What's the Matter With SS Phone Customer Service

[seabreezer]

I have had to call a couple of times to ask questions about excursions and was rather surprised at how rude and condescending the reps were. Is it because I booked my cruise with a TA? I have not encountered such an attitude before. Is this typical?

[Observer]

I have had to call a couple of times to ask questions about excursions and was rather surprised at how rude and condescending the reps were. Is it because I booked my cruise with a TA? I have not encountered such an attitude before. Is this typical?

 

I think SS is like all luxury lines in expecting that all communication is via a TA if the cruise was booked through a TA.

 

Yes, I think it is typical and is a sign of respect on the part of cruise lines to the roles of TAs and to ensure that the TA is not out of the loop regarding a cruise s/he has booked.

[WesW]

Generally, when we make a new SS booking, we cultivate our SS rep in Ft. Lauderdale along with our TA. Our normal procedure for booking (learned this from Wellseasoned, thx Dieter) is to first book our next SS cruise with our SS rep. Then approximately 24 hours later we notify the SS rep to transfer our booking to our TA. Endstate, we now have two valuable resources (SS Travel Consultant in SS's Ft. Lauderdale office, and our outstanding TA) to help us with our booking prior to/during/after sailing (e.g., find out who the ship leadership will be on our sailing, get immediate selection of suite we want since our SS rep has instant access to the suite invenotry; then once our TA gets our new SS booking we get the generous benefits our TA provides (i.e., cash back, American Express OBC, TA provided OBC, and Travel Consortium OBC and/or excursion), our TA also ensures we are receiving Venetian benefits due, and tracks price reductions/upgrade offers for us.

 

We therefore enjoy a very good relationship with the SS travel consultant in Ft. Lauderdale, since we book a number of cruises with them.

[seabreezer]

Makes sense but my question is if the rude, condescending tone from the SS reps is typical?

[Wellseasoned]

Based on my own experience, I don't think this is typical. As Wes said, i used to book with SS directly, then transfer to a TA before final payment. No problem for the SS agent, who is not on commission and still got credit for the booking. Since SS changed its policy, such transfers to a TA must now be made within 30 days. i have started to book directly with the same excellent TA Wes uses, because my longtime SS agent was suddenly no longer with SS after the recent personnel changes. But the SS agents I have phoned with questions recently have been very pleasant and helpful, even though I booked with a TA. I don't think your experience is typical.

[dougburns]

IMHO just get yourself a good TA. I have never gone directly to SS and do ALL of my questioning thru our TA. She has a good working relationship with SS, including the air dept., and always has an answer back within a day. Never have had any problems. In addition, the TA always informs us of any changes, since she is notified immediately of those changes by SS.

[wripro]

Totally agree with the above.

[Keith1010]

Just have your TA contact them as others have said.

 

They should not be condescending though.

 

Keith