Problem on RCCL - What type of Compensation do I expect? (merged)

[johnjen]

Ok, Brian's boss is the hotel director (forgot his name; I was on Explorer a couple of weeks ago).

 

Michelle is the "cruise ambassador" sort of like a guest relations person. She is one of the few Americans staffed onboard (she comes from Texas, if I recollect).

 

Do not accept either offer. Those offers are insulting. Here is what I would do:

 

1. Write a letter, upon your return, to RCL's CEO, and also include a cc copy for Conde Nast Traveler Magazine (this will irk the attention of RCL's head).

 

2. Make the letter short and concise, stating nothing but facts on what happened to you, and then ask the question: "please place yourself for a moment in our predicament - how would YOU feel if this happened to you and your family" and also state health concerns (really - mold can cause long-term health issues).

 

Last paragraph: be blunt and ask for compensation for a free cruise - identical to the one you were just on.

 

After all, you deserve it.

[swigso]

Did you pay for your cruise by Credit Card,if so Tell RCCl that you are going to dispute the amount with your credit card company as the service etc that you paid for were certainly not provided by RCCL.

Your room should be in a state where it is habitable, if you were in a land based hotel you would have just moved on.

 

Talk to your credit card company.

Good Luck.

[OregonDuck]

Have been following this thread. My sympathies to all parties.

On a cruise in 1993, we were in a cabin (7 day cruise) where we had no hot water. After several attempts to correct the problem, I finally on day 3 I went to the pursers office and told them we wanted to be put in another room, enuf. We were told there were no cabins, no change could be made and I responded. "Please tell the Captain that we will be joining him in his cabin this evening." In less than an hour we were put into a handicap room that had been vacant. After the cruise, I wrote a letter and promptly received a $400 credit for our next cruise. I guess we were luckier than most.

On the Summit in 2001, I blew out my knee while getting off a tender into the port of Kona. I was immediately carried to a side area and my husband was whisked off to Walmart to buy me a knee brace. When he returned I was carried to the tender back to the ship where a wheelchair was waiting for me and was taken back to my room. Needless to say I spent the rest of the cruise in that chair. We were checked on daily by the ship (maybe they were concerned we would sue), and were issued a companion cruise free coupon for our next cruise. We used that coupon and figured it's value was $1500.00.--another cruise to Hawaii. I feel badly for the lady that injured her foot on the gangway; again I guess I was lucky. We have cruised 8 times on Celebrity; 9 times on Rccl.

One last item: Even tho' you have a premium cabin, be sure to check the deck up above. This May we were on the Tahitian Princess. We were upgraded from a balcony to a mini-suite. This suite was right below the ping pong tables on the upper deck and everytime someone played, it was like thunder. If we'd paid for the suite, we'd been very unhappy. Once we booked a suite which was right below the jogging track. Every morning we woke up to thunderous noise. Finally complained and they closed it down until 9am.

Happy cruising to all. We haven't stopped, have 2 more planned. But we are careful where our cabin is now.

[keela1eva2]

I just don't believe there were no empty cabins. I have been on 2 cruises with RCI and Celebrity where there were signs at the Guest Relations saying that the cruise was full and there were no rooms available. With the RCI I was moved to room for the final 2 days of my cruise.

 

With the Celebrity when I had an accident I was given first an empty outside cabin to lie down in and later when the Hotel Director was back on duty was moved to a balcony cabin for the final 3 days. Incidentally I was in an inside cabin.

 

However despite the problems I had and writing to RCI in the UK and in Miami they repeatedly ignored letters and my daughter was writing to them on my behalf.She has a law degree could not believe the way that they treated their clients.

I vowed that I would never cruise with them again after all the hassle of writing time and time again. I have cruised with Princess several times since but this year I went back to Celebrity and cruised on Galaxy without accident or incident. I have now booked Century for September.

 

As said by others it is the continually being lied to that caused me to be so angry. I know they are told to do this by their superiors however I have always been successful in speaking to the Hotel Director and on the incident on Celebrity had a meeting with the Captain the Staff Captain the Hotel Director as well as the ships Doctor. I was told by the Chief Purser that I could have anyone I wished at the meeting.

 

I know how it must feel for you when all your holiday has been taken up with a problem. After my holiday on Millennium I came home after a nightmare and felt really ill. The holiday and the journey home were terrible and I just wanted to forget that this holiday had happened. Incidentally I transferred to the Airport by taxi after having an injection from the ships Dr. I think they thought I would try to sue for my accident but quite frankly I just wanted to recover and forget about it. They did pay for the cost of replacing my spectacles which were broken. They didnt put anything in writing in response to my letter but telephoned me at home. When they sent the cheque it was just enclosed with a very brief note saying following the telephone conversation they enclosed the cheque as agreed.

 

Don't know if I am a fool to cruise with them again but time will tell. Good luck when you follow this up at home.

 

Sue

[Linda41]

Did you pay for your cruise by Credit Card,if so Tell RCCl that you are going to dispute the amount with your credit card company as the service etc that you paid for were certainly not provided by RCCL.

Your room should be in a state where it is habitable, if you were in a land based hotel you would have just moved on.

 

Talk to your credit card company.

Good Luck.

 

It's too late to contact your credit card company--60 days from when the amount was put on your credit card is all the time you have. And since the final payment has to be made 60 or 70 days BEFORE the cruise begins, the credit card company won't do anything. (I'm sure it saves the cruise lines a great deal of grief from irate passengers to have this policy.)

 

Linda

[jrk23]

AdamGoldstein@rccl.com bounced back to me. The other address didnt bounce back (but no response).

[Cruising89143]

AdamGoldstein@rccl.com bounced back to me. The other address didnt bounce back (but no response).

 

Try this one. This is the correct one.

 

agoldstein@rccl.com

[jrk23]

Thanks for all the responses, I think there isnt anything else I can do at this point with the staff on board.

 

For sure, I am not taking there $300.00 offer as it is a huge joke of an offer (which I told both Brian & Darren). For $300.00, I would rather share my story with you all.

 

I am very displeased in my treatment by Brian & Darren. Brian was rude to myself & my wife, and while Darren was polite to me (my wife gave up on coming to the vacation "meetings"), he couldnt help me at all.

 

At this point, the way they talk to us is that we are trying to make things up for money. I wont be surprised if at some point, they start claiming we caused the damage (again, they already altered the maintenance log to go from shower water drain to "safe drinking water").

 

This is likely to be my last RCI cruise for sure.

 

To bad, there is no one else I can contact on the boat.

[jrk23]

Try this one. This is the correct one.

 

agoldstein@rccl.com

 

Thanks! Message sent to Adam Goldstein as well.

[Deets]

Rich. . .

 

I, like many others, have waited with baited breath for the results of your meeting today. What an ordeal you have gone through! I am so sorry that you were not fairly compensated for this fiasco. Royal Caribbean has dissappointed me with their minimal compensation offering. I do not feel that you were asking for something for nothing. You know, sometimes the bear gets you, but other times you get the bear. It is my opinion that the bear got you in this case.

 

Putting the unfairness, bad customer service, wasted time dealing with ship personnel, and stinky mildew aside, you have handled this situation with such class. I admire your patience, graciousness, and tenacity. If it were me, I think I would have tried the lemon sign around my neck walking through the ship until, just maybe, you bumped into the captain and he would have kindly asked you what the problem was. You certainly deserved better that what you received (and paid for!).

 

Hopefully, there are some good memories that will pop into your mind when the skies are gray. Don't give up on cruising because as we all know. . . . when it's bad, it's really bad-----but when it's good, it's really good!

 

Please don't go down without a fight. Keep us posted.

[caviargal]

Thanks! Message sent to Adam Goldstein as well.

 

I do hope Mr. Goldstein responds to you. I had the pleasure of having drinks with he and his father on VOS once many years ago and he is a delightful man and very professional.

 

Over the years, I have had a few issues with RCI (one personal and others with clients) that I felt needed a greater exposure than is the norm.

 

In the most extreme cases, I wrote a very detailed letter, succint and direct, outlining the problem and my proposed solution.

 

I then faxed a copy to Mr. Fain and Mr. Goldstein, as the letter was addressed to Fain and cc'd to Goldstein.

 

I also sent the same letter via Fed Ex to both of them individually.

 

I had a call within 48 hours from Fain's personal assistant regarding one issue and a call from Mr. Goldstein's on the second occasion. These were several years apart.

 

I am of the opinion that emails, etc. can be screened and sometimes do not make it to the person that most needs to see the message. By faxing and Fed ex'ing, I feel that I am covering more of my bases.

 

Just a thought.

 

Good luck!:)

 

CG

[Goldryder]

Speaking personally, I would have kicked up the moment I walked into my squishy cabin. Gone straight to the reception desk, request to see housekeeping and have the cabin inspected there and then and asked politely to have something done immediately to sort the problem out.

 

By leaving the problem for a day or so, you are deemed to have accepted the cabin in the state that you found it in.

 

Should have made a polite noise about it straight away. Anyone at RCI will look at your complaint and ask themselves why you did not report it immediately. Delaying something like this is the worst thing you could have done.

 

Sorry and all that, but RCI are unlikely to compensate for something that you didn't report straight away.

[Cruising89143]

Speaking personally, I would have kicked up the moment I walked into my squishy cabin. Gone straight to the reception desk, request to see housekeeping and have the cabin inspected there and then and asked politely to have something done immediately to sort the problem out.

 

By leaving the problem for a day or so, you are deemed to have accepted the cabin in the state that you found it in.

 

Should have made a polite noise about it straight away. Anyone at RCI will look at your complaint and ask themselves why you did not report it immediately. Delaying something like this is the worst thing you could have done.

 

Sorry and all that, but RCI are unlikely to compensate for something that you didn't report straight away.

 

I don't see what one day has to do with it. They saw that the problem was not going to get any better on the second day and brought to the attention of crew. You can't tell me that the room steward did not notice this when cleaning the room on the first day and it looks like he did nothing about it. All of this still falls on the shoulders of RCI.

 

I think the thing that would piss me off more than anything is to have those two bozos trying to insinuate that I was making the story up. Goes to show you just how well RCI is training their crew to deal with customers. They should have enough smarts about them to be able to figure out who is trying to scam and which ones aren't. Doesn't sound like Brian and Darren are the cream of the crop for RCI.

[Tracy123]

Rich I'm so sorry you had to go through this. But I want to thank you for sharing this with us. I have a cruise with RC coming up in Sept 07 and if anything like this were to happen to me on my cruise I would have not had a clue on what to do. But since you shared this incident with us, I have more than enough info to handle any situation that might happen.I printed out the whole thread and will take a few replies in my suitcase. Out of all the tips and info I've read on this site this have been the most valuble for cruise, land vac etc. Again, thanks to you and all who have offered advice to you.

 

Now if I can only remember to not act like a fool if something happens because they can and will throw me off the ship :0)

[scschnur]

Hmmm... Rich.... Do those nice new business cards you acquired today have email addresses on them? I would be more than happy to fire off some kind & classy, but stern thoughts to them to remind them that there is still time to reconsider their stance with you.

 

You've handled this with grace and class. I cannot understand, for the life of me, why they think you're trying to get something for nothing.

 

I am scheduled on my first RCCL cruise for spring break next year. This situation has me very concerned.....

[tugboat]

If everyone that reads this thread would send a email to RCCL, maybe they would see alot of us are upset about their folks not doing the right thing:mad:

[envy4u]

I feel for the OP and my suggestion is to persist with this matter until it is resolved .

 

Winners never quit !!! :)

[Host Kewlguy]

I was thinking of booking a cruise on Explorer of the Seas this fall but after reading about the treatment you received from the Hotel Director and his underlings I've changed my mind. Sounds to me like they could care less about their customers satisfaction. This incident could have happened to any one of us. I certainly sympathize with your situation.

[Conanc]

Your TA should help you send those letters to Royal Caribbean and work on your behalf to get you the compensation you deserve. Please keep us posted.

[KamloopsCruisers]

Rich, kudos to you for keeping your cool through this ordeal. I will be following your outcome closely. While I've never had a problem with RCI, the manner in which you have been treated concerns me greatly. Depending on your outcome, I may consider cancelling our upcoming bookings and trying Princess.

[Jamrenjer]

We all sincerely sympathize with you and your family! How awful! As someone suggested- I think it would be great if somehow we could all email RCCL as well-- it is so obvious that this was a serious issue-- and not someone just trying to get a freebie. What do you think? Should we all try to email?? Would it do any good? Again, we are sorry for all the hassle you have endured.

[yogimax]

AdamGoldstein@rccl.com bounced back to me. The other address didnt bounce back (but no response).

 

jrk23... Amazing! I give you credit for constantly returning to the internet cafe and posting all this stuff while racking up more and more costs on your bill!

[dachshunddoglover]

Lets Do It! Lets start an email and writting campaign. We have to stick up for each other because it is just by chance that this story is not written by any one of us. I'm just your average financial middle class gal who saves for these cruises any way I can. I scrimp and save all year. It would break my heart for something like this to happen and spoil a large financial investment. And thank the good lord, this gentleman did not have children in this horrible cabin situation. I'M IN ! Just tell me where to write or email and I would be glad to voice my concern over the handling of this situation. We all know that problems will occur on these ships due to the sheer volume of people being transported, but the test of a company, whether good or bad is how they handle the crisis. RCI did not handle this with respect and concern for the well being and happiness of this passenger. Elizabeth

[MAGNOLIA1134]

I've been following this thread since the beginning and all I can say is I'm so sorry for all the problems you have suffered. I'm allergic to mold. That could be life threating to me.

 

I was considering RCCL, but think skip it if this is how they solve problems. I don't think I could have kept my cool so long.

[PhoenixCruiser]

jrk23... Amazing! I give you credit for constantly returning to the internet cafe and posting all this stuff while racking up more and more costs on your bill!

 

LOL that is what I was thinking, he'll need the $300 OBC to pay for the internet charges :eek:

 

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