Couldn't Get Help

[mcrcruiser]

Apparently  Princess has hired a ton of new Customer service personnel but we came to find out  how little they knew about putting  into their web site  things like pass port information ,emergency contact info ie  . We were on the phone recently for over 6 hours getting completely frustrated  .Then the other day we ran into a person  in the  city of Santa Clarita , CA . , .headquarters   that was able to direct us to the area to log that info into the web site .Then we got stuck because the last item is a security picture   .I said how do you get your picture on their web site ? Well  the end result is we cancelled the cruise ,dumped the  $924  FCC & Booked a Holland America cruise  .Having done  87 past cruises  this is the most frustrating experience we ever had with any cruise line  . It just seems to us that  Princess can & does loose paz do to one untrained  personnel & secondly a too complicated  web site to put pre boarding information in . We had no problem doing the pre boarding with Holland America   .Same with Celebrity for B2B cruises in March  

 

Have  you also run into this situation with Princess ? 

 

  

 

 

[dog]

Oh so sorry for you.

 

Have a great cruise in Holland.

[Coral]

I have had awful experiences with Princess on the phone a few months ago. I agree - Princess needs to train their employees.

 

Hope your cruise with HAL is great!

[mcrcruiser]

6 minutes ago, Coral said:

I have had awful experiences with Princess on the phone a few months ago. I agree - Princess needs to train their employees.

 

Hope your cruise with HAL is great!

We really tried & the travel agent was also useless . We had to cancel this cruise for Dec 3 ,2022  on Sept 2 ,2022 which gave us adequate time for no  penalties . However , it seems that eith Primcess or the TA are trying to asess a  $246 penalty . our credit card company has been advised  & yjeru eill vredit the entire amount on a tentative basis .My e-mails are all dated  ,so sending a cancelling e-mail on  Sept 2 ,2022 was more than 90 days un advance  ,Thus .no penalties should be accessed .since I live in Calif & Ptiincess is head quartered in the city of Santa Clarita Calif  ,they are subjected to a small claims court  action  should I have to bring that action against them   .Truly ,this whole  saga  has left a bitter taste  for Princess cruises . As a marketing professional all my life  it is very difficult to understand their lack of trained personnel & telling us we are in penalty  . Well perhaps they like to sit in a court room & cool their heals for one or more days .I am retired & have all the time I need  to pursue this action if need be   .My documents would loose the case for Princess   .We also can stay at our daughters in the same city   .I just find this so   crazy .

[Coral]

11 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

We really tried & the travel agent was also useless . We had to cancel this cruise for Dec 3 ,2022  on Sept 2 ,2022 which gave us adequate time for no  penalties . However , it seems that eith Primcess or the TA are trying to asess a  $246 penalty . our credit card company has been advised  & yjeru eill vredit the entire amount on a tentative basis .My e-mails are all dated  ,so sending a cancelling e-mail on  Sept 2 ,2022 was more than 90 days un advance  ,Thus .no penalties should be accessed .since I live in Calif & Ptiincess is head quartered in the city of Santa Clarita Calif  ,they are subjected to a small claims court  action  should I have to bring that action against them   .Truly ,this whole  saga  has left a bitter taste  for Princess cruises . As a marketing professional all my life  it is very difficult to understand their lack of trained personnel & telling us we are in penalty  . Well perhaps they like to sit in a court room & cool their heals for one or more days .I am retired & have all the time I need  to pursue this action if need be   .My documents would loose the case for Princess   .We also can stay at our daughters in the same city   .I just find this so   crazy .

So sorry. They should treat you much better!

 

I probably spent 10+ hours on the phone trying to point out an issue with my booking. It was a nightmare. I have no doubt you had no luck either with your issue.

 

I have only cruised HAL once but did enjoy my cruise with them. I am sure you will also!

 

I have enjoyed and valued your posts through out the years.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Coral

[mcrcruiser]

1 minute ago, Coral said:

So sorry. They should treat you much better!

 

I probably spent 10+ hours on the phone trying to point out an issue with my booking. It was a nightmare. I have no doubt you had no luck either with your issue.

 

I have only cruised HAL once but did enjoy my cruise with them. I am sure you will also!

Thanks we have cruise many cruise lines including HAL ,Princess ,Celebrity , Royal Caribbean & Carnival   .This is the first time we have ever experienced such "don't care attitudes "  " from  untrained personnel  . Seems to me  that Carnival corporation needs to step in  &  get  Princess  on track before  there is a mass exodus  from this cruise line  .  Successful  business make  their service or products very user friendly  

[CruisinFinsUp]

What a terrible situation.  
 

It was unfortunate that you were not told that you could perform all checkin at the port when you embarked the ship.   Doing it all 100% beforehand was not actually required.     That was the advice here on CC earlier in the year after the restart when the app didn't work and the website was not available.   
 

Enjoy HAL!  

[geoherb]

Fortunately, I've had just a few problems with the app, and they've all been surmountable. In December, for instance, the night before my cruise, the app suddenly shifted me from the green lane to the blue lane. I discovered it had lost my passport info. I had to reenter it to get back into the green lane. But I'm sure it would not have been a disaster if I had not noticed, maybe a few extra minutes checking in. 

 

I would not give up on a cruise line over one problem when there's a way around it. I'd also hate losing an FCC. 

 

On the other hand, I had my share of dealing with incompetent Princess employees in January. I spent nine hours talking to nine different reps one day to get things worked out. They still did not come through exactly right, but I was so grateful that the final rep was able to sort of get things right at the time. I did write a letter and follow up with the web form several months later. I have not heard back from Princess.

[PacnGoNow]

2 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Apparently  Princess has hired a ton of new Customer service personnel but we came to find out  how little they knew about putting  into their web site  things like pass port information ,emergency contact info ie  . We were on the phone recently for over 6 hours getting completely frustrated  .Then the other day we ran into a person  in the  city of Santa Clarita , CA . , .headquarters   that was able to direct us to the area to log that info into the web site .Then we got stuck because the last item is a security picture   .I said how do you get your picture on their web site ? Well  the end result is we cancelled the cruise ,dumped the  $924  FCC & Booked a Holland America cruise  .Having done  87 past cruises  this is the most frustrating experience we ever had with any cruise line  . It just seems to us that  Princess can & does loose paz do to one untrained  personnel & secondly a too complicated  web site to put pre boarding information in . We had no problem doing the pre boarding with Holland America   .Same with Celebrity for B2B cruises in March  

 

Have  you also run into this situation with Princess ? 

 

  

 

 

I have a friend going on HAL, who is leaving in 2 weeks and hasn’t been able to log in to their account for 2 days now.  So believe me it’s not just PCL.  I’ve heard of many cruise lines with problems and new employees.

 

Sorry you’ve had problems. Wish you had 

reached out to us on CC for help.  The website version would have been enough to just checkin like you always did and bring your documents to the port to finish the check in.  Only takes a few minutes more to do it at the port.

 

Good luck with your cruise and enjoy!

[riffatsea]

The reps you get by calling are sales,people

They cannot help with most other issues

[billco]

Princess now has a callback feature to address the long hold times. It works well, except the people who call back seem to be new employees who only have basic training. My recent experience was in trying to change two 7 day Alaskan cruises into one 14 day cruise (Voyage of the Glaciers R/T Anchorage). First try, I didn't get a callback. Second try, I got a callback within 1/2 hour, but the person didn't understand what I wanted to do. Third try, I got a callback in 5 minutes, but again the person didn't understand and put me on hold. I gave up and tried Live Chat. He understood, but wasn't able to do it. I lost interest, cancelled the 7 day cruises, and booked a 15 day Panama Canal cruise on NCL.

[wineforhealth]

3 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Apparently  Princess has hired a ton of new Customer service personnel but we came to find out  how little they knew about putting  into their web site  things like pass port information ,emergency contact info ie  . We were on the phone recently for over 6 hours getting completely frustrated  .Then the other day we ran into a person  in the  city of Santa Clarita , CA . , .headquarters   that was able to direct us to the area to log that info into the web site .Then we got stuck because the last item is a security picture   .I said how do you get your picture on their web site ? Well  the end result is we cancelled the cruise ,dumped the  $924  FCC & Booked a Holland America cruise  .Having done  87 past cruises  this is the most frustrating experience we ever had with any cruise line  . It just seems to us that  Princess can & does loose paz do to one untrained  personnel & secondly a too complicated  web site to put pre boarding information in . We had no problem doing the pre boarding with Holland America   .Same with Celebrity for B2B cruises in March  

 

Have  you also run into this situation with Princess ? 

 

  

 

 

I have never run into this situation or with Princess. But I’m a little unclear where you were trying to input all your info and specifically your security picture.

 

Most all is done on the Ocean Ready App and the Medallion app. You said you couldn’t load your security photo on the Web. I know of no way to do it online via the web only the Ocean Ready app

 

sorry it didn’t work out for you glad you found an alternative. Sometime your best resources for help is here with some very knowledgeable people.

[partybarbie]

4 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

I said how do you get your picture on their web site ? 

 

Have  you also run into this situation with Princess ? 

 

  

 

 

In answer to your first question, I took a picture with my phone and uploaded it.

 

In answer to your second question, no. In 79 cruises with Princess, I have never run into your situation. If you can't get something to load, most things can be resolved at check-in. 

 

While I am not a fan of the app, that's just how things work now. 

[CineGraphic]

Since the re-start, many of us have cancelled future sailings with Princess due to various problems.

I hope that you are able to enjoy your cruise on HAL.

[Bgwest]

Enjoy your cruise!!

[mcrcruiser]

We just sent a e-mail to the travel agent involved  .we advised the Travel Agency (we are working with a VP there )  that Princess is part of a organization called "ABTA & theri number there is  V8764  .They have the authority to negotiate a settlement  .We cancelled this cruise of Dec 3, 2022 on September 2 ,2023 in time for no penalties . We have over $1100 due back to us . Either this  gets settled with this ABTA organization or it gets settled in a California small claims court & we also live in California as does Princess corporate offices .

[mcrcruiser]

We never had this problem with any cruise line until now . Holland America makes it easy to place our pre boarding information as does Celebrity  cruise line .  We have to ask why has Princess  gone away  from  a simple format on line pre boarding to a  hugely unpopular electronic system  of  Ocean Ready & Medallion   .The only answer we can imagine is to cut back on labor  .  But by what cost to their over all booking business ?

[Guest ldtr]

5 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

I have a friend going on HAL, who is leaving in 2 weeks and hasn’t been able to log in to their account for 2 days now.  So believe me it’s not just PCL.  I’ve heard of many cruise lines with problems and new employees.

 

Sorry you’ve had problems. Wish you had 

reached out to us on CC for help.  The website version would have been enough to just checkin like you always did and bring your documents to the port to finish the check in.  Only takes a few minutes more to do it at the port.

 

Good luck with your cruise and enjoy!

All through the pandemic many people on CC have tried to help the OP on numerous posts and issues. Usually a lost cause.

[jp2746]

We have been trying to get $150 in Ultimate Rewards refunded since the pandemic.  We tried for months and they kept saying that it should go back any day.  It never did and I had to let it go after several months and hours of phone calls.  Also, I was promised FCC in the amount of our cruise back during the pandemic and they shorted us about $100 pp.  I have tried so many times to get this corrected and since we are going on a cruise to use some of our credits in November, I have started trying again with all the evidence in an email.  I have not heard back from customer service in weeks.  It is very frustrating.

 

If HAL is part of Carnival Corp, why do they have better customer service?   

 

They need to understand that there is a reason that people buy big ticket items at Costco... customer service.  This will be our last cruise with Princess. 

[mcrcruiser]

4 minutes ago, jp2746 said:

We have been trying to get $150 in Ultimate Rewards refunded since the pandemic.  We tried for months and they kept saying that it should go back any day.  It never did and I had to let it go after several months and hours of phone calls.  Also, I was promised FCC in the amount of our cruise back during the pandemic and they shorted us about $100 pp.  I have tried so many times to get this corrected and since we are going on a cruise to use some of our credits in November, I have started trying again with all the evidence in an email.  I have not heard back from customer service in weeks.  It is very frustrating.

 

If HAL is part of Carnival Corp, why do they have better customer service?   

 

They need to understand that there is a reason that people buy big ticket items at Costco... customer service.  This will be our last cruise with Princess. 

Try the ABTA in my post above . If this is real then they can get Princess to own up to their commitments . imo , I believe that Princess is purposely  holding back  people's monies  ,if they can get away with it because Carnival corp needs cash desperately  .  Of course this tactic would never be exposed to the public  but ,we have to ask ourselves why is it so difficult  to get back what we own ? 

 

 All that Princess is doing successfully is alienating  a lot of customers & potential cruise customers   .Seems to us they are experts at   that task .  All this will achieve is ti back fire 

[Kay S]

One more reason we are through with Princess as soon as we use the FCC.  It's kind of breathtaking how they managed to mess up EVERYTHING in such a short period of time.  

[Guest ldtr]

Amazing how some of us have booked and taken multiple cruises on Princess this year and either have not had any problems at all, or have been able to get issues resolved swiftly. 

[cruzin4us]

I've been dealing with some issues as well.

Princess cancelled my 3 (B3B) cruises on the Diamond this Sept.   All were booked on separate casino offers,

I was offered $100 OBC or FCC on my next cruise.    I immediately booked 3 (B3B) cruises on the Discovery for this October.     

I'm still missing one of the $100 OBC and they didn't transfer my freeplay on 2 of the cruises.   I had separate offers.   I've been trying for 1.5 months to get the freeplay added to my cruises.    

Up until now, I've been able to get all issues with my cruises resolved (eventually), but this one has been like beating my head up against a wall.

I've called at least 20 times, emailed 6 times and still no luck.

I've got 7 Princess cruises on the books and I've sailed 4 times post covid.    My patience is running thin and my cruise is 2 weeks away.   I understand why people are jumping ship and moving elsewhere....it's taken the fun out of cruising.

[disneyochem]

We’ve been on three HAL cruises this past year in addition to seven Princess cruises.  I’ve found that the checkin for HAL isn’t much different from Princess.  Took me a little while to figure out Verify though.  HAL’s app is maybe not as glitchy as the Medallion but both apps are easy to navigate and upload necessary documents to board.  My experience is that checkin is more similar than dissimilar between these two cruise lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kay S]

2 hours ago, ldtr said:

Amazing how some of us have booked and taken multiple cruises on Princess this year and either have not had any problems at all, or have been able to get issues resolved swiftly. 

Some people lead charmed lives.