Dawn cruise problem...

[*Wink*]

[quote name='Ontheotherhand']You're the one that said one gets what one pays for, not me. indeed, i think it makes sense for a company to offer exceptional customer service regardless of what the customer pays, as it encourages repeat, and often more lucrative, business. Putting an untrained or unqualified person into such a position will often achieve the reverse.

As for a perfect world, there will always be people who have complaints. But good customer service can often reduce the incidence and the severity of the complaints.[/QUOTE]
I agree with your last comment, but you and I disagree on whether or not NCL's Reception Staff consistently provides bad customer service. You seem to think it's a trend, I do not.

My comment "you get what you pay for" is in regards to the [I]salary[/I] Reception Staff receives, which in my estimation isn't a huge dollar amount.

You've taken that statement to mean that because NCL is affordable, or to quote you, "discounted," a pax should not expect to be given good customer service.

I can see how you may have assumed that's what I meant.

[Ontheotherhand]

[QUOTE]you and I disagree on whether or not NCL's Reception Staff consistently provides bad customer service. You seem to think it's a trend, I do not.
[/QUOTE]

I don't think we disagree all that much; indeed, I do not think NCL has a trend toward consistently bad customer service. I can see how you may have assumed that's what I thought, but I did not mean to imply that.

However, we were discussing the incident posted by the OP, and IMHO even one incident of poor customer service, whatever the reason, is one too many.

Also, FWIW, I do think that price and the salaries paid to employees are interrelated, and that a 5 star restaurant (or a luxury hotel like the Ritz Carlton) can afford to pay its staff far more than, say, an Applebee's (or a Holiday Inn or Motel 6) in most cases. And one does not expect the same level of service at these establishments. But in all cases, I do think the people are entitled to good customer service within the scope of the services provided.

[Harleycat]

[quote name='Ontheotherhand']I don't think we disagree all that much; indeed, I do not think NCL has a trend toward consistently bad customer service. I can see how you may have assumed that's what I thought, but I did not mean to imply that.

However, we were discussing the incident posted by the OP, and IMHO even one incident of poor customer service, whatever the reason, is one too many.

Also, FWIW, I do think that price and the salaries paid to employees are interrelated, and that a 5 star restaurant (or a luxury hotel like the Ritz Carlton) can afford to pay its staff far more than, say, an Applebee's (or a Holiday Inn or Motel 6) in most cases. And one does not expect the same level of service at these establishments. But in all cases, I do think the people are entitled to good customer service within the scope of the services provided.[/quote]

I agree with your last paragraph 100%. I don't expect the same level of service at Applebee's as I would at Smith and Wollenskys but I do expect good service at both. The server at Applebee's probably has about 10 tables and the one at the latter may have less than half that. I would not expect a gum snapping "yeah, whattya want" at either but I don't expect the server at Applebee's to place my napkin in my lap just as I don't expect paper napkins at the latter.

[Epic_Bear]

wow, overreact much, Baarb? if you laughed in my face when i was doing my job, i would of made sure people were spitting in your food!

[BikerAl]

dupe

[BikerAl]

[quote name='MrPete']I'm not sure.....what you expected....but with all that luggage....I'm sure at least one piece gets misdirected....and would have eventually....made it to its proper....destination.....but you seem to be mad......at someone who had no control.....over the situation....but if she acted sympathetically....and still did nothing....you would have been happy.

Luggage inquiries.....are probably a weekly thing.....to them.

And yes....missing luggage stinks....but I wouldn't lose .....sleep over it.[/quote]


This goes down as a classic. Thanks Mr Pete.

A...l

[Simon_B]

[quote name='wcsmells']wow, overreact much, Baarb? if you laughed in my face when i was doing my job, i would of made sure people were spitting in your food![/quote]

Classy!

[G'ma]

Sometimes your luggage shows up early, sometimes not.

It's not unusual for a piece of luggage to get misdirected. With the thousands of pieces of luggage being handled, a certain percentage will probably end up where it shouldn't.

The questions being asked by personnel were valid ones.

The suitcase was found and turned over.... That should be the end of it.

The offer of a small amenity for the inconvenience was unnecessary but a nice gesture, which was declined.

No other "compensation" should be expected. OP lost nothing, nothing was stolen, nothing destroyed. With the appearance of the suitcase, she was "made whole".... Hysterical allegations and extreme claims of duress or stress doesn't change the fact that......sometimes suitcases get misdirected....

End of story.

[Tomct]

Hi Barb:

Sorry to hear about your luggage problem, but "stuff" does happen, even though it's hard to explain why someone did not detect the problem sooner. I do see luggage sitting in the hallways long after they are delivered, and the ships are quite large, so I guess it may not be unusual for a misplaced bag to sit for sometime before someone realizes a problem.

In the future, if you have a problem with anything that you feel is of a serious nature, you should feel free to contact the hotel director. That position is responsible for most anything impacting service to the passenger, and they do like to hear from you BEFORE you get really upset if things are not going your way. As for compensation for something like this, the HD may have offered you the same things you mentioned, or possible a dinner for two at a specialty restaurant, once the problem was resolved. He would likely would have assigned someone to find it for you, though it may not have gotten it to you any sooner than it did, depending on where it was located.

I happened to find your name as I was searching a thread about ship activities, and saw that you had inquired about the "Water Fountain" routine. We disembarked the Dawn the day you sailed, and hope you were able to see it. I know they do not always do a Crew Talent Show, but hopefully you were able to see it.

Here's a link to my comments:

[url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1050460[/url]

[IWORK2CRUISE]

[quote name='Baarb'][FONT=Fixedsys]Made it on the Dawn.... Seems like everything was going great... Till, we were missing a suitcase... I got mine bout, 2ish.... Mom, did not get hers.... We asked in the lobby about it around 3ish... They said, come back after 5pm... Ok... So we showed up at 5pm... Nope, was not there.... They said, come back later.... Yep, we did... Bout, 8pm we showed up again.... No suitcase.... But, they took us to where the luggage was that did not have any tags.... Nope, not there..... Then to another place.... Nope, not there either.... Later, they said... Ok.... We asked our cabin ppl bout it, they said they did not know... I then went out to the main desk, bout midnight.... Both mom and I were so upset... Maria, was her name, she said, after we complained, 'I apologize, did you leave it on the street when you got off the bus??? Did you leave it in the taxi when you got to the pier???' Duh!! We told her we paid to have the suitcase brought in and put on the ship... She said, 'Are you sure?' OMG!!! I can not believe how she acted.... I could feel the tears... She then said, 'did we have tags on the suitcases with our name on them.' We told her, YES!!!! She seemed so unconcerned, I could not believe it... I asked her, how she would feel if, it were her in our place.... She said nothing.... She then sent someone somewhere to look again... It was bout 12ish that someone brought a suitcase with a tag on it, with, my moms name.... They found it on deck 5.... She told us that there was no name on the suitcase... We then showed her the tag!!!!! She said nothing..... She did offer to take our suitcase to the room, but we said we would take it.... So, off to our room, everything was there.... The next day, I went up to her and asked her what she was going to do to make the mistake right... She said, 'chocolate covered strawberries.'... I told her she must be kidding!!! She then said, 'a fruit basket?'..... I laughed at her.... Then said, 'I can get all the fruit I want in the buffee'.... She said, 'then how bout some wine?' I told her we don't drink.... I asked her who's fault this is with the lost suitcase??? She said, 'no ones'.... All that time, thinking mom would have no clothes to wear!!! BTW, she did give mom a t-shirt to wear to bed... LOL.... Also, laundry service.... So, she was to wait in the room while clothes were to be washed... Great!!!! Someone needs to go to charm school... I know, we should have had more clothes in our carry on.... Who would have thought??? This was our excitement on our first two days.... I would not wish this on anyone.... Yeah, we did get the suitcase back... But all that time, the stress, of thinking, 'what are we going to do???'....... We did try to get over it... Move on.... How would you have dealt with something like this.... [/FONT]
[FONT=Fixedsys]Anyway... We went to the m/g... It was great to meet everyone there... Jolena, you are an angel.... Such a beautiful person you are..... Everyone was..... Thank you for taking the time to do this for us... Suzanne and Eric.... All the wonderful guests on the ship we got to know.... [/FONT]
[FONT=Fixedsys]We did enjoy the island... The carriage ride was the best thing we did... I think, till I begin to think of everything else we did.... Swizzle Inn was so nice.... The lunch was great, along with the drink.... Dinner on the ship??? Was great also... Fredrick was our waiters name... He was a doll!!! I tried to get him each time we went to dinner.... We did do Salsa.... Food was wonderful.... The new menus.... I did not really care for it too much.... JMO.... The trip was over before we knew it.... Would I go again???? Will have to think bout it.... Barb[/FONT][/quote]
We sailed on the Dawn in June and there was an upset passenger who had missed their luggage for a few day of the cruise. Several things happened here. Notices were posted about a lost bag and the owner swears that they were not posted. We had a notice in our cabin. Someone finally turned in the bag stating that they found it in their closet.
Some bags do look alike. We were recently on Jewel of the Seas and when our luggage was delivered we noticed that instead of 4 bags we had 5. The luggage was the same color blue and the tags were from the same deck. We immediately gave the bag to our cabin steward but unfortunately we do realize that not everyone would be so quick to return something that did not belong to them. Also, on the 1st day you might be so involved in checking out the ship and activities that you might not be in your cabin to notice.

[Simon_B]

Hope it improves.

[DMH15]

[quote name='Ontheotherhand']Perfect world? I don't really think so. But you have at least suggested a reason; discounted travel means a lower standard customer service and handling of problems. If that's the image a company chooses to present to the public, then I guess little can be done other than to take one's business elsewhere if one cares about that area of service.[/QUOTE]


Ah, but I received nothing but stellar service from the front desk on my 4 NCL cruises. Especially with Omar on the Sun (2/14/09), we loved him and would stop by to chat.

It was amazing to hear how people treated reception. I think Omar and his co-workers deserved medals (and combat pay) for what they had to endure. Yeah, people get emotional when things go wrong. So they take it out on whoever is their first contact.

[MrLee]

I didn't read the actual post because the font was unbelievably difficult. From all of the other posts though, I think I see what's happened.First, I can't believe the OP was that upset because the luggage was late getting there (at least that's what it sounds like happened.

In any case I just thought I would mention some thing that might be helpful next time. My DW and I always "cross pack". We also each carry two sets of clothes in each of our carry ons, one for ourselves and one for the other. That way, if there is a significant delay, we're covered. Plus, i[I]f one bag doesn't show up and the other does, we're covered for 3 or 4 days and, worse case scenario, if it doesn't show up at all, we can have laundry done to carry us through. I'm sure if it's a lost luggage problem the cruise-line would pay for the laundry.[/I]

[I]Hope this helps. [/I]