My NCL 2012 Pre/Post cruise experience.

[zzee10]

I feel the need to share my experience with NCL for 2012. Before I start I would like to say that our actual cruise was wonderful from start to finish. Which is why I have up until this point debated on posting this. I enjoy cruise critic and have decided it is my duty to warn fellow members about this situation FYI.

 

I booked our January 29, 2012 cruise aboard the Gem February of 2011 with our TA. One week before our cruise, on a day that I just happened to be off work, I recieved a call from NCL corporate office. The representative (Lysette), stated that I owed NCL $500.00 and said that she could take a credit card payment over the phone. I can only describe this as a "collection" call. Very strange considering that I booked with a TA and my first instint was that someone was saying that they were NCL and trying to rip me off! I questioned why and told her that I booked through a TA, how could I be sure that she was really NCL, told her that the only thing I knew about $500.00 was that I had purchased a gift certificate on OBC for 500 in June. She then got very confused and said that she would have to put me on hold and research the issue. Finally she decided to call me back since it would take some time to find out what was going on. She did call me back a couple hours later (thank goodness I was off this day to handle this and also because I would have been horrified to come home for work to a collection call from NCL on my answering machine.). She said that someone at NCL had accidentally cancelled my reservation and rebooked it to correct the mistake. My OBC gift certificate was automatically credited back to my credit card and somehow this made it look like I owed NCL $500.00. Then she asked me if I wished to re-purchase the gift certificate. I finally decided yes after discussing the possibility that some other confusion could happen in the next few days before my cruise and that my 500 bucks of hard earned money would not be available for my cruise as intended. Also cancelled and rebooked was the cabin that I bought for my parents on the same sailing..........after re-buying the gift cert. I questioned the fact of what would happen with my points for booking 9 months in advance. (one extra point per night for booking 9 months in advance). And I was told that she would put a note under my reservation number and my parents about what had happened and please do not worry we are so sorry and will take of your account. Then I called the day before our cruise worried about my 500 bucks but everything looked ok, and the person assured me to just have a good cruise, your points will be ok too. Latitudes is just a nice thing to have a few extra perks for spending your hard earned money with NCL every year.

Following the cruise, I did not get my extra points and I immediatly called Lysette, who said she made a note, so I thought that this would be an easy fix and all would be well. She proceeded to tell me that she was being promoted in two days and Chandler would handle my situation, Monday and to call him. I called Chandler who sounded like he really wanted to help me and he said that he would call me about a week. No worries at this point. Two weeks later no phone call. I called he made excuses and when I questioned him on why he hadn't called me he said he was sorry and this would go to the top of his list of "to do items". He also said he would call or email me. Two weeks later, I have heard nothing. I called this time with a different attitude towards not getting a call back! I told him that there was not excuse for him not to call me back after saying he was so SORRY about not calling last time!! He said yes there is no excuse for me not calling you back. I called and left him messages every week after this.........my last message being not so nice. Finally I get an email from him to be patient it might be couple more weeks. Then he sends me an email saying that he fixed the problem.........so I look at my NCL points and see that I only got 7 points instead on 10!!!! It was a 10 night cruise! So it starts over...........again...............after about three weeks I got the 3 other points. In the mean time I had emailed the latitudes department about the other points only to receive and email that I was not going to get them since I only booked the cruise on January 16, 2012. The date that my reservation was accidentally cancelled by NCL and rebooked. So here we are in April and I finally have the points. I requested via email to Chandler, who said he was so sorry for my horrible experience, that I deserve some sort of OBC to make up for the stress that was created before and after this cruise do to NCL's VERY POOR in house service. That was over a week ago.....again I hear nothing....this is crazy, in this poor economy........ it takes my husband and I all year to save the money to spend on a cruise.........in fact I booked my 2013 cruise last september and we are saving the money for that one every month..........I love cruising and so does my husband. It used to be exciting putting that money away every month to spend with NCL. I have to tell you that this year.........I can't help but think about this situation..........and how little I was respected as a customer that books a cruise every year with them.

Just FYI information......... you would think for an in house mistake with NCL this wouldn't have taken from February 9th until April 15th to straighten out.................

[zzee10]

I made a million spelling mistakes..........LOL, guess I am a little heated :-) Hope you all understand what I was saying :-)

[jimswims]

If I understand this correctly one of the things you are looking for is the additional points for booking 9 months in advance. I was told by NCL that all bookings that took place before the change in the new Latitudes program do not count for that bonus.

[zzee10]

If I understand this correctly one of the things you are looking for is the additional points for booking 9 months in advance. I was told by NCL that all bookings that took place before the change in the new Latitudes program do not count for that bonus.

the change is for cruises that were taken after December 2011. This cruise was January 2012. My other fellow cruise critic members got the points. I asked them before I even called NCL. I didn't want to ask about something that I wasn't entitled to.

[zzee10]

If I understand this correctly one of the things you are looking for is the additional points for booking 9 months in advance. I was told by NCL that all bookings that took place before the change in the new Latitudes program do not count for that bonus.

Thank you for reading my post.

[PatsyAnn]

OMG, Z....sounds like a customer service nightmare. Sorry to hear this happened just a week before sail...must have popped your excitement bubble :(

 

Every cruise line has it's pros and cons, but poor customer service is a deal breaker for me. Please keep us posted with further nightmare/resolution developments.

[jimswims]

Thank you for reading my post.

 

No problem. :)

 

I had an issue with a booking and was told by NCL that although the cruise will be under the new program the fact that I had booked it just before the change will not give me the 9 month bonus points. I have yet to sail on this one so I guess I will see what happens when I get back.

 

I am glad it was still a good cruise. Good luck getting this cleared up.:D

[cod]

Under the circumstances, I think you were remarkably 'cool'. It helped that the person who first contacted you soon realized the mistake and was apologetic and committed to fixing it. Too bad the point scenario wasn't handled promptly and that you had to keep wasting your time to straighten it out. Time is precious these days.

 

I'm glad you had a good cruise and glad, too, that you aren't saying that you are writing NCL off altogther!

[dznymom]

Well, the good news is you finally got everything you were entitled to. The bad news is, way too many NCL reps dropped the ball. The worst news is that Chandler is apparently still employed by NCL. I know I will be hanging up and calling again if he answers one of my calls.

 

I would send a letter to corporate (not to the lattitudes dept) outlining what happened. They need to know they have a problem. At that level, they may (or may not) offer you something for the trouble you had, but at least you may help someone else.

[zzee10]

Thank you everyone for your comments......the worst part is I think both people at NCL's CORPORATE OFFICE actually moved up in status!!! I am in sales and customer service at my job and I know that this wouldn't get me "moved up" :-)

 

Jimswims- one person did tell me that I would have this same problem with my cruise for 2013 too. Although, what I don't understand is why others that booked at the same time as I did (one year in advance) got the points with no trouble. It has something to do with my reservation being cancelled and then rebooked.

 

I hope you don't have trouble and I would never cruise NCL if it happened again to me.......I am even debating now after being ignored when I asked for some OBC for my troubles......I mean a whole week of stress before and then months after. My time is worth something.

 

Everyone-

I didn't mention that everytime (at least three times this has happened to us) I redeem my NCL credit card points through NCL something or other gets messed up with my reservation, my latitudes number mysteriously changes or then one time it was sent to NCL in ENGLAND!! Two times it actually took me a total of two hours to straighten out via the phone! How did that happen? Its so crazy I almost have to laugh except that I usually have about $4000.00 invested on my vacation with dog kennels, cruise, and spending money :-)

 

Time is precious for sure as was commented above......Its a shame that my time had to be wasted on this for sure. I will let everyone know if I hear back from "dear" Chandler regarding the OBC I requested. My deposit is safe on my 2013 cruise until the end of October/ with final payment due mid- November. I am still trying to decide what to do about my upcoming cruise and if I can trust them to do their job on that one! LOL! I did cancel the cruise reward for a refund that I purchased on this cruise before the 30 days were up. By then I had experienced the poor returning of phone calls and I didn't want to take a chance on having to book with NCL again if I didn't want to. What a shame.......I love holding that cruise reward in my hand and dreaming of where I might go :-)

[zzee10]

Well, the good news is you finally got everything you were entitled to. The bad news is, way too many NCL reps dropped the ball. The worst news is that Chandler is apparently still employed by NCL. I know I will be hanging up and calling again if he answers one of my calls.

 

I would send a letter to corporate (not to the lattitudes dept) outlining what happened. They need to know they have a problem. At that level, they may (or may not) offer you something for the trouble you had, but at least you may help someone else.

Thank you for feeling for me. My contact on this issue was mostly through corporate I am ashamed to say for NCL. That is not good when its at the top.........

[zzee10]

OMG, Z....sounds like a customer service nightmare. Sorry to hear this happened just a week before sail...must have popped your excitement bubble :(

 

Every cruise line has it's pros and cons, but poor customer service is a deal breaker for me. Please keep us posted with further nightmare/resolution developments.

It bothers me too. I deserve to get the same service that I give at my job from others doing their job.

[Sheils65]

Kudos to you, I would have blown my top much earlier, LOL. Please don't let one bad customer service Rep deter you. I would definetly follow that chain of command to let them know that one of their reps dropped the ball several times with you and they might want to look into retraining such individual.

[PathfinderEss]

I'm glad you had a good cruise in spite of it all. I wish you luck in getting it all straighten out.

[mitsugirly]

Good luck on getting everything straightened out. I'm glad to hear that you had a wonderful cruise in spite of everything that has transpired.

 

We have been cruising exclusively with NCL for a few years now (and have cruised with them for the first time in 1989) and absolutely love their ships, service, shows and everything...other than customer service. I have had some disturbing convo's with reps there and I swear you will get a different answer each time you call to ask the same question. It's the only problem I have with NCL. If they would just get their reps together (or call center or whatever/whoever they run their stuff) then I would be 100% satisfied.

[che5904]

You appear frustrated, and rightfully so. I really hate not receiving a call back when it is promised. And it certainly shouldn't have taken this long to get your points straighten out.

 

But it does sound like you are rethinking cruising with NCL because of this. From your signature you have had 5 sailings with them. Is this the first time something like this has happened with them. NCL is a very large company, so a couple of bad apples should not spoil what you have already learned to love and enjoy.

 

Good luck getting this straighten out

[zzee10]

We have been happy with our actual cruises. Just not with the customer service by phone. My 2013 is still booked at this moment mostly because our on ship experiences have been good but also because there are not many options going out of NYC in the winter time. I guess the way I see it is..........I just turned 36 years old.......if I continue to take one cruise a year with our adventual goal being two per year........that is a lot of money spent with one company.............

[emcelh]

Did your TA offer to help resolve this?

 

There's no excuse for the poor customer service you received. It seems as if this type of thing is common when you're dealing with people in call centers these days, and it isn't restricted to cruise lines. The employees are not empowered to make decisions or they just don't know what to do.

[rvsullivan]

The only thing I see in all this that confuses me is this, where is your TA in all this. From the very first call your TA should have been handling all of this for you. They were paid for the reservation and should have been your advocate in getting this done. You should have never had to make a single phone call. What's up with the TA???:confused:

[zzee10]

Unfortunately my TA got the same run around and is getting the same run around, at this moment..........since even after NCL said they made a mistake and my points have been awarded. It still shows that the cruise was only booked two weeks ahead of time!!!! So on their end when the latitudes department is contacted via email........they think that they awarded me something that I was not supposed to get. As I said before I booked a year in advance. My TA is trying to get them to change the booking dates on my reservation with NCL. My TA knows when I booked and doesn't want me to look like I was asking for something unreasonable. They are also slightly limited with NCL because it has to do with the loyalty program. Hopefully they can clear up the date problem.

[zzee10]

The only thing I see in all this that confuses me is this, where is your TA in all this. From the very first call your TA should have been handling all of this for you. They were paid for the reservation and should have been your advocate in getting this done. You should have never had to make a single phone call. What's up with the TA???:confused:

On their end it showed that everything was fine and nothing had happened. NCL after making the mistake of cancelling the reservation fixed it right away. Something else that is upseting for my travel agent is that they (NCL) wouldn't admitt the mistake to them!!!!! I am telling you this is a mess!

[zzee10]

Good luck on getting everything straightened out. I'm glad to hear that you had a wonderful cruise in spite of everything that has transpired.

 

We have been cruising exclusively with NCL for a few years now (and have cruised with them for the first time in 1989) and absolutely love their ships, service, shows and everything...other than customer service. I have had some disturbing convo's with reps there and I swear you will get a different answer each time you call to ask the same question. It's the only problem I have with NCL. If they would just get their reps together (or call center or whatever/whoever they run their stuff) then I would be 100% satisfied.

I wish their was a "like" button like on FB!

[che5904]

It seems as if this type of thing is common when you're dealing with people in call centers these days, and it isn't restricted to cruise lines.

 

Isn't that the truth!

[zzee10]

I had hoped that the state of the US economy would make good customer service exsist again...........