A good Viking Customer Service story

[eaglewatchers]

After all the posts about people having trouble booking excursions, getting refunds, etc (mostly back in early May), I am sharing a positive story. My husband and I are on the Viking Homelands Bergen > Stockholm beginning July 11. We realized we had booked two Viking excursions TOOOOO close together in SPB. In short, we had set ourselves up for trouble.

 

So I called Viking's number listed on the MVJ site at around 8:30 am EDT yesterday. After only a 20-30 SECOND wait, I got a wonderful woman named Marie. She happened to be a supervisor who was "helping out." She was in their Boston office. She helped us change 3 excursions and a dinner reservation, all in less than 10 minutes. She was friendly, knowledgeable, and quick. She refunded our excess funds due to the different prices on the revised excursions. She also answered some undoubtedly dumb first time cruiser questions from me, never letting on if she thought I was clueless!

 

She emailed me the changes AND they showed up on the MVJ site within five minutes.

 

She did say that they had some days earlier this spring when excursions opened up and people were having trouble with the web interface when the calls backed up to 60+ in the queue. To quote her, "Don't wait for that kind of time. Why waste your time on hold? Call back. We'll still be here!"

 

So MY customer service experience earned an A+. Hope you have the same.

[roothy123]

After all the posts about people having trouble booking excursions, getting refunds, etc (mostly back in early May), I am sharing a positive story. My husband and I are on the Viking Homelands Bergen > Stockholm beginning July 11. We realized we had booked two Viking excursions TOOOOO close together in SPB. In short, we had set ourselves up for trouble.

 

So I called Viking's number listed on the MVJ site at around 8:30 am EDT yesterday. After only a 20-30 SECOND wait, I got a wonderful woman named Marie. She happened to be a supervisor who was "helping out." She was in their Boston office. She helped us change 3 excursions and a dinner reservation, all in less than 10 minutes. She was friendly, knowledgeable, and quick. She refunded our excess funds due to the different prices on the revised excursions. She also answered some undoubtedly dumb first time cruiser questions from me, never letting on if she thought I was clueless!

 

She emailed me the changes AND they showed up on the MVJ site within five minutes.

 

She did say that they had some days earlier this spring when excursions opened up and people were having trouble with the web interface when the calls backed up to 60+ in the queue. To quote her, "Don't wait for that kind of time. Why waste your time on hold? Call back. We'll still be here!"

 

So MY customer service experience earned an A+. Hope you have the same.

Thanks for sharing that. I'm sure there are many people who have had good experiences, but the people who have had good experiences seldom take the time to post them as you have.

 

By the way, there are very few "dumb first time cruiser questions" - although if you want a good laugh, I could probably dig up the post in another section that mentions things like, "Where are the elevators that take you to the other side of the ship?" I was bored one day while waiting for someone, and started reading a few random threads on Cruise Critic. The "dumb questions" one turned out to be hysterical.

 

If you haven't seen it already, I did a write-up for new cruisers: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2213253

It doesn't cover everything, and there aren't too many Viking specifics, as that type of info can change quickly. However, it might be an interesting read for you.

 

Enjoy St. Petersburg and the rest of that part of the world. It's fabulous.

Edited June 3, 2015 by roothy123

[kathy9]

That is wonderful for you.... Sadly you can't make a first impression again!

[jiminyC_fan]

Thanks for sharing that. I'm sure there are many people who have had good experiences, but the people who have had good experiences seldom take the time to post them as you have.

 

 

I totall agree. Thanks for taking the time to post.