Don't use Gifts and Services

[DntlGal]

I bought a $25 gift certifcate for a friend and asked them to have a card put in her room on the first day of the cruise to let her know it was a birthday gift and she could use it for whatever she wanted. I asked to have a card that said "Happy Birthday Barb..hope you win big and bingo"

as I knew she loved to play bingo. Well, she never got the card saying I got this $25 gift certificate for her and she did not even know I did this for her. During the middle of her cruise she happened to ask the girl at the purser's desk why a $25 credit was on her account. That was when she was told about me giving this to her as a gift. The girl read the "card" that she was suppose to get on the first day of her cruise. My friend thought the $25 was from Carnival and had she not stopped to ask about the credit to her account she would have NEVER learned it was from me. When I called Carnival about this they basically said so sad..too bad. "At least she got the $25 credit so they weren't going to do anything about it". Both she and I are really pissed as they could care less about ruining the surprise I wanted her to have. I am a platimun card member and have used the gift services many times. I WILL NO LONGER USE THEIR SERVICES AGAIN. I am very disappointed in their services and show NO concern for their dedicated passingers. The sad thing is my friend LOVES Royal Caribbean and I talked her into going on this cruise. She now will no longer go on any Carnival cruises. I go on Carnival at least two times a year. We already have a cruise booked in December but my next one will be with Royal Caribbean. I am done with Carnival because of how they dealt with this.

They no longer care about their repeat customers..so sad.

They have taken away their $100 towards their next cruise offer, made it harder to get to VIP statis, and took away benifits booking agents can give clients. Carnival is sinking along with Costa... They need to realize past guests (esp VIPS) keep them afloat. Cutting perks to them will add to them sinking.... I loved Carnival and referred so many people to them. They have no idea what they are doing to their "PAST" dedicated passengers....

[Scott34787]

So besides that, how was her cruise?

[klfrodo]

I find this interesting... Well, Not really however

 

Every single time I have ever received a gift from myself, or someone else, there has always without fail been a letter either in my stateroom mailbox or left on the dresser explaining who the gift was from.

 

Now,, one of two things happened.

 

1. A mistake was made and the letter didn't make it to the stateroom.

2. Someone assumed the letter was just more junk and threw it away.

 

Either way, nothing to get furious over. Much more important things in life to get upset about.

[agc291]

Since you have used gifts and services "MANY TIMES" before why cant you chalk this up to a mistake. They do happen, no matter which line you are on. Theres not much they could do after her cruise when you called anyways...

[DntlGal]

I have always been a dedicated Carnival passenger. Some of you are missing my point. I have used their guest servies at least 5 times. I am upset as to their attituded. I talked to their guest services department, to their booking department, the department that handles people who have just returned from their cruise and a few more. NOT ONE of them really could care less about how my friend or I feel about their screwup. My friend was celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary and her birthday. She just suffered the loss of her father and a few other sad things in her life. I wanted to do something nice for her that would make her smile and start her cruise off in a great spirit. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN !!! Carnival ruined my nice surprise for her. It's like giving someone a surprise party but someone else takes the credit for it. My surprise for her was ruined and she would never have known anything special was done for her had she not gone and asked why she was given a $25 dollar credit to her account. If she would not have seen the $25 credit she would NEVER had known I even did this for her....

[klfrodo]

I have always been a dedicated Carnival passenger. Some of you are missing my point. I have used their guest servies at least 5 times. I am upset as to their attituded. I talked to their guest services department, to their booking department, the department that handles people who have just returned from their cruise and a few more. NOT ONE of them really could care less about how my friend or I feel about their screwup. My friend was celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary and her birthday. She just suffered the loss of her father and a few other sad things in her life. I wanted to do something nice for her that would make her smile and start her cruise off in a great spirit. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN !!! Carnival ruined my nice surprise for her. It's like giving someone a surprise party but someone else takes the credit for it. My surprise for her was ruined and she would never have known anything special was done for her had she not gone and asked why she was given a $25 dollar credit to her account. If she would not have seen the $25 credit she would NEVER had known I even did this for her....

OK, a mistake was made. There was never a question as to receiving the $25 OBC. That she received. She "alledges" that she didn't receive a card. With everything you have mentioned, is it not possible that she DID receive the card but just overlooked it?

What was your expectation for them to "make this right"?

[RuthlessBoss]

So besides that, how was her cruise?

How could she/they possibly have a good cruise after that devastating event (non event).

I wonder why the subject of the card wasn't even brought up by the poster. The poster knew where that $25 came from, yet let her friend stand in line to find out.

[Gailerina]

It is possible she threw it away....you were not on the cruise so you can't say not possible.

 

I could understand if she never received her credit but she did.

 

You seem to need a chill pill getting so upset over a piece of paper.....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ~ signed The Awesome Gailerina

[DB2VA]

Most gift cards are given out at dinner. Perhaps they ate at the buffet each night?

[emod20]

DW and i are going on our 6th CC this november it has taken us 30 years to get to this point, i hope to make platium before we die. i want to be platium not for the perks but to know i have been lucky enough to go on that many cruises. if we do make it it will probably take a total of forty or more years. i just hope that at that time i wont be so terribly upset by a mistake that i stop cruising with carnival. ( by the way DW and i have been through some toughg times every now and then) as this cruise is to celebrate here being 6 years cancer free, after losing a brother and sister to cancer. carnival is for fun people that like to have a good time on vacation IMHO, feel free to cruise somewhere where they never make mistakes

[CrimsonQueen]

I had a similar incident on my last cruise....

 

My boss sent me a cake to be delivered at dinner. The cake said "Congratulations" and the card should have said, "You're on vacation and we're not!"

 

The wait staff knew we were celebrating my sister's birthday during the cruise, so they brought the cake out (with Congratulations on it) and sang "Hap Burfday tushu".

 

We wondered who sent the cake (the wait staff couldn't tell us), why it said Congratulations (instead of Happy Birthday) and I never got the card. Didn't know my boss had sent the cake until I came back to work.

 

However, it didn't matter.....we all enjoyed the cake!:D And, it was the BEST CRUISE EVER (until the next one):p

[DanJ]

If Carnival promised that the note was to be delivered to the stateroom on the first day, it should have been. This is a public message board and the OP is free to post whatever they want as long as it follows the community guidelines.

 

On another note, there is nothing special about the current Platinum benefits. They have deteriorated so much with continuous negative changes, even before the "brilliant" VIFP program.

 

I agree, but I'm not going to expect to be taken seriously going on a message board and overstating things like that. I call BS on the claim she won't sail Carnival any more because of this simple oversight.

 

And I am interested to see if the OP comes back and answers the question above about what would Carnival have to do to make this right?

[mondello]

I agree, but I'm not going to expect to be taken seriously going on a message board and overstating things like that. I call BS on the claim she won't sail Carnival any more because of this simple oversight.

 

And I am interested to see if the OP comes back and answers the question above about what would Carnival have to do to make this right?

Sometimes a simple apology does wonders. The fact they wouldn't acknowledge their mistake and blew it off just rubbed 'em wrong. We actually received 2 printed cards showing our online TA had given us $25 OBC. Let'em vent and move on.

[Unknotted]

I also swore that I would never cruise Carnival again...twice...and I meant it both times...and I got over it after awhile. Sometimes when you are in the mood to book a cruise and start comparing prices, it becomes a little easier to forgive those people you thought treated you poorly.

[Mikel1733]

I can sympathize with the OP, we ordered Anniversary decorations for daughter and SIL's room. The decorations arrived but no card or announcement that they were a gift from us. We were on the cruise and asked them if they got them and they thought Carnival had given them the decorations. We didn't follow up in any manner but it was disappointing.

[Disconnections]

I agree, but I'm not going to expect to be taken seriously going on a message board and overstating things like that. I call BS on the claim she won't sail Carnival any more because of this simple oversight.

 

And I am interested to see if the OP comes back and answers the question above about what would Carnival have to do to make this right?

 

I don't doubt it that the OP may not consider Carnival for their next or future cruises. We most certainly will not be cruising with Carnival for a long time due to personal issues on the Carnival Miracle and ever growing list of cost cutting measures. All cruise lines are going through the same thing right now, but Carnival doesn't know when to stop. That is what happens when a CFO of a parent company becomes CEO of a child company. The OP indicated that they have been disappointed in other areas from Carnival and each person has a different tolerance level. Perhaps this was the last straw for the OP. Once you reach the last straw, there isn't much hope. We just got off of two Princess cruises. Once we got home, we cancelled our Future Cruise Certificates with Carnival. There are plenty of other options and the service was different and noticeable within seconds of stepping on the ship. Every person is looking for something else in a cruise. Without the note being received, it does show the high level of miscommunication between shore to ship and even among the crew on the ship that happens very often with Carnival.

 

It is nobody's business of what OP expects Carnival to do to make it "right." That should be kept between OP and Carnival unless OP wishes to disclose it on a public forum. If the OP is that upset with Carnival, there may be nothing that can be considered "right" with Carnival and sometimes a free cruise may not be what is considered "right." For all we know, the OP could just want it brought to the attention of Corporate to make sure something like this does not happen again to another guest wishing to sail on Carnival.

 

Edit: As you can see from comments of other members of Cruise Critic on this thread, this happens more often than you think.

[Mskala]

It is possible they left a note and she missed it. We had two in our cabin...one for a fruit basket that we ordered and one letting us know we had received OBC due to a price drop. I almost didn't see them because they were left on the dresser by the phone but with the other usual flyers and information they leave so I never paid them any attention.

[missdebi]

I bought a $25 gift certifcate for a friend and asked them to have a card put in her room on the first day of the cruise to let her know it was a birthday gift and she could use it for whatever she wanted. I asked to have a card that said "Happy Birthday Barb..hope you win big and bingo"

as I knew she loved to play bingo. Well, she never got the card saying I got this $25 gift certificate for her and she did not even know I did this for her. During the middle of her cruise she happened to ask the girl at the purser's desk why a $25 credit was on her account. That was when she was told about me giving this to her as a gift. The girl read the "card" that she was suppose to get on the first day of her cruise. My friend thought the $25 was from Carnival and had she not stopped to ask about the credit to her account she would have NEVER learned it was from me. When I called Carnival about this they basically said so sad..too bad. "At least she got the $25 credit so they weren't going to do anything about it". Both she and I are really pissed as they could care less about ruining the surprise I wanted her to have. I am a platimun card member and have used the gift services many times. I WILL NO LONGER USE THEIR SERVICES AGAIN. I am very disappointed in their services and show NO concern for their dedicated passingers. The sad thing is my friend LOVES Royal Caribbean and I talked her into going on this cruise. She now will no longer go on any Carnival cruises. I go on Carnival at least two times a year. We already have a cruise booked in December but my next one will be with Royal Caribbean. I am done with Carnival because of how they dealt with this.

They no longer care about their repeat customers..so sad.

They have taken away their $100 towards their next cruise offer, made it harder to get to VIP statis, and took away benifits booking agents can give clients. Carnival is sinking along with Costa... They need to realize past guests (esp VIPS) keep them afloat. Cutting perks to them will add to them sinking.... I loved Carnival and referred so many people to them. They have no idea what they are doing to their "PAST" dedicated passengers....

 

I think the problem is twofold you ordered a product to be delivered in a particular manner and you did not get what you ordered and when Carnival was made aware of the problem they made no effort to make you feel better this is poor customer service and these issues will continue to compound if we take the attitude of it's ok your on vacation. I will give you an example of how it should have been handled~my DD was in WDW last December for her birthday, she is 31, I had ordered a cake to be delivered at dinner in EPCOT, this was done months in advance and I had confirmed the day before well NO cake delivery, this was at Christmas so I could not get up with anyone,I had to leave a voicemail, several days later the chef of the restaurant called and was very apologetic he make no excuses and said it would like to do something special so a few days later I received a $100 gift card with all the pictures of my DD and her family that were taken at the restaurant~it was a character dinner, this meant so much to me and made Disney even more magical!

[loxley]

I think the problem is twofold you ordered a product to be delivered in a particular manner and you did not get what you ordered and when Carnival was made aware of the problem they made no effort to make you feel better this is poor customer service and these issues will continue to compound if we take the attitude of it's ok your on vacation. I will give you an example of how it should have been handled~my DD was in WDW last December for her birthday, she is 31, I had ordered a cake to be delivered at dinner in EPCOT, this was done months in advance and I had confirmed the day before well NO cake delivery, this was at Christmas so I could not get up with anyone,I had to leave a voicemail, several days later the chef of the restaurant called and was very apologetic he make no excuses and said it would like to do something special so a few days later I received a $100 gift card with all the pictures of my DD and her family that were taken at the restaurant~it was a character dinner, this meant so much to me and made Disney even more magical!

 

The difference is your DD did not receive what you paid for. The OPs friend got the $25 but may not have received the note in her cabin telling her about the OBC.

[tanyaewa]

This is another example of how members of this board are willing to accept substandard service and product quality nd even defend it. I just don't get it.

OP - deserved an apology for the mistake. She deserved to be acknowledged when she brought the error to the attention of guest services. She deserved to get the service that she ordered.

I have no idea why there would be anyone who could disagree with that.

[loxley]

This is another example of how members of this board are willing to accept substandard service and product quality nd even defend it. I just don't get it.

OP - deserved an apology for the mistake. She deserved to be acknowledged when she brought the error to the attention of guest services. She deserved to get the service that she ordered.

I have no idea why there would be anyone who could disagree with that.

 

No, this is another example of how members of this board understand mistakes can be made.

 

You nor any of us can say for sure it was carnival people that even made the mistake. I have receive an obc before but I can't remember if I received a letter or a card, but it was on the desk when I got to my room. I read everything placed there for me, my sister sort of glances at stuff before she trashes it. She misses stuff all the time and only finds out about it when I say, did you see whatever. No, she has never seen hardly anything. Too busy wanting all the "trash" out of the room.

 

I think the lesson to learn here is to tell the person you did something for that you have prepared a small surprise for them when they board. That way the person would know to ask if they do not receive anything.

[smokey haze]

DW and i are going on our 6th CC this november it has taken us 30 years to get to this point, i hope to make platium before we die. i want to be platium not for the perks but to know i have been lucky enough to go on that many cruises. if we do make it it will probably take a total of forty or more years. i just hope that at that time i wont be so terribly upset by a mistake that i stop cruising with carnival. ( by the way DW and i have been through some toughg times every now and then) as this cruise is to celebrate here being 6 years cancer free, after losing a brother and sister to cancer. carnival is for fun people that like to have a good time on vacation IMHO, feel free to cruise somewhere where they never make mistakes

 

Where's the LIKE button!!!! Congrats on the 5 year mark of being cancer free. I really do hope the OP never makes a mistake while doing her job.

[RWolver672]

The difference is your DD did not receive what you paid for. The OPs friend got the $25 but may not have received the note in her cabin telling her about the OBC.

 

But she didn't get it as a "gift card" which is what the OP ordered. She got it as OBC and had no idea of where it came from. Should she just look the other way if she had ordered a bottle of wine and they gave her OBC instead. No, she should have gotten what the OP ordered.

[Gailerina]

But she didn't get it as a "gift card" which is what the OP ordered. She got it as OBC and had no idea of where it came from. Should she just look the other way if she had ordered a bottle of wine and they gave her OBC instead. No, she should have gotten what the OP ordered.

 

You can't order gift cards......

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ~ signed The Awesome Gailerina

[LovesCruising]

Ordered a Happy Anniversary cake for clients - first time cruisers - to be delivered on their anniversary at dinner.

Cake was delivered - no card. Client came home - never mentioned the cake. Come to find out they received it but thought it was from the waiter.:)