Viking Cancels Portraits of Southern France, poor customer service

[firefightermom007]

Viking Hermond, and there is now a different passenger reporting what happened and how it was handled in Vikings FB wall :(

Here is the gentlemen's response to todays post.

my wife and her parents were on this cruise as well. I've posted info here yesterday. Viking responded by deleting the post. they'll delete yours as well. What a shame this is how a company treats its passengers or handles their mistakes.

 

Yes, they did offer to refund the cruise or book another Viking Cruise. Yes-did not do their air through Viking because they were returning from a different city in Europe as they extended their stay in Europe and Viking would not do the air that way. BUT, they did not want their air refunded...they wanted to go on a vacation to Europe.

BUT Viking would not even be flexible on providing them with transfers from CDG to the new port...they were even willing to pay for them. If a company cancels a trip, good customer service would be to reimburse expenses incurred (within a reasonable amount) to rearrange their vacation plans.

[janetcbl]

Lynn McLean

Today at 8:43am

Very disappointed in Viking's handling of the recent Portraits of Southern France Cruise. We were traveling on the Viking Hermod which was damaged during the first night of cruising (backing into an object per crew on the boat). The boat cruised for 1 1/2 days and then was docked in Lyon for the remainder of our time on the boat. Guests were offered the opportunity to be bused to tours and then we were bused to Avignon to stay in a hotel (quality on par with a Holiday Inn). Lost the majority of our scheduled river cruising. Very expensive trip turned into bus tour. Viking appointed a very junior crew member to handle all arrangements, he certainly tried but this was much more than he could handle

[QueenofEverything]

These have to be 2 different incidents. The op reports the cruise was cancelled 5 days before sailing. The second one speaks about a ship being damaged during the cruise and turning into a bus trip.

Edited June 11, 2015 by QueenofEverything

[caviargal]

These have to be 2 different incidents. The op reports the cruise was cancelled 5 days before sailing. The second one speaks about a ship being damaged during the cruise and turning into a bus trip.

 

Even worse and passengers got screwed over twice, and that is just this month.

[QueenofEverything]

Actually, looking over these posts again, it sounds like the op cancellation was the result of the damage that happened during the previous cruise. Same ship, damage one week, next week was cancelled.

 

As far as Facebook posts being deleted this is kind of SOP for most businesses. They use FB as a marketing tool and take down anything negative. I have had this happen on the Today show FB book page more than once. Post anything negative on there and within 10 minutes it will be gone! Local news station also.

Edited June 11, 2015 by QueenofEverything

[JVilleGal]

Here is the gentlemen's response:

 

Yes, they did offer to refund the cruise or book another Viking Cruise. Yes-did not do their air through Viking because they were returning from a different city in Europe as they extended their stay in Europe and Viking would not do the air that way. BUT, they did not want their air refunded...they wanted to go on a vacation to Europe.

BUT Viking would not even be flexible on providing them with transfers from CDG to the new port...they were even willing to pay for them. If a company cancels a trip, good customer service would be to reimburse expenses incurred (within a reasonable amount) to rearrange their vacation plans.

 

 

I never saw this part of stmt??? To my knowledge he never said this... Where did you get it.

 

This was the cruise prior to the OP of this cruise. We are talking about the cruise where the boat was damaged, while the OP was in the next cruise that was cancelled completely.

[JVilleGal]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=46813983

 

The Facebook poster has now started a CC thread of their own!

[firefightermom007]

I never saw this part of stmt??? To my knowledge he never said this... Where did you get it.

 

This was the cruise prior to the OP of this cruise. We are talking about the cruise where the boat was damaged, while the OP was in the next cruise that was cancelled completely.

Here is the gentlemen's response to todays post.

my wife and her parents were on this cruise as well. I've posted info here yesterday. Viking responded by deleting the post. they'll delete yours as well. What a shame this is how a company treats its passengers or handles their mistakes.

 

This was copied from the Viking FB page

[QueenofEverything]

I never saw this part of stmt??? To my knowledge he never said this... Where did you get it.

 

This was the cruise prior to the OP of this cruise. We are talking about the cruise where the boat was damaged, while the OP was in the next cruise that was cancelled completely.

 

Firefightermom IS the op

[pully8]

sounds terrible for the passengers. is Viking a budget product compared to other cruise lines? know they have a lot of ships and have seen many on the rivers they look larger than some others.

 

re social media it is powerful and useful to disseminate information quickly. we do not use Facebook much. we prefer twitter especially for news. both are used for marketing/advertising.

[notamermaid]

Just my 2 cents from Germany:

 

consumer laws have quite clear definitions as regards cancelled cruises, shortened cruises, missed land trips, etc. By that I mean over the years there have been court cases that have decided on money-back or even additional compensation for lots of specific incidents. One such case was on a missed port on a river cruise where the cruisers missed Basel. The cruiser was given a considerable portion of the cruise back by the river cruise company. A case from 2013 at a court in Rostock.

 

notamermaid

[Mark_T]

Just my 2 cents from Germany:

 

consumer laws have quite clear definitions...

 

That is a good part of the problem for USA based people unfortunately as the consumer protections are lagging a long way behind the EU unfortunately :(