Call from my MSC concierge

[NCTribeFan]

My TA won't work with MSC.  The TA I used before this one also said he won't work with them, so I've been booking my own, either online or calling direct.

 

Several weeks ago, I had a voicemail from a woman saying she was my "concierge" and wanted to remind me that I had two FCCs available for use.  Uh, OK.  I didn't know there was any such thing as a sales concierge. 

 

When I saw the NYE sale, I decided to have a look and see what was available.  I'm on my first Celebrity cruise in April for 5 days.  Since I hate to fly for such a short cruise, I decided to go online and see if there was anything that I could book and use one of my FCCs.  Turns out Seashore was departing that afternoon when Summit returns.  Price was reasonable (although quite a bit more than my original booking on Armonia that was cancelled).  Since that sale was supposed to be ending on 1/4, I called her number but got a voicemail that she was on vacation until later that week. 

 

So I called the regular MSC number and got a guy named Matt.  Now, I'm one of those people who knows exactly what she wants before she called to book.  I do a mock booking and look at deck plans so I know what cabin I want and exactly how much the fare is going to be.  Well, Matt wasn't getting the same amount that I was seeing.  And he was insisting that my FCC to be applied was only the actual fare and that the "bonus" 25% portion of the FCC would be an OBC.  Un, no, Matt, that's not what is stated in my cancellation email, which I had pulled up on my laptop.

 

In the end, he got to the same balance I thought it should be.  I then repeated my email address for him three times since he kept reading it back incorrectly.  I also requested that MSC just refund the 2nd, small FCC I had since I knew I wasn't going to be able to squeeze in a 10th cruise for 2022.

 

Well, I never received the email confirmations.  Guess Matt never did get my email correct (why would he need it?  He had my voyager account available?).

 

Final payment was due about 10 days later.  When I went online to have a look, to make sure my booking was really there and check the final payment due date, it showed a different balance.  I did the math and it looked like he had not applied the Voyager discount.  Sigh.

 

So, I called this "concierge" for help.  And she was helpful!  It was a very pleasant experience.  I gave her my booking number and she immediately said that he hadn't applied the discount and, yes, he had messed up the email.  Oh, and it's a 5+15% now.  When I pulled that up, it showed the 5+15 but only with the base fare, now with the drinks/wi-fi package.  She applied it anyway.

 

Let's just say that I'm very happy that I've been assigned a sales person to work with.  I use my TA for most bookings, but have my guy at HAL that I use to book my casino cruises, since I don't like to bother my regular TA for a "free" booking.  I'd never seen any mention on these boards of MSC having personal cruise consultants, so it was a nice surprise to discover that I have a contact and that she seems to be very competent.

[Rhea98]

That sounds like who I need to talk to. Did she send the new paperwork immediately? Does it show correctly online? Did she straighten out the FCC issues? 

[ready2cruzagain]

1 hour ago, NCTribeFan said:

My TA won't work with MSC.  The TA I used before this one also said he won't work with them, so I've been booking my own, either online or calling direct.

 

Several weeks ago, I had a voicemail from a woman saying she was my "concierge" and wanted to remind me that I had two FCCs available for use.  Uh, OK.  I didn't know there was any such thing as a sales concierge. 

 

When I saw the NYE sale, I decided to have a look and see what was available.  I'm on my first Celebrity cruise in April for 5 days.  Since I hate to fly for such a short cruise, I decided to go online and see if there was anything that I could book and use one of my FCCs.  Turns out Seashore was departing that afternoon when Summit returns.  Price was reasonable (although quite a bit more than my original booking on Armonia that was cancelled).  Since that sale was supposed to be ending on 1/4, I called her number but got a voicemail that she was on vacation until later that week. 

 

So I called the regular MSC number and got a guy named Matt.  Now, I'm one of those people who knows exactly what she wants before she called to book.  I do a mock booking and look at deck plans so I know what cabin I want and exactly how much the fare is going to be.  Well, Matt wasn't getting the same amount that I was seeing.  And he was insisting that my FCC to be applied was only the actual fare and that the "bonus" 25% portion of the FCC would be an OBC.  Un, no, Matt, that's not what is stated in my cancellation email, which I had pulled up on my laptop.

 

In the end, he got to the same balance I thought it should be.  I then repeated my email address for him three times since he kept reading it back incorrectly.  I also requested that MSC just refund the 2nd, small FCC I had since I knew I wasn't going to be able to squeeze in a 10th cruise for 2022.

 

Well, I never received the email confirmations.  Guess Matt never did get my email correct (why would he need it?  He had my voyager account available?).

 

Final payment was due about 10 days later.  When I went online to have a look, to make sure my booking was relly there and check the final payment due date, it showed a different balance.  I did the math and it looked like he had not applied the Voyager discount.  Sigh.

 

So, I called this "concierge" for help.  And she was helpful!  It was a very pleasant experience.  I gave her my booking number and she immediately said that he hadn't applied the discount and, yes, he had messed up the email.  Oh, and it's a 5+15% now.  When I pulled that up, it showed the 5+15 but only with the base fare, now with the drinks/wi-fi package.  She applied it anyway.

 

Let's just say that I'm very happy that I've been assigned a sales person to work with.  I use my TA for most bookings, but have my guy at HAL that I use to book my casino cruises, since I don't like to bother my regular TA for a "free" booking.  I'd never seen any mention on these boards of MSC having personal cruise consultants, so it was a nice surprise to discover that I have a contact and that she seems to be very competent.

I want a concierge to give me my cabin back!

[kelleherdl]

I know MSC USA sales did take some of their more experienced in-house agents and tasked them with clearing out the ‘expiring’ FCC’s.  I know because I got one of these cold calls from an in-house agent I know.  I appreciated getting the reminder cold call.  My experience was similar to NCTribeFan.  I got a nicely discounted offer that made the FCC more valuable than the fare online.

 

Dennis

[NCTribeFan]

She cleared everything up and did it immediately.  I got the email confirmations before we were even off the phone.  The FCC refund I requested showed up on my credit card in about 3 days.  I was pretty amazed.  Getting me the 5+15 dropped my final balance down to only a couple hundred $$s. 

 

When I went online to make my final payment, my res wouldn't come up.  I never wait until the last minute because I'm always paranoid something will go wrong, it won't go through and my cruise will get cancelled.  Anyway, I called her and she said the system was down.  She couldn't access anything, either.

 

About 10 minutes later, she called to let me know the system was back up.

 

Really good service.  I hope she sticks around and that next time I'm ready to book, I can go through her! 

[dexddd]

I got a call in December from a special agent.  Went to VM.  We didn't have any fcc but maybe they were confused since it took them 16 months to give our fcc.

 

Since they can't respond to my emails or calls, I gave them the same treatment.

[Fogfog]

A great agent is worth their weight in gold.

 

[FrostyJoe]

On 1/23/2022 at 3:43 PM, kelleherdl said:

I know MSC USA sales did take some of their more experienced in-house agents and tasked them with clearing out the ‘expiring’ FCC’s.  I know because I got one of these cold calls from an in-house agent I know.  I appreciated getting the reminder cold call.  My experience was similar to NCTribeFan.  I got a nicely discounted offer that made the FCC more valuable than the fare online.

 

Dennis

Just curious, do you know if FCC gets refunded back as cash if not used?

 

If not, I wonder what’s in it for MSC to remind people to use the FCC unless they’re just trying to get bodies on board to spend $ on the ship to lessen the sunk costs of crew pay, fuel and other 

that’s nice of them either way though. Especially with the specialty agent like that helping y’all out 

[Rhea98]

16 hours ago, FrostyJoe said:

Just curious, do you know if FCC gets refunded back as cash if not used?

 

If not, I wonder what’s in it for MSC to remind people to use the FCC unless they’re just trying to get bodies on board to spend $ on the ship to lessen the sunk costs of crew pay, fuel and other 

that’s nice of them either way though. Especially with the specialty agent like that helping y’all out 

It probably depends on the conditions given at the time the credit was issued. When I actually received the FCC on Nov 5, 2021, the email included this: "As an added level of comfort, if your Future Cruise Credit is unused by April 30, 2022, you will automatically receive a full refund equal to the original amount paid." The option to request a refund was given in both emails: cancellation and FCC arrival.

 

Because the conditions of my cancellation were NOT the conditions given when the FCC email arrived, I don't know what would have happened. I did book another cruise with 1K remaining which was refunded to my credit cards. It seems the conditions of the cancellation email, as far as compensation, in any case, were the actual conditions. 

[FrostyJoe]

1 hour ago, Rhea98 said:

It probably depends on the conditions given at the time the credit was issued. When I actually received the FCC on Nov 5, 2021, the email included this: "As an added level of comfort, if your Future Cruise Credit is unused by April 30, 2022, you will automatically receive a full refund equal to the original amount paid." The option to request a refund was given in both emails: cancellation and FCC arrival.

 

Because the conditions of my cancellation were NOT the conditions given when the FCC email arrived, I don't know what would have happened. I did book another cruise with 1K remaining which was refunded to my credit cards. It seems the conditions of the cancellation email, as far as compensation, in any case, were the actual conditions. 

Wow, I'm extremely surprised that at least some folks would be refunded.  Perhaps it's some sort of archane/pro-consumer European rule they got to follow

[Rhea98]

1 hour ago, FrostyJoe said:

Wow, I'm extremely surprised that at least some folks would be refunded.  Perhaps it's some sort of archane/pro-consumer European rule they got to follow

This was a cruise MSC cancelled (like dozens of others--hundreds, probably) if that makes any difference. The first cruise MSC canceled was for fall of 2019. It was canceled before final payment so only deposit paid. We were offered a refund on that, too, but took the 125%--made 398 become 426--I don't know how MSC does math.  🥴 It keeps getting more complicated with each cruise booked to replace the previously canceled one. 

[FrostyJoe]

19 minutes ago, Rhea98 said:

This was a cruise MSC cancelled (like dozens of others--hundreds, probably) if that makes any difference. The first cruise MSC canceled was for fall of 2019. It was canceled before final payment so only deposit paid. We were offered a refund on that, too, but took the 125%--made 398 become 426--I don't know how MSC does math.  🥴 It keeps getting more complicated with each cruise booked to replace the previously canceled one. 

Lol. msc told me that 5 plus 15 promotion becomes 19.000 percent 😅. I suppose it’s MSC math