Wholly Guacamole—what a nightmare

[jennmaybe]

Hey CC peeps!

 

So, I just booked our very first Celebrity cruise and I have a major feeling this will be our only Celebrity cruise. Not because of the cruise itself, since we haven’t sailed yet, but because of pre-cruise headaches!

 

Here we go!  Grab your coffee! 🤪

 

I found a great deal sailing out of Fort Lauderdale over Memorial Day weekend, a prime veranda balcony for $1171.  So, I booked it last week.  When I got the confirmation, it showed a total price of $2271. So, needless to say, I called customer service. Ugh!!!

I chose option “2”, then “3” to speak to someone if you booked directly through the Celebrity website. The representative that I first spoke with was actually in the travel agent department.  So, phone issues.  Ok…he transferred me….I hold again only to speak with a rep who proceeds to tell me that he does not know what I am looking at, but he is looking at my confirmation, and it shows a total of $2271 and there’s nothing he can do.  What? 😳.  I politely request to speak to his supervisor because he was of no help.  He transferred me to his supervisor who immediately saw what the problem was in their system and she corrected it.  Problem solved. (She did advise me that the representative I spoke to is new and she was going to use that as a training opportunity.)
 

My mother-in-law and a friend of hers decided yesterday they wanted to join us so I go out to see if the price is still the same. It had actually dropped to $962. So, the first thing I do is call customer service to get the price drop for our cruise.

 

I was on hold for 28 minutes and finally got a representative. Oh but wait a minute, he is in the travel agent department. Seriously? Again?  He transfers me and I finally get a representative in the right department. She put me on hold while she is working on getting the price drop for me and then when she comes back to the line, she disconnects the call.  I don’t think she meant to because she was in the middle of talking to me when it happened.  I waited for a few minutes to see if she would call me back but she never did. At this point, it had been 1 hour and 47 minutes.  So, I call back again….finally got it resolved.

 

I went out last night to book the cruise for them.  Sigh….😔 As soon as the confirmation went through, the total price came up and it was $2271. It was completely wrong as the total should have only been $962. She checks her email confirmation and it shows the same amount of $2271.
 

I called Celebrity this morning and the very same problem. The first representative was in the travel agent department, so he had to transfer me again. I had to wait again……I finally got a representative and luckily she was able to see what was wrong in the system and fixed it for me. Not a 2+ hour ordeal this morning, but 45 min is still too long.

 

To sum it up—not a good 1st impression at all.   Between the price issues when booking online and the horrific issues with trying to reach customer service, I honestly don’t know if sailing Celebrity is going to be worth it.  I have never had these problems with another cruise line—-and we have sailed many different cruise lines.  I did go out and read yesterday about customer service issues with Celebrity, so apparently that is the norm with them. 🤬
 

Anyway, it is Monday morning, and I just needed to vent. We will go on the cruise and we will have a great time! However, if these issues never get resolved with Celebrity, this will definitely be a once & done with them.

 

I hope everyone has a great week! 😄

 

 

[marieps]

Did you screen shot the prices you are referencing?  

[gfkcruiser]

I book directly with celebrity over the phone.  I only end the call after viewing the confirmation.  Have had errors in the past that are corrected on original call. 
 

[paulh84]

Are the $9-- prices you are referring to the total for two + tax/fees? For two or for one person? Or are you looking at the base price shown (per person) in the search results? 

[Honolulu Blue]

@jennmaybe: I'm sorry this happened to you. I refuse to book with Celebrity anymore for other reasons, but my past experiences with them onboard have revealed to me that the operations section is quite good, IMHO. I wish you the best in resolving this matter and on your upcoming cruise. 🙏

[jennmaybe]

I had all of the screenshots, but they did not need to see them. Apparently they are having issues on their end in the system and the supervisor I spoke to last week and the representative I spoke to this morning actually saw what was wrong in their system and they fixed it for me and we have the correct price. 
 

 

[jennmaybe]

7 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

@jennmaybe: I'm sorry this happened to you. I refuse to book with Celebrity anymore for other reasons, but my past experiences with them onboard have revealed to me that the operations section is quite good, IMHO. I wish you the best in resolving this matter and on your upcoming cruise. 🙏

Thanks Honolulu Blue!  I am still looking forward to the cruise and I believe we will have a great time!

[RTShaker]

1 hour ago, jennmaybe said:

... when booking online and the horrific issues with trying to reach customer service, I honestly don’t know if sailing Celebrity is going to be worth it.  I have never had these problems with another cruise line—-and we have sailed many different cruise lines...

Subsitute Princess and you have my feelings.

[Campari231]

1 hour ago, jennmaybe said:

Hey CC peeps!

 

So, I just booked our very first Celebrity cruise and I have a major feeling this will be our only Celebrity cruise. Not because of the cruise itself, since we haven’t sailed yet, but because of pre-cruise headaches!

 

Here we go!  Grab your coffee! 🤪

 

I found a great deal sailing out of Fort Lauderdale over Memorial Day weekend, a prime veranda balcony for $1171.  So, I booked it last week.  When I got the confirmation, it showed a total price of $2271. So, needless to say, I called customer service. Ugh!!!

I chose option “2”, then “3” to speak to someone if you booked directly through the Celebrity website. The representative that I first spoke with was actually in the travel agent department.  So, phone issues.  Ok…he transferred me….I hold again only to speak with a rep who proceeds to tell me that he does not know what I am looking at, but he is looking at my confirmation, and it shows a total of $2271 and there’s nothing he can do.  What? 😳.  I politely request to speak to his supervisor because he was of no help.  He transferred me to his supervisor who immediately saw what the problem was in their system and she corrected it.  Problem solved. (She did advise me that the representative I spoke to is new and she was going to use that as a training opportunity.)
 

My mother-in-law and a friend of hers decided yesterday they wanted to join us so I go out to see if the price is still the same. It had actually dropped to $962. So, the first thing I do is call customer service to get the price drop for our cruise.

 

I was on hold for 28 minutes and finally got a representative. Oh but wait a minute, he is in the travel agent department. Seriously? Again?  He transfers me and I finally get a representative in the right department. She put me on hold while she is working on getting the price drop for me and then when she comes back to the line, she disconnects the call.  I don’t think she meant to because she was in the middle of talking to me when it happened.  I waited for a few minutes to see if she would call me back but she never did. At this point, it had been 1 hour and 47 minutes.  So, I call back again….finally got it resolved.

 

I went out last night to book the cruise for them.  Sigh….😔 As soon as the confirmation went through, the total price came up and it was $2271. It was completely wrong as the total should have only been $962. She checks her email confirmation and it shows the same amount of $2271.
 

I called Celebrity this morning and the very same problem. The first representative was in the travel agent department, so he had to transfer me again. I had to wait again……I finally got a representative and luckily she was able to see what was wrong in the system and fixed it for me. Not a 2+ hour ordeal this morning, but 45 min is still too long.

 

To sum it up—not a good 1st impression at all.   Between the price issues when booking online and the horrific issues with trying to reach customer service, I honestly don’t know if sailing Celebrity is going to be worth it.  I have never had these problems with another cruise line—-and we have sailed many different cruise lines.  I did go out and read yesterday about customer service issues with Celebrity, so apparently that is the norm with them. 🤬
 

Anyway, it is Monday morning, and I just needed to vent. We will go on the cruise and we will have a great time! However, if these issues never get resolved with Celebrity, this will definitely be a once & done with them.

 

I hope everyone has a great week! 😄

 

 

That is terrible.  I am a travel agent and book a lot of Celebrity.  They have been making ALOT of errors lately.  Yesterday I priced an Infinite Veranda 2400 PP but the Ocean View was 15.000 PP I called to see if it was a mistake but the agent couldn't tell me but did offer to reprice it.  They are making my job more difficult ... Please write about your experience to Execuitive office and to the President  executiveoffice@celebrity.com and/or lhodges@rccl.com

[Jim_Iain]

Please don't take this as condescending but you might wish to find a good TA.  

 

That way you don't have to do all that waiting.   Just a quick phone call or e-mail and they will take care of it.    The base fare is the same and all payments are done directly on Celebrity.  Many TA will also offer you something in the form of an OBC for your booking.

BTW you have 30 days from booking to still transfer to an agent and get the extra benefits an agent may offer.

 

Edited January 8 by Jim_Iain

[Purplsmurf]

22 minutes ago, RTShaker said:

Subsitute Princess and you have my feelings.

Exactly!!

[redjetz]

Jim beat me to it regarding using a good travel agent to handle all the Celebrity booking glitches. We have saved enormous time and frustration that way, not to mention gaining a good mount of perks and credits.

[JDPCruisers]

11 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Please don't take this as condescending but you might wish to find a good TA.  

 

That way you don't have to do all that waiting.   Just a quick phone call or e-mail and they will take care of it.    The base fare is the same and all payments are done directly on Celebrity.  Many TA will also offer you something in the form of an OBC for your booking.

I think for us is finding a good TA. Have tried twice before and we didn't find anything about the service that was special. So, my brave wife handles it all as usual including the frustrating phone calls to correct mistakes.

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, JDPCruisers said:

I think for us is finding a good TA. Have tried twice before and we didn't find anything about the service that was special. So, my brave wife handles it all as usual including the frustrating phone calls to correct mistakes.

 

Best way is to ask others (not allowed on CC).    I had a good one that went sour on me due to Covid.    A cc member put me onto my current TA.    

 

I really don't use him much as I do all my own planning and either just transfer after booking or e-mail him with a request to book and the room I want.    I rarely call him on the phone as I'm on the West Coast and just e-mail and ask him to fix any problems that pop up.  The Refundable OBC he offers is well worth it for me.  

 

[lv2cruisgrl]

That is why since 1997 I have used a good TA! 

[JDPCruisers]

3 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Best way is to ask others (not allowed on CC).    I had a good one that went sour on me due to Covid.    A cc member put me onto my current TA.    

 

I really don't use him much as I do all my own planning and either just transfer after booking or e-mail him with a request to book and the room I want.    I rarely call him on the phone as I'm on the West Coast and just e-mail and ask him to fix any problems that pop up.  The Refundable OBC he offers is well worth it for me.  

 

Thanks, Jim. 

[PennStateMom]

I also had online reservations fouled up. I booked two cabins, side by side. The total was correct on the screen, but I monitor my credit card closely, and i was billed for only one cabin. I had to call and remain on hold and pray that the other cabin did not sell in the meantime. They could not explain the error. But we sail day after tomorrow, so nothing’s gonna get me down!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

4 hours ago, paulh84 said:

Are the $9-- prices you are referring to the total for two + tax/fees? For two or for one person? Or are you looking at the base price shown (per person) in the search results? 

It looks like the OP is not giving us all the information , no information on length of the cruise, the ship , basic cruise or AI, etc

$1171 for a balcony cabin over a holiday sound very low even for a basic cruise , $2271 sound more like it 

[jennmaybe]

3 hours ago, RTShaker said:

Subsitute Princess and you have my feelings.

We have done several Princess cruises, most recently our Mediterranean cruise back in October.  Yeah, no issues with booking or getting through to customer service.  
 

We have friends who only sail on Celebrity and they have been recommending them to us. Apparently, they have never had to call customer service! 😜

[jennmaybe]

1 minute ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

It looks like the OP is not giving us all the information , no information on length of the cruise, the ship , basic cruise or AI, etc

$1171 for a balcony cabin over a holiday sound very low even for a basic cruise , $2271 sound more like it 

Not in my world on over 30 cruises.  Not sure why all that info was needed.  I was not asking anything about whether or not that rate was reasonable or accurate.  However, to answer your question, it is the Reflection and it is for the cruise only, leaving Friday, returning Monday.

 

If you would read my entire post and responses, then you will be able to see that when I called customer service and spoke to several different people, they corrected their system problem and I got the cruises for the $962. 😄

[jennmaybe]

54 minutes ago, hcat said:

Off Topic Rant!

 

it's all a sign of the times..not just the  cruising world.  The robots are winning and Cust Svc is dead.

 

  Took over an hr + today and  multiple phone calls to pay a life ins bill early over the phone... ( before we cruise)  .   Multiple holds.. and transfers..1 disconnect... Company has changed names 4  times in 2 yrs and each action only handled by one dept.They only know what,s on their screen.

Finally got it done but was not easy!

 

Took over an hour being bounced from gen ofc to  an outsourced billing dept 

 to find out info about a  routine drs ofc visit (non specialist) billed at  $900 +.   It was pd by Medicare and secondary ins..( $ 25 co pay)..but  that seemed quite high....I just wanted an itemization to see what they claimed they did beyond weighing me, taking my temp.  reviewing routine labs & tapping my knee with a little hammer.   They said I asked a tough ques..a stumper..no one had an answer.  The  robot will generate an automated summary.

 

  I learned  that if I had NO insurance the charge would have been $125.  Quite a mark up for Medicare/ insured patients   No.one knows what the next chg would be for a routine follow up visit.  Never going back despite it being a major institution and good dr..Run by Robots..My  former dr who recently retired is sorely missed!  No robots, good medicine.

 

 

Dealing with X can be frustrating..but so are many other endeavors!..

 

 

Oh gosh!  I get it and you are right.  It’s not just Celebrity.  Now days, it’s so many companies we call to get help with something.  
 

I am glad you were able to get it done and I hope you enjoy your cruise! 😄

[jennmaybe]

Thanks everyone on your responses regarding getting a TA.  I have major trust issues, and I just cannot trust anyone to handle vacation plans for us. My husband and I have traveled all over the world doing cruises and land-based-vacations, including road trips, driving from the East Coast all the way to the West Coast, and I just cannot imagine letting anyone try to book these vacations for us.  I would have to go behind them and make sure everything was accurate anyway, so I am better off doing it myself.🤪 

 

Did anyone see the show many years ago on Oasis of the Seas where the passenger could not board because someone else booked the cruise and they had the name wrong on the cruise booking? 😳  

[wrk2cruise]

Then my best advise for you when booking with Celebrity is to not book on the web but call and book with an agent.  Get them to confirm your research and email your invoice to review before hanging up.

 

The other way I do it is to go as far as the reservation summary on the website and place the reservation on hold.  Then call, get them to email the invoice and pay the deposit.

 

There have been cases (I have personally had them) where the booking summary presented before you press "Book" is not 100% correct.   Better to have the documented invoice before making the final commitment.

 

Like Jim above my TA is more of a booking agent where I tell him what to book and he takes care of it.  If I ask him to reprice or move a sailing he does that as well.  Yes I check that everything he does is correct.  He gives me 10% of the commissionable cruise fare as refundable OBC in additon to whatever Celebrity gives.  It's been several thousand dollars over the last couple of years.   Granted on a $900 booking it's only going to be maybe $50.

[Baynanno1]

1 hour ago, jennmaybe said:

Did anyone see the show many years ago on Oasis of the Seas where the passenger could not board because someone else booked the cruise and they had the name wrong on the cruise booking? 😳  

 

I didn't see the show, but on more than one occasion I have had to have the spelling of my name corrected. No major problem as I am well aware of the need for all documentation to have the same spelling of all names and have had it corrected promptly.

 

Back in 1997, we did a "whistlestop" 21 day Globus tour of Europe. In the days before EU and instant access to information via internet, documentation in the form of visas was required for entry into several countries.

On at least three separate occasions over several weeks, we asked our TA  "are you sure we don't need visas for two eastern European countries"  and he assured us we did not - yes we did, as we found out when arriving at the border of the first of those two. It was not a good experience and very embarrassing as we reboarded the bus where our fellow passengers had been kept in warm temperatures and our driver not allowed to run the a/c on the bus. Also much more expensive than it would have been had it been done before we left home. Subsequently we lost half a day chasing up the other visa we had been assured by our TA that we did not need.

[LB_NJ]

13 hours ago, jennmaybe said:

I had all of the screenshots, but they did not need to see them. Apparently they are having issues on their end in the system and the supervisor I spoke to last week and the representative I spoke to this morning actually saw what was wrong in their system and they fixed it for me and we have the correct price. 
 

 

I believe that Celebrity and Royal share the same computer systems.  Both Celebrity and Royal are famous for having screw-ups in the IT systems.

 

It seems to me that at least once a month there will s a new issue with the systems.

 

Also, if you call some percentage of the agents are excellent and some percentage are absolutely terrible.  I have had an experience where the overall price on the website was lower then what the agent was quoting (so I booked that cruise on the website) and I have had experiences where the agents were quoting lower prices.

 

 

You never know.