Celebrity has likely lost 2 previously loyal guests

[keesar]

This reminds me of hilarious conversations I used to have with my Dad who would rant and rave about how "Buicks were no longer real Buicks".

 

He would complain that the brand had gone downhill, Buick had lost its way and forgotten who their real customers were. He would say that he had to pay more for a dumb-downed car loaded with options that nobody wanted and then nickel-and-diming customers to death for options they wanted. ("GPS? What do I need GPS for? I know where I'm going. Besides when we take long trips I just get a TripTik from AAA".) I would suggest he calm down and consider other brands. He would refuse to consider other brands because he was a "Buick Man".

 

He said he would never buy another Buick but he continued buying them because he decided to give them one last chance. He gave them one last chance about every 4-5 years until he died.

 

Great story! Thank you for sharing.

 

Note that the OP used words such as "likely","may result", and "maybe". OP will take a spin in the Celebrity Buick, mark my words.

[BEAV]

Great story! Thank you for sharing.

 

Note that the OP used words such as "likely","may result", and "maybe". OP will take a spin in the Celebrity Buick, mark my words.

 

Is it coincidence that Buick had a model named Century, just as Celebrity had a ship with the same name? :D

[hulamoon]

I think some are looking to see how or if things have changed. A criticism is not equivalent of snarky. Sure some people sound snarky but usually its frustration or attempts at humor.

 

Some are mad, but if they felt things returned to what they wanted they likely would return. Most don't cancel every cruise in a moment. Usually they do as final payment comes around, so hope springs eternal for those that become disillusioned.

 

I do not understand why it so important that people leave cleanly and not look back. I mean it is a critic board, someone could have a strictly fan board if they wanted one.

[Nancy717]

Given that initial invoices are notorious for not showing offers such as free bev. packages, I take screen-grabs at every stage of the booking to record the offers that the website was promising when I booked. Just a little insurance!

 

Stuart

 

 

Leaving Feb 1, booked on board more than a year ago, got great OBC and all 3 perks.

Took a picture of the screen at the time of the booking and at final payment and finally after on line check in...

 

.....a picture says a thousand words ....

[BecciBoo]

This is being written with sadness. My husband and I have enjoyed sailing with Celebrity for more than 10 years. We enjoy the concierge class amenities and have identified the Millennium class ships as our preferred class for sailing. Sadly, a recent issue may result in us never sailing on Celebrity again.

 

In April 2015 we were on the Summit and decided to book our next cruise in order to secure the "All In" perks ($300 OBC, pd gratuities and Classic Bev. Pkg.). We (and our travel companions, friends we had introduced to Celebrity) noted that as we wanted to plan out a bit, the cruise we were interested in (specifically Alaska 2017) had not yet been announced and as such we questioned whether we could book on-board. We were assured by both the sales manager and a sales associate that we could book any random cruise in the cabin class we would want and when the 2017 Alaska cruise dates were released we could simply change the reservation retaining all the perks.

 

On two separate phone calls with Celebrity cruise vacation specialists first in October 2015 with Marianne, and then in November 2015 with Tyson, we were assured that when the Alaska 2017 dates were released we would be able to simply change our reservations and transfer the perks offered on board with the reservation.

 

On January 3rd I called to change our June, 2016 cruise reservation to the Celebrity Infinity Hubbard Glacier July 23, 2017 sailing. I wanted to book a concierge class (C2) cabin and expected to be paying the flat C3 rate due to the one level upgrade my captain's club status affords me and I also expected that I would carry over the perks secured on board the Summit in April 2015. After putting me on hold twice for a total of almost 30 minutes, Jeffrey came back on and shared that the "all in" promotion expired April 2017 and that the sales people who had indicated otherwise "should not have done that". He suggested that I write to the corporate office to express my concerns. I immediately did, though I do NOT believe that I should have to help Celebrity correct their inconsistent application of policy and protocol. At the time of writing this, we have received no response.

 

My issue is not the amount of money (the "good, better, best" promotion is not bad). My issue is that this has become a pattern of declining customer service from Celebrity corporate office. We have, over the last four years, had to correct errors made to dining reservations, billing, and excursions. The website has been erratic and the customer service on the phone has been almost infuriatingly inefficient and ineffective. We have nothing bad to say about the crew of any Celebrity ship we have been on but I don't want to feel devalued by the parent company. I simply cannot abide the apathy being evidenced by corporate management towards loyal customers.

 

Maybe it's time to look at Oceania.

 

We were in the exact same situation. It took a lot of attention with the VP in charge of customer relations, but she finally came through for us. We were told the exact same thing to get these great bene's and booked Alaska 2015, tried to change it (as the onboard booking agent said we could) to this year as soon as itins were out, but it wasn't going to be easy. Had to threaten to cancel and go with Radiance of the Seas on a tersely worded protest letter. Finally got handed to this gal and she called us to apologize and made it happen. We are only Elite status transfers from RCCL too. As a result, she was able to snag us the 2 middle deck 9 aft cabins which was the reason for all our angst in the first place.

 

I cannot find my notes from this so can't give you her name but she was in Michaels offices. Keep plugging and don't go away, We are glad we persisted.

 

I finally found my booking agreement with the Reflection ambassador that shows all the perks circled in green ink and the written statement that said we could transfer when the new intins were released. I sent a copy of it to her. So any documentation is a plus.

Edited January 15, 2016 by BecciBoo

[SheriffJoe]

One issue is proving that the person said it.

 

No business just gives things away based on what someone 3000 miles away said a year ago....not saying this is the case here but people "hear" what they want to hear many times and/or forget details and "remember" things as they wanted them to be....its pretty common knowledge, especially for people here on CC as well as veteran X cruisers that if you switch a booking you lose the perks associated with it as those perks were given based on that specific cruise or booking during a specific time period...canceling one booking and booking another is in fact a NEW booking and will never incur the same perks unless they are still being offered....this cruising stuff ain't rocket science:eek:

[BecciBoo]

Well they did in our case.

[BecciBoo]

And this proves it:

 

And here's the invoice showing all the perks we got too::p

Just hate it when people cast doubt on someone's word.

[cruise47]

Of course that's what they want! A ship full of first timers would not know what to avoid in terms of upcharges. They'd be buying all the pictures, going to the "approved stores" on shore, etc. They'd make a killin'!

 

When a first timer cruiser rec'd bad treatment; they are not going to book another cruise and they are going to bad mouth the product.