MSC WebSite Bugs and Support experience

[The Tim]

My first impression of MSC hasn't been positive.  It starts with a bad bug in their web site purchasing that shows a total disregard for quality as far as the web site goes, and continues with poor customer service and an apparent lack of understanding and training in the service representatives. 

 

My wife and I are preparing for a cruise on Seaside and wanted to book the Butcher's Cut chef's experience for our anniversary dinner.  We picked our date and time, made the purchase, and then saw on the booking confirmation that the date one day earlier than we booked.  I figured I just entered the wrong date, so I cancelled it and went to book again and this is when I found the bug in their web site.

1.  Go into your booking and select "add restaurant", choose any restaurant and click "add to cart".

2.  Select the passengers attending, select the date and time, and check availability.  Once you have a date and time available click confirm.

3.  Click "proceed to checkout" and you will now see the date in the upper left is two days earlier than what you selected.  In my case the date was before my cruise even starts.  This happens with any date or restaurant.

 

That seemed really strange, first my reservation came out one day earlier and now it's showing up two days earlier as I walk through the process.  After doing this a couple of times and seeing that it happened for any restaurant and any date, I decided to call in to report the problem and see if I can book over the phone.  I explained the situation and the person told me, "lots of passengers like to book restaurants on sea days and that just means it's not available that day".  This was a very disappointing answer.  The person didn't seem to really listen to what I said and his answer didn't make any sense.  If it's not available, it should say not available when I check the availability not say it's available and then just change it to two days earlier with no regards for the cruise start date.  Furthermore he ignored the fact that it happens for any restaurant and any date.  I eventually convinced him to try it himself and he noticed the same thing, but had the audacity to say it's not a bug in the web site.  What's the point in denying that an obvious bug is a bug.  I told him it's changing the date and in some cases changes it to before the cruise starts, it's a bug!  He then suggested that I just select a date two days later than what I wanted and as long as I have a confirmation showing two days earlier (the date I want) it will be honored.  That is  a really bogus answer.  Since he says it's not a bug, that must mean they intend it to work like this, and they should say on the web site to book your reservation two days later than you really want :\.   Since his system was wrong too and I wasn't getting anywhere on the phone, I gave that bogus idea a try.  I figured I'd at least have a voucher that showed I was confirmed for the date I wanted.  I went through all the steps, selected a date two days later, clicked proceed to checkout and it showed the date I wanted (two days earlier than I selected this time), entered my payment info and completed the purchase.  When I received the booking confirmation it now showed the date just one day earlier than I selected so it still wasn't on the day I was trying to book.  I cancelled and redid it a couple of times to confirm.  So now I know why my first reservation that started all of this showed on my voucher as one day earlier.  I could just do it again one day earlier so the end result is a voucher showing the date I want but this needs to be done correctly so I'm not dealing with this nonsense on my vacation.

 

The next day I called back and this time I was going to have them book it for me over the phone.  We walked through it and checked the date each step of the way and she assured me it was the date I was trying to reserve.  I received the booking confirmation and sure enough it showed the reservation as one day earlier so the same problem is happening in their agent's booking system as well.  In addition to the date being wrong again, it also doesn't show up in "my purchases" as it would if I purchased through the web site.  It's unbelievable that MSC Cruises has this dining experience purchase system that is so flawed.  What else is screwed up if they can't even get this to work?

 

I tried a few times that day to call back and couldn't get through to someone.  Another problem in dealing with MSC is that you get very long wait times when calling in, and their phone queuing system doesn't tell you want your approximate wait time is.  In dealing with this I had to call several times, and a couple of times I waited for an hour or more before having to give up.  They do have a "call me" option where you can enter info and request for someone to call you back.  I did that a couple of times over the last week and still haven't received a call.  

 

I called again the following day and got through to a person right away, that's a good start.  I explained the situation she looked up the reservation and said it was booked for the day I was looking for.  Great, almost done.  I thought that was great news and asked her to just send the booking confirmation again so I have something with the correct date.  She sent it over and I asked her to just wait on the phone while I check it.  Sure enough, I received it and the date was again one day earlier.  When I asked what we can do to correct this because I do not want to deal with it when I'm on vacation, she became noticeably annoyed with me and wanted to rush me off the phone.  I'm glad it shows the correct date in their system but this really needs to be corrected so I have documentation of the correct date, and I don't think that is expecting much.  How do I know it will be correct on the ship or if they will even be looking at the same system.  I asked who I could talk to for getting some written assurance, again I was told it's correct in their system so I don't need to worry about it.  The more I asked to speak to someone else about it to get this resolved, the more annoyed she got with me.  I really don't think there was anything her or her manager could do, purchasing system used internally and by the web site needs to be corrected.  They should have at least acknowledged that it is not working correctly, that's the first step in getting it fixed.  Next they should have been able to produce something, even if it's a letter on a company letterhead and a screen shot, to confirm that my purchase is on the day I booked.  Yes, it may be a little work for someone but that's what happens when you have buggy systems in place for your customers and staff.

 

So the situation still isn't resolved and we're hoping it works out onboard.  I have a poor impression of MSC and haven't even started my cruise yet.  My experience with MSC customer service leads me to believe that I can't count on them for any customer service if anything goes wrong . This is our first MSC cruise and it will likely be our last.  It's a shame to say that before the cruise even starts.  

 

What has your experience been with MSC?

[Cruisergal1208]

You can only purchase the specialty restaurants in advance, not book the date and time.  That must be done once onboard.  We usually book as soon after boarding as possible.  Sorry for you experience with the MSC CS.  It's not uncommon!!

[diesel1973]

Customer Service before the cruise was OK I think because I dealt with the same agent each time. When I got on the ship it was a different story. I was lied to or accused of lying each time I dealt with them! If you you have any problem,they do what they want to do,be it right or wrong. One and done with those pirates!

[The Tim]

Thanks for your replies Cruisergal and Diesel. 

It may be that things have changed and maybe now you can book the date and time in advance.  They give you the option to choose a date and time when you purchase the specialty restaurants.  If all you can do is purchase the experience and not book the time, those steps should not exist.  Furthermore, I spoke to customer service three times and was never told that you can only purchase the experience and not book the date and time.  This does not mean you're wrong Cruisergal,  you may very well be correct and their customer service people just don't know.  They have a feature on the web site that doesn't work so I wouldn't put it passed them to put that out there when it has no purpose.   It's just a completely careless and poor customer experience.

 

Diesels comment seems consistent with what I'm experiencing.  They are rude, don't listen, and just don't seem to care.

[StolidCruiser]

28 minutes ago, The Tim said:

Diesels comment seems consistent with what I'm experiencing.  They are rude, don't listen, and just don't seem to care.

 

With that being said, will you still be giving your business to a company whose representative are rude, don't listen and just don't seem to care?

[The Tim]

54 minutes ago, StolidCruiser said:

 

With that being said, will you still be giving your business to a company whose representative are rude, don't listen and just don't seem to care?

Unfortunately yes, the cruise is already booked and paid for and the family is looking forward to it.  I would say I don't need their premier restaurant if it's this much trouble but my wife is looking forward to it and doesn't need to know how much trouble they are to deal with.  Our next cruise will be with another company unless I'm super impressed on the cruise.

[diesel1973]

IMHO their "Premium" Restaurants were not that premium and not worth the extra cost. Teppinaki (sp.?) was the only one that was decent. I was very excited about going on this new ship and boy was I let down. The ship is beautiful but the service and food quality leaves something to be desired. Some say that things are improving but some of the recent comments on here prove otherwise. Good luck on your cruise and comment on your experience when you return.

[deliver42]

I've sailed with MSC twice, and while the on ship experience was good, getting anywhere with a problem is ridiculous. No more MSC. Between their price increases, cutbacks on drinks, charging on Ocean Cay for a buffet, and lousy service, not to mention rude customer service reps, my money will be spent elsewhere.

[jean87510]

I can say that by far they have the worst website and longest wait times for a CSR. The msc cheerleaders on cruise critic will probably belittle you and snidely comment that Americans are soooooo impatient and it's not a big deal...etc...as I've read in the past. I had canceled my seaside cruise based on the terrible experiences I had with their CSR department, website and way too many bad reviews of unresolved issues on other websites as well as this one. I booked with another cruise line and its night and day with both speaking to someone and navigating a booking. I understand your aggravation because I went through it. Theres no reason in 2019 that a website can be this pathetic and that the land IT department is completely clueless.  

[Markanddonna]

My initial experience prior to the cruise was pretty frustrating with the wonky website. The CS reps were polite, but most were not able to resolve problems. Things didn't get fixed until two days before final payment when I told them I wanted to pay but would not unless the problems were resolved. A supervisor took over and the website and all experiences since then were great!

 

Our actual cruise was wonderful and the onboard CS reps were outstanding. We now have three more MSC cruises booked. A positive outcome didn't seem likely a year ago, but it happened!

[DCGuy64]

13 hours ago, jean87510 said:

I can say that by far they have the worst website and longest wait times for a CSR. The msc cheerleaders on cruise critic will probably belittle you and snidely comment that Americans are soooooo impatient and it's not a big deal...etc...as I've read in the past. I had canceled my seaside cruise based on the terrible experiences I had with their CSR department, website and way too many bad reviews of unresolved issues on other websites as well as this one. I booked with another cruise line and its night and day with both speaking to someone and navigating a booking. I understand your aggravation because I went through it. Theres no reason in 2019 that a website can be this pathetic and that the land IT department is completely clueless.  

I wouldn't call myself a "cheerleader" for MSC, but I do think it's important to take the entire cruise experience into consideration, not JUST the website. We typically have a TA book our trips so our experience with the website is somewhat limited. Similarly, I've only ever called MSC a couple of times, and both times I heard from someone with 2 minutes-the last time I was on hold for something like 30 seconds. Of course, your experience might be different. Maybe it's my browser, but FWIW I find RCI's website horribly constructed-there are frequently lines of text and photos that bleed over or overlap onto one another. For me, what counts is the experience on board, more so than the website or phone. MSC definitely isn't perfect in this regard, but overall we had an excellent time on our first MSC cruise and are looking forward to another later this year. I should note that my wife and I always have a good time on our cruises, we are grateful to have the vacation time and to have delicious food and drink at our beck and call all of the time. But if website bugs and customer service issues are enough to make you quit a cruise line, that's certainly your prerogative and there are lots of competitors out there to choose from. 

[The Tim]

I certainly appreciate all the feedback and point of views here.   They are very helpful. Despite my pre cruise experience, I'm looking forward to the onboard experience.  I manage software engineers and a development of a few web based applications, so I'm particularly critical of the online experience, but I'm sure everyone can agree that the web site they give us to use should work correctly.  The experience we have with a web site doesn't just show up there.  Many people have to do a lot of work to create it and get it to show up in front of us.  When they put something out there that just changes dates, that's incredibly careless and it just shows that they don't care.  When customer service doesn't know about it, doesn't care to acknowledge it, and just doesn't care, that reflects poorly on the company.  Even worse is that I'm learning that the reservation date and time is meaningless anyway, yet nobody I talked to at MSC told me that.  Apparently you just buy the experience and need to reserve the date and time on board as someone mentioned on this thread.   The voucher was sent to me a couple of days later and the last line says "Our Maitre d'hotel will assist with planning and reservation of your prepaid experience."  It seems people went through a lot of work to put a faulty reservation feature on their web site that is completely meaningless, and customer service may know nothing about it.  MSC is in the cruise business not the web development business, so I hope they do a much better job onboard.

 

[mdxter]

I am on the MSC Opera now (June 23 - June 30) and I can attest that the MSC on board customer representatives are non existence. We have been on 9 Carnival and 1 RC  cruises and not one complaint until this cruise. MSC is as bad as people say. Where do i start? We will write a complete review and we get back. If you are contemplating an MSC cruise, don't do it. Trust me.. you will regret it. 

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, The Tim said:

I certainly appreciate all the feedback and point of views here.   They are very helpful. Despite my pre cruise experience, I'm looking forward to the onboard experience.  I manage software engineers and a development of a few web based applications, so I'm particularly critical of the online experience, but I'm sure everyone can agree that the web site they give us to use should work correctly.  The experience we have with a web site doesn't just show up there.  Many people have to do a lot of work to create it and get it to show up in front of us.  When they put something out there that just changes dates, that's incredibly careless and it just shows that they don't care.  When customer service doesn't know about it, doesn't care to acknowledge it, and just doesn't care, that reflects poorly on the company.  Even worse is that I'm learning that the reservation date and time is meaningless anyway, yet nobody I talked to at MSC told me that.  Apparently you just buy the experience and need to reserve the date and time on board as someone mentioned on this thread.   The voucher was sent to me a couple of days later and the last line says "Our Maitre d'hotel will assist with planning and reservation of your prepaid experience."  It seems people went through a lot of work to put a faulty reservation feature on their web site that is completely meaningless, and customer service may know nothing about it.  MSC is in the cruise business not the web development business, so I hope they do a much better job onboard.

 

My sense (not knowing you, it's hard to say here) is that your experience onboard will be better than online and on the phone. Why do I say that? Well, when we booked our first (and so far only) cruise with MSC, it was on the Seaside. The ship's inaugural cruise was in December 2017 and our cruise was in October 2018. The first few months' reviews were replete with complaints about sewage smells, understaffed bars, clueless waiters and bartenders, etc. All of the things that experienced cruisers tell me are typical of brand new ships. When we sailed in October, we smelled nothing gross, and for the most part the service was excellent. Was it perfect? No, but it was pretty darned good. And certainly worlds away from the horror stories I read in January-March of 2018. I don't fault you at all for getting a negative impression about the entire company based on your experience with booking the dining experience. In fact, that's exactly how I'd feel, too. I just know that it's not a logical conclusion. I've had some bad experiences that I assumed were indicative of a whole company's attitude or incompetence, and found out later I was mistaken. I've been a customer of a certain large online retailer since 1999 and I've threatened to leave them before based on some slip-ups, but they've been far outweighed by the good. Our trip on the Seaside was fantastic, but the early reviews were not. I don't know when your sailing date is (I couldn't find it in your post, anyway), is it coming up very soon, i.e. in the next few weeks? If not, there should be time to iron this out. I'm guessing you did try clearing your cache, deleting temporary internet files, cookies, and the like. Sometimes when I have issues with Internet bugs, there's a computer error to blame! 😄 But you said the same issue was happening on the phone with the MSC customer service representative, so it sounds like a systemwide problem. I know it's too late now, but I HIGHLY recommend using a travel agent in the future. Ours is GREAT. He always takes care of us and we've never had this kind of snafu before (knock on wood!). 😉 I also think the experience with live people onboard the ship is MUCH better than computers or call center personnel. We had an annoying issue twice with Costa and both times it got straightened out onboard and we had a great time. Anyway, sorry this post is so long, I just want to say give MSC a chance to prove itself and don't base the whole company on this one issue (as annoying as it clearly has been). We got to know the captain personally (OK, it helps that I'm fluent in Italian 😁) but they REALLY want to get feedback from the passengers, and I never had that happen with Carnival, Costa, or Royal Caribbean. The captain asked us several times during the cruise about how things were going, and I was honest with him. That goes a long way with me. 

[GazZebo]

read other threads about web check-n issues etc.... I emailed their support and got a reply about 6 days after. then I had to call them - they were very helpful on the phone but their IT website side of things is way behind that of others

 

[jean87510]

9 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

I wouldn't call myself a "cheerleader" for MSC, but I do think it's important to take the entire cruise experience into consideration, not JUST the website. We typically have a TA book our trips so our experience with the website is somewhat limited. Similarly, I've only ever called MSC a couple of times, and both times I heard from someone with 2 minutes-the last time I was on hold for something like 30 seconds. Of course, your experience might be different. Maybe it's my browser, but FWIW I find RCI's website horribly constructed-there are frequently lines of text and photos that bleed over or overlap onto one another. For me, what counts is the experience on board, more so than the website or phone. MSC definitely isn't perfect in this regard, but overall we had an excellent time on our first MSC cruise and are looking forward to another later this year. I should note that my wife and I always have a good time on our cruises, we are grateful to have the vacation time and to have delicious food and drink at our beck and call all of the time. But if website bugs and customer service issues are enough to make you quit a cruise line, that's certainly your prerogative and there are lots of competitors out there to choose from. 

I appreciate your feedback. I had such difficulties with multiple website problems such as linking reservations, payments missing, packages missing and reappearing plus I am reading about long lines at guest services once you board. Our problems were just endless. My situation made me not trust MSC to deliver. I have been on carnival, rccl, celebrity and Norwegian. I enjoyed myself and was really excited to try MSC. But the ludicrous wait times with the terrible music was ridiculous. I dont use a travel agent because I like to do bookings myself. I'm sure the ship and experiences are great. I lost faith in them based on my experience and reading reviews about the onboard experience with lines to resolve issues. My cruise cost $3000. I wanted to enjoy this and I didnt like one month in what I was experiencing with CSR and IT. It took 2 weeks and me deleting and resigning up for a new login in order to access my booking. That was one issue. I work all year and on my vacations and I dont need extra aggravation.  Hopefully in the future I'll hear that the kinks are gone. Then I'll try it. But until then, I'll stick with other lines.

[DCGuy64]

Hey there, I hear you. If you prefer doing the bookings yourself, that’s cool, but then you’re the one who has to deal with the buggy websites and long hold times. 😉 I’ve been traveling for a long time and for the most part, I played travel agent. And I still do, sometimes. I like the research part of the trip, you know? Deciding which places to see, talking with my wife about them, etc. But for me, having a TA means letting someone else handle the business side of things, and he has insight into things I haven’t thought of and good suggestions, discounts, perks, etc. It sounds like you want to be more hands-on throughout the process and that’s cool. Which cruise line has given you the best customer service? We’re not beholden to any one line so I’m always anxious to hear from other cruisers. It’s part of the research for me. And happy travels to you. 

[jean87510]

7 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Hey there, I hear you. If you prefer doing the bookings yourself, that’s cool, but then you’re the one who has to deal with the buggy websites and long hold times. 😉 I’ve been traveling for a long time and for the most part, I played travel agent. And I still do, sometimes. I like the research part of the trip, you know? Deciding which places to see, talking with my wife about them, etc. But for me, having a TA means letting someone else handle the business side of things, and he has insight into things I haven’t thought of and good suggestions, discounts, perks, etc. It sounds like you want to be more hands-on throughout the process and that’s cool. Which cruise line has given you the best customer service? We’re not beholden to any one line so I’m always anxious to hear from other cruisers. It’s part of the research for me. And happy travels to you. 

Definitely celebrity. Both on ship and on land. Plus their website is night and day from MSC. I have tried a travel agent once locally and an online one and they weren't much help with getting perks.  I was calling them asking about a discount I'd seen. 

[DCGuy64]

5 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Definitely celebrity. Both on ship and on land. Plus their website is night and day from MSC. I have tried a travel agent once locally and an online one and they weren't much help with getting perks.  I was calling them asking about a discount I'd seen. 

Thank you! We thought about Celebrity for our next cruise, actually, and I have a co-worker who only cruises with them. We will definitely consider them in the future. Thanks and happy cruising!

 

[stoneman56]

I haven't been able to access my account or order anything on board for 5 months now.

 

7 emails back and forth with IT about it but still unable to see anything at all, just "your email hasn't been verified" or "you have to be in your home country to access"

[lizinvan]

Me too.  Countless calls, emails, messages. same for our TA.  When you do make contact it takes them days or weeks to look into things and sometimes never get back to you. Going on 6 mo now pre, post and during first cruises with them. Did receive could of upgrades which were much appreciated sited but don’t know if this was why or totally unrelated. Voyager Club points/status accrual a mess. Also. So far only one staff member has been helpful with  that but still not completely fixed