Hurtigruten - poor customer service

[pqr]

I attempted to travel on an Antarctica cruise  with Hurtigruten in November/December 2019.  After a lot of very poor correspondence with the company we finally arrived in Santiago.  The night before the cruise and while our luggage was in Hurtigruten's care it was  stolen.  You can't go on a two week cruise in Antarctica with no luggage, so we had to come home – despite pressure from them to continue with the holiday.  Happily, the local agent agreed their insurance covered it and we would all be refunded.  Indeed, Hurtigruten offered $2000 to cover the luggage lost.  Given their generally poor performance prior to the cruise and absolutely appalling behaviour on the day of the theft, we weren’t really surprised that Hurtigruten went back on this.  They just ignored our emails despite having agreed that they were responsible for the luggage.  They expect someone else, anyone else, as long at it's not them, to pay for this entirely avoidable situation, which is entirely their responsibility.  The theft was clearly by someone who knew the routines.  We thought our luggage was being taken to the ship and not just to the airport.  Otherwise we would not have complied with their requirements.  To add insult to injury, they flippantly called the situation a bit of bad luck!

 

I have only commented on this obviously major issue.  There were many, many, other issues in the planning of this cruise and during the few days we were on the holiday and even before we went we were regretting it and saying we would not go with Hurtigruten again.  Interestingly, when we spoke with other passengers, they said the same thing.

 

Lesson learnt – Never travel with Hurtigruten – they are uncommunicative, uncaring, untrustworthy, disorganised, liars.  I am several thousand pounds out of pocket.  Thanks Hurtigruten!

[clo]

That is such a shame. We've sailed with them twice, to Antarctica in 2018 and Norwegian coast last year and couldn't have been more pleased. Plus they had to cancel our upcoming cruise and couldn't have been nicer or more helpful.

[HokiePoq]

OP, I'm so sorry about your luggage.  I read about that and wondered how anyone could proceed without the right clothing.  I still wonder how they did it and if they were able to land.   We should be on the Midnasol right now.   Never heard a word about the cancellation from H but I think that was the responsibility of the third party we booked with.    Ship was sailing and we were in Miami ready to fly to Argentina when the border closed.    Thank goodness we didn't get on that plane.   

[oakridger]

pqr, welcome to cruise critic.  Your timing on this complaint from your voyage several months ago is really poor considering what is going on in the world right now. Hurtigruten has been proactive on information for their operations the next few months.  Best wishes and health to you.

 

~Nancy

[Homerody]

On 3/20/2020 at 3:45 AM, oakridger said:

pqr, welcome to cruise critic.  Your timing on this complaint from your voyage several months ago is really poor considering what is going on in the world right now. Hurtigruten has been proactive on information for their operations the next few months.  Best wishes and health to you.

 

~Nancy

I agree!

 

My recent experience with cancellation and rebooking with Hurtigruen has been a fully transparent and positive customer service experience.  

 

I have not yet sailed with them, but so far - and based on how they've handled everything for my booking - I think their customer service and booking agents are doing an admirable job.  They do so,  while facing monumental challenges professionally - in the work place - with the sheer volume of impacted passengers, and doing so while dealing with untold and new pressures of the pandemic on their (and everybody else's) every day lives.