Captains Club Customer Service Non Existent

[dabear]

I tried to call Captains club yesterday with 2 questions relating to 30th Birthday bonus and Lift & shift. After waiting for 90 minutes on the phone it was answered. As I started talking, they hung up. I emailed them asking to contact me after that experience and of course, no reply. I've tried to call again this morning early. I've been on the phone for more than 40 minutes and so far no answer. What happed to customer service ? Worse than ever. We're elite and seriously considering switching to another cruise line & cancel existing reservations.

[jelayne]

With the recent round of cancellations the call volume has increased.  Unless things have changed very recently the reps are working from home so internet and cell service is not as reliable as when in the office.  
 

If you read the boards for other cruises lines you will find long waits on hold.  Same us happening with credit card companies, called cr card earlier this week and was told 22 minute hold time.  I hung up after 2 hours. 

[Bruin Steve]

Sort of expected though, isn't it?

We are not living in typical times...

They just canceled a large number of cruises last week...and each one had thousands of people booked...and all of those people (and/or their travel agents) are trying to call...canceling bookings, booking replacement cruises, lots of questions.  Many of us have situations which cannot be shoehorned into the standard answers...And, at the same time, they still have the ordinary non-Covid related business--like people just looking to book cruises for a year or two down the road.

 

And, they can't just hire a lot of extra help--those people would have to be trained...and your entire staff has to work remotely...

 

We just all need to learn to be a little more patient...

Edited May 29, 2020 by Bruin Steve

[TeeRick]

I think another reason is that some shore-side staff has been laid off and/or not coming into the office.  Just like every facet of life these days.

[mahdnc]

This was published on May 27:

 

Royal Caribbean announced today it has rehired over 100 employees that were laid off in April 2020 in order to help with the significantly long phone hold times.

https://www.*****.com/sites/default/files/fb/phone-call-center.jpg

Royal Caribbean Senior Vice President of Sales and Trade Support & Service Vicki Freed made the announcement during a webinar with travel advisors that it was aware of very long hold times, and the cruise line decided to bring back employees to help with the issue.

"I do want you to know that we're not just talking about it, that we're doing something about it. And over the weekend, we've called back over a hundred people that we had to lay off to come back, call center people and help us in the call centers. So many of them came in on Sunday and Monday of this week. They're in training right now because there will have been more suspensions since we had our layoff and they should be up on the phones this week and next week."

"So that should help on the long hold times. And again, I sincerely apologize to our value travel partners because this is not the kind of service we want to provide you. We want to give you excellent service."

A separate email sent to a travel agent specified that Royal Caribbean hired back 130 reservation agents.

https://www.*****.com/sites/default/files/styles/500px/public/blog-images/hire-back-letter.jpg?itok=MIn6FuAS

Thanks to Katina Bradley for providing this email

Royal Caribbean has experienced longer than normal wait times due to the "snowball" effect of multiple cruise cancellation announcements, that has overwhelmed call centers. Compounding the issue was the lay offs the company made last month, which reduced call capacity

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by mahdnc

[C-Dragons]

I had an issue last week that required calling X and was on hold for 2 hours. I didn’t hang up.

Why do you think you should get preferential treatment due to your “status”? 

[Fouremco]

It's incredible to see that some people can live in isolation from all of the realities of living through this pandemic.

[Lady Arwen]

49 minutes ago, dabear said:

I tried to call Captains club yesterday with 2 questions relating to 30th Birthday bonus and Lift & shift. After waiting for 90 minutes on the phone it was answered. As I started talking, they hung up. I emailed them asking to contact me after that experience and of course, no reply. I've tried to call again this morning early. I've been on the phone for more than 40 minutes and so far no answer. What happed to customer service ? Worse than ever. We're elite and seriously considering switching to another cruise line & cancel existing reservations.

I doubt if your Elite status would get your call answered any faster.  Please try to be patient or try calling in the early morning.  This is not just a Celebrity issue, but  a cruise industry issue.  This is our new normal and we need to adjust our expectations.

[scouseronline]

5 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

I doubt if your Elite status would get your call answered any faster.  Please try to be patient or try calling in the early morning.  This is not just a Celebrity issue, but  a cruise industry issue.  This is our new normal and we need to adjust our expectations.

 

I'm sorry but a 2 hour wait to get through to the cruise line should not be accepted as the "new normal".

 

This has been going on for quite a while now, so the cruise lines are aware of the issue. How about the cruise lines recognize this and hire more staff ? 

[sippican]

Getting preferential treatment on the phone is clearly not listed as a loyalty benefit. If you had a good travel agent, they'd be able to get answers to your questions. FWIW, even the travel agents are waiting hours upon hours to get their calls answered. Hope you find a cruiseline that better suites your needs.

 

 

[cruisestitch]

Thousands of customers, dozens of cancelled cruises, across all cruise lines.  Just what did you expect, Dabear?  

[Lady Arwen]

7 minutes ago, scouseronline said:

 

I'm sorry but a 2 hour wait to get through to the cruise line should not be accepted as the "new normal".

 

This has been going on for quite a while now, so the cruise lines are aware of the issue. How about the cruise lines recognize this and hire more staff ? 

You really do need to adjust your expectations.  You do realize what’s been happening the past few months to the cruise industry?   I guess I’m just surprised when people think the world revolves around them and their needs.

[C-Dragons]

15 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

Thousands of customers, dozens of cancelled cruises, across all cruise lines.  Just what did you expect, Dabear?  

Yes, and that could translate into tens of thousands of reservations for the RCCL brand alone. I feel for the agents who have to deal with the enormity of work involved.

Edited May 29, 2020 by C-Dragons

[Lady Arwen]

1 minute ago, C-Dragons said:

Yes, and that could translate into tens of thousands of reservations for the RCC brand alone. I feel for the agents who have to deal with the enormity of work involved.

Totally agree!

[pumpkin 11]

7 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Totally agree!

Me too! Cheers to normalcy coming soon hopefully

 

[bigbenboys]

This is why I use a cruise specialist. I either call or email her. I just dont see the benefit of doing it all yourself. Does Celebrity give better deals to those that book themselves?

[Pinboy]

1 hour ago, dabear said:

I tried to call Captains club yesterday with 2 questions relating to 30th Birthday bonus and Lift & shift. After waiting for 90 minutes on the phone it was answered. As I started talking, they hung up. I emailed them asking to contact me after that experience and of course, no reply. I've tried to call again this morning early. I've been on the phone for more than 40 minutes and so far no answer. What happed to customer service ? Worse than ever. We're elite and seriously considering switching to another cruise line & cancel existing reservations.

I hear ya !!!  It's extremely frustrating and I understand . 

Best advice--- Don't pay any attention to some of " smart -ass " comments people are posting , as in :

"Getting preferential treatment on the phone is clearly not listed as a loyalty benefit "

"Hope you find a cruiseline that better suites your needs".

" Why do you think you should get preferential treatment due to your “status”? "

Now, here come the " Who are you to give advice ??? " comments .

[Bo1953]

26 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

I hear ya !!!  It's extremely frustrating and I understand . 

Best advice--- Don't pay any attention to some of " smart -ass " comments people are posting , as in :

"Getting preferential treatment on the phone is clearly not listed as a loyalty benefit "

"Hope you find a cruiseline that better suites your needs".

" Why do you think you should get preferential treatment due to your “status”? "

Now, here come the " Who are you to give advice ??? " comments .

Each or us do provide advice based on how we view the situation, so what you have posted is just fine, to be sure, IMJ...

 

Not to worry about what 'may' come comments... LOL

 

We all, or at least most of us, do understand the situation at hand is frustrating and then some.

 

Some of us understand that the comments made by the OP may have been better served under one of the previous threads about this or clearly label the thread as "RANT"... then we would have overlooked it altogether.

 

bon voyage

Edited May 29, 2020 by Bo1953

[dabear]

First , I'm sorry that I mentioned that we're elite. I didn't mean or expect preferential treatment.Don't read into it.

Second, I realize that we're in very strange times due to covet 19. That still doesn't excuse poor communications. I haven't been in my office for almost 2 months but I and my partners attempt to service our clients & reply to their calls. I also emailed X after they hung up with me & asked for a response. What happened here, another failure.

Third, why doesn't RCCL install the call back program that airlines use. It works well & you don't loose your place or patience !

 

We like X, but don't care to read cheerleader comments. Expecting reasonable communications is not unreasonable.

 Pinboy: I suggest you learn the English language "suites" your needs and after 25 cruises  have met mostly nice people.I think we're better suited for X as a very friendly couple than you or Sippicam.. Posts on CC are supposed to be constructive, not demeaning. Some posters love to post a lot of junk. Look at their comments and their number of posts. Get a life!

Edited May 29, 2020 by dabear

[mariners]

dauber, I understand, and have felt, the frustration with the long wait times to reach someone at Celebrity, and I've also experienced the dropped phone calls.  However, the service that I got from the Celebrity representative who answered the phone was fabulous. To do her job, it took an extensive period of time as she was working from home but still had to check with supervisors as there have been frequent changes to policies, and there are also different sales that complicate some bookings.  The representative wanted to ensure that she did everything correctly for me.  In the end, I got the changes that I wanted; I have copies of the new invoices; and she double checked to make sure that she could not get me a better "deal".  After my phone call, I understood why it is taking the representatives so long to answer other phone calls.  

 

I hope that you will have just as positive an experience when you reach someone.  

[DeltaOne]

We cancelled a Celebrity cruise in July and have received our refund.  However, back in January or February I called the Captain's Club for a price reduction.  Was told they can't adjust the price and I was transferred to the regular number.  I was surprised...if they can't do a simple price reduction then I don't need them at all.

[DogLover]

2 hours ago, dabear said:

I tried to call Captains club yesterday with 2 questions relating to 30th Birthday bonus and Lift & shift. After waiting for 90 minutes on the phone it was answered. As I started talking, they hung up. I emailed them asking to contact me after that experience and of course, no reply. I've tried to call again this morning early. I've been on the phone for more than 40 minutes and so far no answer. What happed to customer service ? Worse than ever. We're elite and seriously considering switching to another cruise line & cancel existing reservations.

I guess it's hit or miss. Two weeks ago I called the Captains Club number to have the new promotion of 10% Loyalty discount applied to our Summit sailing next fall (rebooked due to cancellation of May 28th sailing) and held for 40 minutes before reaching a representative. She was extremely helpful and even checked on the status of our refund for said cancelled sailing.

 

Yesterday, I called regarding lift and shift for a sailing I had booked a couple of weeks ago, August 28th for Alaska. (Yeah, wasn't expecting it to sail but son and DIL wanted us to join them.) Since final payment is tomorrow, decided to lift and shift (timing was great as Canada announced the extension of their port ban.) I was told the wait time would be 13 minutes, and it was. Another representative picked up after 13 minutes, assisted me to get the booking moved to July 30th next year and was as pleasant as can be.

 

FWIW, both calls were around 11am, Arizona time. Both calls were answered by reps working from home in Kansas City.

 

We are Elite as well, but don't think that has anything to do with the price of beans or the wait time for the calls. It's frustrating, but hang in there. The reps are doing the best they can in a very challenging environment.

[Bo1953]

1 minute ago, dabear said:

First , I'm sorry that I mentioned that we're elite. I didn't mean or expect preferential treatment.Don't read into it.

Second, I realize that we're in very strange times due to covet 19. That still doesn't excuse poor communications. I haven't been in my office for almost 2 months but I and my partners attempt to service our clients & reply to their calls. I also emailed X after they hung up with me & asked for a response. What happened here, another failure.

Third, why doesn't RCCL install the call back program that airlines use. It works well & you don't loose your place or patience !

 

We like X, but don't care to read cheerleader comments. Expecting reasonable communications is not unreasonable.

 

No worries, my question would be do you and your partners have thousands or even hundreds of clients trying to reach you at any one given time world-wide?

 

It has been some of our collective experience that X will send out an automated email within 48 hours acknowledging receipt of email and some sort of expected response time... imagine getting hundreds of emails hourly?

 

If your firm has an incoming volume of calls/emails to match X's and you are telling me that you respond timely to each and every inquiry via phone or email when they come in, I Am very, very, very impressed and would recommend that X/RCCL (or any other cruise line lagging at the moment) need to hire you to show them how to get it done, effectively, expeditiously and efficiently.

 

I Am sure those of us who are calling X for whatever, is not tying up the CSA's for under eight (8) minutes or so, some calls require detailed interaction such as 'which itinerary will fit under a particular program' the caller is looking for, which means upwards of 20 minutes + possibly for each call.

 

Then we need to make allowances for those from outside the US calling into the US for assistance because their local call centers cannot handle the volume .... on and on and on.

 

I concur, frustrating. I do not concur that X is at fault for trying to do all they can to respond and timely.

 

If your firm has a solid plan in place that can handle this situation with call and email volume, please share it so everyone can benefit.

 

bon voyage

[Pinboy]

8 minutes ago, dabear said:

 Pinboy: I suggest you learn the English language "suites" your needs and after 25 cruises glad we haven't met you. I think we're better suited for X as a very friendly couple than you. Posts on CC are supposed to be constructive, not demeaning.

I am on your side ---  I agreed with everything you said .

Please reread my post.

I was quoting what I read on posts that criticized you. 

Note the quotation marks ( " ) re the suites , etc.

Perhaps your comment  " I think we're better suited for X as a very friendly couple than you. ",  is out of place.

 

 

[dabear]

Just now, Pinboy said:

I am on your side ---  I agreed with everything you said .

Please reread my post.

I was quoting what I read on posts that criticized you. 

Note the quotation marks ( " ) re the suites , etc.

Perhaps your comment  " I think we're better suited for X as a very friendly couple than you. ",  is out of place.