Letter from HAL's Office of the President

[NanahGail]

About seven weeks ago I posted a thread explaining our experiences on the Ryndam sailing of 12-4-04 to 12-11-04. I told of what seemed like the uncaring attitude of the Front Desk when we reported the problems with our toilet being out of service for several days as well the seepage of sewage into the bowl from their plumbing system. I felt so discouraged that I was considering cancelling our future cruise on the Prinsendam to the Amazon in November 2005. I asked for advice from the CC Board Members about what you thought I should do. It was suggested that I write to HAL. I took your advice and today we received a beautiful letter of apology from HAL's Office of the President as well as a Shipboard Credit Certificate which we plan to use on the Amazon cruise. We are very pleased because we now feel that they did care about the problems we had on our cruise and once the Seattle Office became aware of them, did their best to make us happy. In fact, we are so pleased with their attitude that we booked another cruise on the Rotterdam on 1-11-06 to Antarctica. I guess this turned into a win-win situation for both HAL and us.

I would like to thank all the CC Board Memers for your comments and your excellent advice. You all did good!!!

[bepsf]

EXCELLENT!

Glad you will have a happy ending!
:)

[Aussie Gal]

Congratulations to Head Office at HAL for apologising to you and recompensating you in a seemly manner.

If someone cares, it is always given back twofold and in your case you have booked an extra cruise. If they had of ignored your request they would have lost out on probably two cruises which is quite a lot of money and you would have left HAL not wanting to return.

A good result both ways.

Jennie

[Krazy Kruizers]

Good for you.

Glad you took people's advice and wrote to HAL.

And thank's to HAL's office, you have 2 wonderful cruises to look forward to.

[jhannah]

Good for you! I'm glad you took time to write what was apparently a rational letter describing your bad experience onboard. There are probably many folks who just stomp away ... take their dolls and go home ... never to return. They miss out. HAL misses out on a chance to make amends. This truly was a win-win.

[RuthC]

I'm glad for you, and glad to see that HAL did the right thing.

I'm also very glad that you came back to tell us all the results. So many times people pronounce the bad, but don't tell "the rest of the story" when it's been "made good".

And you're gonna luv Antarctica!

[DFD1]

That's great news.....and good of you to decide to stay with HAL for your next bookings.

It never hurts to go to the top when you have a problem. You may get bumped down, but I have found that if you start at the bottom, you never get bumped up.

[Mump]

I had a similar problem on my last cruise (December 18, 2004) aboard the Ryndam. The toilet in our stateroom blocked 12 hours into our cruise and over the next 8 days it stopped working 6 times! Every time I called the front desk I got the same indifferent attitude. The toilet was repaired but in the interim I had to use the public restrooms! Talk about inconvenient. I have a letter ready to send off to HAL and I would like to know who you addressed your letter to?

[Oceanwench]

Interesting to read this thread in light of what has just occurred on the Ryndam with the virus outbreak ...

[DaveOKC]

We also were on the Dec. 4-11 sailing and sent HAL a similiar letter. We also received a shipboard credit from HAL and a nice letter. I hope they figure out they have a front desk problem on this ship (along with the sewer problem).
I also agree it is interesting considering the recent news on sickness.
I sent our letter to:
Customer Relations Department
Holland America Line
300 Elliott Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98119

Good luck with your letter. You really do need to let them know the problems.
DaveOKC

[jima53]

How much of a shipboard credit did they send you If you don't mine my asking. To me it sounds like a good investment on their part. Send you a few hundred bucks and you spend money for a few more cruises. Don't get me wrong I'm glad you followed through and did recieve some compensation. But the cruise line is smart enough to know when to pay or not pay.

Jim

[tankerjo2]

Happy to hear they responded. Recently sent a letter concerning our 12/11 cruise on the Ryndam with the same toilet problems + a couple of photos of our soaked carpet from the overflow from the cabin next to ours that seeped in during the middle of the night and soaked about 1/3rd of the cabins carpet.

Curious how long it took for them to respond?

[DaveOKC]

We received a $200 credit for the two of us. It took about 4 weeks to get it.
DaveOKC