Decline in RCI Customer Service?

[yolanda1]

Despite my positive experiences over the years, my recent experiences of Royal Caribbean Customer Service have been very poor while trying to finalise a summer booking. Slow responses to my emails, sometimes no response at all, misinformation by reps on the telephone, and a general lack of interest in the customer. I wondered if others have experienced this recently, and if so, was it resolved satisfactorily or did you take your business elsewhere?

 

I know there have been complaints about relocation to Guatemala, but it's the UK Customer Service centre I have been dealing with (at least I think it is). I do love cruising with Royal Caribbean, but I'm happy to give my business to other companies too. Never had a bad cruise yet with any of them. Looks like NCL for us now if this is what we can expect from RCI :(

[ChipLondon]

Unfortuneatley ( as of last week ) there are fewer people in the UK dealing with UK clients. Even though emails state they are from the UK team, many are actually coming from Guatemala, and when you speak to them on the phone, they will confirm their location.

I have experienced some great people over their, and some that need further training, I know that the "powers that be" are putting a lot of time and resources into "getting it right", and are dedicated to doing so. Only time will tell if they are as successful as many cruisers need them to be. :)

[bouhunter]

We've been on the phone several times the past few weeks with C&A booking a cruise, then changing it to a different one. All the customer service experience has been exceptional.

[yolanda1]

Unfortuneatley ( as of last week ) there are fewer people in the UK dealing with UK clients. Even though emails state they are from the UK team, many are actually coming from Guatemala, and when you speak to them on the phone, they will confirm their location.

I have experienced some great people over their, and some that need further training, I know that the "powers that be" are putting a lot of time and resources into "getting it right", and are dedicated to doing so. Only time will tell if they are as successful as many cruisers need them to be. :)

 

 

 

 

Thank you, Chip, that could explain the difficulties I am experiencing. I thought my phone conversations and emails were both within the UK, but perhaps I was dealing with the Guatemala centre and their teething problems.

 

As you say, there are training issues. I was told that my recorded call would be played back as I was given the wrong information about my booking by the representative. Nobody contacted me again about it though, and that was over a week ago. Very disappointing and poor service. As a customer who is handing over thousands of £££s, I just want a straightforward transaction, and to feel valued as a customer. No big demands or expectations.

 

The service used to be great. Hopefully the "powers that be" can raise the bar very quickly, before the competition gains too many of their UK customers....

[kernow]

I don't think there is anyone left to deal directly with customers in the UK now. The guy that we have always dealt with there for the last eight years finally finished last week, the office is supposed to be closed at the end of April.

 

I have always found the staff at the UK office to be wonderful and I think RCI must be crazy to close it and move to Guatemala where they don't seem to know what they are doing.If they don't improve, and quickly, I think they will lose business.

 

We recently booked a short last minute cruise on AOS next week with one of the big online TAs, and even the guy there was moaning about the Guatemala office because they are wasting hours on the phone trying to get answers from them. If they are making things difficult for TAs won't they just encourage their customers to try a different cruise line.

 

Julie

[marci22]

My experience has been good. The biggest problem is getting them to answer the phone. I've had long wait times.

[peteukmcr]

My recent experience was pretty bad. I was told a sailing I could see on their website wasn't available, then the cabin I wanted wasn't available. In the end I hung up telling the rep I wasn't bothering. Called back later and got an excellent rep and finalised a booking.

[Thetrail]

Despite my positive experiences over the years, my recent experiences of Royal Caribbean Customer Service have been very poor while trying to finalise a summer booking. Slow responses to my emails, sometimes no response at all, misinformation by reps on the telephone, and a general lack of interest in the customer. I wondered if others have experienced this recently, and if so, was it resolved satisfactorily or did you take your business elsewhere?

 

I know there have been complaints about relocation to Guatemala, but it's the UK Customer Service centre I have been dealing with (at least I think it is). I do love cruising with Royal Caribbean, but I'm happy to give my business to other companies too. Never had a bad cruise yet with any of them. Looks like NCL for us now if this is what we can expect from RCI :(

My daughter decided to try NCL after four cruises on RC. Long story short their next cruise will be with RC, enough said. Live in the U.S. but my experience from CS in Oregon, and Miami has been top notch and darn near perfect for myself last year and so far this year....K.O....:)

[Jackamama]

I found their customer service to be surprisingly awful recently, both by telephone and email, when I tried to book a summer cruise. Never had a problem before.

 

Looks like it's only the UK customers who are getting bad service though? :(:(

[yolanda1]

I don't think there is anyone left to deal directly with customers in the UK now. The guy that we have always dealt with there for the last eight years finally finished last week, the office is supposed to be closed at the end of April.

 

I have always found the staff at the UK office to be wonderful and I think RCI must be crazy to close it and move to Guatemala where they don't seem to know what they are doing.If they don't improve, and quickly, I think they will lose business.

 

We recently booked a short last minute cruise on AOS next week with one of the big online TAs, and even the guy there was moaning about the Guatemala office because they are wasting hours on the phone trying to get answers from them. If they are making things difficult for TAs won't they just encourage their customers to try a different cruise line.

 

Julie

 

 

 

I agree that these problems will have to be dealt with quickly. There is so much choice out there and they can't afford to be complacent. I went to the travel agent at the weekend and picked up brochures from 3 different companies. I probably wouldn't have done that before.

[Dalcross]

I can only echo this unfortunately, and I'm from the UK. Booked a 1st time cruise 2 months ago, RC reserved a room for me and gave me the impression it had a sofa bed - and certainly didn't tell me that Pullman beds have a sticker on them saying "not recommended for under 6 year olds" - my daughter is 5.

 

promise to call back with a resolution after talking to the supervisor on 3 occasions, and never do.

Promised to do a call listen and call me back - never have.

the difference between my balcony E1 and the sofabed balcony D1 on the website now is £90 which I've offered to pay to get the sofabed and end this - won't do it as they say it will now cost me £700 as prices have gone up since I booked although the difference has always remained the same.

 

Really poor and genuinely frustrated at them - their rep gave me misinformation and recommended the room. They appear to have no motivation to resolve their problem now they've had my final payment off me.

[Morgans]

Desperately poor! Promises to call back never done etc etc. makes us think twice about booking with them again. Keep getting told different things while awaiting refund for art work which was bought but not going to arrive.

[papaflamingo]

I use a TA. No problem.

[Jackamama]

I use a TA. No problem.

 

 

 

I stopped using a TA when there was an issue with my booking a few years back and Customer Services refused to speak to me directly to resolve it. The TA wasn't very good at dealing with the problem, and it dragged on a bit, so I prefer to book direct now and handle things myself.

[mconthehighseas]

I think those of you in the UK are getting the same kind of service over the phone that I experienced years ago here in the US. The people on the phone would just repeat what was on the website, without doing any further investigation to see if it was correct.

 

I now deal exclusively with our TA, and let her sort out the wheat from the chaff.

[negc]

I stopped using a TA when there was an issue with my booking a few years back and Customer Services refused to speak to me directly to resolve it. The TA wasn't very good at dealing with the problem, and it dragged on a bit, so I prefer to book direct now and handle things myself.

 

Perhaps you might have been better off to find a better TA. Considering all of the above complaints about a decline in RCi's Customer Service, I might be less confident in their ability to deal correctly with any problems that arise with my booking and having experienced the lengthy waits on hold, I'd prefer to have a good TA spend his time, rather than mine, dealing with them.

[Jackamama]

Perhaps you might have been better off to find a better TA. Considering all of the above complaints about a decline in RCi's Customer Service, I might be less confident in their ability to deal correctly with any problems that arise with my booking and having experienced the lengthy waits on hold, I'd prefer to have a good TA spend his time, rather than mine, dealing with them.

 

 

I don't think that would solve the problem of the poor level of service though. It's up to senior management at RCI to raise the standard quickly.

 

I understand what you're saying, but Travel Agents seem to be experiencing the same issues as individual customers at the moment. One benefit to me of dealing with the booking myself is that I can call at times that suit me instead of having to rely on a third party who has other customers to attend to. It's just a pity it's so frustrating right now. Hopefully the teething problems will be resolved quickly.

[Dave85]

Perhaps you might have been better off to find a better TA. Considering all of the above complaints about a decline in RCi's Customer Service, I might be less confident in their ability to deal correctly with any problems that arise with my booking and having experienced the lengthy waits on hold, I'd prefer to have a good TA spend his time, rather than mine, dealing with them.

 

I agree with this. I have a good, trustworthy TA that I've used for many years and I much prefer having the TA making the calls (and sometimes getting the run around), since it is her job. I fully realize its a trade off though and there are times its nice to have control over your own reservation. I will say though that our TA has come through for us many, many, many more times than not and I've never had to deal with the hassel.

[yolanda1]

I can only echo this unfortunately, and I'm from the UK. Booked a 1st time cruise 2 months ago, RC reserved a room for me and gave me the impression it had a sofa bed - and certainly didn't tell me that Pullman beds have a sticker on them saying "not recommended for under 6 year olds" - my daughter is 5.

 

promise to call back with a resolution after talking to the supervisor on 3 occasions, and never do.

Promised to do a call listen and call me back - never have.

the difference between my balcony E1 and the sofabed balcony D1 on the website now is £90 which I've offered to pay to get the sofabed and end this - won't do it as they say it will now cost me £700 as prices have gone up since I booked although the difference has always remained the same.

 

Really poor and genuinely frustrated at them - their rep gave me misinformation and recommended the room. They appear to have no motivation to resolve their problem now they've had my final payment off me.

 

 

 

That really sounds unfair :( Hopefully they will do the right thing and allow you to change for the additional £90.

 

There really is no excuse for the failure to call you back when they have promised to do that, not once but 3 times. It's bad practice. Unfortunately this seems to be quite common just now.

[jc24cruiser]

I have spoken to reps in Guatemala 3 times over the last couple of weeks and the service has been fantastic. During one of the phone calls the lady had to put me on hold a couple of times but she was very polite about it...I ended up with a free upgrade so it was worth the wait :D

[yolanda1]

I have spoken to reps in Guatemala 3 times over the last couple of weeks and the service has been fantastic. During one of the phone calls the lady had to put me on hold a couple of times but she was very polite about it...I ended up with a free upgrade so it was worth the wait :D

 

 

 

Good to hear a positive story from a satisfied UK customer. I wouldn't mind being put on hold at all. I'm still waiting on a call back from last week, and replies to my emails. I'll call them again and hopefully get better service this time :rolleyes:

[lady_cruiser]

I have to admit that my last 3 phone calls to Royal Caribbean resulted in great customer service; even when I didn't get what I wanted but that was my fault.

 

But I have been on the other end where I didn't receive good service, on another cruise line, so I know how some of you feel. And no, it wasn't Carnival and I am not going to tell you it was Norwegian even it was NCL :eek:.

[Irish Cath]

I too have noticed a decline in Customer Service, even since last year.

 

Some minor issues when we booked but nothing that bothered me too much.

 

Then last week I emailed asking could they give an indication of the location where their shuttle service drops in a certain 3 ports. The reply was

> > We do not offer shuttle services in any of our ports. we only offer shore

> > excursions, below i attached the brochure with the available excursions

> for

> > your cruise.

Knowing that this is simple not true I responded asking when and why have they cancelled shuttle service in port. Somebody else responded saying that they may or may not offer shuttle services and that I should email shorex@rccl.com. So I sent my query to them and have not had any response as yet ( 4 days later).

 

While it won't put me off using RCI I certainly find it a pain in the butt trying to get a straight answer to a straight forward question. They should not make serious factual errors when responding to customers regardless of whether they are located in the UK or Guatemala.

[pinkrosesdeb]

I have had the total opposite experience...great customer service both onboard and through land based servers. Really noticed a difference in the attitudes and pleasant, patient service. Sorry you are having trouble, but, please try calling back until you find the best fit for you. I have always find you get different answers from different people even when you ask the same question. Hope you find a great customer service rep and that everything works out!

[Jackamama]

I have had the total opposite experience...great customer service both onboard and through land based servers. Really noticed a difference in the attitudes and pleasant, patient service. Sorry you are having trouble, but, please try calling back until you find the best fit for you. I have always find you get different answers from different people even when you ask the same question. Hope you find a great customer service rep and that everything works out!

 

 

 

I think that's a big part of the problem to be honest. In order to give efficient service, the answers from the reps shouldn't BE different, and the customer certainly shouldn't have to repeatedly call back to try to get a good service rep. It's up to the company to provide service of a consistently high standard, and the management have to take responsibility for that.

 

You're right about the onboard service though. My experience has been extremely positive where that's concerned. It's fantastic! It's the land based part of their service that will cost them custom in the UK.

 

In my case, I have now been promised a call back, yet again!!! :rolleyes: Hopefully they will deliver this time, before I literally jump ship!!! :D