Don't use Gifts and Services

[kathryn747]

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.

Pressing my Like button

[rlkubi]

I understand the OP is upset but her friend got her gift and I agree there possibly was a letter in the cabin that she overlooked. There are always so many papers that I miss things too. Even if it wasn't there, people and companies make mistakes. We are all human. Is this enough of a problem to not enjoy the vacation? IMO absolutely not! I've never had a bad cruise! Yes, Carnival has been cutting things a lot lately but with this terrible economy everyone is! I feel I'm very lucky to still be enjoying cruises! :)

[hannahsmomtoo]

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....

 

That's odd. We embarked on my birthday and our cabin was FULL of gifts. Each gift had a slip with the sender's info and a personal message.

We also got out birthday cake in the cabin at embarkation as requested.

Sorry your friend had a different experience... my guess is that she just didn't see the slip in her cabin.

[missdebi]

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.

 

 

The difference is how it was handled.

[Gailerina]

People....we are talking about a piece of paper. I can't believe people are that upset. Seriously.....if that ruined a cruise that is sad!

 

A piece of paper!!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ~ signed The Awesome Gailerina

[lindacat]

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 completely understand, I had a similar thing happen to me on my Oasis of the Seas voyage this past August. So this could happen on any cruise line. I was taking a family cruise with my mother and my brother and his family. My brother had spent his summer painting and helping me renovate an apartment and I wanted to thank him. I purchased a $500. on board credit for him to use as a treat. The card was supposed to say thanks and have fun on the ship from me. We were on the cruise together so of course I was expecting a big thank you when we boarded and went to our rooms.

 

He did not get the card... I called the front desk and was told that the cards are not delivered until Wednesday (we sailed on a Saturday) I explained that the large OBC was a surprise and my rather frugal brother would not spend much $$ if he didn't know he had it. They did not care. That night at dinner I told him about the OBC and he checked and it was on his account. He NEVER got any card. I called and went to the desk on three separate occasions and I was told "so what" he got the credit. That was not the point. If I hadn't been on the ship he would not have seen the credit until the last night when he checked his bill and would not have known it came from me. Also, I was told that if he did not spend the entire OBC it would have been credited back to my credit card.

 

It was very frustrating and the attitude that it was no big deal was even more frustrating but it did not ruin the cruise just my surprise.

[hftmrock]

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.

 

 

Who stated that there was no apology and that they didnt acknowledge their mistake? All we know is that they didnt 'get anything' for this issue.

 

They might have apologized and might have admitted the mistake but could not do anything else about it. the OP is vague in this area when they say that the were not going to do anything about it.

[big_duck]

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.

 

To begin with, the OP wasn't even on the ship.

 

Any thing said or done by guest services is being presented third hand.

 

This is a minor issue being blown way out of proportion.

[hftmrock]

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

 

who said she didnt get this?

[CELTICGIRLCRUISER]

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.

 

Where is the like button?

 

I actually dislike threads like this one as folks get jumped all over for voicing their issues. I normally now stick to the relatively safety of the Disney and Fashion sections on here as every time I venture over to the daily posts there is always something going on but I get sucked in:eek:

 

So, it bothers the OP enough to write about it and then she is jumped upon. OK it might be trivial to some but it is important to the OP. I understand the disappointment as a nice surprise was spoiled as such. People just assume all sorts.

 

I won't go into it but having had my own problems with Carnival, a lot of the time it wasn't the problem as such it was the way it was handled or not. I voted with my feet and because of this I may or may not cruise Carnival again. My call of course but they aren't on the intended agenda anytime in the future regardless if they leave less than an hour from my house!

 

This is just a personal opinion and to those that love Carnival that is great but there are just as many who do not, I have only sailed twice with them so not an expert across the fleet but still have an opinion like everyone else so just don't stomp too hard on me:p.

[RuthlessBoss]

I think the OP just missed the "Oh, thank you, thank you" from her friend. As stated earlier, she could have told her friend there was a surprise waiting for her on the ship,

[tef43]

who said she didnt get this?

The OP herself said as much.

[RWolver672]

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

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ~ signed The Awesome Gailerina

 

I stand corrected. It was a "Gift Certificate" that she ordered. If there is no such thing and all it is is an OBC posted to her account, she should have been told that when she ordered it.

[jtdlmc]

I doubt the recipient "just missed seeing the card". I sent friends drink tickets on their cruise, there was a place on the website order form to choose a greeting and add your name, which I did, but they received nothing either - they were just handed to them in the MDR. They thought the waitress had given them the tickets!!!! When they returned they didn't mention the coupons and I ended up having to ask if they received them. They were so surprised and we had a good laugh over them thinking their waitress bought them drinks! This was their first cruise and they had no idea these things could even be bought.

 

Another time I had Carnival Dollars sent to each of my kids for Christmas. Again on the website there had been a place to add a greeting and again there was nothing included when they received the certificates in the mail - just the certificate.

[hannahsmomtoo]

I doubt the recipient "just missed seeing the card". I sent friends drink tickets on their cruise, there was a place on the website order form to choose a greeting and add your name, which I did, but they received nothing either - they were just handed to them in the MDR. They thought the waitress had given them the tickets!!!! When they returned they didn't mention the coupons and I ended up having to ask if they received them. They were so surprised and we had a good laugh over them thinking their waitress bought them drinks! This was their first cruise and they had no idea these things could even be bought.

 

Another time I had Carnival Dollars sent to each of my kids for Christmas. Again on the website there had been a place to add a greeting and again there was nothing included when they received the certificates in the mail - just the certificate.

 

My sailing was 09/23-09/30/12 and I received the "card" ( it's really just a slip of paper ) in my room...

with the names of the "senders" and the personal messages..

THEN I received the actual coupons etc themselves at Dinner ( for the photos / drinks etc )

 

For onboard credit there is no "coupon" to receive at the MDR - so the only notification would have been the slip left in the room..

I had a slip for OBC that friends purchased for me..

AND one for the OBC I got for myself.

[Name Of The Game]

I doubt the recipient "just missed seeing the card". I sent friends drink tickets on their cruise, there was a place on the website order form to choose a greeting and add your name, which I did, but they received nothing either - they were just handed to them in the MDR. They thought the waitress had given them the tickets!!!! When they returned they didn't mention the coupons and I ended up having to ask if they received them. They were so surprised and we had a good laugh over them thinking their waitress bought them drinks! This was their first cruise and they had no idea these things could even be bought.

 

Another time I had Carnival Dollars sent to each of my kids for Christmas. Again on the website there had been a place to add a greeting and again there was nothing included when they received the certificates in the mail - just the certificate.

 

The cruise line is really dropping the ball here and making it seem as though the gift is from them. It's certainly reasonable that the giver would like to be "thanked" and shouldn't be put in a possible uncomfortable situation of asking the recipient if they had received their gift. I'd be upset if I gave someone a gift and it was handled that way too.

[hftmrock]

The OP herself said as much.

 

 

not that I saw. Not even close. All I saw was that the OP was upset because they didnt do anything for her.

 

this is all she said about it

 

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".

 

so the way I read it was they said they were sorry but they were not going to 'do anything' about it. Like give her a free cruise or a $100 credit or anything like that. This was already past the time it happened so I dont know what they would 'do' for her except apologize which I think they probably did but was not enough for the OP.

[hannahsmomtoo]

I will say - there are A LOT of papers left in your room upon embarkation. We were very careful to go through them ALL only because I had read threads on CC prior where people had "missed" the room service menu and thrown it away thinking it was another ad...

[Warm Breezes]

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....

 

What exactly did you want them to do after the fact??? An error was made but she still received the gift and ended up finding our who it was from by asking what the credit was for (I'm sure at that point it was still a belated surprise for her)... The point is she did receive it and she did find out who it was from... I'm really not sure what more you were looking for from them.

[Warm Breezes]

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.

 

But do we know that she didn't get the letter and possibly threw it away as junk....Yes an error was made, but we don't know if the error was Carnival's fault or the recipients. The bottom line is she received the $25. Whose fault it was that she didn't know about it ?????

[Surfwench]

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....

 

Your emotionalism is all out of proportion to the error. Why don't you forgive them this one mistake and see where it goes from there? RCL makes mistakes too... we all do. It was only $25.00 and it did get deposited into your friend's account so all is well with the world. :)

[letscruise18]

I understand the OP is upset but her friend got her gift and I agree there possibly was a letter in the cabin that she overlooked. There are always so many papers that I miss things too. Even if it wasn't there, people and companies make mistakes. We are all human. Is this enough of a problem to not enjoy the vacation? IMO absolutely not! I've never had a bad cruise! Yes, Carnival has been cutting things a lot lately but with this terrible economy everyone is! I feel I'm very lucky to still be enjoying cruises! :)

 

 

 

Like button!!!! :)

[Cruise-Crazy]

I could write a couple of pages on what I went through to send someone on a NCL ship roses last Valentines day. After over a week trying to arrange things they were delivered with no card saying who they were from.

[jtdlmc]

For onboard credit there is no "coupon" to receive at the MDR - so the only notification would have been the slip left in the room..

I had a slip for OBC that friends purchased for me..

AND one for the OBC I got for myself.

 

They were Carnival dollars not OBC, and the certificates were mailed to our home before the cruise as Christmas presents. I'm glad I opened them before the kids got them - after ordering them, I decided I would put them their stockings instead. Now I know not to rely on having an enclosed greeting or gift card.

[LovesCruising]

Same thing happened with the cake I sent - thought the waiter gave it to them - wasn't really looking for a thank you - knew they got it cause we asked - just wanted to be sure they received what I paid for