Celebrity: Ashamed of themselves or Hats off?

[BB5953]

Tbelian,

 

That is exactly my point. Most people here have a favorable view of Celebrity.

 

I agree, but you have to wonder why the ashamed is so high for a board that should be well over 90% favorable.

[tbelian]

I agree, but you have to wonder why the ashamed is so high for a board that should be well over 90% favorable.

 

Overall, in realtion to the total cruise population, hats off -OR- ashamed is still representative of only a fraction.

 

All polls that would be conducted here should be considered highly unscientific. It's great entertainment value, or general interest, but thats about it. IMHO

[dublin]

My experience with Celbrity and their cruise staff has been amazing. The one time we had a bad experience, bad pods on the Millie, the crew was so attentive and eager to make us more confortable. I cruised only once on RCCL and felt the same way.

 

Celebrity is definetly #1 with us

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Thanks.

I am reposting this because, apparently, some folks have not read it.

[Sow There]

The issue with a discussion like this is that every trip, every customer and every employee is unique.

 

I could have a dream trip where all goes perfectly. The couple next door may experience bad things with a different waiter, a different shore excursion, different expectations, etc.

 

If my cruise goes without a hitch but yours skips Grand Cayman because the port is closed and X didn't choose an alternative that made you happy, then I can say "good" and you can say "bad" and we're both right.

 

That's why this is really a "throw away" topic.

[palermo22]

I'm going to throw this in here (even though it's a repeat what I stated yesterday, however, it was eliminated because perhaps I made it too personal) - hopefully, this will stay.

 

We're on what was the Summit 9/17/04 delayed to 9/20/04 - originally a 14 day trip and now 11. In my opinion - actually if you read our board under roll call beginning in early September - you will see that Celebrity handled this fairly poorly; it was not until we all kept calling each day and showing the inequity that Celebrity finally righted this yesterday morning. This will be our third Celebrity cruise - the first two were great - I expect this one to be great as well - but the company did not earn any points in the way this was handled up until yesterday morning - as mentioned, they finally came to their senses and the decision made yesterday was what should have been made ten days ago!

 

Originally they were giving us a $500 cabin credit and a 25% off on a future cruise (as long as it was taken prior to 12/15/05 with upteen conditions attached to it) - if you didn't cruise in 05 then you lost the credit. So in essence, Celebrity was giving an approximate 12% credit but 21.4% of the cruise had been eliminated (as well as three ports). For ten days, no matter how many people called and complained, Celebrity's attitude was "take it or leave it". Finally, they relented and stated they would reduce the credit to $250 and return 25% for this cruise - which was what we asked all along. During the course of this saga, many passengers cancelled - some got sick over it - and Celebrity more or less said "who cares".

 

I give Celebrity 100% credit for their turnaround yesterday and hopefully this will set a precdent for future M class passengers should those ships develop the same problems as the Summit.

[tbelian]

I'm going to throw this in here (even though it's a repeat what I stated yesterday, however, it was eliminated because perhaps I made it too personal) - hopefully, this will stay.

 

 

I'm going to respond (again), because, like you, i've been following with interest...

 

This time, however, my thoughts are of a different nature. Essentially, 'Welcome to the wonderful world of customer dis-service'.. What has been happening is not limited to Celebrity, or the cruise industry. Tried lately to talk to a.) the cable company, b.) the cell phone company, c.) a software or computer company (pick one, dell, microsoft, or the like).??

 

Unfortunately, the term 'Customer Service' is a misnomer. As a regular poster to CC will tell you (Ocean Gypsy), decisions regarding compensation are not made by customer service at 'X' but rather by some other department (accounting, or revenue, or whatever they call it). It's clear they cant 'ramp up' quickly enough to handle situations like this. The corporate 'buzz words' these days are loosely centered around something called 'CRM' (Customer Relationship Management), but is an evolving area.

 

Call centers are staffed with (usually) low-waged workers who work from 'scripts' that, unfortunately do not provide real 'answers'. I could go on at length about what a huge effort it was to get Verizon ('We never stop working for you') to actually resolve something to my satisfaction. But ultimately it was resolved.

 

Here is another example from this post:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=80034

 

Posted by Danno (another regular contributor here on CC)

 

'Air Canada has made a complete mess of our travel plans (not X's fault)...they cancelled our return flight home and moved us to the first flight the next morning. It's really not the money...it's the whole Air Canada attitude..."you don't like it? Tough!! We're a monopoly in your market and we don't care what you think.'

 

To be sure, it's very frustrating, But is, unfortunately, common.

 

Take heart in this, once you finally board the Summit, and sail away, some of the stresses caused by this situation should melt away and 'it gets better'.

[palermo22]

I think we are finally all singing the same tune. I think the benefit of these boards is to disclose both good and bad. Yes, we all know in our everyday lives that customer service is non-existent (in many cases) - but irregardless if a cruise company isn't doing what we would hope it should be doing then this board is the avenue to let it be said. I think the lesson learned from all of this is: the ships are great - Celebrity customer service has a long way to go!

[ho]

Tbelian,

 

This is two days in a row that I agree with you. We are going to have to stop this or people will start to talk.

 

I think customer service has deteriorated in every business. When someone actually goes above what is expected it is both refreshing and rare. We also use a call center and it is indeed staffed with lower hourly wage employees and temps. We do try however to give constant training on customer service. We hold bi weekly training meeting using films, role playing exercises, and actual customer calls. It is not perfect but I do think it helps to reinforce the fact that management is actually concerned about how our customers are treated. I don't know and maybe Celebrity also does this.

 

I think allot of this also goes to expectations. When I go down to the DMV or any city agency, I do not expect very good customer service, if I get it, I am surprised and comment to the person how much I appreciate what they had done. When I go to a nice restaurant, I do expect excellent service and am very disappointed if I don't get treated well. With Celebrity, I also expect excellent customer service because that is what I am use to when I cruise with them. When I receive poor customer service I react much harsher with Celebrity then I would if it was a city or government agency.

 

Palermo22,

 

I am glad Celebrity stepped up and did the right thing, even if it did take them a while. I agree with Tbelian, that once you are on the ship it will be a pleasant experience. I assume you feel the same way since you have cruised with Celebrity before. Good luck. I hope you have a great time even though I know it is hard to get the bitter taste out of your mouth.

[tbelian]

Tbelian,

 

This is two days in a row that I agree with you. We are going to have to stop this or people will start to talk.

 

 

I'm sure they already DO! LOL!......

[palermo22]

Good luck. I hope you have a great time even though I know it is hard to get the bitter taste out of your mouth.

 

It's already long gone! Thanks for the support.

[C 2 C]

This thread is totally misleading... How can you have a serious discussion about a topic if you start a poll with no preamble. I would like to follow this thread about Celebrity's abusive behavior if the facts above are true... I'm a real Celebrity supporter but I'm a true believer in describing the truth... warts and all

 

Please direct me to the posts about the Summit problem or Celebrity's abusive behavior... or better still repost under a new thread to attract the polar opinions that make debate so thrilling..

I'm an Infinity orphan from a problem nearly two years ago and was treated well by Celebrity then.. I'm shocked to hear about this poor treatment.. :confused:

[ecowen]

I have no idea why this thread reemerged from the dustbin of CC land, but for those of you confused by the poll, here is the explanation -- it was supposed to be a joke!:D

 

 

 

You had to be there. . .;)

 

When I posted this poll the 2 top topics were titled:

 

Hats off to Celebrity

 

and

 

Celebrity should be ashamed

 

I thought it was amusing that both were "competing" for most popular topic, and decided to post the poll to decide fair and square who was right.

 

Pretty funny. . .at least I thought so!:D

[Drink-in-Hand/Toes-in-Sand]

I'll add my own experience to the board, for whatever it might be worth! We were booked on the September 4th sailing of Century, which was cut from 7 days to 4 days because of Hurricane Frances. We were offered a $500 on board credit, and "50% off a future cruise of 7 days or more"

IF AND ONLY IF you showed up for the abreviated sailing.

 

Since we were aware of the dangers of booking during hurricane season, we were just glad that they had not cancelled the entire cruise. This was our first Celebrity Cruise (we're RCCL fans) but were genuinely looking forward to trying the "upscale" line. However, the on board service was terrible, the staff was rude and I can't ever remember leaving a ship so deflated by the experience. Looking back I expect that the staff was disappointed at the low number of passengers that actually showed up--thereby they weren't getting paid the usual gratuities.

 

That being said, we decided to give Celebrity another chance and booked an Alaskan cruise for next summer. We booked on board and paid a deposit. Imagine our surprise when we received a confirmation under our door an hour before debarkation that quoted a price nearly $800 more than we agreed to!!! The staff on board refused to fix their error--citing that the Celebrity representative that booked our Alaskan cruise was not qualified to do so and was just "helping out" in that capacity. Do I really care??? Heck no!

 

When we came home I immediately wrote a letter to Celebrity demanding that they either honor the contract that they agreed to when they took our money or else cancel and refund the full amount we had paid. Thankfully they were able to fix the error and we are still booked for Alaska. I'm hoping that this will go smoother. If not, I have no problem with cruising another line. I hope that the folks from Summit got a favorable resolution on their issues. Happy cruising!

[C 2 C]

Just started a thread on HAS CELEBRITY done you wrong??

 

I hope some of these topics will be discussed..