Cruise only- When things go wrong

[dougp26364]

I thought I would post an update to this thread. Although I've received a call from CS, an apology and a promise to send out a receipt so I can file a claim with my travel insurance company, so far I've not receive the receipt.

 

This is sort of like tossing salt into the wound as the credit card interest rate will start adding up if not paid off in 30 days. At this point, there is no way I will be able to get the claim approved (or denied) in time to avoid interest charges.

 

Hopefully, we'll get the receipt by mid-week. If not, I'll be giving them a call to find out when they plan on getting something out to me. I would not think it should be all that hard to get this done and in the mail but I guess it is.

 

At least they refunded the cost of the hotel back onto our credit card PDQ. That only took a couple of days after they said they would do that.

[ginadis2002]

Bottom line for me is what customer service does for you when there is a problem....not how wonderful they are when things are on the up and up. What I seem to be finding is that customer service is anything but capable in many walks of life (not just cruising) when it comes to dealing with real and difficult problems. Sad fact of life, unfortunately. The more they promise, the less they seem to deliver when you need them the most. Your story is one of incompetance and lack of planning on the part of RCI. If I were in your shoes, I probably wouldn't be too thrilled with them either.

 

Good luck in getting your receipt. I certainly wouldn't be holding my breath if I were you.

[Normandie-BCN]

I was in the cruise Barcelona to Barcelona, from October 27th to October 30. Due the delays caused by the stricke and reduction of the cruise (we missed Ajaccio) the offered 100$. Some of our group ask the mone in cash; I asked if I could receive it in my credit card. They told me that they would cash the money in my credit card.

 

I was the only of my group that trusted on them. The result: I have not received any amount from RCCI in my credit card even they had a month to do that.

 

I sent an e-mail 10 days ago and I did not get any answer.

 

I think I was really stupid.

[RDeagazio]

I'm so sorry to hear about the problems you all encountered while on this cruise. I had clients on this cruise as well, and about 2 weeks ago RCI Customer Service called my agency looking for phone numbers of my clients. Apparently, RCI realized they mishandled the situation and while she did not tell me what they were offering, she did say that although the situation was not their fault, they had made errors in the way they handled the situation and were going to offer "something" to those affected.

 

I would also like to share an experience I had a few years back where I was on the "other side" of a bad situation. Several years ago, I worked for a large tour operator that blocked over 200 cabins on several cruise lines to various parts of the world. One of our cruises was on the then new NCL Sky, on a 10 day Canada/New England cruise. We had over 300 people on this sailing who were being escorted by 2 of our tour directors who were also onboard. Mid way through the cruise the ship hit a sand bar in the St. Lawrence Seaway and a large hole was made in the hull of the ship, below the waterline and the ship was taking on water. Late in the evening on Friday, we received a call from our tour directors onboard advising us of the situation. Nobody from NCL had bothered to call us. I immediately called NCL to find out the situation and to see what was going to be done to get everyone onboard back home. NCL did not have any info at all and only told me they were having the ship towed back to Quebec. They were trying to arrange charter flights out of Quebec for everyone, but no details had been confirmed. This did not sit well with me, as I know Quebec has a very small airport with very limited flights and I knew there would be no way they would be able to secure enough seats for everyone onboard. I immediately pulled a manifest of all our clients and started booking them on flights out of Montreal to the city they listed as as their home address. While I did not know how many of our clients has purchased cruise line air, their own air, or drove to the ship, I issued 2 sets of airline tickets for each person -- 1 to the point the embarked the ship (NYC) and another to the closest airport to the city they gave as their home address. As there were no busses available to charter, I had to "rent" 6 local school busses to transport my clients from Quebec to Montreal-- 3 hrs away. I called and spoke with several NCL Execs, and told them I was able to secure transportation for my 300 clients, and they told me they would reimburse my company for the expenses of purchasing these airline tkts etc. NCL made arrangements for myself to meet the ship upon it's arrival back into Quebec and gather my clients. I flew to Quebec late at night and upon arriving at the pier, was surprised to see the ship was not there. I called NCL several times and each time nobody seemed to know when the ship would arrive or where it was... keep in mind that I was not dealing with the NCL Customer Service people, but directly with the Execs.. Colin Vietch and Andy Stewart etc. The funny or sad thing is, my taxi driver was the one who actually told me the ship would not be in until 4am which was in fact accurate info!! I called the ship and spoke to our tour director onboard and gave her an update as she also was unable to confirm any info from the Purser's onboard. I wound up meeting the ship at 4am, and went onboard to brief the ship staff and my tour directors of what we were going to do with our clients. We printed up letters and delivered them to each of our clients cabins, explaining what was to take place. During breakfast I made a ship wide announcement that all clients of XXX Travel should meet in one of the lounges at 9am with bags packed and ready to go. I gave a quick briefing, and handed out the airline tickets and made sure each person was flying to the city the had departed from. (The unused tickets were voided once I got back home). We then assigned bus number based on airline and departure time and gathered our clients and walked off the ship. As we were departing the ship, several cruise passengers asked me where we were going and how they join us. I explained we were only there to help our clients and they would have to wait for NCL to help them. One lady was furious and told me NCL had told them it would be 3 days before they could arrange transport for them and as there weren't any available hotels, they would have to remain onboard with nothing to do. The ship was in a maintenace dock and was not near anything. Needless to say, we were able to get our clients home right away, and NCL had agreed to reimburse my company for these expenses. NCL had also offered all passengers a full refund and a voucher for a future cruise. Those scheduled to sail on the later dates that were now cancelled were to also receive the same offer.

It took MONTHS for NCL to reimburse us and get the vouchers to our clients. I wound up having to fly down to Miami on 4 different occassions to meet with Colin Vietch etc, before this was resolved. I also learned that NCL had kept the other passengers onboard for 4 days before they were able to get everyone out of Canada due to the inavailabilty of flights etc.

 

My point is this, when an irregularity comes up, the cruise lines do have a general guideline of policies they put into effect, however since there are so many levels of management etc that have to get involved it takes them a while to make a decision and come up with a plan. Because so many people are involved communication is almost non-existant and rumors beging to develop. I also experienced this many times when I worked for the airlines.

 

I'm not defending the actions of RCI-- at the very least they should have had Reps on the front line to at least try and help everyone. But the reality is, these front line people don't have any more information than those who are in the situation. While it was not a pleasant experience, you have to understand the logistics of such a process, and really it just boils down to how well they accept responsibility for their short comings and how quickly they remedy the situation with a compensation package and apology.

 

I will comment RCI on their admission of making some mistakes in the things that they had control over. I hope the offer quick follow through which are 2 things NCL never did.

[Lynnees]

but I believe it's too late to say you hope RCL makes a "quick" follow through. Way to late...........

[cruisin from florida]

This whole thread has been a learning experience for me...

Lessons learned -

 

1)Always have travel insurance and a way to contact the insurance company.

 

2) Have a credit card on hand with sufficiant balance available to cover the cost of emergency hotel and airfare.

 

3) Have a cell phone that will work or other communications plan.

 

4) Be resourceful - make my own arrangements with the help of the insurance company and let them duke it out with the cruise company to get the reimbursements.

 

Thanks to everyone for sharing - this thread has been an eye-opener!

[dougp26364]

O.K., it's been since October 27th and I still have not received a receipt from RCI so that I can complete the documentation necessary for my insurance claim. I've called them today to ask exactly when I might expect to get the receipt I was promised when CS called to apologize a couple of weeks ago. I've been told that they will send it out today and I should receive my receipt within 7 days.

 

Now my question is this. Why did I have to make another call to get them to send out the receipt today. Shouldn't this have been done several weeks ago? Hopefully I'll have the receipt and can finally complete the claims process I started back on October 27th. I have to say I'm more than a little irritated that I'm carrying $1,400 on my credit card at 17.9% interest during the holiday season.

[sandy19644]

I would suggest to them that they fax me the receipt, see what they say to that

[dougp26364]

They offered to fax it to me but......I don't have a working fax machine at home. E-mail wasn't an option since you can't sign and e-mail.

 

It still bothers me that 5 weeks after the incident and 5 weeks after we'd paid RCI $1,400 that I still have to ask them to send me a receipt for the second (or possibly third) time.

[dougp26364]

Today I finally received my receipt for the $1,400 airfare we paid. I had to call them and remind them last week that I still needed this to file my insurance claim. IMO, it's rather sad that it's taken RCI from 10/27/2005 until 12/12/2005 to get a simple receipt for payment of services to me. Not to mention that I've now spoken with customer service 4 times (once they called me) to get this receipt.

 

We also received our $250 vouchers for a future cruise today and, with a great deal of difficulty, have a cruise booked. There is still some confussion over whether I mail the cert. to my TA who in turn mails them to RCI or if I just mail them direct myself. C&A has told me to send them in myself but, they're not giving me a lot of confidence that getting these cert. applied won't still get messed up. They will be copied front and back and sent in cert. mail return receipt requested. After everything I've been through, it wouldn't surprise me that they get lost.

 

There were a lot of conditions associated with these certificates.

They must be used with RCI. The length of cruise can not be > 12 nights. The catagory must be the same as the original booking. The cruise must begin before 12/15/2005. They can not be used as a deposit and will be deducted from the final payment. They are not redeemable for inaugural cruises or holiday sailings.

 

Seems like a lot of strings attached for a goodwill gesture. My bet is, a lot of these never get used and will lessen the impact on RCI.

 

At least now I can finally file the insurance claim and see how it gets handled.

[wl2cruise]

I got a 100 voucher for a seven night cruise only. I called a rci to book a 14 night cruise i just told oim i had a 100 voucher if i could use it he said yes i asked for his name mailed in the voucher they later sent me a letter saying the voucher was not applicable for my cruise. I gave them name of the rci rep and date i called and told them he agreed to honor the voucher. They said they would investagate this and would contact me back.They sent me aletter a month later honoring the voucher. I hope this info helps you.

[jbond]

Today I received a phone call from my insurance company to tell me that the $1400 airfare would be reimbursed. That, together with the $170 RCI has reimbursed me for the phone calls and transportation has covered all my out of pocket expenses. We have also received a $250 pp voucher for a future RCI cruise that we may or maynot use. For me, the bottom line is, why would RCI, a major cruise organization, screw up so badly in this situation?

This was a great opportunity for RCI to excel and they fell flat on their faces. They had nothing to lose, only to win and yet they grasped defeat from the jaws of victoryWe will cruise RCI again, but the lies and total lack of customer service will take a long time to forget.

Ironically, our next cruise is with Princess. They haven't screwed us yet, but neither had RCI until the Brilliance fiasco.

[dougp26364]

I got a 100 voucher for a seven night cruise only. I called a rci to book a 14 night cruise i just told oim i had a 100 voucher if i could use it he said yes i asked for his name mailed in the voucher they later sent me a letter saying the voucher was not applicable for my cruise. I gave them name of the rci rep and date i called and told them he agreed to honor the voucher. They said they would investagate this and would contact me back.They sent me aletter a month later honoring the voucher. I hope this info helps you.

 

I sort of fiugured something like that would happen. It's not unlike RCI to have one rep tell you something only to find out it's not correct. That's why I decided to follow the conditions on the certificate right down to booking the exact same catagory cabin on the the same class of ship we were on previously.

 

I'm still betting I have problems getting the discount in the end.

[Clarksfan1]

When we used our certificates for $250 off we used a travel agency. Mainly because of the reasons you stated. If it were to get lost in the mail somehow the travel agency would be responsible. Also, my travel agency said all they would have to do is send a copy or fax of the certificate to redeem the money. So reguardless of what RCCL says I would definatley use a travel agent to send in my money off. But I had no problems when redeeming my certificates. Hope I can say the same for you.

 

P.S. I wrote a very friendly letter to RCCL explaining I would like to use my certificates on a 7 night cruise. (they were only good for 3/4 night) and they sent me back 2 new certificates worth $300 each and told me they were good for any length cruise.

[Aubiecruiser]

Are you all sure you didn't sign up for the new Amazing Race excursion????

:D

Aubie

[dougp26364]

Next instalment for this lovely mess RCI is making of the Brilliance episode.

 

These certificates are proving to be every bit as frustrating as trying to get home from Barcelona.

 

First, the TA calls RCI to find out EXACTLY how they are to be redeemed. He's given a phone number for me to call (since I have the cert's and I'm in KS, he's in AZ) to give the information off the cert's to RCI.

 

I do this and am told "That's not the way it works," the TA must turn them in. I explain that the TA has been told otherwise, given this number for ME to call to give RCI the info on the cert's. That the TA is in AZ and I'm in KS.

 

I'm then given an address and told to MAIL the cert's in but.......be sure to make a copy of them, front and back (there is NOTHING on the back), before mailing them. (no kidding? copy them in case RCI LOSES them)

 

I call the TA and tell him what RCI has told me.

 

Before I can get them in the mail the next day, the TA calls me back and says RCI now tells him I need to fax the cert's to them and they'll take care of it right then. He asks that I call him as soon as I've faxed them to RCI. Good thing I hadn't been to the post office. I was planning on sending them registered, insured, signed return receipt to RCI.

 

I fax them to RCI and leave a message for the TA that I've done so.

 

Later that night I get another phone call from the TA. NOW RCI has told him that I must send him the cert's and he has to take care of it before I can receive the discount.

 

This is sort of what I expected in the first place but, once again, RCI has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they haven't got a friggin' clue what they're doing. I've decided to wait out the day to see if there's any other "insturctions" RCI decides to change.

[Sharon's Sharin]

I just subscribed to this thread... I *have* to find out how this drama/suspense/intrigue plans out!

 

Thanks for the well-thought out post (even down to the times that incidents took place). This needs to go down in the record books.

[dougp26364]

Today I received a phone call from my insurance company to tell me that the $1400 airfare would be reimbursed. That, together with the $170 RCI has reimbursed me for the phone calls and transportation has covered all my out of pocket expenses. We have also received a $250 pp voucher for a future RCI cruise that we may or maynot use. For me, the bottom line is, why would RCI, a major cruise organization, screw up so badly in this situation?

This was a great opportunity for RCI to excel and they fell flat on their faces. They had nothing to lose, only to win and yet they grasped defeat from the jaws of victoryWe will cruise RCI again, but the lies and total lack of customer service will take a long time to forget.

Ironically, our next cruise is with Princess. They haven't screwed us yet, but neither had RCI until the Brilliance fiasco.

 

There is a post on the role call thread by another member who had Travelguard insurance. Their claim was denied for the reason that the fisherman's strike was not a legal strike.

 

I think you had CSA insurance didn't you Jbond?

 

I haven't received a decision from our insurance company yet, which is Travelsafe. I did call them and they received the claim on 12/15/05. If you remember correctly, this trip ended on 10/27 and we returned home on 10/29. It took RCI that long to get the last piece of paper I needed, the receipt for their charter flight, to turn in a completed claim. IMO, it's ridiculous to have to wait THAT LONG for a simple receipt. Not to mention that I had to call several times just to get them to send me one.

 

I believe Travelguard is the company RCI uses for the insurance company they sell. I'm pretty sure it's what the TA's I use push. At any rate, if anyone doesn't think it makes a difference what company you use, here's a good example that it does.

 

Each company has different exclusions or named perils that they'll pay for. You have to look the policy over pretty carefully to make sure you're getting the coverage you want. I have to admit, I'm guilty of not reading the coverage all that great when I've purchased. I've been mainly concerned with the really large medical bills that could bankrupt a person. From now on, I'll pay a little closer attention to named perils or exclusions on all of the coverages.

[smrtypnts]

Yeah, but even so, who would ever guess that an illegal strike would be excluded? If I read every single word of my contract, and it mentioned payment for a "legal" strike, it would never occur to me that a strike could be considered "illegal"!!! And, I'm sure that's just one example. I'll bet there are plenty of things within the various contracts that wouldn't occur to me as weird or not meeting my own criteria.

 

Good luck to all on this overwhelming issue.

[dougp26364]

I think the biggest differences between policy's are that some are named perils, which means they will only pay if it's listed in the policy. Others are more comprehensive and only list what's excluded from coverage. IMO, it would be a lot easier to get a policy that covered most or all situations except for what was listed as an exclusion.

 

Most of us are bargain hunters. It's no bargain if the coverage doesn't pay out because what went wrong wasn't a named peril in the policy.

[jbond]

Yes, I used CSA. Really no problems, just minor issues like I have to do all the calling, they don't keep you updated. But they have approved my claim. The bad news is they sent my check to another person and I got her check. They did call about that. We should, hopefully, get it resolved soon.

My policy stated coverage for unannounced strikes by industrial organizations. They did ask when we found out about the strike. It was obviously after we started the cruise and so it qualified as unannounced.

[cruiseco]

I think the biggest differences between policy's are that some are named perils, which means they will only pay if it's listed in the policy. Others are more comprehensive and only list what's excluded from coverage. IMO, it would be a lot easier to get a policy that covered most or all situations except for what was listed as an exclusion.

 

Most of us are bargain hunters. It's no bargain if the coverage doesn't pay out because what went wrong wasn't a named peril in the policy.

 

A huge problem with those buying travel insurance is not reading all of the details that apply to any specific coverage. For example Travelex covers for strikes:

 

"An Organized Labor Strike that causes complete cessation of travel services for at least 48 consecutive hours; "

 

Of course, everyone thinks they know what a strike is but until you find out what the plan thinks a strike is you're just guessing. You need to find the plan's definitions sections and look there. This is the Travelex definition of a strike:

 

"Organized Labor Strike" means any stoppage of work: a) as a result of a combined effect of workers which was unannounced and unpublished at the time this certificate was purchased; and b) which interferes with the normal departure and arrival of a Common Carrier. It does not include a general strike whereby all or most of the workers of a country, state, province, city or town cease work."

 

Here's Travel Guard's strike coverage:

 

"Strike resulting in complete cessation of travel services at the point of departure and Destination"

 

And here's their definition:

 

"Strike" means a stoppage of work (a) announced, organized and sanctioned by a Labor Union and (b) which interferes with the normal departure and arrival of a common carrier. Included in the definition of Strike are work slowdowns and sickouts."

 

As you can see, depending on what plan you buy the same workplace action may be covered and it may be excluded. Until you read the definitions you won't know.

 

Comparing the two it's obvious that Travel Guard's coverage is better in several ways.

 

#1 It doesn't have the 48-hour minimum time restriction.

#2 It includes work slowdowns and sick-outs, not just full stoppages.

 

But it does have to have the official sanction of a labor union.

[dougp26364]

Comparing the two it's obvious that Travel Guard's coverage is better in several ways.

 

#1 It doesn't have the 48-hour minimum time restriction.

#2 It includes work slowdowns and sick-outs, not just full stoppages.

 

But it does have to have the official sanction of a labor union.

 

An interesting observation in that one of the cruisers posting to the Meet and Mingle thread had Travelguard and they, to date, are the one insurance company that has denied the claim. Their reason was it was an illegal strike.

 

So, while it might be "obvious" that they're the better coverage when attempting to understand the legal jargon, in the end they've turned out to be the lessor of the two when compared to CSA.

 

Interesting that the definintion of slow down and sickouts is in their package but when the fisherman went on an "illegal" strike, this wasn't covered.

 

I believe Travelguard has two or three levels of coverage and I'm not sure which policy our fellow passenger had with them. It's very important to read the definitions of perils/coverages but, they can be very difficult to understand and trying to read the literal translation can be confusing.

 

For most of us, it's not until we actually have to file a claim that we learn the true extent of what's covered and what's not.

[dougp26364]

Forgot to mention what I originally came back to this thread for. We had been promised a "free gift" for our troubles with CS. A few days ago, one RCI robe arrived. I thought it odd they would send only one robe when there were two of us. Today, the second robe arrived. Funny that they didn't both get here at the same time but, at least they sent two instead of just one.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Forgot to mention what I originally came back to this thread for. We had been promised a "free gift" for our troubles with CS. A few days ago, one RCI robe arrived. I thought it odd they would send only one robe when there were two of us. Today, the second robe arrived. Funny that they didn't both get here at the same time but, at least they sent two instead of just one.

 

Thanks for keeping us updated. The robes were a nice gesture and I'm glad you finally got two of them ;)

 

###