I've Been Considering Oceania, but Their Aggressive Sales Tactics Turn Me Off

[mnocket]

I've been researching itineraries on the Oceania website.  The next day I get an unsolicited call from an O sales rep.  Same thing the next day.  Really?  If I want to talk to an O sales rep, I'll call an O sales rep.  They come across as desperate. It's essentially phone spam. Not a sign of luxury. Maybe O should consider reassigning these reps to the customer service lines where they can improve responsiveness to customers who really need help?

[zalusky]

I wonder how much they spend on mail flyers.  I get at least 2 a week.

[thebsinmiss]

Agreed that O seems to be over aggressive in their marketing once they identify you as a potential client.

 

With the O agent, simply tell them you are currently working with a travel agent (even if you are not) and state you do not want any follow up calls from them.

 

As for the brochures I agree the the cost of their extremely fancy/glossy brochures which they seem to mail multiple times every week must be significant.  I just went on line and requested I be removed from all communications.

 

I would recommend trying a cruise and determine if Oceania is providing a product that you want to purchase.

[durberville]

55 minutes ago, mnocket said:

I've been researching itineraries on the Oceania website.  The next day I get an unsolicited call from an O sales rep.  Same thing the next day.  Really?  If I want to talk to an O sales rep, I'll call an O sales rep.  They come across as desperate. It's essentially phone spam. Not a sign of luxury. Maybe O should consider reassigning these reps to the customer service lines where they can improve responsiveness to customers who really need help?

I agree! It’s a complete turn off! This happened to me when first looking at Oceania cruises (we did book). Now I hesitate to open the site to look at others. If I’m interested or seeking more information - I will call you!

 

In Oceania’s defense - Viking does the very same thing. Again, I have a cruise booked with them also but am afraid to go on the site and research others. 
 

(I can’t ignore the phone calls from both lines in case they are contacting me with something important about the cruises I have already booked. 😬) Ugh!

Edited May 17 by durberville

[Harters]

55 minutes ago, mnocket said:

The next day I get an unsolicited call from an O sales rep.

How odd. I often look at O's itineraries and never get a call. I wonder how they know it's you looking at the website and what your phone number is?  Are you a previous O customer and are somehow logging on to your account, rather than simply browsing their website? Or maybe "announcing your presence" in some other way? 

[mnocket]

1 minute ago, Harters said:

How odd. I often look at O's itineraries and never get a call. I wonder how they know it's you looking at the website and what your phone number is?  Are you a previous O customer and are somehow logging on to your account, rather than simply browsing their website? Or maybe "announcing your presence" in some other way? 

I'm not a previous O customer, but I am registered on their website.  I don't believe I gave them my phone number, but these days everything is cross-referenced online and companies sign up with data services that can connect the dots to track you down.

[Jim_Iain]

I have experienced the same and found the triggering factor is that if you select Save for Later, I get a phone call.   If I don't do that I never receive a call from them.   

 

Other alternative is to go into your profile and put in  fake phone number -  eg  305-514-2300  Oceania's Headquarters phone number.

 

I guess you could also create a fake account that you use just for searching.  I find the same happens on SilverSea.

 

 

Edited May 17 by Jim_Iain

[Harters]

1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

I have experienced the same and found the triggering factor is that if you select Save for Later.   If I don't do that I never receive a call from them.   

I never "save" on that pop-up box. Maybe that's why, like you, I don't get calls. 

[MamaFej]

Oceania and Viking could probably re-forest the Amazon pretty quickly if they'd back off on the glossy brochures. I'm starting to get them from Silversea, too. 

 

 

I wonder if browsing on an incognito window would help?  I don't get calls, but I work with a TA, who is also a very close friend. 

[mnocket]

25 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I have experienced the same and found the triggering factor is that if you select Save for Later, I get a phone call.

Bingo!  I hadn't thought of that, but yes, I Saved a cruise.  Won't make that mistake again.

[ak1004]

Never got any calls from O, and we did 4 cruises with them and 3 more booked.

 

But if this is how people decide to select a cruise line, then yes, better to sail on a less "desperate" line (although the ships are full most of the time, so I don't think they really have a reason to be desperate).

[mnocket]

2 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

Never got any calls from O, and we did 4 cruises with them and 3 more booked.

 

But if this is how people decide to select a cruise line, then yes, better to sail on a less "desperate" line (although the ships are full most of the time, so I don't think they really have a reason to be desperate).

People are different.  Some dislike spam calls from companies, and apparently some are OK with it.  

[clo]

1 hour ago, zalusky said:

I wonder how much they spend on mail flyers.  I get at least 2 a week.

And I've gotten ONE in probably five years!

[mnocket]

28 minutes ago, clo said:

And I've gotten ONE in probably five years!

Me neither, but now that I have made the "Save For Later" mistake, I'll probably start getting them☹️

Edited May 17 by mnocket

[Kay S]

All the cruise lines do it.  I get a Carnival ad at least twice a month.  The worst is American Cruise Line (the domestic river cruises).  My more serious problem with them is the sales pressure on board.  On Princess, they practically follow you around with their hands out.  

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, MamaFej said:

Oceania and Viking could probably re-forest the Amazon pretty quickly if they'd back off on the glossy brochures. I'm starting to get them from Silversea, too.

 

Just stack them up next to the fireplace.  Makes for great fire starters come winter time.

 

 

[IDL]

Wish a could check a box where Oceana would agree not to send any more brochures and just provide a discount on the cruise. 

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, mnocket said:

I've been researching itineraries on the Oceania website.  The next day I get an unsolicited call from an O sales rep.  Same thing the next day.  Really?  If I want to talk to an O sales rep, I'll call an O sales rep.  They come across as desperate. It's essentially phone spam. Not a sign of luxury. Maybe O should consider reassigning these reps to the customer service lines where they can improve responsiveness to customers who really need help?

Many years ago (when O always packaged air with their cruises) we took a good look at booking an O cruise.  At the time, everything was priced with Economy Air, and O only had their smaller R ships.  After looking at the pricing, we asked about doing our own air, and the air credit offered by O was ridiculously low...making the cruise pricing a bad value (in our opinion).  Given the pricing, value, and our dislike of the cabin bathrooms on the R ships, we did not book the cruise.

 

A few days later we received an unsolicited call from an O rep who tried to talk us into booking that cruise.  When he asked why we did not book, I simply told him that O was not a good value when compared to several other cruise lines (we have cruised on 18 cruise lines).  The O rep become somewhat argumentative and tried to pressure me into booking.  I finally pointed out to him that even if we were to book with O, it would be through one of our favored cruise agencies that enhanced bookings with a generous OBC (not available by booking direct with O).  This rep was not happy (he made that clear) and I finally thanked him and hung up.  It was more than 15 years later until we finally booked our first O cruise.

 

I will add that we have never been pressured by any other cruise line and never received an unsolicited marketing telephone call.

 

Hank

[EJL2023]

There is already another thread on this topic which is fairly recent. ‘Big Brother is watching’

Edited May 17 by EJL2023

[Tr1v1alCru1ser]

Haven’t received any literature or phone calls from them.

[KS&JW]

I save cruises that I'm interested in on their website all the time.  However, I have a travel agent, Oceania know that,  so nobody ever calls me

[Jim_Iain]

4 hours ago, mnocket said:

Bingo!  I hadn't thought of that, but yes, I Saved a cruise.  Won't make that mistake again.

Ever since I discovered that I've not been contacted since.    Actually I was pricing some cruises earlier this week and never been contacted. 

[TRLD]

3 hours ago, IDL said:

Wish a could check a box where Oceana would agree not to send any more brochures and just provide a discount on the cruise. 

Log into your account on the web site. Find the section on communications and indicate that you do not want mail. Can also turn off phone calls and email.

[Hlitner]

29 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Log into your account on the web site. Find the section on communications and indicate that you do not want mail. Can also turn off phone calls and email.

Oceania does not even hold a candle to the mail we get from Viking :).  In fact, we get three sets of every mailing from Viking (my name, my name with only a first initial, and DW's name).  I once called Viking and suggested they were wasting a lot of money (just for mailing) with all this duplication.  I got transferred to a supervisor who could have cared less!  To this day, despite not having cruised on Viking River or Ocean for more than a decade, we still get lots of mailings.  

 

We have given up on the mail issue, and it all helps to pad the landfills (not sure paper truly gets recyled).  When we have been away for a few weeks/months, our junk mill truly fills bins...most of which is cruise related junk mail (having cruised on 18 lines does get us a lot of cruise mail).  

 

I might shock the cruise marketing executives if I told them we seldom to never look at any of the brochures (even from our favorite lines).  Nearly all of our research is done online where we can use data bases to search criteria (i.e  dates, places, etc).  Using the printed brochures means I would need to spend hours looking through stuff from at least a dozen cruise lines.  Instead, I can input criteria into online data bases and pull up relevant info in seconds.  

 

Hank

P.S.  I will thank a few anonymous (CC rules prohibit me from mentioning names) cruise agencies that have excellent cruise data bases (that have info on nearly every cruise line and ship).

 

[Vineyard View]

Oceania has our information. When I am researching, looking at a ‘pretend booking’ to see cabin availability, I always ‘continue as a guest” at the bottom. It doesn’t trigger a call or email. 
I made the mistake of saving one last week. Sure enough, the same agent, whom I spoken with in the past, and knows we have an agent, reached out to us. Since I saved it as a guest, he only had my email apparently as I didn’t get a call. 
I think screenshots work better moving forward. 
And yes, Oceania, Viking, HAL top the list of mailings, followed by SB, SS, Atlas…….etc