Post-Cruise Charge Disputes with NCL... Not Fun or Professional

[RSFCruiser]

 

The only rationale I can think of is that NCL's afraid people with the UBP will start doing fill-ups for all their friends at the machines.

 

This is my guess too - to keep people from abusing it.

[CPT Trips]

Not that I am a fan of having the machines blocked just because I have purchased the UBP but I do believe they must already have some system in place to deny access to the wine dispensers. Otherwise what about all the minors on board? Can you imagine the havoc that could be caused by a group of experimenting teens who finding out they can get 'served' at the machines?

 

 

Rochelle

 

One surely hopes that minors are blocked.

[sjbdtz]

Would you classify this as a simply "mistake", or a systematic failure of communication of the policy to all employees?

 

Look what a mess this whole thing was for the OP.

 

To top it off, he dealt with rude reps who denied him access to a supervisor, hung up on him, and didn't keep their word to call him back.

 

There are constant complaints about NCL's reps not knowing the company's policies. I have experienced this myself firsthand.

 

This is a chronic problem, not a one-time mistake or an atypical outlier event.

 

In addition, the customer service failures with the way the OP was treated on the phone were not addressed in NCL's statement here, and those are arguably worse than the confusion about the policy in the first place.

 

We shouldn't be kissing the feet of any NCL rep who comes here just because they work for NCL. They aren't here out of the goodness of their hearts. They have a presence here because this is a large forum, and a business decision was made to have a representative present in certain threads where some good PR is needed. We should use this opportunity to ask the tough questions.

 

 

It's not a 'chronic problem'. It's a 'comedy of errors'. These are two very different idioms, with different repercussions.

 

ONE person encountered several issues with information accuracy. HOWEVER, at the very same time, the cruise line was changing their policy. Some of their front-line staff clearly noticed, and others may have logged-in to their workstations and started answering calls before reading the day's notices.

 

As for the person not getting a call back, who knows....maybe they did, but were out, and no message was left.

 

Maybe the person who took down their number transposed two digits and thought they were leaving messages - but it was at the wrong number.

 

Maybe they mis-dialed, same effect.

 

 

 

None of this suggests a systemic problem. It suggests several breakdowns in the course of resolving 1 inquiry.

 

 

As for the SocialMedia postings here, these people are human too. These are not CEO-level jobs - they're (sorry NCL) run-of-the-mill jobs, where the primary pre-requisite is social media awareness, and a communications background, with well-developed English skills. They don't typically require a Masters-level degree. All this to downplay the emphasis you've put on the notion that EVEN the person responsible for posting here made an error.

 

Again, the policy was changing mid-discussion.

 

 

I wonder where you were first persecuted, that you feel the entire corporate world is out to get you. I feel badly for you, as the world really isn't as bad as you make it out to be.

 

 

Stephen

 

.

[surran12]

While I laud NCL on their presence here and the ultimate outcome for the OP I'd have to side with Pokerpro on this one. For a company that is purely customer service oriented the customer service in their call centers leaves a lot to be desired. I know most will say this was one incident but I have read enough posts on here to see that the land side customer service does seem to need a complete reeducation.

[LuvBNatC]

I have to agree that Pokerpro has a point. NCL obviously realizes it has customer service issues or we wouldn't have an employee lurking here to put out fires.

 

The OP became unwittingly entangled in a problem NCL created. He asked the right questions and was polite about it, and was politely told by NCL that the charge everyone believed to be erroneous would be removed.

 

But then it wasn't. And then he got a runaround about it and things escalated. It happens all the time.

 

I don't really get why anyone should feel "grateful" that NCL finally stepped in to clarify its policy (after a couple of tries) and resolve the initial complaint. That's what they're supposed to do, because that's why we pay good money to sail on their ships.

 

Yes, certainly, tone should be kept civil. But, as consumers, there's absolutely nothing wrong with us questioning what's being done to correct obvious failures in the NCL system.

 

Otherwise, do we all just zip it and pretend everything's hunky-dory so we don't "offend" anyone at NCL, and let customer service continue on a downward spiral?

 

The way I see it, airing these situations so NCL can address them and clean up their act is doing NCL a favor.

[cello8619]

Probably because the bartender can $0 out the sale and/or refer it to a UBP sale, while the machine isn't so enabled.

 

They likely don't have enough accounting people to manually manage all of the wine station billings & correlating to UBP purchasers.

 

 

.

 

 

I used to work for NCL in on board finance, the way the UBP works (if its the same as it was when I was on board) was that all the drinks were charged as they normally would through the point of sale. We would check a setting to the back end of each guest's account that has the beverage package and then at the end of the cruise we would click a button that would automatically remove all of the bar package purchases from the guest's account. Granted there was a lot of setup on this were each physical item that was in the POS has to be coded to ensure it would automatically remove the charge. We would always have to manually go through the system since there were some items that wouldn't automatically go through. Back when I worked you could only get the beverage pack if it was purchased through group sales prior to the cruise so we didn't have them that often and due to this the point of sale wasn't always matched up correctly to remove all of the eligible beverage pack items. I am sure that now they much better at ensuring the POS system is setup correctly due to the new larger ships and UBP. Also, if you notice from the first post the extra $95.12 was listed as being from the garden cafe, the original poster did not state that it was from them adding back the wine dispenser but something about a bar hop. A good thing to keep in mind, on board the ship they will keep all of the signed receipts for some time after the cruise ended. This is to help with any discrepancies that arise after the cruise has ended. Anytime a guest questioned a charge post cruise, Miami would email the ship and we would have to pull the slip, scan it, and email it to Miami. They would then provide the guest with the slip to show if the charge was legitimate or not. If you every have a discrepancy call Miami as soon as possible, since if too much time has passed, they will be able to produce the charge slip. If it is too late, then its your word against NCL and it is obviously not as cut and dry on questioning a charge.

[pokerpro5]

It's not a 'chronic problem'. It's a 'comedy of errors'. These are two very different idioms, with different repercussions.

 

ONE person encountered several issues with information accuracy. HOWEVER, at the very same time, the cruise line was changing their policy. Some of their front-line staff clearly noticed, and others may have logged-in to their workstations and started answering calls before reading the day's notices.

 

As for the person not getting a call back, who knows....maybe they did, but were out, and no message was left.

 

Maybe the person who took down their number transposed two digits and thought they were leaving messages - but it was at the wrong number.

 

Maybe they mis-dialed, same effect.

 

 

 

None of this suggests a systemic problem. It suggests several breakdowns in the course of resolving 1 inquiry.

 

 

As for the SocialMedia postings here, these people are human too. These are not CEO-level jobs - they're (sorry NCL) run-of-the-mill jobs, where the primary pre-requisite is social media awareness, and a communications background, with well-developed English skills. They don't typically require a Masters-level degree. All this to downplay the emphasis you've put on the notion that EVEN the person responsible for posting here made an error.

 

Again, the policy was changing mid-discussion.

 

 

I wonder where you were first persecuted, that you feel the entire corporate world is out to get you. I feel badly for you, as the world really isn't as bad as you make it out to be.

 

 

Stephen

 

.

 

"Maybe they mis-dialed"

 

"Maybe they left a message and the OP didn't get it"

 

"Maybe the employees logged into their workstations and started answering calls without reading the day's notices"

 

You sure love making far-fetched excuses for NCL. Are you one of their attorneys?

 

No, Stephen, this was a standard case of poor interdepartmental communication, lacking customer service skill sets, and poor access to information.

 

There is no excuse for this in 2014. All customer service employees should have an electronic resource where they can easily look up company policies and features by entering a few keywords.

 

There should also be strict protocols for returning customer phone calls, investigating alleged bogus charges, and charging people after they receive their final statement.

 

The fact that a customer had to take this "comedy of errors" to CruiseCritic in order to get results is shameful, and NCL should be embarrassed.

 

The fact that we have countless threads complaining about the land-based customer service at NCL should provide a further lesson that they need to make some changes.

 

This is for NCL's benefit, as well. I'm sure they have lost plenty of customers who were happy with the cruise product, but were unhappy with frustrating situations like these. It is especially maddening to inquire about policy to a company employee, get an answer, and then suffer later because that employee was wrong. This happens far too often at NCL.

 

I do not have a corporate persecution complex. I am not one of those left wing nuts who hates all corporations and thinks they're evil. But at the same time, I am a big believer in consumer rights, and am a big believer in the "little guy" being able to make things right when wronged.

 

If NCL had a great reputation for land-based customer service and this appeared to be an outlier, I would assume that this was a fluke and probably wouldn't say much about it.

 

Sadly, it is a symptom of a larger problem that has been discussed out here many times -- essentially that you cannot trust the answers you get about policy from NCL employees, as well as the impression that it is often difficult to correct NCL billing mistakes.

 

I realize that the NCL PR rep we are seeing on CruiseCritic isn't likely a high-level employee, but that employee's lack of access to reliable policy information should be very telling about intercompany communications.

 

If I were in management at NCL, I would take a hard look at this thread and realize that big changes need to be made, not necessarily in personnel, but in the way things are done.

[pokerpro5]

In fact, NCL reminds me a lot of Verizon FIOS.

 

Verizon FIOS is a great TV/internet/phone service, at a reasonable price. I have it, and I love the service itself.

 

However, the billing/customer service part is horrendous, and indeed "comedy of errors" can describe many customer experiences with them. Even the installer who came over to my house said that customers constantly complain to him about the FIOS billing department.

 

NCL provides a good cruise product. I was happy with both of my NCL cruises, and I will be cruising with them again in 2015.

 

Unfortunately, their good cruise product is somewhat thwarted by their poor land-based customer service and billing departments.

 

Fortunately, it is easy to correct these issues, provided you have a competent person in charge who is willing to recognize the company faults and make the proper corrections.

 

Some companies realize this and make the necessary changes.

 

Other companies (Time Warner and Comcast come to mind) never quite seem to get it, and repeatedly fail badly on the customer service front.

 

One of the most successful companies in the US, Amazon, learned a long time ago that customer service is extremely important, and they have amazingly good customer service (even at their foreign call centers). NCL should learn from them.

[sjbdtz]

No, Stephen, this was a standard case of poor interdepartmental communication, lacking customer service skill sets, and poor access to information.

 

There is no excuse for this in 2014. All customer service employees should have an electronic resource where they can easily look up company policies and features by entering a few keywords.

 

There should also be strict protocols for returning customer phone calls, investigating alleged bogus charges, and charging people after they receive their final statement.

 

The fact that a customer had to take this "comedy of errors" to CruiseCritic in order to get results is shameful, and NCL should be embarrassed.

 

The fact that we have countless threads complaining about the land-based customer service at NCL should provide a further lesson that they need to make some changes.

 

This is for NCL's benefit, as well. I'm sure they have lost plenty of customers who were happy with the cruise product, but were unhappy with frustrating situations like these. It is especially maddening to inquire about policy to a company employee, get an answer, and then suffer later because that employee was wrong. This happens far too often at NCL.

 

I do not have a corporate persecution complex. I am not one of those left wing nuts who hates all corporations and thinks they're evil. But at the same time, I am a big believer in consumer rights, and am a big believer in the "little guy" being able to make things right when wronged.

 

If NCL had a great reputation for land-based customer service and this appeared to be an outlier, I would assume that this was a fluke and probably wouldn't say much about it.

 

Sadly, it is a symptom of a larger problem that has been discussed out here many times -- essentially that you cannot trust the answers you get about policy from NCL employees, as well as the impression that it is often difficult to correct NCL billing mistakes.

 

I realize that the NCL PR rep we are seeing on CruiseCritic isn't likely a high-level employee, but that employee's lack of access to reliable policy information should be very telling about intercompany communications.

 

If I were in management at NCL, I would take a hard look at this thread and realize that big changes need to be made, not necessarily in personnel, but in the way things are done.

 

 

I don't entirely disagree with what you're saying - like ANY call-center-based customer service, they tend to be entry-level jobs - which are either held long-term by people who don't have other job prospects, or short-term by people who are just passing-through (with any sub-conscious psychological / emotional impact that might bring). Losing a minimum wage job in a normal economy wouldn't be that big a deal to the majority of people, because minimum wage jobs can be found elsewhere.

 

When I worked for Via Rail, some 25 years ago, in their call centre, I was commended in writing (including to our CEO) by several customers because I took the time to deal with them conscientiously. That has stood me in good stead in my career, and I have enjoyed above-average success thereafter.

 

However, at the time you could call the centre with the same question 5 times, and get 5 different answers.

 

It's an Achilles heel of corporations that they have to balance operating profitably with continually hiring/training / losing their call-centre employees.

 

 

Where I do take exception is in statement such as: "this was a standard case of poor communication", when what you MEAN is "this LOOKS LIKE a standard case of poor communication".

 

You have no way of knowing unequivocally that this was the issue. Nor do I, which is why I don't tend to use inflammatory language, and why I object when I read it.

 

You have said there's no excuse for them not to have electronic communications. How do you know, that they don't? Maybe their challenge is in getting employees to read the information. Maybe it's in getting them to RETAIN the information. You don't know. Neither do I.

 

Maybe there ARE strict protocols for returning calls, investigating charge-backs, etc. Maybe they take 6 months to effectuate. Maybe they could be improved, but you can't declare that they don't exist. You don't know, and neither do I.

 

As for the NCL poster, given that they've probably posted on the board some 191 times in the past 10 years, I'd guess they also have another job they're responsible for as well (either that, or this is the cushiest gig going!), and they'd be subject to the same leeway I'd give another: maybe they forgot, maybe they checked with somebody else who forgot, maybe the policy was changed and the website guy didn't get around to posting it yet.... there are myriad reasons why the information was posted, and then corrected. You don't know, and neither do I.

 

 

This is my biggest issue with most of your posts, PokerPro...you make statements as fact, when in fact they are statements of opinion and/or conjecture.

 

No, I'm not their attorney. I don't even work for them (unless...you count the work I do for my employer, in order to give NCL money... but they do offset that money by giving me fun cruises in exchange, so it's a tenuous linkage to say that I work for them :rolleyes: )

 

 

 

Stephen

 

P.S. I wish everybody would just sign their first name once in a while, it's so odd having a conversation with an alias.

 

.

Edited August 22, 2014 by sjbdtz

[NLH Arizona]

I might point out that we are only hearing one side of the story. We are hearing the OP's side, but not the folks she spoke to at the cruise line.

Edited August 22, 2014 by NLH Arizona

[pokerpro5]

I might point out that we are only hearing one side of the story. We are hearing the OP's side, but not the folks she spoke to at the cruise line.

 

We don't need the other side. It has already become painfully clear that there was mass confusion about this policy among NCL employees, so I think everyone here is 100% certain that the OP was given incorrect information more than once.

 

Furthermore, given all of the other land-based customer service complaints we've seen here, I think it's also just about 100% believable that the OP was dealt with poorly on the phone, and never received the return calls they were promised.

 

I don't think NCL could possibly have "another side" to this, and I would be shocked if 99%+ of the details posted here by the OP weren't the way things really happened.

[NLH Arizona]

We don't need the other side. It has already become painfully clear that there was mass confusion about this policy among NCL employees, so I think everyone here is 100% certain that the OP was given incorrect information more than once.

 

Furthermore, given all of the other land-based customer service complaints we've seen here, I think it's also just about 100% believable that the OP was dealt with poorly on the phone, and never received the return calls they were promised.

 

I don't think NCL could possibly have "another side" to this, and I would be shocked if 99%+ of the details posted here by the OP weren't the way things really happened.

Well, since we weren't on the phone, we have no idea what the OP was told, do we.

[LuvBNatC]

I might point out that we are only hearing one side of the story. We are hearing the OP's side, but not the folks she spoke to at the cruise line.

 

But we *have* heard the other side. NCL responded on this thread that the charge was incorrect and would be refunded.

 

NCL essentially admitted that the OP was given inaccurate information by someone on the NCL side, resulting in a charge that should not have been incurred.

 

Do we now want to pick nits over who was allegedly more rude to whom? :confused:

[pokerpro5]

Stephen, you are making excuses with "maybes" again, perhaps without even realizing it.

 

While it is correct that call center jobs are not highly-paid positions and there is substantial turnover, these jobs are also highly coveted by unskilled job seekers. This is because they pay fairly well compared to other unskilled jobs, and are not physically demanding.

 

Call center customer service failures typically exist for two reasons:

 

1) There is a company culture that there is little consequence for sucking at your job and/or abusing customers

-or-

2) There are lacking resources, information, and/or empowerment for employees at the call center

 

Or sometimes both.

 

But these are both fixable problems.

 

You would be surprised how quickly employees shape up when they realize that complaints against them are taken very seriously, and that termination is right around the corner if they are either incompetent or disrespectful.

 

Of course, employees have to be supported by the proper empowerment and tools to do the job, but it really isn't all that difficult to get all of that in place, especially for a large, deep-pocketed corporation such as NCL.

 

You are from Canada and probably aren't too familiar with In-N-Out burger, but you've probably heard about people in the western US raving about them.

 

But what isn't as widely known is the way they treat and compensate their employees.

 

Basically, In-N-Out overcompensates all of their employees, from the lowest-level burger flipper up to management.

 

However, they have very strict and high standards for performance. Basically, with that overcompensation comes little tolerance for failure.

 

You cannot call individual In-N-Out stores. All calls go to their main corporate phone number.

 

The highly-compensated store manager is fired if too many complaints come in.

 

Fearing this occurring, the store manager is very careful that the employees under him don't screw up or mistreat customers, and he will quickly fire those that do (and therefore put HIS job in jeopardy).

 

And the bottom level employees, knowing that they will never get the same compensation at McDonald's or anywhere else in fast food, try a lot harder, knowing that screwing up will be the end of their high-paid fast food employment.

 

The result? One of the most-loved burger chains in the world, with an incredibly loyal customer base. And the company makes big money.

 

The lesson here is that employees -- even so-called "low level" ones -- can do a good job if they know failure isn't an option.

 

I'm not suggesting NCL overcompensate their employees in order to improve, but rather that I believe they are both communicating poorly between departments AND tolerating too much bad/incompetent behavior from their call center reps.

 

There is a reason certain companies thrive in customer service, while others bungle it badly and have terrible reputations for it. Some companies know how to get the job done in customer service, while others make excuses.

Edited August 22, 2014 by pokerpro5

[sjbdtz]

Stephen, you are making excuses with "maybes" again, perhaps without even realizing it.

 

While it is correct that call center jobs are not highly-paid positions and there is substantial turnover, these jobs are also highly coveted by unskilled job seekers. This is because they pay fairly well compared to other unskilled jobs, and are not physically demanding.

 

Call center customer service failures typically exist for two reasons:

 

1) There is a company culture that there is little consequence for sucking at your job and/or abusing customers

-or-

2) There are lacking resources, information, and/or empowerment for employees at the call center

 

Or sometimes both.

 

But these are both fixable problems.

 

You would be surprised how quickly employees shape up when they realize that complaints against them are taken very seriously, and that termination is right around the corner if they are either incompetent or disrespectful.

 

Of course, employees have to be supported by the proper empowerment and tools to do the job, but it really isn't all that difficult to get all of that in place, especially for a large, deep-pocketed corporation such as NCL.

 

You are from Canada and probably aren't too familiar with In-N-Out burger, but you've probably heard about people in the western US raving about them.

 

But what isn't as widely known is the way they treat and compensate their employees.

 

Basically, In-N-Out overcompensates all of their employees, from the lowest-level burger flipper up to management.

 

However, they have very strict and high standards for performance. Basically, with that overcompensation comes little tolerance for failure.

 

You cannot call individual In-N-Out stores. All calls go to their main corporate phone number.

 

The highly-compensated store manager is fired if too many complaints come in.

 

Fearing this occurring, the store manager is very careful that the employees under him don't screw up or mistreat customers, and he will quickly fire those that do (and therefore put HIS job in jeopardy).

 

And the bottom level employees, knowing that they will never get the same compensation at McDonald's or anywhere else in fast food, try a lot harder, knowing that screwing up will be the end of their high-paid fast food employment.

 

The result? One of the most-loved burger chains in the world, with an incredibly loyal customer base. And the company makes big money.

 

The lesson here is that employees -- even so-called "low level" ones -- can do a good job if they know failure isn't an option.

 

I'm not suggesting NCL overcompensate their employees in order to improve, but rather that I believe they are both communicating poorly between departments AND tolerating too much bad/incompetent behavior from their call center reps.

 

There is a reason certain companies thrive in customer service, while others bungle it badly and have terrible reputations for it. Some companies know how to get the job done in customer service, while others make excuses.

 

Luckily In & Out burger (which I ate at once before I realized that they're as bad as Chick-Fil-A for their oppressive political views), is nothing like NCL.

 

If you think you'd have trouble getting an exception made at NCL, imagine what it's like when every move you make is scrutinized like the burger place.

 

 

I've worked in call centres, fast-food joints, owned my own restaurant, been a global sales manager, travelled the world for work, and have a Masters in International Management.

 

That's why I don't assume that I know what their issues are. I've been conditioned to analyse the facts, not to create them.

 

 

Frankly, given the number of times shore-based customer service comes up, given that they have 13 ships with let's propose an average of 2,000 passengers per week = 1.35 million passengers per year.....if their customer service were as atrocious as you say, that would be the ONLY topic on CC.

 

But it isn't. It comes up periodically that something is a snafu. The key component of SNAFU is 'normal'. Things aren't operating as expected.

 

 

Stephen

 

 

.

[pokerpro5]

Stephen, there were too many failures here for it to have been an outlier or coincidence.

 

- The guy got the wrong information from two different employees

 

- The charge was removed from his final bill, but then he got billed again after leaving the ship

 

- The charge was listed as from the Garden Cafe, which was erroneous

 

- The rep on the phone promised him a call back, which never came

 

- Someone else on the phone told him that it was investigated and determined to be a valid charge from a bar crawl, something he did not participate in

 

- He was hung up on by an employee and denied a supervisor

 

- The NCL rep for Cruise Critic could not even determine the actual policy at first, and provided the board with the wrong info -- which was comical in itself, because this person only showed up to presumably diffuse a situation they deemed serious enough to give a public response.

 

 

So look at ALL of the above, and tell me that this isn't indicative of a systematic failure of customer service. And again, it seems that so many people complain about getting the wrong info on the phone from NCL employees that the general advice given here is, "Do your own research to make sure!"

 

For these to be unusual independent events all happening together would be a HUGE violation of all probabilities as we know them -- probably one in billions.

 

I say "independent" events because they are not all related to the lack of knowledge of the policy. Many more failures occurred independently of the original policy confusion.

 

If I were a high level manager at NCL, I would wonder how something like this could occur -- how it couldn't have been stopped at ANY level before it became what it did. And how my own social media person still wasn't able to obtain the proper policy, despite a situation deemed serious enough to warrant an official NCL public response.

 

Usually where there's smoke, there's fire, and there's enough smoke here to block out the sun on an entire 7-day cruise.

 

Think Occam's Razor.

 

What this appears to be is really what NCL's customer service has become lately.

Edited August 22, 2014 by pokerpro5

[Casino Comp Chick]

I did not need the recap of the thread as I caught it all the first time. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being polite and civil. There is no need to be nasty and rude. You just love to complain. As you stated on another thread you are a self proclaimed 'expert' at it.

 

You have no idea how this situation might or might not affect the communication policy of NCL employees. Perhaps the OP's situation and this thread will evoke some change. You could write them a letter and inform them how to run their business. Or, as is your style, give their corporate offices a call.

 

I choose to be polite. I appreciate that NCL takes the time to read what is posted here on Cruise Critic. I appreciate the rare occasions when they step in to clarify an issue. I can also appreciate that mistakes are made, especially when changes occur. At one time the wine dispensers were included in the UBP . Most likely because of abuse they are no longer included. Mistakes were made and errors occured. Obviously not everyone was up to speed with the change, perhaps they did not get the memo. Someone has come here and apologized for the errors and has made a final clarification of the situation. I see no need for a public flogging. There is no need to rally in this thread for corporate change. The issue has been resolved.

 

 

Rochelle

 

How much "abuse" could really go on since everyone in your cabin or are linked to your reservation have to purchase the same package? Since the machines have built in clocks it would be easy to program them to dispense in 15 minute increments per card.

I agree with the recap of the thread and I am glad I came back on as I was going to tell my cousin next week that the wine machines were indeed included in our UBP for next month based on NCL's original statement regarding it's inclusion. He would be in the same boat as the OP.

BTW............................How will this affect OP's refund? :confused:

[ldlewis45]

Stephen, there were too many failures here for it to have been an outlier or coincidence.

 

- The guy got the wrong information from two different employees

 

- The charge was removed from his final bill, but then he got billed again after leaving the ship

 

- The charge was listed as from the Garden Cafe, which was erroneous

 

- The rep on the phone promised him a call back, which never came

 

- Someone else on the phone told him that it was investigated and determined to be a valid charge from a bar crawl, something he did not participate in

 

- He was hung up on by an employee and denied a supervisor

 

- The NCL rep for Cruise Critic could not even determine the actual policy at first, and provided the board with the wrong info -- which was comical in itself, because this person only showed up to presumably diffuse a situation they deemed serious enough to give a public response.

 

 

So look at ALL of the above, and tell me that this isn't indicative of a systematic failure of customer service. And again, it seems that so many people complain about getting the wrong info on the phone from NCL employees that the general advice given here is, "Do your own research to make sure!"

 

For these to be unusual independent events all happening together would be a HUGE violation of all probabilities as we know them -- probably one in billions.

 

I say "independent" events because they are not all related to the lack of knowledge of the policy. Many more failures occurred independently of the original policy confusion.

 

If I were a high level manager at NCL, I would wonder how something like this could occur -- how it couldn't have been stopped at ANY level before it became what it did. And how my own social media person still wasn't able to obtain the proper policy, despite a situation deemed serious enough to warrant an official NCL public response.

 

Usually where there's smoke, there's fire, and there's enough smoke here to block out the sun on an entire 7-day cruise.

 

Think Occam's Razor.

 

What this appears to be is really what NCL's customer service has become lately.

 

While I do think that the OP unfortunately was the victim of unfortunate circumstances, I do have to look at it with a bit of cynicism. For much of the OP's story, we only have his side. The only thing the NCL rep confirmed was that there was an error by some of the NCL staff. That is unfortunate, but happens every so often in business, especially during a transition period between policies. For everything else, though, we only have the OP's word that it happened the way he says. Speaking from experience as a former call-center employee, calls into and from a call center are recorded and potentially monitored, so it was very rare for a rep to just hang up on someone with zero provocation. For all we know, the NCL rep may have believed that he was becoming verbally aggressive and warned him that if he continued, he'd release the call (hang up). Or, it could have happened the way he said and he just had the bad luck to deal with all bad/lazy employees (again, with large companies, it happens sometimes). The point is, we weren't there and we don't know. All we have is one side of the story for that part of the story.

 

 

During my last job (not customer service), I had a former coworker that, every time she got into a confrontation with someone, always portrayed herself as being calm and reasonable when retelling the story to other people. Those of use who had seen her in confrontations, though, knew that she was rarely calm and reasonable in those situations, so we knew to take her story with a very large grain of salt. I have to think of her whenever stories like this come up. When recounting a confrontational situation to other people, everyone always puts themselves in the best light. It's just human nature. The fact is, most of us on the board don't know each other personally, so we don't know what our fellow posters are like during stressful or confrontational experiences. We don't know if they're reasonable or the type of passenger who complains that service is terrible whenever they don't get their way.

 

Yes, NCL screwed up. They've admitted that there was an error, rectified the situation, and clarified their policies here on the board. I'm not sure what else people want. During a transition period, there's going to be mistakes made. People are human. Sometimes, they don't read their emails thoroughly, or catch up on them halfway through the day, after working with several customers. Sometimes, people just have a brain fart, or aren't fully trained, or there's been a technical glitch. It happens. Good customer service comes from the company rectifying any issues that are caused by it, which NCL has.

[LMaxwell]

Good customer service comes from the company rectifying any issues that are caused by it, which NCL has.

 

NCL had no intention of rectifying this until it was made public. They were plenty content to blow off OP and give them a hard time until the laundry was aired publicly. NCL rectifying their mistakes is the basic of what is due. To have to be made to waste all the time and efforts to do so doesn't make it good customer service.

 

Is that where we are at in 2014 where corporations can be allowed to abuse customers but when held up to the light and forced to do the right thing we call it "good customer service"?

[cruisecritiquer]

Sometimes I get vicarious embarrassment reading these threads. :p

[ldlewis45]

NCL had no intention of rectifying this until it was made public. They were plenty content to blow off OP and give them a hard time until the laundry was aired publicly. NCL rectifying their mistakes is the basic of what is due. To have to be made to waste all the time and efforts to do so doesn't make it good customer service.

 

Is that where we are at in 2014 where corporations can be allowed to abuse customers but when held up to the light and forced to do the right thing we call it "good customer service"?

 

Since when has any business just given a charge back to a customer without either proving the customer was in the right, or being forced to do it (either through public encouragement or intervention from the BBB, etc.)? It's a business. They're trying to make money, not give it away to every customer who comes up to them to say, "Oh, this charge was a mistake." The fact is, they don't HAVE to refund the OP, especially if their records are saying that it's a legitimate charge. It's good business and good customer service that they refund him, since it stems from misinformation that the customer received from a NCL rep, but the customer also signed a contract with the fine print that said the wine dispenser was NOT included.

[pokerpro5]

Since when has any business just given a charge back to a customer without either proving the customer was in the right, or being forced to do it (either through public encouragement or intervention from the BBB, etc.)? It's a business. They're trying to make money, not give it away to every customer who comes up to them to say, "Oh, this charge was a mistake." The fact is, they don't HAVE to refund the OP, especially if their records are saying that it's a legitimate charge. It's good business and good customer service that they refund him, since it stems from misinformation that the customer received from a NCL rep, but the customer also signed a contract with the fine print that said the wine dispenser was NOT included.

 

Incorrect.

 

"Their records" don't matter if employees informed the customer differently. If the customer can prove that he did his due diligence in consulting multiple employees about policy, and if he can prove that he was misinformed of the policy, the company is legally required to honor the deal promised, regardless of what was signed by the customer beforehand.

 

While it would be difficult for the OP to prove what he was told, he would be legally entitled to a refund of the charge if everyone told the truth about what happened.

 

So this isn't a "good customer service" credit. It's complying with the law.

 

Furthermore, as he was promised the $95 removed and given a final statement reflecting that, again NCL has to honor that. They are not allowed by law to remove the charge, give him an invoice reflecting that, and then changing their mind after he walks off the ship. They are only allowed to charge him after the final statement for items they hadn't discovered yet (such as if he damaged the room, or took extra items from the mini bar).

 

So again, he was legally in the right to receive the $95.

 

You can say "NCL isn't in the business to give away money", but they should DEFINITELY be in the business to correct billing mistakes and honor the word given by their own employees.

 

Attitudes like yours are the reason customer service (in general, not necessarily NCL) has declined so badly in recent years. When the customer puts up with being treated unfairly and makes excuses on behalf of the company doing it, then it only encourages this behavior.

 

Finally, this wasn't a matter of them quoting policy. He was just given nonsensical answers ("You charged it at the Garden Cafe", "It was from a bar crawl"), and then they would not transfer him to a supervisor when he wasn't accepting these awful explanations.

 

Anyone who reads this and doesn't detect an epic customer service fail needs to have their head checked. This story is 100% believable from start to finish. If you believe that the hang up on the customer was an "accident" after he wouldn't let them BS him, then I would like to sell you some beautiful oceanview property in Nebraska.

Edited August 23, 2014 by pokerpro5

[ldlewis45]

Incorrect.

 

"Their records" don't matter if employees informed the customer differently. If the customer can prove that he did his due diligence in consulting multiple employees about policy, and if he can prove that he was misinformed of the policy, the company is legally required to honor the deal promised, regardless of what was signed by the customer beforehand.

 

While it would be difficult for the OP to prove what he was told, he would be legally entitled to a refund of the charge if everyone told the truth about what happened.

 

So this isn't a "good customer service" credit. It's complying with the law.

 

Furthermore, as he was promised the $95 removed and given a final statement reflecting that, again NCL has to honor that. They are not allowed by law to remove the charge, give him an invoice reflecting that, and then changing their mind after he walks off the ship. They are only allowed to charge him after the final statement for items they hadn't discovered yet (such as if he damaged the room, or took extra items from the mini bar).

 

So again, he was legally in the right to receive the $95.

 

You can say "NCL isn't in the business to give away money", but they should DEFINITELY be in the business to correct billing mistakes and honor the word given by their own employees.

 

Attitudes like yours are the reason customer service (in general, not necessarily NCL) has declined so badly in recent years. When the customer puts up with being treated unfairly and makes excuses on behalf of the company doing it, then it only encourages this behavior.

 

Finally, this wasn't a matter of them quoting policy. He was just given nonsensical answers ("You charged it at the Garden Cafe", "It was from a bar crawl"), and then they would not transfer him to a supervisor when he wasn't accepting these awful explanations.

 

Anyone who reads this and doesn't detect an epic customer service fail needs to have their head checked. This story is 100% believable from start to finish. If you believe that the hang up on the customer was an "accident" after he wouldn't let them BS him, then I would like to sell you some beautiful oceanview property in Nebraska.

 

Where in the world did I say I thought it was an accident? I fully believe he was hung up on, I just don't believe that it was without provocation.

 

We can go back and forth all day about what constitutes good customer service. Yes, there was a customer service fail here, and I stated that NCL screwed up in my first post. I would have been absolutely frustrated if I was in the OPs place. At the end of the day, though, it was rectified, which is a redeeming factor in NCL's favor. I just don't think one customer's bad experience is enough to tar the entire companies customer service reputation, as every single company in the world is going to have at least one unsatisfied customer that has received bad service, as every company is staffed by humans, who make mistakes and are sometimes lazy or bad workers. The fact is, NCL is trying to give good service as a company as a whole, or else there wouldn't have been an NCL rep to respond to the OP here on Cruise Critic.

 

I think a lot of this has to do with outdated ideas about how to get resolution from a company. In the past, it was "write a letter," then it became "call them," then "report to the BBB," then "email them." Now, it's "get on social media." That's the easiest and fastest way to reach a resolution, because a company wants to rectify public issues. In this day and age, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

[DGP1111]

Dear mcsb11,

We truly apologize for the error and are processing a refund of $95.21 back to you. We appreciate you calling this our attention.

. . . .

 

Best,

Norwegian Cruise Line Public Relations

 

There you go, now thats good customer service, I had faith in NCL..

 

I choose to think of it was a high-quality (and classy) service recovery to previously poor customer service.

 

.

[cruisecritiquer]

On one of my first cruises with NCL about 10 years ago they charged me for a minibar purchase...one of those little liquor bottles. The bottle was full but the seal was broken and I figured it must have come that way since we didn't touch it. There was a charge of about 14.00 with a receipt just left on our bed. When I tried to dispute it at the purser's desk, they had someone test the beverage and I was told it was water. They then accused me of of drinking it and filling it with water and refused to refund the charge.

 

I was so mad. I will never forget how embarrassed and angry I was to be accused of that. I spoke to everyone on the ship that had any authority and when I left, I spoke with corporate who said they couldn't do anything. It was difficult not to fume about that. I didn't know about CC back then, I guess some PR person would have came along to rectify it. So yes, I understand why people are frustrated when companies only help after they are called out. I've sailed with NCL many times since then with no issues but now every time I sail, I tell them to clean out the mini-fridge. Usually they do it without hesitation but anytime they start with that "they can't remove the bottles" nonsense, which has happened twice, they are forced to listen to my long drawn out story of 10 years ago.