Shoreside Azamara is dreadful

[GrumpyOldWesty]

Hello Peter -

 

Please allow me some time to discuss with our marketing and sales management team your situation that after a few hours of visiting our website to request to have details of promotions emailed to you, that you then received a follow-up email from a US-based travel agent.

 

They will review the process concerning your privacy issues in that your contact information has been shared with a third-party.

 

I'll be back to you with an update.

 

Enjoy the weekend.

 

Regards,

 

Bill Leiber

___________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

 

Bill

 

We have moved on 3 days since your post. I do not believe it is unreasonable to expect an answer at this point in time.

 

Peter

[Bill Leiber]

Bill

 

We have moved on 3 days since your post. I do not believe it is unreasonable to expect an answer at this point in time.

 

Peter

Hello Peter -

 

I'm sorry that I wasn't able to respond sooner, but here is what I have learned today to explain why you had received a follow-up email from a travel agent following your request for information about our forthcoming promotions. It is the result of Azamara's decision to work with agency partners that have global marketing and technology capabilities to follow-up on leads coming in through our website.

 

You asked about our privacy policy and expressed your concern about our sharing your contact information with other companies or third-parties. As you'll read in this excerpt of our privacy policy which follows below, we require that travel agents, acting on Azamara's behalf, must keep that contact information confidential.

 

Azamara will not trade, sell or share such personally identifiable information for use by any third parties unless we have informed you, been authorized by you or are required by law to do so. In addition, such personally identifiable information shall not be disclosed to third parties unless we have informed you, been authorized by you or are required by law to do so. The term "third parties" does not include any subsidiaries or affiliates of Azamara, service providers or vendors acting on Azamara's behalf or travel agents or the purchaser of substantially all of the assets of price terms or a subsidiary or affiliate of Azamara. Our policy is to require that third parties keep that information confidential. We reserve the right to disclose personally identifiable information, without notice, if we believe that such action is necessary to defend and protect the rights or property of Azamara and its family of Web sites or to protect the personal safety of users of Azamara, its Web sites or the public.

 

In the future, if you're already working with a travel agent, you may click on that option so that you are not contacted. Of course, in the case where you received a follow-up email, you can ignore the message and continue to use your preferred travel agent.

 

Thank you for your patience while I gathered this information.

 

Best regards,

 

Bill Leiber

___________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[MightyQuinn]

... Azamara will not trade, sell or share such personally identifiable information for use by any third parties unless we have informed you, been authorized by you or are required by law to do so.

 

The term "third parties" does not include any subsidiaries or affiliates of Azamara, service providers or vendors acting on Azamara's behalf or travel agents ...

I like that Azamara won't trade, sell or share my personal info to third parties. But, in my view, they have quite a liberal definition of "third parties." I truly don't understand how external travel agents would be included in the list of entities that are privy to personally identifiable info provided by customers on the Azamara website. I would never imagine that by requesting info via the website that my contact details would be shared with anyone outside Azamara. I suspect that I'm not alone in this thinking.

 

I realize that I can avoid being contacted by an external travel agent by specifying that I already have an agent, but what if I don't check that box? Will my info automatically be shared unless I proactively seek to prevent it? If so, I think this should be clearly stated so customers know that their info may be given to external parties.

[GrumpyOldWesty]

I like that Azamara won't trade, sell or share my personal info to third parties. But, in my view, they have quite a liberal definition of "third parties." I truly don't understand how external travel agents would be included in the list of entities that are privy to personally identifiable info provided by customers on the Azamara website. I would never imagine that by requesting info via the website that my contact details would be shared with anyone outside Azamara. I suspect that I'm not alone in this thinking.

 

I realize that I can avoid being contacted by an external travel agent by specifying that I already have an agent, but what if I don't check that box? Will my info automatically be shared unless I proactively seek to prevent it? If so, I think this should be clearly stated so customers know that their info may be given to external parties.

 

Have to say that I agree with you MQ.

 

It appears that Azamara have a rather liberal interpretation of privacy, and I wish I had been aware before.

 

Bottom line is quite simple... Azamara, pull your socks up, the info supplied by your guests goes nowhere. End of story.

 

Peter

[Bill Leiber]

Have to say that I agree with you MQ.

 

It appears that Azamara have a rather liberal interpretation of privacy, and I wish I had been aware before.

 

Bottom line is quite simple... Azamara, pull your socks up, the info supplied by your guests goes nowhere. End of story.

 

Peter

Hello MightyQuinn and Peter -

 

I appreciate your time and effort, MightyQuinn, to share your thoughts about our newly launched website lead follow-up initiative along with your opinion about the effectiveness of the statement: "I am currently working with a travel agent" option.

 

Because the discussion between our marketing planners and our agency partner's technology team are still underway about Azamara's recent decision to aggressively follow-up on leads coming in through our website, I'm unable to respond to your comments at this time.

 

I'm confident that I'll be sharing a program update and a response with you very early next week about the scope of this program that will address both of your opinions.

 

In the meantime, enjoy the weekend ahead!

 

Regards,

 

Bill Leiber

___________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)