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

[rochelle_s]

Once again, thank you for the supportive words CC.

 

Before I read this post late last night, I had a random incoming call from Florida. I jokingly said to my wife, watch its Norwegian. Well it was, and the person I spoke with was overly apologetic & informed me that they reviewed what had happened and were gladly refunding my money & I should have it posted within a few days.

 

Late last night, I logged in to CC & saw the NCL post on this thread. kudos to them for rectifying a situation. It's a shame I had to go to the extent that I had to, in order to get a resolution, but so be it; they see the error of their ways.

 

An no I didnt ask for OBC or anything else. All I wanted was the refund that I was originally expecting. Hopefully it posts soon & it'll be all sunshine and kittens.

 

Lessons I can share with others

-Never take an employee word as NCL law. Look it up yourself.

 

-Check your invoices on the ship. If there is a discrepancy, address it on the ship and take note of exactly who you spoke with on the ship.

 

-Check your credit card statement when you get home to make sure it matches with your invoice!

 

-If for some reason you feel you're wronged by NCL, post your story here. Was it my phone calls & dealing with call center staff the reason why issue was resolved? Or was it the fact that I politely laid out my story for the world to see on CC & was viewed by 5,000 people in ~36hours? I think the answer to that is very obvious.

 

Happy cruising folks. As I don't foresee myself on a cruise anytime in the near future, my CC days are most likely done. Thank you CC & everyone for the help. When their refund hits, I'll post that so people can know how long the refund process takes

 

Thanks for coming back and I am glad this worked out for you.

 

 

Rochelle

[KeithJenner]

Lessons I can share with others

-Never take an employee word as NCL law. Look it up yourself.

 

 

This is a very important one, with any company, not just NCL.

 

Not only may the info be wrong, but you also have no evidence of what you were told if it does turn out to be wrong. Anyone can make claims of what they were told (not suggesting for a second that it happened in this case), and companies are unlikely to take your word that you were told something.

 

If you have something in writing then it is likely to be honoured even if the info is wrong.

[CPT Trips]

Once again, thank you for the supportive words CC.

 

 

 

Lessons I can share with others

-Never take an employee word as NCL law. Look it up yourself.

 

-Check your invoices on the ship. If there is a discrepancy, address it on the ship and take note of exactly who you spoke with on the ship.

 

-Check your credit card statement when you get home to make sure it matches with your invoice!

 

 

For #2, more than once a cruise . . .

[smg53]

Hi all -

 

Coming out of lurkdom to let you know what I heard from NCL. After this thread, I contacted NCL at the socialmedia@ncl.com email address asking for clarification. The reason I asked is because the terms clearly state the wine stations are NOT included in the UBP. But the post from NCL in this thread said they are.

 

My first response from NCL said the cruise critic post was correct, the under $10 wines from the wine stations are indeed included in the UBP. Great.

 

Just received this email:

 

"Sorry about the back and forth, we were actually just informed this morning there has been a recent change in the policy and wine dispensers are no longer included in the program. The terms and conditions posted on our website are accurate.

 

Again sincerest apologies over the mixed messages. Please let us know if we can answer any further questions."

 

Hope this is helpful for anybody planning.

[TrumpyNor]

Hi all -

 

Coming out of lurkdom to let you know what I heard from NCL. After this thread, I contacted NCL at the socialmedia@ncl.com email address asking for clarification. The reason I asked is because the terms clearly state the wine stations are NOT included in the UBP. But the post from NCL in this thread said they are.

 

My first response from NCL said the cruise critic post was correct, the under $10 wines from the wine stations are indeed included in the UBP. Great.

 

Just received this email:

 

"Sorry about the back and forth, we were actually just informed this morning there has been a recent change in the policy and wine dispensers are no longer included in the program. The terms and conditions posted on our website are accurate.

 

Again sincerest apologies over the mixed messages. Please let us know if we can answer any further questions."

 

Hope this is helpful for anybody planning.

 

Thank you for posting this. At least now we know for sure (or do we....? :p ). Not logic at all, that if you go to the bar and have somebody serving you the wine in a glass it is included in the UBP, and when you use the wine dispenser and do all the "work" yourself, it is not included. But it is what it is, and luckily I never have to wonder myself, since I never drink enough for the UBP to be of any value for me.... :)

Edited August 21, 2014 by TrumpyNor

[sjbdtz]

Thank you for posting this. At least now we know for sure (or do we....? :p ). Not logic at all, that if you go to the bar and have somebody serving you the wine in a glass it is included in the UBP, and when you use the wine dispenser and do all the "work" yourself, it is not included. But it is what it is, and luckily I never have to wonder myself, since I never drink enough for the UBP to be of any value for me.... :)

 

 

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.

 

 

.

[mjkacmom]

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.

 

 

.

 

But it wasn't a problem in the past - when we had the UBP, I used the machines a lot, and was never charged.

[rochelle_s]

Hi all -

 

Coming out of lurkdom to let you know what I heard from NCL. After this thread, I contacted NCL at the socialmedia@ncl.com email address asking for clarification. The reason I asked is because the terms clearly state the wine stations are NOT included in the UBP. But the post from NCL in this thread said they are.

 

My first response from NCL said the cruise critic post was correct, the under $10 wines from the wine stations are indeed included in the UBP. Great.

 

Just received this email:

 

"Sorry about the back and forth, we were actually just informed this morning there has been a recent change in the policy and wine dispensers are no longer included in the program. The terms and conditions posted on our website are accurate.

 

Again sincerest apologies over the mixed messages. Please let us know if we can answer any further questions."

 

Hope this is helpful for anybody planning.

 

Thanks for sharing what you were told, but unfortunately it addd another level of confusion to the situation. Please forgive me if my next comment feels like I am questioning you as I am not. I believe that is the response you received. It would be nice at this point if NCL Public Relations that made post #60 would come back and amend what they have posted here, which is the exact opposite of what whomever at NCL told you.

 

If NCL has indeed made changes and the terms and conditions that can be found on their website are accurate then they need to inform their PCC's and their Public Relations Department. The PCC's and the PR Department need to print retractions for the information they have been putting out there in the past week.

 

If they cannot get it straight themselves I think it unfair to expect the guest to be able to decipher the situation. If I had unsubscribed to this thread I could have boarded the ship next week believing that the machines were indeed included in the UBP and ended up in the exact same situation as the OP. No lessons learned by anyone.

 

 

Rochelle

[Pattilabelle73]

Thanks for sharing what you were told, but unfortunately it addd another level of confusion to the situation. Please forgive me if my next comment feels like I am questioning you as I am not. I believe that is the response you received. It would be nice at this point if NCL Public Relations that made post #60 would come back and amend what they have posted here, which is the exact opposite of what whomever at NCL told you.

 

If NCL has indeed made changes and the terms and conditions that can be found on their website are accurate then they need to inform their PCC's and their Public Relations Department. The PCC's and the PR Department need to print retractions for the information they have been putting out there in the past week.

 

If they cannot get it straight themselves I think it unfair to expect the guest to be able to decipher the situation. If I had unsubscribed to this thread I could have boarded the ship next week believing that the machines were indeed included in the UBP and ended up in the exact same situation as the OP. No lessons learned by anyone.

 

 

Rochelle

 

 

Exactly! This confusion is really deterring me from purchasing the UBP. I think I will take my chances of "coming out ahead" without it.

[smg53]

I definitely agree, NCL should come back and clarify the situation. In my first email to them I specifically mentioned the post on cruise critic, and they also specifically mentioned it back. That was yesterday. Without any prompting I received the email I posted today.

[CPT Trips]

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 doubt that the bartender zeros out every sale at PoP. More likely it's done by the software.

[Norwegian Cruise Line]

Dear Cruise Critic Members,

We are very sorry but we were given inaccurate information about the wine dispensers and the Ultimate Beverage Package earlier in the week.

 

Today we confirmed that the wine dispensers are not included in the Ultimate Beverage Package. The terms and conditions of the UBP on our website are accurate.

 

We are truly sorry for any confusion this has caused. We will make sure the onboard teams and our internal corporate staff, including the PCCs, are aware of this.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

Norwegian Cruise Line Public Relations

[pokerpro5]

Dear Cruise Critic Members,

We are very sorry but we were given inaccurate information about the wine dispensers and the Ultimate Beverage Package earlier in the week.

 

Today we confirmed that the wine dispensers are not included in the Ultimate Beverage Package. The terms and conditions of the UBP on our website are accurate.

 

We are truly sorry for any confusion this has caused. We will make sure the onboard teams and our internal corporate staff, including the PCCs, are aware of this.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

Norwegian Cruise Line Public Relations

 

This thread pretty much demonstrates what is wrong with NCL customer service.

 

When will the company start educating everyone better regarding policy?

 

If the PR person for NCL on a huge site like cruisecritic can't even get this right, can you imagine how much misinformation there is about this (and other things) among regular reps?

[rochelle_s]

Dear Cruise Critic Members,

We are very sorry but we were given inaccurate information about the wine dispensers and the Ultimate Beverage Package earlier in the week.

 

Today we confirmed that the wine dispensers are not included in the Ultimate Beverage Package. The terms and conditions of the UBP on our website are accurate.

 

We are truly sorry for any confusion this has caused. We will make sure the onboard teams and our internal corporate staff, including the PCCs, are aware of this.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

Norwegian Cruise Line Public Relations

 

Thank you very much for coming back and posting this. Mistakes do happen and it is good to know that you are reaching out to rectify not only the problem with the OP but also the unintentional misinformation received earlier. Your posting here should help to alleviate some of the confusion.

 

Thank you again.

 

 

Rochelle

[SteveH2508]

Will they do the easy and sensible thing and put a notice by the wine dispenser to avoid these problems?

[rochelle_s]

This thread pretty much demonstrates what is wrong with NCL customer service.

 

When will the company start educating everyone better regarding policy?

 

If the PR person for NCL on a huge site like cruisecritic can't even get this right, can you imagine how much misinformation there is about this (and other things) among regular reps?

 

An apology has been made and a retraction posted. What more do you expect? Are you looking for compensation? I for one appreciate their coming back and clarifying. No need to get nasty.

 

 

Rochelle

[rochelle_s]

Will they do the easy and sensible thing and put a notice by the wine dispenser to avoid these problems?

 

Great suggestion!

 

 

Rochelle

[pokerpro5]

An apology has been made and a retraction posted. What more do you expect? Are you looking for compensation? I for one appreciate their coming back and clarifying. No need to get nasty.

 

 

Rochelle

 

I don't deserve any compensation because this wasn't my issue. I am just a guy commenting on this on a message board.

 

However, one recurring theme here on CC is that NCL reps rarely understand their own company's policies when you call them. I have experienced this several times personally, in just the two cruises I've taken.

 

This is a fixable problem. They need to educate their reps better about policy, and perhaps have an easy-to-use resource where reps can type in a keyword and look up existing company policy.

 

I mean, this situation is almost comical. Let's review:

 

1) OP calls NCL prior to cruise and rep assures him that the wine machines are included.

 

2) OP asks someone onboard if wine machines are included. He is again told yes.

 

3) OP uses wine machines onboard.

 

4) OP receives $95 bill.

 

5) OP complains onboard about the bill. They remove it and generate a final bill for him, which is correct.

 

6) OP gets home and sees they charged his credit card the $95 anyway.

 

7) NCL rep promises OP a call back on the matter within 5-7 days.

 

8) Call never comes. OP tries to resolve it with other people, and is given various ridiculous excuses as to why he still owes the $95, including a false claim that he incurred the $95 charge while doing a bar crawl.

 

9) OP is refused a supervisor, and they hang up on him. He never gets any call back about the issue.

 

10) OP starts thread on cruise critic, which gets a fair amount of attention.

 

11) People point out that Norwegian-employed PCCs are advertising on their Facebook pages that, yes, the wine machines are included!

 

12) The NCL PR person assigned to CruiseCritic shows up and verifies that the OP was right, and that he would be receiving a refund. The NCL rep here verifies that the wine machines were supposed to be included.

 

13) Someone finds a copy of the policy from NCL which contradicts the above.

 

14) The NCL PR person comes back and sheepishly admits that he/she was wrong, and indeed the wine machines were NOT included.

 

 

 

So this was an epic gaffe in customer service and communication from A to Z. Like, they couldn't have been more inept with their handling of this matter if they tried.

 

Rather than everyone here being "polite" or "grateful" that the NCL rep showed up here, why not strongly press for NCL to come up with a system to better communicate policy to their employees, especially ones in front of a computer who should be able to look things up easily?

Edited August 21, 2014 by pokerpro5

[LuvBNatC]

I think I've read every post on this whole thread and the logic (illogic?) of this whole situation utterly escapes me.

 

They have a drink package for supposedly "all you can drink."

 

They have wine machines for supposedly "all you can pour."

 

Yet the package doesn't include the machines, although it seems like a perfect fit.

 

It would even relieve some load on the bartenders.

 

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.

 

And the ONLY workable solution for all involved is to post a simple sign beside these machines on every ship stating they are NOT included in the UBP. No elaborate "crew training" required. No mixed messages.

 

Seems like a simple email blast from shoreside to all the hotel directors in the fleet could get this corrected pronto.

[rochelle_s]

 

Rather than everyone here being "polite" or "grateful" that the NCL rep showed up here, why not strongly press for NCL to come up with a system to better communicate policy to their employees, especially ones in front of a computer who should be able to look things up easily?

 

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

[CPT Trips]

Along with signage on the machines, coding on the card so it can't be used on the wine bar would also help.

[SteveH2508]

Along with signage on the machines, coding on the card so it can't be used on the wine bar would also help.

 

Signage solution cheap - IT solution expensive - which one do you think the cruise lines would go for?:rolleyes:

[rochelle_s]

Signage solution cheap - IT solution expensive - which one do you think the cruise lines would go for?:rolleyes:

 

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

[pokerpro5]

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

 

 

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.

[All-ready2cruise]

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. ... (cont'd)

Rochelle

 

I and many others agree with you Rochelle and those who don't... oh well. You can't please everyone so you got to please.... those you can.