Forbes rates Celebrity #3 in Customer Service ----

[NutsAboutGolf]

Playing devil's advocate, one wouldn't need customer service if you could do everything including changing your booking online

[kabmab]

On 2/25/2024 at 10:48 AM, upwarduk said:

For the first time I have a true complaint.

I was served chickpeas as vegetables with my fish on our most recent cruise.

Along with the withdrawal of gratuities from the AI package, we have changed cruise lines for our next cruise.

 

Lol, you're having a hard time getting over those chickpeas.

[Bo1953]

Here you go, a recent posting about one (1) X passenger - from Mr. Elliott's website...

 

bon voyage

[NMTraveller]

31 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

Here you go, a recent posting about one (1) X passenger - from Mr. Elliott's website...

 

bon voyage

It appears to me that Mr. Elliot intervenes when there is a large monetary compensation desired.  Perhaps that is why he is so out of touch with the Celebrity product.  When was the last time he sailed?

 

That is far different from Cruise Critic where many have noted the decline in the product.  The Royal 2.0.

Edited February 27 by NMTraveller

[kk20]

On 2/24/2024 at 8:34 PM, Jim_Iain said:

Here are the top cruise lines for customer service in 2024, according to the survey:

 

1. Viking

2. Holland America

3. Celebrity

4. Disney

5. Seabourn

And yet this USA Today’s people’s choice awards for favourite ocean cruise lines doesn’t have Celebrity in their top 10!

 

https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/travel/best-ocean-cruise-line-2024/

[Liao]

21 minutes ago, kk20 said:

And yet this USA Today’s people’s choice awards for favourite ocean cruise lines doesn’t have Celebrity in their top 10!

 

https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/travel/best-ocean-cruise-line-2024/

And they have Carnival as #1…just saying.

[markeb]

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

It appears to me that Mr. Elliot intervenes when there is a large monetary compensation desired.  Perhaps that is why he is so out of touch with the Celebrity product.  When was the last time he sailed?

 

That is far different from Cruise Critic where many have noted the decline in the product.  The Royal 2.0.

 

If you look at the web page, Elliott Advocacy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. I would assume they do a lot smaller advocacy. The news articles would generate income, but those are going to be larger cases. Changes in the wine list, footstools, etc., aren't going to generate good stories, or really consumer advocacy issues.

 

Like it or not, and I really don't, "decline in the product" isn't going to be a violation of the cruise contract. That's also his point in the article Bo linked. They met the terms of the cruise contract, and the final straw was absolutely not Celebrity's fault. He could probably do an article on the overall industry that would include Celebrity, but I don't know what the market is, outside of maybe The Robb Report, for articles that most readers would boil down to "spoiled rich people complain about no Grey Poupon". And I only see a couple of Celebrity hits on Google for the Robb Report (far more for Regent).

[C4HCG]

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

It appears to me that Mr. Elliot intervenes when there is a large monetary compensation desired.  Perhaps that is why he is so out of touch with the Celebrity product.  When was the last time he sailed?

 

That is far different from Cruise Critic where many have noted the decline in the product.  The Royal 2.0.

And many on cruise critic remain happy with the product despite being told its being royalised or whatever the term you and others use is. Whether that’s true or not doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

[kk20]

1 hour ago, Liao said:

And they have Carnival as #1…just saying.

Yeah…that’s how voting polls work vs editorials….(just saying) 

[Mike981]

I don't know if this is germane to the topic, my DW and I had an interesting thing happen a month ago on our Silhouette cruise. We had the premium drink package, so I was surprised that I got a charge for my order of Canadian Club and water in Blu. I noticed a couple of days before we disembarked and my wife called down to customer service and they laughed and said "of course there is no charge, you have the premium package I will remove it." Then the morning we were getting off I checked our folio and the charge was still there, I figured I would give them a call when I get home instead of standing in line for ever.

 

So I give them a call when I get home and got a very kind customer service rep, she said of course you should not have been charged, but she needed to go through the actual ship to get it reversed. BUT, she will call me back and she did. Except when she called back, she explained that it was from my drink order at Blu. "Yes and I had the premium drink package." She said that she will look into it and get back to me. And she did! She said that they reversed the charges and all is fine. Then I got another call a few days later from her to let me know that she now had proof that the charge was reversed and there was nothing to worry about.

 

Yes it was a bit of pain trying to get it sorted, but the customer service rep was excellent.

[Oville]

3 hours ago, Mike981 said:

I don't know if this is germane to the topic, my DW and I had an interesting thing happen a month ago on our Silhouette cruise. We had the premium drink package, so I was surprised that I got a charge for my order of Canadian Club and water in Blu. I noticed a couple of days before we disembarked and my wife called down to customer service and they laughed and said "of course there is no charge, you have the premium package I will remove it." Then the morning we were getting off I checked our folio and the charge was still there, I figured I would give them a call when I get home instead of standing in line for ever.

 

So I give them a call when I get home and got a very kind customer service rep, she said of course you should not have been charged, but she needed to go through the actual ship to get it reversed. BUT, she will call me back and she did. Except when she called back, she explained that it was from my drink order at Blu. "Yes and I had the premium drink package." She said that she will look into it and get back to me. And she did! She said that they reversed the charges and all is fine. Then I got another call a few days later from her to let me know that she now had proof that the charge was reversed and there was nothing to worry about.

 

Yes it was a bit of pain trying to get it sorted, but the customer service rep was excellent.

Good result, how much was the over charge?
 

[NMTraveller]

5 hours ago, Mike981 said:

Yes it was a bit of pain trying to get it sorted, but the customer service rep was excellent.

And the customer service on the ship was a #FAIL.  Fifty fifty ...

[kr00t0n]

Obviously everyone's experiences are subjective, but when NPS is averaging 8/9 out of 10, that indicates that the majority are indeed loving it.

[Mike981]

On 2/27/2024 at 6:04 PM, Oville said:

Good result, how much was the over charge?
 

 

$13, not a huge deal. But since I have seen others mention the same type of issue, my hope is it might help fix the problem.

[Liao]

8 minutes ago, Mike981 said:

 

$13, not a huge deal. But since I have seen others mention the same type of issue, my hope is it might help fix the problem.

IMO the amount is irrelevant.  If YOU owed them the $13, it could be a nightmare.

[Oville]

19 hours ago, Mike981 said:

 

$13, not a huge deal. But since I have seen others mention the same type of issue, my hope is it might help fix the problem.

Sadly it’s an issue (overcharging) that has been going on for a long time.  My guess is it goes both ways.

[cruisegirlppp]

On 2/24/2024 at 7:59 PM, NMTraveller said:

How did you like your welcome drink and gift basket?  🤣

My welcome drink was so special you couldn't even see it....invisible glass with invisible "bubbly"...IF they have ever been on Celebrity it certainly wasn't recently.

[georgiaguy]

Honest question. Does anyone really care that much about rankings like this? I mean there is so much that goes into these things and not to mention the money others have mentioned and at the end of the day it is opinion and opinion us subjective.

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, georgiaguy said:

Honest question. Does anyone really care that much about rankings like this? I mean there is so much that goes into these things and not to mention the money others have mentioned and at the end of the day it is opinion and opinion us subjective.

 

Honestly I don't give a darn about their rating.     The only reason I posted it was that it I found it incredibly laughable.

[Gracie115]

4 hours ago, cruisegirlppp said:

My welcome drink was so special you couldn't even see it....invisible glass with invisible "bubbly"...IF they have ever been on Celebrity it certainly wasn't recently.

 

 

 They have indeed been on Celebrity.  Either a welcome glass of champagne or a mimosa as you walked on the ship.  But that ended quite awhile ago....

[cruisegirlppp]

34 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

 

 

 They have indeed been on Celebrity.  Either a welcome glass of champagne or a mimosa as you walked on the ship.  But that ended quite awhile ago....

Sadly you are correct, for years and years that was a little gesture that set Celebrity apart.

[georgiaguy]

4 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Honestly I don't give a darn about their rating.     The only reason I posted it was that it I found it incredibly laughable.

 

Fair enough. I was just curious about the folks who seem to be taking it really serious.

[Jim_Iain]

3 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

 

 

 They have indeed been on Celebrity.  Either a welcome glass of champagne or a mimosa as you walked on the ship.  But that ended quite awhile ago....

 

Yes and years ago you got a nice Italian Chocolate (Cova) with your cup of cappuccino.    I can honestly say I have not been offered a glass of bubbly since 2019 - when Covid shut down cruising.  

 

I can't say it bothers me because we never accepted it anyway -    nice touch but terrible cheap beverage on offer and I don't drink alcohol.

[Gracie115]

25 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Yes and years ago you got a nice Italian Chocolate (Cova) with your cup of cappuccino.    I can honestly say I have not been offered a glass of bubbly since 2019 - when Covid shut down cruising.  

 

I can't say it bothers me because we never accepted it anyway -    nice touch but terrible cheap beverage on offer and I don't drink alcohol.

I rarely drank it either, but liked the notion of it. A nice way to welcome you aboard, making X feel a bit more special than other lines. (Even though it was pretty poor quality )