Celebrity Pre-Cruise Customer Service Lacking

[2OldTravelers]

I may get flamed for this, but I feel Celebrity really needs to step up their game on the pre-cruise customer service. This is the first impression one will have of the cruise line. Not all cruisers are loyal to just Celebrity, and the pre-cruise experience could leave a bad taste in their mouth.

 

One example is I emailed Captain's Club about a couple small issues. One was our Captain's Club numbers were not on an upcoming reservation, and I wanted to confirm the drink package was added as part of the 123 go, as they were not showing up on the reservation. Two small issues that I figured would be just as easily handled by email. I did not receive a response back to my email for 18 days. Now granted I could have called, but I figured it was just as easy to send an email. Sure it was the holidays and they are busy with the conversion, but I think most people would agree that no response from a company for 18 days is ridiculous.

 

I won't even go into the website issue, and the poor experience that one would have when trying to use it prior to the cruise. Celebrity needs to realize that one's experience is made up of the whole experience, not just the cruise itself.

 

There, I got that off my chest.

[Lsimon]

Celebrity does not have a good reputation for their land based customer service. But they step it up to great levels at sea where it counts.

[dkjretired]

Celebrity does not have a good reputation for their land based customer service. But they step it up to great levels at sea where it counts.

 

Agree with Larry and I would add that it is always best to make that phone call instead of email.

[Algebralovr]

It is very easy for email to be pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. When you email and then don't hear anything for more than 48 hours, time to call.

 

It reminds me of a call I received a month or so ago. I have a rental house, rented to 3 young ladies and it is their first time renting something. I told them in writing when they signed the lease that they needed to have all the utilities turned in, and that the furnace was natural gas and who to contact. That was in May, and they moved into the house in June. In October, I reminded them to have the natural gas turned on and that my furnace man would be over to check the furnace before winter "next week" and that gas needed to be on by then.

 

They insisted that the furnace man never came, but often one doesn't tell the others what happened. Furnace man let me know he stopped by, changed the filter, but that the gas wasn't on. So I texted the girls to have the gas on, that the furnace was clean, but nat gas company needed to still sniff it when they turned on the gas since the furnace man had already been there.

 

Fast forward to the first week of December, and the temperature has dropped. I get a call that the furnace doesn't work and the house is cold and I need to do something about it, "right now". So, "did you get the gas on?" I asked. Pause,

Silence, they confer, the gas company hasn't responded. I ask, "what happened when you called them?" Pause, "they didn't respond to my email." So I say, "email? I didn't even know you could email them! Why don't you call them and see if they can send someone over to turn on your gas, light the pilot (since the furnace man would have but the gas wasn't n) and make sure there are no leaks." A couple of hours later, the gas man came over and all was well..... Until the water heater stopped giving them hot water during finals week, and everyone thought someone else had let me know, until 4pm on a Friday afternoon.

 

A phone call does wonders! Email means you have time to wait!

[2OldTravelers]

Everyone is right it was not Celebrity's fault for their slow response, it was MY fault for emailing them. :rolleyes:

 

I realized when sending the email, a phone call would get me a faster response. Since the cruise was a ways off, I figured the 48 hours they quoted would be sufficient. Obviously if it was a time sensitive issue I would have called. To be honest 18 days was sufficient time, just poor customer service. The point of my post is that a company who responds to an email 18 days later, is giving the impression to the customer that they just do not matter. When it is all said and done, we are customers.

 

I agree that the customer service onboard is much better though.