Princess Customer Service is Abysmal

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, Mary loves to travel said:

 

For me, a CVP/PVP is a very happy medium.   I do have a great one!   I find a cruise I like, put it on Hold, then shoot the email to her for the booking (unless they do the booking, they don't get credit, so I'm careful to use "hold" and transfer to her, rather than book it myself, then transfer).

This is me too. I am a do-it-yourself-er. So I do all the planning and research, but I use “Hold” and get the booking to my CVP. Usually I don’t have to email. Within hours of hitting the Hold button, I get a call asking if she can assist. 

[SomewhereGirl]

2 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

Please call Princess and ask for a new CVP!  You do not have to deal with an incompetent one.  There are many excellent CVPs, who would be happy to take care of you,

 

Oh I will after my sailing next month.  I almost want to test sending him an email or voicemail saying I want to book a new cruise just to see if he responds, if he's only about the new bookings for "credit".  I'd leave a few choice words for him now but for fear of him messing with my current booking.

[mojitoman]

2 hours ago, SomewhereGirl said:

My CVP sucks.  Doesn't return calls or respond to emails.  I guess he only cared about the booking he got and not the future bookings he won't.

 

If there's anything that can be done by chat, that's my preferred method, but there are limits to what can be done over chat unfortunately.

Must have had the same CVP. Calls were never returned, emails not responded to and questions unanswered.  Booked a new trip while onboard and promptly transferred it to a TA upon return to shore. (As with everything else, there is a Princess form to do that!)

 

 

[DHP1]

4 hours ago, Ptroxx said:

I’ve booked all my travel on my own my entire life.  
I prefer to have control of my booking and not have to wait for some other person to do what I can do now.   
Im impatient. And hate having to wait on someone else.   
in most cases I have more experience than some greenhorn agent or rep.  
it’s hard to find good help these days. Lol. 

Same here.  I used Princess chat line also and have been very successful. If needed, I can print the conversation in case I need in the future. 

[duckey.l]

Sorry but what is a CVP/PVP?  I am assuming it is like NCL’s personal cruise consultants (PCC). I have one for NCL and love him. When I asked Princess customer service if they had something similar they told me that they did not. How do you get one assigned to you? I wanted to upgrade my cabin and spent over an hour with a representative that didn’t seem to know how to do that. She had me calling customer solutions the next morning- I was on hold for over one hour and that representative took care of the issue in 7 minutes. 

[SargassoPirate]

When booking with Princess, I also check the same cruise on my big box travel agency website.  If Princess is cheaper, I book directly with them and then transfer the booking over to big box and let them handle it from there.

 

On a recent booking for an extended cruise, the big box price was a couple of thousand higher than Princess.  I booked with Princess and then transferred it to big box and scored a big box gift card to boot. 

 

The last time I called Princess directly, the agent sounded like she was using a tin can and a string.  I kept having to ask to to repeat.  Frustrating to say the least.

[SiliconCruiser]

2 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

On a recent booking for an extended cruise, the big box price was a couple of thousand higher than Princess.  I booked with Princess and then transferred it to big box and scored a big box gift card to boot.

 

I've noticed that many of the TAs, including 'big box' now only post fares based on the Princess Plus price.  At no point do they even suggest that you can book at the Princess Standard price.  I called 'big box' yesterday to book a couple of additional cruise to create a b2b2b2b cruise and inquired if I could book at the Princess Standard price.  They did not hesitate.  The same was the case for a TA that is often found onboard West Coast Princess cruises, and they too stated that booking at Princess Standard was no problem (they even suggested it.)

[pris993]

7 hours ago, Ptroxx said:

I’ve booked all my travel on my own my entire life.  
I prefer to have control of my booking and not have to wait for some other person to do what I can do now.   
Im impatient. And hate having to wait on someone else.   
in most cases I have more experience than some greenhorn agent or rep.  
it’s hard to find good help these days. Lol. 

Switched from using TA for all travel arrangements 20 years ago, have never been sorry.  

[DHP1]

4 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

When booking with Princess, I also check the same cruise on my big box travel agency website.  If Princess is cheaper, I book directly with them and then transfer the booking over to big box and let them handle it from there.

 

On a recent booking for an extended cruise, the big box price was a couple of thousand higher than Princess.  I booked with Princess and then transferred it to big box and scored a big box gift card to boot. 

 

The last time I called Princess directly, the agent sounded like she was using a tin can and a string.  I kept having to ask to to repeat.  Frustrating to say the least.

“Tin can and string” is because most of them work from home. 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, DHP1 said:

“Tin can and string” is because most of them work from home. 

Where do you suppose the big box agents on the phone are working from?

[JimmyVWine]

10 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Where do you suppose the big box agents on the phone are working from?

Or any travel agent for that matter. Brick and mortar travel agencies are a thing of the past. AAA has somewhat large storefronts, but that is because it offers other services such as drivers license renewals. Most travel agencies that still have a physical presence are staffed by one or two people at most and are supported by many other agents who all work out of their homes. 

[toofewcruises]

On 7/23/2022 at 9:48 AM, SomewhereGirl said:

My CVP sucks.  Doesn't return calls or respond to emails.  I guess he only cared about the booking he got and not the future bookings he won't.

 

If there's anything that can be done by chat, that's my preferred method, but there are limits to what can be done over chat unfortunately.

Get a good travel agent!

[Jadn13]

Holland allows your regular PVP to book casino bookings but Princess doesn’t. 
Trying to book those offers is hours of hold time.

Princess needs to look at more training and maybe restructuring a bit because this is not working. 

[Guest ldtr]

On 7/23/2022 at 1:51 PM, SargassoPirate said:

When booking with Princess, I also check the same cruise on my big box travel agency website.  If Princess is cheaper, I book directly with them and then transfer the booking over to big box and let them handle it from there.

 

On a recent booking for an extended cruise, the big box price was a couple of thousand higher than Princess.  I booked with Princess and then transferred it to big box and scored a big box gift card to boot. 

 

The last time I called Princess directly, the agent sounded like she was using a tin can and a string.  I kept having to ask to to repeat.  Frustrating to say the least.

Before Covid when I used a big box TA the price was always the same as what Princess listed.  I stopped using them because 1. They were impossible to get ahold of and get refunds processed when Covid started  2. They stopped giving OBC and went totally to in store gift cards.  

[fleeflicker]

Princess Customer Service is a joke!! I sure hope it’s not like that on board. 

[SiliconCruiser]

7 hours ago, fleeflicker said:

Princess Customer Service is a joke!! I sure hope it’s not like that on board. 

Only from Guest Services, but it was also that way pre-Covid.  It's as if they are trained to spew out a set number of lies.

Stewards and restaurant staff work their butts off.  Tip appropriately.

[SiliconCruiser]

7 hours ago, ldtr said:

Before Covid when I used a big box TA the price was always the same as what Princess listed.  I stopped using them because 1. They were impossible to get ahold of and get refunds processed when Covid started  2. They stopped giving OBC and went totally to in store gift cards.  

Big box is staffed up now.  They answer the phone promptly.  They're also easier to get a refund online if you can't reach them.  Yes, they stopped offering refundable OBC because many people were not getting the refunds since the cruise company is upside down financially.  The store gift cards are not a big deal, at least you'll get a fair price for the merchandise that you purchase (compare that to anything that you would use OBC for.)  Besides you're gonna spend that money at big box anyway, you may as well get something worthy rather than getting scammed on an overpriced excursion that you could get onshore for less.  Even before Covid, I was glad that 'big box' had switched over to Shop Cards.

[Guest ldtr]

17 hours ago, SiliconCruiser said:

Big box is staffed up now.  They answer the phone promptly.  They're also easier to get a refund online if you can't reach them.  Yes, they stopped offering refundable OBC because many people were not getting the refunds since the cruise company is upside down financially.  The store gift cards are not a big deal, at least you'll get a fair price for the merchandise that you purchase (compare that to anything that you would use OBC for.)  Besides you're gonna spend that money at big box anyway, you may as well get something worthy rather than getting scammed on an overpriced excursion that you could get onshore for less.  Even before Covid, I was glad that 'big box' had switched over to Shop Cards.

Until the next time they have a problem.  But more is that OBC had value, shop cards had zero value to me.  The only reason I even used big box was for the OBC.  Do not even have a membership after the change.

 

On the other hand I have had no problems getting things done with Princess.  Getting a cruise price adjusted took me 2 minutes to write an e-mail, which was responded to and the new statement issued about 10 minutes later.

 

Even before Covid going through Princess I was able to make changes on upcoming cruises, even during B2B2B situations, while on board.  With the big box it was a bit more problematic.  Used for the OBC in spite of the limitations of having to work through them.  Not worth it since they did away with that.

Edited July 26, 2022 by ldtr