RCL Customer Service

[Coochuck]

Maybe it's me, but Royal Caribbean's Customer Service is the worst. They bounce you from person to person, don't answer phones. Maybe it's the times I call. What has your experience been? They must off shore a lot of work, as some individuals are very hard to undrestand also.

[barbarajoy]

I called the Crown & Anchor customer service number today and my experience was fine. I didn't have to wait on hold too long, and the lady answered my questions. I always dial the non-toll free number if there is one listed - usually it says "for customers calling from overseas". Maybe they answer that line more quickly!

 

Did you call with a question about an upcoming cruise you've booked, or one you are checking into, or a past cruise?

 

Barbara

[Coochuck]

One that was already booked Barb. This was after my wife gave up after being bounced to 2 individuals after being on hold for 20 minuites during her lunch hour yesterday.

[partyboy]

Hi Coochuck,

 

Sorry to hear of your wifes experience on the phone! BOO!

But to be completely honest, I've had nothing but good luck and great service.

I truly hope your service level improves with RCL.

RCL, come on step it up!!!

[luckymomx2]

I usually have a good experience with wait times when I call. If I have one major complaint recently it would be the amount of inconsistencies between reps. I feel like I have been given a different answer every time I call.

[EuphoriaII]

We've had horrible service from the customer service/reservations people also. Usually it involves when we need to reschedule/rebook a cruise that we originally scheduled while we were onboard our last cruise. Once they said we hadn't paid for the travel insurance so we would lose our deposit. But we DID get the travel insurance at the time we booked the cruise onboard and it showed on our reservation sheet. The reservations/customer service person said that we hadn't PAID for the travel insurance yet. But we had provided our credit card at the time of booking, how were we supposed to know how the money is or isn't applied? Why would we have requested the travel insurance, had it billed to our account, but not wanted it to go into effect? After a few days of calling them and pointing out we have taken 6 cruises in 14 months and faxing them a copy of our receipt showing we had the insurance at the time of booking, they finally conceded we should get our full credit back.

 

We've had another similar problem that was eventually worked out but too long to go into here.

 

The staff and crew on the ships has always been exceptional. But the reservations/custoimer service staff has this platinum member thinking about trying other cruise lines.

[mojo4trav]

Have had mixed experience, but if you get into a rut, send a nice letter to Richard Fain (return receipt) and watch the chaos fall into line as your problem gets resolved.

[Coochuck]

Who is Richard Fain? Wife called again today...same experience....they don't have adaquate trained staff to answer incoming phone calls.

[World Traveler 81]

I'm had numerous problems with RCL customer service, although I must say when you e-mail the Crown and Anchor reps, they usually respond within 24-48 hours which certainly meets my expectations.

 

I sent a letter to them earlier this year regarding a refund request and it took about 4 calls, 2 emails and 2 months of waiting for it to be resolved.

[kyriecat]

I've had horrible luck with calling customer service, aside from the time I called to book my cruise. I've been on hold 40 minutes without speaking to someone. I gave up calling out of frustration.

 

Their e-mail support is very prompt. However, having said that, I must also add that it is not necessarily accurate. I sent an e-mail request and got a reply within about 36 hours. I had a question about some of the information provided so I replied to the e-mail with my questions. I received a reply quickly, but the information provided contradicted some of the information from the first e-mail. Based on the writing style, I think it was two different people who replied.

[sealegs9]

I've not had good luck with RCCL Customer Service, either. I called on several occasions for past cruises and the inconsistencies are amazing. I even wrote a letter to Richard Fein over a year ago and I'm still awaiting a reply.

Anyway- I'll start this rumor- it's because RCCL, in it's usual cost-cutting mode- outsourced all it's customer service functions to Elbonia (Dilbert Fans). They work on scripted replies, only. Actually- they are not people- just simulated computer voices. If your voice does not match a key word in the script, you get a random answer.

Now for all you flamers- I'm just kidding!

[slavearlen]

Sorry to hear that you have had problems. I have had nothing but great service with RCCL. Calls answered promptly, easy to understand and most cooperative. We were originally 3 ladies booked into a JS on AOS. Things were fine until one canceled. So we had to call many times to check availability of a downgrade to D1 or D3. Had many phone calls each day until we were able to rearrange things. Never once did I have a complaint. Several times the operators had accents but were clear to understand.

 

Sorry for your troubles!

[lvcruiser]

I have called customer service on numerous occasions and have received a mixed bag of service. It seems that you can ask 5 different csr's the same question and get 5 different answers. I believe their biggest problem is the same thing any large company suffers from: a variety of employees with differing attitudes toward their job and the service they provide to their clientele. Some are sincerely wanting to help as much as possible and others simply don't care and only want to pick up a paycheck.

 

That being said, I must state that I have never been on hold for longer than 60 seconds, either waiting to be connected to a csr or for them to retrieve information to answer one of my questions, and I have never had to deal with a csr that had a bad attitude. I have found some that have a bigger problem grasping the English language than others, but that is caused from the company being based in Miami with a strong Hispanic population. I have always been able to get a point across or a question answered satisfactorily without much or any difficulty. I have always made it a point to call during the week and usually in the afternoon Miami time. I have never had a problem with them not answering the phone or bouncing me from person to person.

[jezzdogg]

Call the Crown and Anchor desk this morning. as we did not receive our letter upgrading us to Plat status. "Well the letter, went out Feb 24," was her reply.(with attitude) If I had gotten it, why would I have called??? I also asked her to check on a cruise with RCCL for Feb 05 for the Plat level to see if their woul be a coupon--again an attitude--I don't get it why the attitude with these people. Did not get her name, but next time, I will ask for a name and write it down! There is no reason for that

[luckymomx2]

Now that you mention it I did get some attitude when I called (for the third time) politely requesting my C&A magazine. I even half-joked about not receiving any except my very first one that came with my cards. The woman wanted to sit there and tell me it's my fault I'm not receiving them because they sent them out! That was about a year ago and I've still only received one since then!!

[yarlenna]

. ;. . .They must off shore a lot of work, as some individuals are very hard to undrestand also.

 

They can't be off shore. The whole operation is off-shored to begin with. It isn't an American company to begin with. There aren't any American cruise lines except for Delta river boats. Cruise companies can't afford to flag their vessels in the US. American workers want to be paid a living wage. American courts give some protection to American workers if they are injured on the job. The nations that allow cruise ships to obtain flags of convenience don't care what their workers get paid. They don't insist on workers compensation. We can't have it both ways. We want wonderful cruises at rock bottom prices. I am aware of NCL's permission to flag a few ships American. I don't know if this means they have a fully American crew - or what.

[Coochuck]

Yarlenna, I know both RCL and CCL (Carnival) are traded on the NYSE and have annual stock holder meetings in the good old USA. Yes, they are global companies, and the Ships are flagged with foreign nation flags flying, but when they service USA Customers they should indeed staff their desks with courteous, professional people as they represent their company. On board, I always get nothing but top notch service. Their call desk personal are another matter.

 

Hope everyone has smooth sailing and sunshine...Chuck

[slavearlen]

I think we all agree that this subject will have no end and that everyone is never going to agree on this subject either. But before we put a lid on it, I'm going to make an attempt to be fair on all these issues.

 

I own and operate dry cleaning stores and we all know that customer service is the most important part of that job. We also know that the hiring of personnel is not an easy job. Today's labor pool is primarily based of the "younger generation". Their people skills, attitude on life in general, education and up bringing is way below what our generation was exposed to. Managing these people is simple ... your re-raising them, re-educating them, etc. Their attitudes are wide spread. In my business, change it or lose the job. They have no fear nor do they care. So then you interview and rehire and hope, hope that you get something different. The odds ... 1 in 100!!

 

Having said that, let me add that I have learned alot working the counter of my stores (13 stores in 14 years). The staff can be an issue, yes! And alot of times they are. But the customers, they too have attitudes. If you ask them, they deny it. But I have a monitoring system and I can replay for you 1000 peices of video where the customers came in with attitudes and from there, the situation had no chance. When I visited with each of the customers after their threatening to complaint to the "manager", I replayed the video. I can assure you the customers interpretation of that conversation was dramatically different from reality. Maybe they don't "think" they display attitude or they just deny it. The fact is, attitude can be on both sides of the fence. You give it and you receive it.

 

The problem is people. Customers and customer service reps. My suggestion is to look at your tone, words and presentation. Be sure you are not being short, curt or impatient. In 14 years I have mastered the art of talking with the most irrate of human beings and turned them into loyal customers.

 

Royal Caribbean customer service reps have done well by me. I have had no problem. I have called them twice daily for almost a month. Yes, some of their reps are friendlier than others, some have accents, but I have never had a problem accomplishing my goal when calling in. And I can tell you this, I wouldn't want to manage that organization or try to hire for those positions. It's a difficult no win situation.

 

Thank you for hearing my opinion!

[lvcruiser]

Slavearlen - excellent post. You really said what I was trying to intimate - the bulk of the problems encountered with csr's are begun by the customer making the call. I pride myself on being able to get what I want from a csr because of my winning attitude. If I truly run into someone that is uncooperative and won't meet my needs, I then simply find another company with which to deal. The key is to begin every conversation with a positive and upbeat attitude. If you call with an attitude of expecting problems, then that's most likely what you'll get because that attitude will come across loud and clear to the person on the other end.

[bUU]

Very well-said, both of you. While there are clearly issues with respect to employee attitudes towards serving customers, there has been a very significant change with respect to customers attitude towards servers, as well as service companies. The prevailing attitude is "what can I do to get the most out of it for me," without regard to the ramifications of doing so, or the consequences with respect to how companies and their employees must protect themselves from such abuse. And we all suffer as a result of how some customers treat service providers.

[Cruise-Nut]

I can tell you that I have had a EXCELLENT experience with customer service. They did more than what I expected with no hassle what so ever. I can say after reading these boards, I was not looking forward to the call. I give RCI Kudos. They are great to deal with. Good luck with the rest of your issues.

[slavearlen]

Glad to hear your customer service was excellent!

 

Happy Cruising!

[Chicagomom]

Have had mixed experience, but if you get into a rut, send a nice letter to Richard Fain (return receipt) and watch the chaos fall into line as your problem gets resolved.

 

I sent him a letter a couple of months ago and haven't heard anything!

[Murphy]

I called the C & A loyalty # on Saturday and had a great experience. Phone was answered in about 5 seconds. I was calling because I hadn't received my Platinum upgrade letter and we should have qualified as of May 18th. She was polite and apologized for the delay, but said it often took 6-8 weeks to get the info updated after a sailing and then another 6-8 weeks to get the notifications out to us. I told her we had an upcoming cruise scheduled for October and she told me not to worry. Even if we didn't have our cards yet, our profile was updated to Platinum and we would receive all applicable discounts, etc.

 

During the same call, I asked her to get my mother-in-law a C & A number. She had sailed with us last year and we never took the time to apply and the website had been down the couple times I tried to register online. She was able to pull my mother-in-laws information quickly and have me a C & A # immediately.

 

We will see if all she says holds up, but my phone experience was great and I was actually shocked that someone answered the phone on the Saturday afternoon of the holiday weekend.

[mojo4trav]

I sent him a letter a couple of months ago and haven't heard anything!

If you sent it return recept, I'm shocked you haven't heard anything. My suggestion would be to call and ask for Richard at (305) 539-6000. Chances are they will connect you to Executive Relations, but you never know, you might get Mr. Fain's assistant! Once you've got someone on the phone go through your situation with them and see what they say.