Customer Service Failures - Australia

[dingoboy]

As many of you will know RCC are in the process of setting up their own office in Australia.

 

Previously this function had been handled by DTW marketing.

 

I booked initially with DTW marketing, whom I might, at time of booking were very helpful.

 

Since mid November I have been trying to cancel this booking.

 

When I phone DTW I am now told that I must now speak only to RCC but that I must be prepared for an extended delay 'on hold' because they are in the process of setting up the new office. This I could understand for a few days or a week or so, but this has now gone on for almost 6 weeks.

 

Like many people I no longer have a land line and can not afford to wait for over 30 minutes on hold. Which I have already tried to do several times.

 

Way back in Novmber I sent both emails and faxes trying to cancel this booking and to get someone top call me if there was a problem.

 

There was no response.

 

When I called the switch board operator in early December to explain my problem and ask for the new Australian email addresses I was told that as yet there are none.

 

Then I went to the RCC website. The Australian office is not yet listed. So I tried to use the international enquiry link.

 

That bounced back to my inbox as no longer a vaild address.

 

Next I tried to send off several emails to the Singapore office which is still listed as the contact point for the Asia/Pacific region.

 

I got an automatic response from this office, so obviosly it made it to Singapore, but noone again has bothered to follow up or cantact me as I have requested.

 

I've read here on the roll call section that many other people have had similar problems - apparently all of our original booking numbers have been canceled - when we go to the RCC web site our bookings no longer come up.

 

Word is that we are to be issued with new booking numbers - surely if this is the case we should have been advised of this prior top our bookings disappearing.

 

All in all I'm very disappointed with RCC and I haven't even set sail yet - this lack of professional customer service does not insire confidence in this cruise line.

 

Please advise if you have had similar problems.

 

james

[jddc7]

hiya your not the only one. I emailed RCI about my booking number and they emailed me the new booking number, I called Discover the world who had a diff booking number but said theres must be wrong so now the new booking number works on the website (except today...its saturday). We also received a $745USD refund for no reason....

I called DTW again and they said it must have been a computer glitch with the cruise line so will need to pay it back. waiting on a response from the cruise line regarding the credit

[pepsicruiser]

Why don't you try sending a "Registered Letter" to RCCL and explain you want to cancel but can't get thru with phone.

[Rancher Dave]

Why don't you try sending a "Registered Letter" to RCCL and explain you want to cancel but can't get thru with phone.

 

 

I agree this is a good idea. Also, send an email to A Goldstein, search threads here for his email...and let them know of the problem. His staff should be able to help, and need to know about the problems in OZ...seeing as RCCL wants to sail down under, they must know when their service is not at it should be.

 

G'day Y'all!!! I know its soon a new day there.

[Boboz]

G'day all, I eventually got thru to Syd office 15 Dec & made a reservation but when I said I want to pay for it NOW I was told they could not accept CC details via phone. I received booking confirmation via email same evening but no advice as to how to pay, after many on hold phone calls I went to USA web site and located my booking and paid,

next day all confirmed and paperwork here.

Seems that no one in Sydney knows what they are doing, I knowwhen I sell something I WANT MY money SAP

Regards Bob

[pcur]

Try this email address for Gavin Smith, who is the new Operations Manager for Australia:

 

gsmith@rccl.com

or

GavinSmith@rccl.com

 

This is a guess, but I have two email addresses for dining coordinators, and that's the format they use for their email addresses.

[dingoboy]

I agree this is a good idea. Also, send an email to A Goldstein, search threads here for his email...and let them know of the problem. His staff should be able to help, and need to know about the problems in OZ...seeing as RCCL wants to sail down under, they must know when their service is not at it should be.

 

G'day Y'all!!! I know its soon a new day there.

 

Will do.

 

Thanks this is a great help.

 

james

[dingoboy]

I agree this is a good idea. Also, send an email to A Goldstein, search threads here for his email...and let them know of the problem. His staff should be able to help, and need to know about the problems in OZ...seeing as RCCL wants to sail down under, they must know when their service is not at it should be.

 

G'day Y'all!!! I know its soon a new day there.

 

FYI

 

Dear Mr Goldstein,

 

I am having enormous trouble trying to deal with, make that actually contact anyone, from RCC in Australia.

 

This has been going on for more than 6 weeks.

 

As a last resort I have posted the following thread on Cruise Critic.com

 

I have received a number of responses, one of which suggested that I contact you.

 

I currently have 4 future bookings for 6 people with Royal Caribbean and if this level of service failure continues I will be canceling all remaining bookings not just the one mentioned below.

 

 

I thought you should be aware of the problems we are experiencing with your operation here in Australia.

[Boboz]

G'day all, well this morning I find that someone has charged our fare again to my credit card. CC company cant tell me yet who it was charged by and of course you cant get to Syd office phone is constantly busy.

I have tried to access my RCI cruise a/c on the web site to be told I cant access the account at the moment and I should try later, this has been the case for the last 3 days:(

RCI is really going to have to lift there game in Australia

What a shame that the ships crew work so hard to make you want to come back, to be surrounded by such slack service by shore staff

Boboz

[terri23]

how frustrating! good luck - once the office is finally established you can cruise RC whenever you want :)

[jddc7]

my cruise is back online :)

 

travel agent says DTW old booking or something like that..interesting

 

did u happen to receive a refund for something? not the fuel surcharge

[Boboz]

G'day all, well I finally got all the extra charges removed from my credit card. In total they charged the fare 3 times to my CC, just what anyone needs the week before Xmas they must think we all have an unlimited credit limit. But what really has me dissapointed is I still have heard nothing in reply to my emails and phone messages from RCI.

We have now decided not to book the cruise in April with RCI as they have no local service if there is a problem

Regards Bob

[lynsteve]

only my second post.........we are booked on the rhapsody dep sydney 6th jan 09 around Tassie. we also found that our booking details had disappeared onlt to find they re-appeared this week with a new number. we did ask for a late evening meal sitting,but this was the only thing to change. Our travel agent got this changed back.

 

stevo.

[rkmw]

As many of you will know RCC are in the process of setting up their own office in Australia.

 

Previously this function had been handled by DTW marketing.

 

I booked initially with DTW marketing, whom I might, at time of booking were very helpful.

 

Since mid November I have been trying to cancel this booking.

 

When I phone DTW I am now told that I must now speak only to RCC but that I must be prepared for an extended delay 'on hold' because they are in the process of setting up the new office. This I could understand for a few days or a week or so, but this has now gone on for almost 6 weeks.

 

Like many people I no longer have a land line and can not afford to wait for over 30 minutes on hold. Which I have already tried to do several times.

 

Way back in Novmber I sent both emails and faxes trying to cancel this booking and to get someone top call me if there was a problem.

 

There was no response.

 

When I called the switch board operator in early December to explain my problem and ask for the new Australian email addresses I was told that as yet there are none.

 

Then I went to the RCC website. The Australian office is not yet listed. So I tried to use the international enquiry link.

 

That bounced back to my inbox as no longer a vaild address.

 

Next I tried to send off several emails to the Singapore office which is still listed as the contact point for the Asia/Pacific region.

 

I got an automatic response from this office, so obviosly it made it to Singapore, but noone again has bothered to follow up or cantact me as I have requested.

 

I've read here on the roll call section that many other people have had similar problems - apparently all of our original booking numbers have been canceled - when we go to the RCC web site our bookings no longer come up.

 

Word is that we are to be issued with new booking numbers - surely if this is the case we should have been advised of this prior top our bookings disappearing.

 

All in all I'm very disappointed with RCC and I haven't even set sail yet - this lack of professional customer service does not insire confidence in this cruise line.

 

Please advise if you have had similar problems.

 

james

 

hi james, i have just noticed if you go to the RCCL website and do a dummy booking it shows the price in AUD and it has a toll free phone number 1800754500, i dont know if its the new sydney phone number or an overseas one, someone else may know

 

rkmw

[Boboz]

G'day all, Yair Bob thats the Syd office phone number but if it isnt busy and you get thru there is no customer service and if the recorded message transfers you to a supervisor you just grow old waitng I gave up on Sydney office

Regards Bob

[flightiebel]

Just a question - but why didnt you book your cruise with an agent ? Then you wouldnt have to go through all this stress & effort ?

 

Just a thought

[Boboz]

G' day, in answer to that Q the cruise agent I usully use quoted $400 PP more than RCI was advertising at the time. does that answer the question?

Regards Bob

[arxcards]

The new Australian office may be causing some teething problems, but my T/A hated dealing with DTW as well, regularly being on hold for 30 minutes. We experienced this at her desk when we made final payment in November.

 

There has also been a fair bit of discussion on this problem on the P&O Australia forum (which is slowly becoming all Aussie cruises), together with changed booking numbers preventing people from accessing their booking on the My Cruises page for a couple of weeks as well.

 

Hope it all settles down in the New year. At least when April comes around, there will be an off season where they can fully prepare for 09/10.

[gayleforce]

Hi James. Just checking I am online and getting messages through to all. Re meet and mingle do we all have to register for the April 13th cruise ex Sydney? Hi to everyone else who is sailing with us. Gayle and Vic. Hopefully you will read a little about us when our good friend James helps us with a thread and posting. Cruise Critic site not the easiest site to use judging by some of the emails I read about loosing threads, starting over, etc etc. Cheers :):cool: <<<<Me as I have just had laser eye surgery so i can see when on cruise.....

[dingoboy]

Just a question - but why didnt you book your cruise with an agent ? Then you wouldnt have to go through all this stress & effort ?

 

Just a thought

 

Interesting story about this:

 

Initially I booked on the Royal Caribbean website about 12 months before departure. I was sent an email from DTW marketing - then the Australian agent/rep - saying I had to pay the deposit at my preferred local travel agent.

 

This I did straight away - won't name the agency here except to say it's the one of the largest flight booking agents in Australia.

 

I said; this is the booking number, here is my credit card number, can you please charge the $500 USD to my card and fax/email me the receipt.

 

As it transpired I discovered that cabins had been released at a much cheaper price than I had paid.

 

Having read the terms and conditions carefully in Royal Caribbean brochure I knew that I had to cancel more than 70 days prior to departure in order to get a full refund.

 

So I went into the travel agent 4 months before departure and explained that I wished to cancel my booking, and get my deposit refunded onto my card.

 

I was shocked/alarmed/angry/bewildered when I was told that there would be no refund! Zippo.

 

I asked how could that be as RC would be refunding the full deposit to them. They explained that this was the agency policy. But how I asked could they justify keeping the whole deposit when they would be getting the full amount refunded? They said that as there was a wholesaler involved they had to take their cut as well.

 

I was mortified, and said so.

 

The lucky thing for me in this instance was that my card was charged before the receipt was faxed to me to sign - (which noted those conditions). As I indicated I was not informed of these conditions prior to my card being charged I wanted the money refunded in full.

 

It took a couple of weeks, and to give credit to the agent he did get me my money back, but only because I had not been given the terms prior to paying the deposit.

 

I discovered later that I could have paid deposit direct to the cruise company (DTW marketing direct at that time) and getting the deposit refunded should not have been a problem - except they were setting up the new Auustralian office and that is what lead initially to this thread.

 

But what I have discovered through this process is that at least here in Austrlia, if you book and pay through many travel agents based here and you have to cancel your booking you stand to lose ALL THE MONEY YOU HAVE PAID!

 

I have since discovered an online travel agent based in the USA (one of the biggest - love to tell you who it is but don't want to break the rules here .... hint ..... they specialize in vacations to go) and not only do they offer the best deals - they will refund the full deposit, or what ever the cruise line will.

 

HENCE THE LESSON FROM ALL OF THIS - WHY BOOK WITH AN AGENT WHO WILL POCKET HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS WHEN YOU CAN BOOK WITH ONE WHO WON'T.

 

MY ADVICE: ASK THSE QUESTIONS BEFORE PAYING ANY DEPOSIT - FOR MULTIPLE BOOKINGS IT COULD SAVE YOU THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.

 

($500 USD IS NEARLY $1000 AUD TODAY)

[cruisePRN]

G-eye, glad you got your deposit back. Are you forced to book through an agency in OZ? Can you not book online and plug your credit card into RCL's site as we do here?

[dingoboy]

Should not have got me started ..... on a roll.

 

Our cruise is departing in just under a month and as often happens prices has started dropping.

 

It transpires that my wonderful beautiful online travel agent in the states is able to get me a refund of $300 USD.

 

However some of my other ship mates have not been so luck. They been told by their Australia based agents they won't get any refund at all.

 

If they keep this up those rascally rascals aren't going to have many customers left.

 

I've always been supporter of small business in general and travel agents in particular. And I do do feel genuinely sorry about they way they are squeezed by the big companies in the travel industry - however my support does not extend far enough to let them pocket my $500 - and I should add that the travel agency that tried to run off into the sunset with my deposit was not a little guy - but one of the biggest players in the industry.

 

what say you cruise fellow critics and or agents?

[dingoboy]

G-eye, glad you got your deposit back. Are you forced to book through an agency in OZ? Can you not book online and plug your credit card into RCL's site as we do here?

 

Back then I didn't realise you could.

 

Now I do. hence why I'm alerting others.

[dingoboy]

Just had confirmation from my heavenly SUPER STAR! travel agent in the USA.

 

Not only have I been refunded $300 USD but I get to keep the $100 onboard credit that we received when we made our booking online with them.

 

So our 16 night cruise Syd to Hnl via the cook islands, tahiti and bora bora is now only costing us $880 per person.

 

Of that taxes and port charges are $400 so we are only paying $480 per person.

 

That is unreal. Now I can put the money towards a wine package and basically drink for free with some cash to spare.

[vickiw0318]

I love a happy ending!