jan Swartz is long gone.

[SargassoPirate]

Water under the bridge now, but I've had a problem with booking through Princess.com and then turning the booking over to my TA who will then work on my behalf.   On the other hand, one reads all sorts of issues with Princess planners - who are most likely working from home while doing the laundry and watching the kids.

[Rick&Jeannie]

2 hours ago, Kay S said:

Jan Swartz is long gone.

Jan is NOT gone...higher up the ladder now.

[memoak]

1 hour ago, SargassoPirate said:

Water under the bridge now, but I've had a problem with booking through Princess.com and then turning the booking over to my TA who will then work on my behalf.   On the other hand, one reads all sorts of issues with Princess planners - who are most likely working from home while doing the laundry and watching the kids.

Many TA’s work from home as well. During the pandemic 90% of office workers in my company worked from home and we had our most productive years

[jeromep]

You are getting a lot of the same advice from many of us; find a travel agent.  I also had some difficulties with a booking last year for a cruise this year.  I wasn't able to get my Princess Planner to resolve the situation, so I got some recommendations from friends who also cruise about independent travel agents, contacted one, and they had me complete some forms which moved the booking to them.  It was really quite painless.  Once the booking had been moved to the TA they were able to see the issue with the booking and work their magic on their end.

 

There are some limits on transferring bookings to a TA.  The biggest one is that it has to be done inside 90 days of booking through Princess.  Then Princess has to approve the transfer to the TA.  They have the option to not allow it, but I understand that is pretty rare.  After the transfer all inquiries about the booking have to go through the TA.  And honestly, that is a good thing.  Travel Agents have a lot of access to the cruise booking system and various internal systems.  They also sometimes have their own promotions, discounts, and OBC offers.  After my final payment my TA threw some extra OBC on my account, and I wasn't offered or was expecting that.  It wasn't a lot of money, but it is the thought that counts, sometimes.  Your experience may vary, but post disease that shall not be mentioned, I like the idea of using a travel agent and helping somebody "local" make a living.

[Kaylacool]

16 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Can you provide more info here?  Husband cannot book PLUS alone unless you are in separate cabins/bookings which doesn't make sense.

There is well-known bug that the Princess App often reflects the incorrect Captain's Circle level for guests which can cause other side-effect issues.

 

We should all be aware this is a poster from Australia and they will have different promos and pricing schemes than us in North America.  Not defending the CVP, because there are turkeys there for sure, but if based in USA, a bit of a time challenge there in contacting one another.  Anyway, I would get yourself cancelled and begin anew.  Do you know a good TA in your area?

thanks Steelers36 more info as requested.

Yes I am in Australia as you mentioned and when making the original booking I asked if my husband could book under the Princess Plus package fare (he drinks - me not so much) and I would book the Princess Standard fare we are in the same cabin.  The Planner had no issue with booking the fare in this format.  Not yet familiar with a good travel agent in local area but will definitely be looking.

[Moondogy]

13 hours ago, Kay S said:

Jan Swartz is long gone.

Nope....she got me a new CVP in less than 24 hours when I emailed her a couple of months ago.

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, Kaylacool said:

thanks Steelers36 more info as requested.

Yes I am in Australia as you mentioned and when making the original booking I asked if my husband could book under the Princess Plus package fare (he drinks - me not so much) and I would book the Princess Standard fare we are in the same cabin.  The Planner had no issue with booking the fare in this format.  Not yet familiar with a good travel agent in local area but will definitely be looking.

I spent a bit of effort attempting to figure out the Australian website for Princess (perhaps you could supply the URL, but I suspect I won't be able to get into it from North America).  Anyway, unless Princess has a completely different policy from Australia market, a guest cannot book one with Plus or Premier Cruise Fare option and the other with Standard Fare option.  The first two guests in a stateroom MUST be booked under the same Cruise Fare plan type.  It could be that the rep booked you both in Standard Class and then "sold" you  the Plus beverage package.  If so, you got taken for a ride because that is a waste of money and you may as well have booked both of you using the Plus Cruise Fare package.  This could be why you think he was overcharged - I really don't know. 

 

You should make inquiries and see what your booking really is and see if you can change it.

[Wandawithdogs]

On 5/3/2023 at 3:35 AM, happy42cruise said:

Try these:

jswartz@princesscruises.com,Customerrelations@princesscruises.com

csteinke@princesscruises.com,lwarren@princesscruises.com

 

Good luck & if you talk to customer service ask for his supervisor.

 

I have contacted three of those twice with no resonse i will try jswartz.

[Wandawithdogs]

On 5/3/2023 at 1:20 PM, Kay S said:

Jan Swartz is long gone.

And the others don't respond.

Edited May 16, 2023 by Wandawithdogs

[Wandawithdogs]

On 5/3/2023 at 3:32 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

Jan is NOT gone...higher up the ladder now.

None of them responded to my emails....

[Wandawithdogs]

On 5/4/2023 at 3:14 AM, Moondogy said:

Nope....she got me a new CVP in less than 24 hours when I emailed her a couple of months ago.

Wow, she just ignores my emails.

[Moondogy]

44 minutes ago, Wandawithdogs said:

Wow, she just ignores my emails.

Sorry to hear that, everytime I contacted her she's had someone to respond to me no later than 48 hours. I have always got phone calls from Princess ID, with the exception of the CVP she assigned me. Maybe check your spam email as well?

[lucas34]

On 5/15/2023 at 7:46 PM, Wandawithdogs said:

I have contacted three of those twice with no resonse i will try jswartz.

Same hereillä no any reply from them...