Another rant on the ##@@!# Celebrity web site

[capecodmercury]

Well, called the Captain’s Club number.  Hit the correct option to talk to a representative about my Captain’s Club account waited almost an hour and a half on hold (after they said wait time was 30 minutes), finally got a representative and she says I'm sorry, I'm with reservations, let me put you through to the Captain’s Club and threw me back on hold, presumably to the back of the queue. Oh, and then ten minutes later disconnected me.  AARRGGHH!!!!!!

 

Celebrity, if you still actually have someone monitoring this board.  Your website is beyond awful.  It maybe the worst I have ever encountered and that included dealing with the IRS.  This isn't customer service, it's customer disservice. 

 

Any suggestions on dealing with this incompetence would be greatly appreciated. 

[PTC DAWG]

What are you trying to do online? that might help someone help you.  
 

I have read calling early in the morning is better.  Good luck. 

Edited July 7, 2022 by PTC DAWG

[capecodmercury]

1 minute ago, PTC DAWG said:

What are you trying to do online? that might help someone help you.  
 

I have read calling early in the morning is better.  Good luck. 

I was calling for a couple of purposes.  To link my account to my wife's; To change my email address for Captain’s Club mailings (since changing it on line multiple times did nothing); and to ask a question regarding some missing points.  

 

Problem is, if you have any issues with the Captain’s Club, you need to talk to someone.  I didn't mind waiting, but for the menu to kick me into the wrong queue infuriates me.  

[Moonarino]

45 minutes ago, capecodmercury said:

. . . . . Oh, and then ten minutes later disconnected me.  AARRGGHH!!!!!!

 

Celebrity, if you still actually have someone monitoring this board.  Your website is beyond awful.  It maybe the worst I have ever encountered . . .

 

The specifics of your complaint were a lot more about phone service than the website (in fact nothing specific at all about that). I'll say, as I've said before, Celebrity's web services are actually a bit better than Royal or Carnival overall. As @PTC DAWG said, try calling at a different time of day, as well as on a different day. On that note I'll add that when I went out today for a "quick" trip (haha) to Wallyworld, for some very strange reason it seemed more like peak Saturday shopping hours than a Thursday mid-afternoon. Crazy doesn't even cover it. I have no idea what was going on. Maybe solar flares or something. (Not to make light of your complaint, I do thoroughly understand.)

 

Edit to add: FYI, it took me weeks of calling Princess (3 diferent numbers) to get a cruise cancelled. Just sayin'.

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Moonarino

[ORV]

5 minutes ago, Moonarino said:

The specifics of your complaint were a lot more about phone service than the website (in fact nothing specific at all about that). I'll say, as I've said before, Celebrity's web services are actually a bit better than Royal or Carnival overall. As @PTC DAWG said, try calling at a different time of day, as well as on a different day. On that note I'll add that when I went out today for a "quick" trip (haha) to Wallyworld, for some very strange reason it seemed more like peak Saturday shopping hours than a Thursday mid-afternoon. Crazy doesn't even cover it. I have no idea what was going on. Maybe solar flares or something. (Not to make light of your complaint, I do thoroughly understand.)

 

Edit to add: FYI, it took me weeks of calling Princess (3 diferent numbers) to get a cruise cancelled. Just sayin'.

 

I think their point is that if the website worked right and had correct information then there would be no need to be calling in. 

[capecodmercury]

33 minutes ago, ORV said:

I think their point is that if the website worked right and had correct information then there would be no need to be calling in. 

You are correct on that.  Although my hassle today was with the phone system, everything I was trying to do today should be possible to do on the web site. For example, there should be a simple method of linking accounts and I've never seen another website/company that doesn't provide a simple method of updating contact info such as an email address.  

 

 

[wrk2cruise]

Were you using the Captains Club number 1-844-418-6824?

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, capecodmercury said:

Well, called the Captain’s Club number.  Hit the correct option to talk to a representative about my Captain’s Club account waited almost an hour and a half on hold (after they said wait time was 30 minutes), finally got a representative and she says I'm sorry, I'm with reservations, let me put you through to the Captain’s Club and threw me back on hold, presumably to the back of the queue. Oh, and then ten minutes later disconnected me.  AARRGGHH!!!!!!

 

Celebrity, if you still actually have someone monitoring this board.  Your website is beyond awful.  It maybe the worst I have ever encountered and that included dealing with the IRS.  This isn't customer service, it's customer disservice. 

 

Any suggestions on dealing with this incompetence would be greatly appreciated. 

Leave X, possibly will solve it for you, no need to be this frustrated.

 

Do you have a TA who might be able to achieve this for you? 

 

bon voyage

Edited July 7, 2022 by Bo1953

[cruisestitch]

2 hours ago, capecodmercury said:

I was calling for a couple of purposes.  To link my account to my wife's; To change my email address for Captain’s Club mailings (since changing it on line multiple times did nothing); and to ask a question regarding some missing points.  

 

Problem is, if you have any issues with the Captain’s Club, you need to talk to someone.  I didn't mind waiting, but for the menu to kick me into the wrong queue infuriates me.  

So what’s wrong with the website that you are ranting about?

[Arizona Wildcat]

4 hours ago, capecodmercury said:

I was calling for a couple of purposes.  To link my account to my wife's; To change my email address for Captain’s Club mailings (since changing it on line multiple times did nothing); and to ask a question regarding some missing points.  

 

Problem is, if you have any issues with the Captain’s Club, you need to talk to someone.  I didn't mind waiting, but for the menu to kick me into the wrong queue infuriates me.  

Lots easier to link your accounts either at checkin for your next cruise or at customer service on board after the lines go down.

For the missing point, as others said emails work but take 4+ weeks.  I was actually again able to have the Captain's Club reb ON BOARD fix things in a minute or two.  They also gave me a small freebie to say sorry.

[WorkerBee74]

Absolutely true that their website is SUPER buggy... I'm a software tester by trade and the website is really awful for such a big company!

 

The other really awful cruise website?  Royal Caribbean.  See a trend?  Same company, obviously.

 

I am always on my cruise planner with whichever line I'm cruising a few months in advance, looking for excursion updates, specials etc.  So many 'page unavailable', buggy navigation, the fact that I cannot access my reservation unless I first go to "Settings" and then "Upcoming Cruises" - if I click "Manage Reservation" off the hop, I get "The information entered does not match our records, verify information entered is correct and try again"

 

And then,and my PERSONAL favourite when I try to pay for anything - "First and Last Name may only contain letters and HYPHENS".

I have a hyphenated first name and a hyphenated last name (yeah, I know, I am used to running it all together on all kinds of sites).  When I remove the HYPHENS, it lets me submit just fine - when it specifically says hyphens are fine but then they're not.... UGH. 

 

Carnival, for all their faults, has a way better website - come on RC, step up your game.  

[jg51]

6 hours ago, capecodmercury said:

Well, called the Captain’s Club number.  Hit the correct option to talk to a representative about my Captain’s Club account waited almost an hour and a half on hold (after they said wait time was 30 minutes), finally got a representative and she says I'm sorry, I'm with reservations, let me put you through to the Captain’s Club and threw me back on hold, presumably to the back of the queue. Oh, and then ten minutes later disconnected me.  AARRGGHH!!!!!!

 

Celebrity, if you still actually have someone monitoring this board.  Your website is beyond awful.  It maybe the worst I have ever encountered and that included dealing with the IRS.  This isn't customer service, it's customer disservice.

 

6 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

... I have read calling early in the morning is better.  Good luck. 

.

Speaking as 14-year veterans booking our own Celebrity cruises (including multiple cruises during the past year) ...

 

"Calling early in the morning" [in the "wee hours"] used to be helpful -- but definitely no more.  Several days ago, our call before 5 AM resulted in a very long wait, and, when we mentioned this, the vacation-planner said that he and one other person were the only people answering all the calls.  We now believe that "X" either (1) is having trouble hiring people ... or (2) is able to hire but unwilling to do so [due to reluctance to pay the salaries].

 

Moveover, "capecodmercury" (the OP) wanted to get help specifically from a Captain's Club representative.  There is no point in OP "calling early in the morning" to reach such a rep.  If we are not mistaken, the CClub reps don't start working until 7 or 8 AM Eastern time,  Oh, one can dial the CClub number at 3 AM, but the call will simply be transferred to one of the "skeleton crew" of ordinary vacation planners.

 

Yes, the Internet site has been pretty darned bad to us, over the past year -- and this should be embarrassing to "X."  [We have to laugh when we hear all the propaganda about the corporation winning awards!]  It's not that the site has been doing weird things to us, but rather that it is horrendously slow --  and it forces a potential guest to go through too many "screens" to reach a destination. 

 

Because of poor design (systems analysis) that shows a lack of intuition/imagination, it takes at least twice as long to do some things as it should take.  In addition, X's programmers seem to have begun to use techniques/coding/scripts that our browser cannot handle, so we have to leave home and use someone else's computer to get things done.  We can no longer even do an online check-in at home.

.

4 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

Were you using the Captains Club number 1-844-418-6824?

 

The OP's first sentence was this: "Well, called the Captain’s Club number." 😜

.

[capecodmercury]

4 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

Were you using the Captains Club number 1-844-418-6824?

I tried that and got put in the same queue as 1 800 760 0654 which I have also seen listed as the Captain’s Club number.

[capecodmercury]

2 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Lots easier to link your accounts either at checkin for your next cruise or at customer service on board after the lines go down.

For the missing point, as others said emails work but take 4+ weeks.  I was actually again able to have the Captain's Club reb ON BOARD fix things in a minute or two.  They also gave me a small freebie to say sorry.

Thank you for these tips.  Linking the accounts on board (and hopefully finally being able to update my email address) sounds a lot better than waiting on the phone for another long wait.

[Moonarino]

10 hours ago, capecodmercury said:

I tried that and got put in the same queue as 1 800 760 0654 which I have also seen listed as the Captain’s Club number.

Typical. As mentioned before trying to cancel a Princess cruise, at least two of the numbers I tried took me to the same cue, with outlandish wait times. Utterly frustrating.

[Moonarino]

17 hours ago, ORV said:

I think their point is that if the website worked right and had correct information then there would be no need to be calling in. 

Still, Celebrity's website is surely no worse than any other cruiseline site I've ever used. It is slow to load pages (probably because as @WorkerBee74mentioned, super-buggy, kills efficiency) but I see far worse every day. Not defending poor coding, just back to my original suggestion that the real problem is phone service. Not enough CS reps? Poorly trained? Buggy phone system? Got to nail the real problem before it can be solved. Fixing a problem web service, yes, but I get a LOT more frustrated from having to spend WAY too much time in a phone cue and then get absolutely nothing for it. I can't think of anything more infuriating. In probably a small few cases a website fix would do it, but I'll stick with phone services (a.k.a. "Customer-NO-Service") being the bigger problem by far.

 

[Luvcrusn]

18 hours ago, capecodmercury said:

Well, called the Captain’s Club number.  Hit the correct option to talk to a representative about my Captain’s Club account waited almost an hour and a half on hold (after they said wait time was 30 minutes), finally got a representative and she says I'm sorry, I'm with reservations, let me put you through to the Captain’s Club and threw me back on hold, presumably to the back of the queue. Oh, and then ten minutes later disconnected me.  AARRGGHH!!!!!!

 

Celebrity, if you still actually have someone monitoring this board.  Your website is beyond awful.  It maybe the worst I have ever encountered and that included dealing with the IRS.  This isn't customer service, it's customer disservice. 

 

Any suggestions on dealing with this incompetence would be greatly appreciated. 

If you want to speak with anyone about your Captains Club Account call 800-760-0654 and most importantly DO NOT PUSH ANY OPTIONS. If you push options, you'll get to the wrong person (as you already found out).

[WorkerBee74]

6 hours ago, Moonarino said:

Still, Celebrity's website is surely no worse than any other cruiseline site I've ever used. It is slow to load pages (probably because as @WorkerBee74mentioned, super-buggy, kills efficiency) but I see far worse every day. Not defending poor coding, just back to my original suggestion that the real problem is phone service. Not enough CS reps? Poorly trained? Buggy phone system? Got to nail the real problem before it can be solved. Fixing a problem web service, yes, but I get a LOT more frustrated from having to spend WAY too much time in a phone cue and then get absolutely nothing for it. I can't think of anything more infuriating. In probably a small few cases a website fix would do it, but I'll stick with phone services (a.k.a. "Customer-NO-Service") being the bigger problem by far.

 

 

Comparing Celebrity/Royal websites to every major airline site, hotel site and Carnival's site, they surely ARE worse.  They absolutely are.

 

Why do you think the call centres are so busy?  Because the website is such garbage that people have to call.  It matters, and it's a domino effect making the call centre experience even worse than it should be.  NO excuse for a multi-million dollar travel provider to have such a poor website in 2022.

Edited July 8, 2022 by WorkerBee74

[Moonarino]

4 hours ago, WorkerBee74 said:

 

Comparing Celebrity/Royal websites to every major airline site, hotel site and Carnival's site, they surely ARE worse.  They absolutely are.

 

Why do you think the call centres are so busy?  Because the website is such garbage that people have to call.  It matters, and it's a domino effect making the call centre experience even worse than it should be.  NO excuse for a multi-million dollar travel provider to have such a poor website in 2022.

Matter of opinion, but I do agree that Royal's website is terrible (I say it's the absolute worst) and always has been in my experience. It's about as barebones as a website can get, but even then RCCL had a heck of time just keeping it running. As for Celebrity, it's always working (for me) and I never have a problem doing what I want to do there -- can find my order history and so forth (which I find lacking in other sites) and so on. Yes things are missing, but I've had enough bad experiences with other websites tht truly were awful that I won't complain too much about X. yes Carnival's site is "good" but for some things it's been known to be clunky, slow, and neither is it as complete as I might like it to be.

 

I will say that the cruiselines' relatively new apps don't really help the websites at all, because development and maintenance of the apps take time and focus away from IT (as well as other levels of corporate) regarding the traditional websites. But we gotta have apps. Everybody wants an app for everything and every business out there (plus a few million individuals) think they desperately need to write an app to stay in the game. Yes there are "justifications" for apps, people who love something can always make a case for it. But I left IT enterprise management years ago when the enterprise got so big it had pretty much developed a life of its own, and it especially seemed like "the Internet" had taken control of the entire organization. I no longer had control of anything that was my responsibility. Love the Internet. But it's a Monster.

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Moonarino

[nmsunlover]

Hmmm, wow ... I just called the Captains Club # 844-418-6824, didn't select anything but just waited - and someone answered about 2 minutes later !!  He is currently working very hard to help me resolve my issue.

[Michidoeme]

So many good brains here, maybe you could help me as well :
 

I have a problem my telephone number under contact information.  There under tel nr you choose a country and the tel code for the country is filled in through drop down menu, eg USA + 1, Switzerland + 41.  

However this creates a problem when I want to make a courtesy booking and online check-in for an existing booking in May did not work either.   I get an error message  "phone number accepts digits only".  It should be 00 1 for USA, 00 41 for Switzerland, etc.  I have several times tried to change from + to 00, but the country code  are fixed dropdown items in contact details and can not be entered separately.

When trying to make courtesy booking or online check in, the contact details, name, tel nr, email address, Captains Club nr is automatically copied over from Contact Details and can not be overwritten.  The error message then always comes :” phone number accepts digits only” and courtesy booking cannot be completed.

I somehow managed to complete checkin, can t remember exactly how, probably with Ap on phone.

But I can never complete a courtesy booking.

Sent already several emails to Celebrity and they either do not respond or send a standard email : pls call engagement centre for assistance with your booking. And they tell me they need to flag this as an IT issue, but nothing ever happens.

 

Anybody else has same issue ?  Or how does your tel nr show up if you try to make courtesy booking - as  + 1 …. or  00 1 …. ?

Any help much appreciated.

 

 

 

 

[JuliaMS]

2 hours ago, nmsunlover said:

Hmmm, wow ... I just called the Captains Club # 844-418-6824, didn't select anything but just waited - and someone answered about 2 minutes later !!  He is currently working very hard to help me resolve my issue.

I called mid morning today pacific time and was caught off guard they answered so fast. You just never know what their staffing and call volume is day to day.

[baytraller]

3 hours ago, Michidoeme said:

 

Anybody else has same issue ?  Or how does your tel nr show up if you try to make courtesy booking - as  + 1 …. or  00 1 …. ?

Any help much appreciated.

 

 

 

 

Have that same problem, rang Celebrity and went to "problems with the Website"

 

Was told to try another browser, log out for 10 minutes and clear cookies

 

Absolute waste of time

 

The only option is to make a booking  while not logged in and file out all the information. Then edit the booking as most of the information also seems to be lost.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter