Please help me...Just spoke with NCL UGGGHH!!!

[lritch426]

Ok, I was told by an NCL representative when I booked, that ajoining rooms on the Dawn (BA cabin) also open up to become one long Balcony. Today when I called to request the balcony be opened they said it cannot be opened. The supervisor said he was 100% sure. Has anyone had an ajoining room? I'm upset because I was looking foward to enjoying the balcony with our friends and feel like I was misled to believe something that wasn't true, but was told to me by an NCL representative. BTW, before this I've only had wonderful things to say about my phone experiences with NCL

 

[bratsuzy]

maybe a differ cabin had this, did you ask to have your cabin switch to this type of cabin?

 

Suzanne & Michael

& my little doggie (Tyler)

[lritch426]

No actually, I told them the 2 rooms I wanted (saw them available on a website) and that's when they told me the balconies, as well as the rooms, were adjoining.

 

[Luna'sMom]

I have been in both balcony " BA " cat and mini-suite "AF" cat and in both cabins you were able to open the panels between the balcony's. Usually the people at customer service have never actually been on the Dawn. Have a good trip.

 

Celebrity Meridian 7/90

Premier SeaBreeze 6/99

Celebrity Horizon 7/00

NCL Sea 6/01

NCL Sea 6/02

NCL Dawn 6/03

RCCL Serenade of the Seas 9/03

NCL Dawn 2/04

[lritch426]

Lunasmom- thank you so much. Were they opened when you arrived or did you have to called to have them opened?

 

[rainy54]

NCL Cust service is wrong. I had a mini suite and next to me was an outside stateroom. at Port canaveral they were power washing all the verandahs. Then the cabin girl went from veranda to veranda by opening each one up to dry and wipe down. When you get on the ship you just have to ask your cabin stewart to open it up with the key.

 

Enjoy your cruise. You will love the ship!

 

Till NCL Dawn cruise

 

[cruisingfromMN]

Customer Service is wrong. The balcony doors do open by request, and it is wonderful. Two cruises we have done this as our traveling companions were right next door. Makes evening drinks and morning coffee so nice. Don't worry about it all will be well! Have fun.

[lritch426]

Thank you all so much, it is so small and silly to an extent, but what upsets me is that customer service was so adament about it. Why couldn't he say "I'm not sure, let me check further" anything then stating that he was 100% certain that the balconies do not open up. Oh well, that's what you guys are here for! I hope when I get back I can do the same to help give others peace of mind!

Thanks Again!

 

[gardencat]

Rainy54 "NCL customer service is wrong"

Cruisingfrommn "Customer service is wrong"

 

Ha Ha! sorry but this is what I've been saying for a very long time. NCL customer service is wrong about just about every question they answer. They are wrong, they don't care that they are wrong, they don't care if their mistake makes a problem for you. They just want to get you off the phone so they can get on to mis-informing the next customer on line.

I don't understand how NCL can continue to get away with this type of service.

[uneamie]

In general "customer service" is becoming a nightmare to deal with for many many large companies. I am a "customer service" rep for a large bank and I see how they train people. It's not a pretty picture. You learn on the job mostly and by word of mouth.

 

Customer Service reps are mass produced with inadaquate training classes to get you on the job quickly. Their biggest priority is to get you on and off the phone even faster. More than half of the supervisors and managers do not know the correct answers to questions themselves. Many times when you ask to speak to a supervisor your actually getting another "rep" because there generally are not enough supervisors to go around.

 

What is becoming a new trend now is companies that base their "service centers" in another country( mostly India ), and when you call your darn lucky if you can translate what they are saying. I had that problem with Dell a few months ago. I gave up trying to get answers.

 

My advice is to always call 2 or 3 times and use the most consistant answer you get as being the truth.

 

 

<p align="center">

Countdown - Dawn 11 day cruise

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Home Lines - 5/1988

Disney Wonder - 10/1998

Carnival Triumph - 7/2002

Carnival Legend - 10/2003

NCL - Dawn - 1/2005

</P>

[newmexicoNita]

Uneamia, You just hit the nail on the head. ASsk the question over a few times, see the answers. Once in awhile you get a really knowledgable customer service person who is caring as well, that person is an asset to the company.

 

NMNita

 

Commodore 1984, Costa 1985, RCL 1987, Chandris 1989, NCL 1989, Commodore, 1991, NCL 1997, Carnival 1997, Carnival 1998,NCL 1998, NCL 1999, RCL 2000, RCL 2000, NCL 2002,NCL 2003, Celebrity 2003, NCL 2004

[gardencat]

Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous?

When you actually have to have a stratagy of calling 3 times and taking the 'average' answer shouldn't this give us the message that this is a company we don'twant to do business with?

 

Can anyone give me the name of a cruise line that does actually provide reliable service to their customers?If so I'd like to cruise with them in the future.

If no cruise line does this I guess maybe I'll stop cruising till the cruise industry gets the message. It is my feeling that we are doing the cruise line a favor by giving them our business not the other way around. I think that should be reflected in their attitude in all their dealings with their customers not just once you get on board.

[newmexicoNita]

Gardencat, I think we all agree with you on this one, but the facts are the facts. Customer service just isn't any good, anymore. The reps are not trained properly and really don't seem to much care about their job. This, of course is a generalized statement; there are many great customer service men and women out there, it just the trend is to train less and keep the calls donw to a minumum time frame. As for good CS I can give you the name of the best and worst in my opinion; but poster number 2 would differ from me and on down the line. It's just the luck of the draw I guess. For me, I have never, not even when I was a TA had bad CS from NCL and had nothing but trouble from a couple of other companies. NMnita

 

Commodore 1984, Costa 1985, RCL 1987, Chandris 1989, NCL 1989, Commodore, 1991, NCL 1997, Carnival 1997, Carnival 1998,NCL 1998, NCL 1999, RCL 2000, RCL 2000, NCL 2002,NCL 2003, Celebrity 2003, NCL 2004

[gardencat]

Thanks for your input NewmexicoNita. I think I understand what you are saying (that no one in the cruise industry really offers good customer service anymore and sometimes you just get lucky and hit one good agent in the batch?)

If that does accurately capture your view I just want to say that I would prefer not to give up on the whole industry that quickly. Surely there must be one or two lines that have a reputation for excellent customer service. ( Or even consistently acceptable customer service). So please, any one who wants to nominate a line for the 'good customer service awards' please let me know.

 

I'm sure there will be some differences of opinion but if enough people respond maybe we can get some sort of consensus on which lines are best in this area.

 

What I am looking for here are lines that deal well with customers from the time of booking to embarkation and that handle post cruise problems well too. We already have some insight into on board service through the reviews and the ship rating systems but I'm hoping to get some feed back on the 'guest relations department' side of things.

[sea-lover]

I too, have received different answers to the same question.

 

Keep this in mind when calling NCL: I believe customer service calls are handled from their hq in Miami. Many of the reps have only toured the ships - not cruised. They are not aware of all the possible arrangements that can be made while at sea. This is not an excuse for their lack of knowledge and I agree that they should just say they don't know. But they may not know they don't know. (That probably makes no sense, sorry.)

 

You'd be surprised at how many of the CS reps haven't taken a cruise, at all! Maybe the lower prices we get by cruising NCL come at a price for the employees - they can't afford to cruise.

 

Just my 2 cents worth.

Lauren

[Flintstone]

But think about it....back in the day CS only dealt with knowlegable TAs that worked in a brick building. No one would then would EVER (even if they could) book their own vacations. Now with technology what it is today, we can call 5 TAs (who will all call the cruiseline), get quotes from 10 internet companies (who will also call the cruiseline)and call CS ourselves 3x a day....all for your 1 vacation! Imagine the overload that has created from CS's point of view.(Please NO flaming...as I do this myself in search of the best price I can get). But the cruise industry, having grown many times over in the last few years, has had to quickly employ & train hundreds. Its no excuse for poor service...but be realistic...with fleets the size they are now...no rep could possible have first hand knowledge of every aspect of every ship. However, I do agree that if they don't know....say so! But this is not exclusive to the cruise industry. Thank God for the creation of these boards, since the types of questions we are asking CSs can only be answered from first hand experience. I consider the answers found here to be the "Gospels Truth" from those that know.

 

9/2000 Carnival Tropicale

12/2001 NCL Norway

9/2002 NCL Norway

10/2003 Disney Wonder

2005...Alaska

[gardencat]

Sea-lover

Have you had experience with other cruise lines? If so would you say they are all about the same in customer relations or do you think NCL falls below the grade of the others?

[zimmerjulie]

Gardencat,

I think the level of state-side customer service is inconsistent, even within a cruise line, so it is hard to make a generalization unless you have LOTS of opportunites to try to resolve problems (such as a travel agent might). I have had good AND bad post-problem customer service from at least 5 different lines in my days of TA-ing (in the past) and cruising with groups. (ugh, just thinking about it is giving me stress). I have been the "group coordinator" for our recent family/friends cruises and have tried to resolve different things for group members. I have found that no line stands out as better than the rest for me. In a certain situation I might say I prefer one resolution over another situation, but this is hard to generalize and is very personal.

 

I love to cruise more than anything else, and have very rarely had a "serious" issue come up once onboard, so I just cross my fingers that the "administrative" phase doesn't deal me a blow, like it did you. Certainly not ideal, but the alternative of giving up cruising is NOT an option. I get so much out of cruising that the aggravations seem miniscule in comparison. I do wish it were better, though, and think people should speak up with their reasonable complaints to provide the opportunity for improvement. I also think some of the systems are clogged up with selfish freebie seekers who fly into rages about the most unreasonable thing so that they can get some sort of "compensation". This makes it less possible for those with legitimate complaints to achieve proper and timely consideration.

 

JMHO

[Host CMLA]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by gardencat:

Have you had experience with other cruise lines? If so would you say they are all about the same in customer relations or do you think NCL falls below the grade of the others?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>During and after our cruise on RCI in January we received terrible customer service. On the ship when we brought something to the Guest Relations manager he acted annoyed that we brought a concern to him. After we got home, we called to follow up on an issue we had on board and our concern was heard with promises of calling us back. It's been 4 1/2 months...still nothing. I'm sure NCL is just as bad as everyone else and getting good customer service is a matter of reaching the right person on the other end of the phone. But I've never been treated as badly as I was with RCI. NCL has always been great to me.

 

Cecilia

*****@aol.com

 

My Wedding!

 

[newmexicoNita]

Flintstone brings up good points. years ago only TA handled vacations, cruises, air, etc. or for the most part that was the case. We called our trusted friend, he/she handled everything; if there was a problem we most likely didn't know about it. I don't think, as a whole we were quite as demanding as we are now and the cruise lines were not dealing with us as personally as now. Right or wrong, that's the way it is. Still think customer service has gone down hill as well. NMNita

 

Commodore 1984, Costa 1985, RCL 1987, Chandris 1989, NCL 1989, Commodore, 1991, NCL 1997, Carnival 1997, Carnival 1998,NCL 1998, NCL 1999, RCL 2000, RCL 2000, NCL 2002,NCL 2003, Celebrity 2003, NCL 2004

[luv2travel2beaches]

Someone earlier asked for a company with good customer service. I don't know about the cruise line specifically but I worked for Disney for a few years. They do train their customer service reps very well. There is more attention to detail than with any other company I have ever worked for. EVERY company has problems now and then and customers that come away unhappy for some reason. I no longer work for Disney because of a relocation of the service center I was employed by, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. I know some people may disagree because of a bad experience here and there, but overall they are very customer service oriented. I hope their cruise line is as great as the other parts of their company.

 

 

Can't wait till 5/19/04 on the Wind

[gardencat]

Funny you should mention that about Disney.

We just received some promotional material from them in the mail today and my 17 year old son who I thought would feel he was 'way too cool' to have anything to do with Disney looked at it and said "This looks really good". So maybe we should seriously consider them for our next cruise.

[sea-lover]

Gardencat:

I'm having trouble answering your question. Maybe I should give you some background. I have taken 5 cruises. 1 on Royal Caribbean's Nordic Empress, 2 on American Hawaii Cruises' SS Independence, and 2 with NCL - 1 on the SS Norway and 1 on the Star. I booked the 2 with AHC myself and loved everything about them - the CS on land won and all the details were handled by the company. I am so sad they are gone. My 2 cruises on NCL were handled as a joint effort with my TA. I made numerous calls myself to NCL asking questions and getting rate quotes. I always make a note about who I talk to and get their extension. If they are really helpful or extremely knowledgeable, I might call them back. Or I would see if I got a different rate or answer or whatever from someone else. This way, I was sure I had the best deal possible or the perfect cabin or whatever. Once I had a "hold" reservation made, I turned it over to my TA. From then on, NCL spoke with the TA. Calls for upgrades et cetera came through the TA, as well. But I felt better knowing the name of someone at NCL that was talking to my TA. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Lauren

 

[marilynd]

I have always used my TA here at home and I have had some great deals. After our first cruise on the Sun I sent a letter to NCl about the fine quality of service I received on my first cruise. I received a letter from the head of customer service saying that I should let them know when I cruised again on NCL and some special considerations would be made for me. My next cruise on NCL was on the Norway.

My TA told the booking agent at NCL about the letter and we got a great Penthouse Suite for the price of a regular outside.

 

On the next NCL cruise, my TA called NCL again and was told that the price on the website was all that they could do for me. I really wanted the AB Penthouse but the price was high.

My TA went ahead an booked an AE or AF (which every sleeps 3) for us and we were going to settle for that. Our TA was able to find a reseller offering a New York resident fare that would make the AB the same as the AE/AF. Well I am from Utah. He called NCL and asked to talk with a supervisor. They ok'd the fare.

 

This year I am again booking a the Dawn for the same AB Penthouse as last year. Again the TA called and NCL would only give us the posted price. She called NCL again and asked to speak

with a supervisor. She told them that we were loyal NCL fans and what could they do for us.

Well once again we are able to get the AB Penthouse in an upgrade from the AE or AF suite.

And we have the same suite as before.

 

We have had patience and these deals have taken numerous calls. Our travel agency has not been a big promoter of NCL in the past. I am helping then change their opinion.

 

Marilyn

 

NCL Sun 4/02 - Carnival Elation 6/02 - NCL Norway 8/02

NCL Dawn 6/03 - RCI Monarch 1/04 - NCL Dawn 6/04

 

 

 

[gardencat]

Dear sea-lover and Marilynd,

Thanks for your replies. I am wondering if you found you received consistent and correct answers from the people you spoke with at NCL.

 

One of the frequent complaints I have heard is that you get a different answer every time you call or even just a completely wrong answer. (see the posts at the start of this thread)

I am impressed with the service you received, Marilynd. I guess one of my problems was that since my vacation was less than a month away I needed answers in a little bit of a hurry and so could not afford to be as patient as you were. When I did ask to speak to a supervisor I was told first, that she had 'gone for the day', next day she was 'out to lunch' and the third time that she 'didn't take calls'????!!!!'

When my travel agent called, NCL agreed to compensation, then when I tried to collect on that agreement NCL told me I "must have been mis-informed" implying that my travel agent had misunderstood. Fortunately my agent had kept quite detailed notes of those conversations and when faced with this NCL said that it didn't really matter what they might have said they had had another meeting and now weren't willing to do that anymore.

I really do not know how I could have handled this that would have produced a better result, for me. As I said, with more time, I might have been able to wait longer for NCL to get their act together, but the only way for me to give them more time, at that point, would have been to completely scuttle our vacation.

 

I am still looking for a company with a good record for customer service. Are the more expensive lines ( Crystal, Silversea etc.) better in this area? I know they are more expensive but when I add up all the costs associated with my recent vacation I'm sure I could have afforded a cruise on one of those lines and possibly reduced the stress and frustration level!