One Bad Apple At Guest Services on The Allure

[JJV93]

I almost never checked my bill until a few years ago a cruise critic member posted about it. Well good thing I did!!! Just got off the Allure and had a bad experience with Guest Service. After several charge mistakes on my account during week. On the final day, another change showed up. This was number 4. At this point was getting tried of standing in line at Guest Services. However the other times, the rep was very nice and corrected the problem and apologized for the error. This morning I ran into Oscar from Chile. After several words back and forth, he tried to tell me how things work regarding additional tips. I explained to him after 15 cruises I knew how things worked and the charge was NOT mine. Oscar from Chile gets the BOO Award instead of the WOW Award. I never had a bad experience with any RCCL crew member but this guy is in the wrong line of business.

 

In the end, I did get my credit but the words I'm sorry Never passed Oscar's lips.

[Janet524]

It's unfortunate that you had such poor service. The reps at Guest Relations are usually very pleasant and responsive. Maybe old Oscar got up on the wrong side of the bed that day.

[publicpersona]

I explained to him after 15 cruises I knew how things worked

Be prepared for some snarky comment about how it's remotely possible that Oscar has been on more cruises than that.

 

It has been my experience on RC ships that customer service is usually excellent, but the minute something goes outside the norm (an incorrect charge, something not delivered to the stateroom as it should be, etc.), things fall apart. The staff goes into denial mode that anything is wrong, and respond with canned answers that indicate they were not listening at all when you describe the problem. Their motto ostensibly is to "own the problem", but in reality, they frequently do quite the opposite.

 

I once had a bottle of wine delivered to the stateroom (RC Gifts at Sea) which was supposed to have been delivered to the dining room so that we could enjoy at dinner without a corkage fee. It even said on the piece of paper that came with it "Deliver to dining room". I talked to four levels of Guest Services staff and all were totally bewildered and could not for the life of them figure out how to fix it. "Um .. take it to the dining room?," I suggested. "Ooooohhh, nooooooo sir" came the response. Do you think they learn that "Ooooohhh, nooooooo sir" in training? Anyway, one of them finally suggested that I steal a wine glass from a bar and smuggle it into the dining room myself one glass at a time, which is actually what I did. I'm not making this up.

[ChipLondon]

You mean like this one :D

 

 

Be prepared for some snarky comment about how it's remotely possible that Oscar has been on more cruises than that.

 

.

[Eastcstrob]

I had the same thing happen on Monarch of the Seas. The Customer service rep kept insisting something was written in small print which is was not. She ARGUED with me for over 5 minutes repeating the same canned (incorrect) answer. She actually hung up on me in the end...... After I kept asking to speak to someone else.

 

After i went down to customer service with said piece of paper and no fine print, There was never an apology. Just an "oh,ok"

 

I seen the F&B Director on a top level of the ship and conveyed my annoyance, since it was his department I took issue with. He promptly apologized. His staff from that moment forward were excellent. Twice in the remainder of the cruise calling the cabin to see if they could do anything for us.

 

After speaking to the Customer Service Manager, She read the reps notes about me. She suppposedly hung up on me because after 5 minutes of me yelling at her she had enough and ended the call. She never once mentioned my repeated request to speak to someone else, she also never once mentioned how she repeated her statement many times over to me repeating many times over what she was saying is not true.

 

In the end the customer service manager sais it best. At times the language barrier gets the best of the CSR.

[DHADEN]

I had the same thing happen on Monarch of the Seas. The Customer service rep kept insisting something was written in small print which is was not. She ARGUED with me for over 5 minutes repeating the same canned (incorrect) answer. She actually hung up on me in the end...... After I kept asking to speak to someone else.................

 

 

Whenever you get into a situation like this, TWO MINUTES into it, you ask, "Do you want to win the arguement or take care of a customer? Which One of those is in your job discription?"

 

Every time I have done this, it works 100% of the time. You don't have to get emotional or put up with any of that. Just ask those questions and demand an answer.

 

Hope This Helps.

[retiredgram]

Whenever you get into a situation like this, TWO MINUTES into it, you ask, "Do you want to win the arguement or take care of a customer? Which One of those is in your job discription?"

 

Every time I have done this, it works 100% of the time. You don't have to get emotional or put up with any of that. Just ask those questions and demand an answer.

 

Hope This Helps.

 

Good response. Will have to remember if ever needed.;)

[bbbearden]

Whenever you get into a situation like this, TWO MINUTES into it, you ask, "Do you want to win the arguement or take care of a customer? Which One of those is in your job discription?"

 

Every time I have done this, it works 100% of the time. You don't have to get emotional or put up with any of that. Just ask those questions and demand an answer.

 

Hope This Helps.

 

 

That s a good reply, hopefully I will never need it but good to keep available.

[james j feller]

If someone is rude you should report that person to their supervisor immediatly.

 

JIM

[SpeedGeek]

I agree that the language barrier can cause issues with guest relations. I've only had one instance of a charge being placed incorrectly on my account. I went to contest it, and they said "We'll have to request the receipt from that area and see if your signature is on it before we can give you a refund." It wasn't that sentence, but rather the tone that was given with the sentence. I'm not a major partier but I know my account had a number of bar charges throughout the cruise, so maybe the guy thought that I was just too drunk to realize I'd ordered another drink somewhere? But in the end it dropped off so I'm guessing someone just accidentally transposed numbers when they were entering the folio account for an order.

[kingsgirl]

I can relate to the OP. We've had similar issues (in that our onboard account was supposed to be charged in Canadian and despite double checking when we boarded, it continued to be charged in US). I had to go to guest services 4 times between my Mom and I on a four night cruise. I was soo mad! I also got blamed saying I told them I wanted it charged in US. It's just one of those things that you have to choose to let it slide otherwise it can derail your vacation if you let anger take over. JMO

[spookwife]

I agree that the language barrier can cause issues with guest relations. I've only had one instance of a charge being placed incorrectly on my account. I went to contest it, and they said "We'll have to request the receipt from that area and see if your signature is on it before we can give you a refund." It wasn't that sentence, but rather the tone that was given with the sentence. I'm not a major partier but I know my account had a number of bar charges throughout the cruise, so maybe the guy thought that I was just too drunk to realize I'd ordered another drink somewhere? But in the end it dropped off so I'm guessing someone just accidentally transposed numbers when they were entering the folio account for an order.

 

the one time we had an issue for the same reason that was EXACTLY what was said to us as well. I really do think it was simply..'we need to verify before taking the customer's word for it as we have been burned before by cheapskates trying to scam out of paying their legit charges'

 

I honestly had no problem with that at all and within 18 hours of us going down to CS it was resolved( down to the message on our phone saying that the charge had been removed as they could find no receipt with our signature)

 

with us it was ordering a couple of drinks form the wandering bar servers in the theater before the show. we never got our drinks, but were charged for 'em

[Beth C]

My problem was opposite - with the horrible exchange rate Royal gives I always want to be billed in USD and let my bank do the exchange. On our B2B leg 1 ended up billed in CAD so off I trucked to Guest Services "in between" cruises and confirmed that leg 2 would be billed in USD. After a bit of bantering back and forth and something about the F14 key on the keyboard I had thought it was cut and dry... fast forward to that 8.5x11 sheet of paper they leave on your door... CANADIAN DOLLARS!!!!!!!!! I wasn't about to waste my last night on board arguing about a couple dollars in the exchange rate but it still ticks me off that they didn't do what I asked repeatedly for!

[kingsgirl]

My problem was opposite - with the horrible exchange rate Royal gives I always want to be billed in USD and let my bank do the exchange. On our B2B leg 1 ended up billed in CAD so off I trucked to Guest Services "in between" cruises and confirmed that leg 2 would be billed in USD. After a bit of bantering back and forth and something about the F14 key on the keyboard I had thought it was cut and dry... fast forward to that 8.5x11 sheet of paper they leave on your door... CANADIAN DOLLARS!!!!!!!!! I wasn't about to waste my last night on board arguing about a couple dollars in the exchange rate but it still ticks me off that they didn't do what I asked repeatedly for!

 

I'm so glad I'm not the only person with this problem. Makes me feel less of a nut for being angry about it.

[cruiserhal]

The way I try to protect myself from additional tips on the bar slips is by drawing a line in the area for the additional tip and putting the original total on the final total line. Many times I do give an additional tip but it is always in cash. The reasons for the additional tips are varied but the person has always earned it in my opinion. For example, we had one bar server who always saved our favorite table for us without being asked - she received an extra tip each night.

[Gordo]

RCI really needs to work on this. On our last cruise Guest Services rarely answered the phone. It was very frustrating. And then you have to wait in a very long line to get the issue resolved. Ugh!

 

It is a shame to have to waste precious vacation time resolving a cruise line issue.

[Mr. Bungle]

We had a 50/50 expierience on Enchantment this past February on our 12n cruise...

 

The Good:

 

Our toilet backed up twice after flushing and almost flooded into the room the second time due to it occuring at 3am. Our room steward Kurt, wasn't down the hall like he was the first time it happened. Both times the ships maint. crew were there in short time. Turned out that someone who had done some work on our drain line for the toilet in the past had somehow left one of their RUBBER GLOVES IN THE DRAIN LINE!!! So, it wouldn't clear the line properly and would cause the bowl to overflow after flushing. CS couldn't stop calling and appologizing for the inconvienence of it all. They even sent a bottle of wine to the room 'for our troubles' because it happened at 3am.

 

The Bad: (but turned out good)

 

I had set up our reservation to have our tips to be pre-paid. Getting down to the last day of the trip, I had not recieved our 'tip-slips'. I asked Kurt, our room steward, if he had them on his cart and he said no, he had passed all of them out. I went to CS with my paperwork from home that I had printed with all the information on it, included the original invoice with the pre-paid tips. The CSR pulled up my res and showed me where the tips weren't included. A few minutes of back and forth regarding who is right/wrong/paying tips... Apparently the tips were dropped when I moved my res to a group instead of an individual res. Thankfully this took place at around dinner time (not, I missed dessert) because the CSR was able to call the group res center and get the rep on the line that booked my trip. Another round of who is right/wrong/what happened. A few supervisor visits later, I was informed by the CSR on the ship that the GroupRes dept messed up and that THEY would be paying my tips for me!!!

 

A few days after our trip, I got a call from the GroupRes center asking if I had paid my tips onboard. I told her no, because the CSR on the ship said you would be paying them for me. She just says, Oh...Ok. Thank you, have a nice day. I think she was expecting me to say that I paid them on the ship and then could arrange for a refund to me. I didn't have that budgeted into the trip to pull a couple hundred out of my pocket on the last night. But they did offer to waive the $6.95 atm fee if I did so wish to use it.

 

Bottom line... Keep all your paperwork and not settling for their first answer of no can keep from ruining your trip... But I am sure that there are a few reps out there that only know one answer to any issue you have, and that is the one RCL tells them to use.

 

Did I miss something on an invoice? Yes.

Did the groupRes people mess up? Yes.

Should I have caught it? Yes.

 

I knew what my balance due at final payment was and when I was told it was a lesser amount, I should have had the GroupRep go through the invoice with me so that we wouldn't have had to go through all that and add undue stress to the last night of my cruise.

 

Oh... And I was certain to check and double check that my tips were prepaid for our next cruise when I transferred it to a group after booking it onboard this past trip.

[Langley Cruisers]

...I always want to be billed in USD and let my bank do the exchange... fast forward to that 8.5x11 sheet of paper they leave on your door... CANADIAN DOLLARS!!!!!!!!! I wasn't about to waste my last night on board arguing about a couple dollars in the exchange rate...

 

I'm so glad I'm not the only person with this problem. Makes me feel less of a nut for being angry about it.

 

For you both and others, for next time:

 

Go to the Guest Relations Desk sometime during your cruise. Passing by and there is no line-up? Perfect. Ask them to print you out a bill and check the bottom to see if it says USD. If it doesn't they will correct it for you. We did this, neat and sweet. No waiting in horrendous lines the last night or morning of departure.

.

[CVU]

My problem was opposite - with the horrible exchange rate Royal gives I always want to be billed in USD and let my bank do the exchange. On our B2B leg 1 ended up billed in CAD so off I trucked to Guest Services "in between" cruises and confirmed that leg 2 would be billed in USD. After a bit of bantering back and forth and something about the F14 key on the keyboard I had thought it was cut and dry... fast forward to that 8.5x11 sheet of paper they leave on your door... CANADIAN DOLLARS!!!!!!!!! I wasn't about to waste my last night on board arguing about a couple dollars in the exchange rate but it still ticks me off that they didn't do what I asked repeatedly for!

There have been many threads on this topic. :)

 

In the end we go Cash account and pay with a Credit Card at the end, if we do not have a big balance during the cruise. We have OBC usually when we board from our Next Cruise or booking on board. We have a US$ credit card here in Canada and use that to pay the bill. They can not seem to get it straight if you say No Exchange.......they make money on those that don't fight it I guess.:rolleyes:

 

We have had them change it while on board, just to have it on the final departure day saying in CA$. So, we have no faith.......perhaps they are getting wiser now and are less frustrating to CA and it is working?

 

DH has spent much time on the phone also over charges after the cruise. Hence, our fridge is emptied on Day 1 if possible.

[rt1092]

We had a bad experience with guest services on the Allure.

My mother-in -law had a mild heart attack. And the ships doctor told us that she would probably be transported to the hospital in St Thomas. And that they would probably keep her there.

So we went to guest services and were told that if we (myself my wife and her aunt) leave the ship with her. We would be charged extra for leaving the ship. The guy said she was an adult and she could take care of herself. We all had trip insurance, but he said we would be leaving on our own and it wouldn't be covered.

At that point we had no choice, so we left the ship in St Thomas. And after talking to the ships agent found out that we were covered. We went to the hospital they told us she was going to be held in the hospital. I went back to the ship to get our luggage. And that was another battle.

That was our last time on the Allure.

And if anything like that happens again, it will be our last on Royal.

[The Viking]

Whenever you get into a situation like this, TWO MINUTES into it, you ask, "Do you want to win the arguement or take care of a customer? Which One of those is in your job discription?"

 

Hope This Helps.

 

Beeing in customer service, I find hat guests often do not want to listen to me and my reasons for not taking the guest's side immediately as I may need copy of receipt etc.

 

Your comment will not work with me and indicates to me that you do not want to listen!

[P&C4/16/67]

Best thing you can do to avoid fraudulent charges is to tell no one, crew or passenger your last name and cabin number. Been there done that and all the times it happened, we remembered telling that to someone.

[Katana_Geldar]

That's an interesting thing about exchange, I might see if we can get charged in USD for our inboard account. I know cruise lines like to make some $$$ off you for exchanges.

 

Two years ago I was on a P&O cruise and Noumea was our last port. Up until then I didn't have to worry about exchange, as they take AUD in Vanuatu. Come Noumea and it was a public holiday, which meant the banks were closed which meant a LONG line at guest services to exchange cash. I often wonder how much they made in commission that day. Now we're getting Pacific francs BEFORE we go away.

[DHADEN]

Whenever you get into a situation like this, TWO MINUTES into it, you ask, "Do you want to win the arguement or take care of a customer? Which One of those is in your job discription?"

 

Beeing in customer service, I find that guests often do not want to listen to me and my reasons for not taking the guest's side immediately as I may need copy of receipt etc.

 

Your comment will not work with me and indicates to me that you do not want to listen!

 

Maybe, if your job is "Customer Service", then you should be directing your efforts to Serve the Customer! I have been in Management of such services and have trained many many "servers", and I've got to tell you, you would fail my classes with that attitude.

 

Your job is NOT to even have reasons for NOT taking their side - your job is to TAKE THEIR SIDE and work out a solution to make sure they are happy!

 

Now, as you do that, with the right attitude, you can also ask them for a copy of their receipt, but do it in a way so that it will help the CUSTOMER get what they want.

 

Do you see the difference??? If you don't, then you really should work at something else. And I mean that in the nicest way.... no offence.

 

Hope This Helps.

[C Cruise Dude]

Whenever you get into a situation like this, TWO MINUTES into it, you ask, "Do you want to win the arguement or take care of a customer? Which One of those is in your job discription?"

 

Every time I have done this, it works 100% of the time. You don't have to get emotional or put up with any of that. Just ask those questions and demand an answer.

 

Hope This Helps.

 

Like!