Fed up with royal caribbean - never again

[ccletzgo]

Any time you get two businesses working "cooperatively" on the same venture, there's a good chance that if something goes wrong, they'll blame each other til the bitter end. My mom just spent a week going back and forth between two health insurance companies trying to figure out why somebody had double-billed my grandma for time she's spending in hospice. They blamed each other for a full week until finally a rep for one of them casually admitted that, whoops, it was their fault. No apologies for the wasted time on 5-6 phone calls, mind you. :rolleyes:

 

To the OP, if RCI has admitted that it's their error, just keep hounding 'em. And if this is going to affect which cruiseline you book with in the future, let them know. Even if you don't get additional compensation (and I hope you do-- $300 is a fairly meager amount for the nightmare at the airport plus missing 3 days), at least it might save somebody else the trouble of having to go through what you did. Good luck.

 

 

Exactly! ;) Royal also Carry's E & O insurance for these very things. An airline will never, ever, ever, take responsibility..and I mean Ever!

[cassieroll]

Drop the www. in that email...

 

Also, when you do email Goldstein make sure you tell him you are a TA and you are steering your customers away from booking with RCL and you've complained on Cruise Critic.

 

Good luck!

[ccletzgo]

We need details!!!

 

Was your husband recently fired?

 

###

 

YEa, there is a post about a ship being called " Fired of the seas"

All I can say is my DH would be livid if I were posting about his being fired on the INTERNET.:eek:

 

Its wise to remember. The INTERNET is forever. Blogging, posting to message boards, friends networks, what ever.....It CAN all affect ones FUTURE Employment..... anywhere!

 

I would hope that the moderators would remove all of wife of fired posts for both there sakes.. (I wont post the screen name so that I am NOT contributing to fired's situation)

[peagreenid]

I agree. Who does a TA think they work for?

Who pays the commission?

 

She works for her clients. Not the cruiseline. The Cruiseline may be paying the commission, but the commision is part of the fare the client/passenger paid for. I would want a TA that has my best interest in mind, NOT the Vendor.

[Davey Interweb]

I have no problem with a TA voicing their opinion, positive or negative. I think it is poor business practice for a TA to come here and say they are steering clients in another direction because of a single problem they had with their personal reservation. I would expect a travel professional to handle a problem professionally.

 

A poor business practice or not, it's their show so to speak. Case in point: my own TA loathes one particular mass-market line based on both his professional as well as his personal experiences with them, to the point where he's stated to me in the past something along the lines of "if you want to book <mass-market line>, do it online or elsewhere because there's not a chance I'll be doing it for you". He wasn't joking. That's his way of doing business, I personally don't find it to be terribly unusual and I know he's successful at what he does.

 

In this particular case RCI's air department apparently screwed up and caused great inconvenience to the OP; they're showing their further ineptitude by not resolving it in a timely fashion, and of course that's going to sully someone's attitude toward them. Occasionally an agent might have standards or principles, who knew?

 

One final thought: why do people believe it's effective to write an email to voice a formal complaint of this nature? You might want to try doing so in writing, like the ancients once did, as your letter tends to be taken much more seriously.

[brmoqueen]

Sorry to hear of the problem........Never a good way to start a vacation.

 

I always book air on my own also. I used the cruise air ONCE as it was over a Christmas holiday and they had my husband and eldest daughter out of St Louis, Me out of Springfield, MO, Our 14 year old daughter out of Tulsa......It was RIDICULOUS........they couldn't even get the family of four out of one airport let alone seats together!!

 

Needless to say, we canx that portion and booked our own.....

[long4theocean]

Uh, I don't know of any travel agents who work for Royal Caribbean. Plenty of agents are both complimentary and critical of any given cruise line, even in their posts right here in these very forums. Why shouldn't they provide honest opinions and/or feedback based on their own personal experiences? Agents aren't paid commission to glorify or hype a particular cruise line, they're paid to create and service bookings for their clients.

 

You must be thinking "do not bite the hand that feeds you" or something like that. I don't think that sentiment really works here.

 

Thank you very much! My number one objective is to make certain that my customers vacations go as smooth as possible and they get everything that they have paid for. As far as I am concerned the customer is my employer, not the cruise line.

[long4theocean]

I don't understand how he had a seat assignment without it being paid for.. Delta will not assign seats without payment.:confused:

 

Something certainly went terribly wrong.

 

I just wanted to add, it may have happened when data entry was being done. Either on Royals side, or deltas side. I also am an agent and I had clients going round trip slc to Cancun. All purchased. Within 48 hours I had to do a spelling correction before the flights were ticketed. Somewhere between the booking engine I use and delta, (they still blame each other) on one of the persons SLC to CUN leg got canceled. They still had the Cun to SLC, but NO WAY TO GET THERE. We would have never known if it were not for the client checking there credit card statement and noticing that the amount of one persons ticket was less then the other..

 

What a mess. WE barely got them on the flight with one seat left and of course it was priced higher then before! Not only that it was first class at over $1,000 a round trip ticket...

 

anyway, back to the point I was making.. someone in data entry caused it to happen... I bet my bottom dollar. Were there any name or spelling corrections done after the booking?

 

No changes were done by myself. The groups department seems to have quite a few problems as this was not the only problem with this group, but they were all resolved. They were flipping people from one flight to another. First they had everyone on one flight, then ended up splitting it into 2 groups. I don't know where the problem happened, but it is my understanding from early on that it was in the group air department.

[stephanie1]

I do not understand why people book their air thru RCCL at all!!!!

 

Book it yourself - its easy and from what I hear, RCCL is not givng you

an bargains...

 

Good luck

[BecciBoo]

'

 

Someone called Lisa Calderone at RCCL overturned the decision and said they would make an exception.

If they can give that family their $1800 back they should be giving you and your husband a free cruise. What a farce!

 

emedia has given you a name...email her at lcalderone@rccl.com and tell her you were given her name and that she may be able to help you. If she balks, tell her the name of YOUR T.V. station:cool: Duplicate every email on paper and send it in and also do as others have said and email the chairman and CEO agoldstein@rccl.com and rfain@rccl.com

Even though I am still a Royal Champion, I agree with everyone else, this is outrageous! And I hope RCCL reads the whole thread. Never used them for air and never will, thanks to you.

[fightingokra]

I have no problem with a TA voicing their opinion, positive or negative. I think it is poor business practice for a TA to come here and say they are steering clients in another direction because of a single problem they had with their personal reservation. I would expect a travel professional to handle a problem professionally.

 

OP is being professional. A travel agent works for the client, not the cruise line. It is in the agents best interest to see that their clients have a nice vacation/holiday. If, via first hand experiance, they discover that a certain cruiseline or other company is not providing proper customer service then they are OBLIGATED to steer their clients to another provider if at all possible.

 

I wouldn't want a TA sending me on some cruiseline that they KNOW has had customer service problems like the one in this thread. A TA should be looking out for you, not the cruiseline.

 

I applaud the OP and think they should be sure to warn all of their clients against traveling with any company that can't provide proper customer service.

 

You sound confused.

[realtreebar]

any update just being nosey!:)

[Maxiecat3]

OP is being professional. A travel agent works for the client, not the cruise line. It is in the agents best interest to see that their clients have a nice vacation/holiday. If, via first hand experiance, they discover that a certain cruiseline or other company is not providing proper customer service then they are OBLIGATED to steer their clients to another provider if at all possible.

 

I wouldn't want a TA sending me on some cruiseline that they KNOW has had customer service problems like the one in this thread. A TA should be looking out for you, not the cruiseline.

 

I applaud the OP and think they should be sure to warn all of their clients against traveling with any company that can't provide proper customer service.

 

You sound confused.

 

Even though I feel the OP deserves some resolution to this problem, and I agree with some of your comments; if she follows your recommendation that I have bolded above, wouldn't she have to basically stop selling cruises? I don't believe that there is a mainstream cruise line afloat that at one time or another hasn't had a customer service fiasco as bad if not worse than what the OP has gone through. I base this on what has been posted on the various threads on this web site. I have never sailed on another line but poor customer service does not sound like it is limited to RCI.

Gregg

[reallyitsmema]

OP is being professional. A travel agent works for the client, not the cruise line. It is in the agents best interest to see that their clients have a nice vacation/holiday. If, via first hand experiance, they discover that a certain cruiseline or other company is not providing proper customer service then they are OBLIGATED to steer their clients to another provider if at all possible.

 

I wouldn't want a TA sending me on some cruiseline that they KNOW has had customer service problems like the one in this thread. A TA should be looking out for you, not the cruiseline.

 

I applaud the OP and think they should be sure to warn all of their clients against traveling with any company that can't provide proper customer service.

 

You sound confused.

I never said the TA works for the cruiseline, you are the one confused. I would expect a TA to handle a problem directly with the cruiseline. I would expext a TA to have the contacts and to know the procedures to follow when they encounter a problem.

 

I would not expect a TA to post on a message board that they aren't selling a particular product because of a problem they have encountered with a vendor. I find that unprofessional. I wouldn't expect my hair dresser to post on a hair forum that they are no longer selling Paul Mitchell because they owe them a check and I have the same expectations of my TA.

 

I hope the OP gets her money back, RCI has admitted they made a mistake and will send a check.

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I have stated mine.

[lounger]

You haven't paid in full yet. Look for your own air and cancel the cruise air, then you know exactly what it happening, no guessing and no surprises.

 

We are paid in full b/c we were supposed to cruise November of 2008 but due to my husbands knee surgery we had to postpone to November 2009.We are flying out of Newark and I'm getting really nervous reading this thread

[fightingokra]

Even though I feel the OP deserves some resolution to this problem, and I agree with some of your comments; if she follows your recommendation that I have bolded above, wouldn't she have to basically stop selling cruises? I don't believe that there is a mainstream cruise line afloat that at one time or another hasn't had a customer service fiasco as bad if not worse than what the OP has gone through. I base this on what has been posted on the various threads on this web site. I have never sailed on another line but poor customer service does not sound like it is limited to RCI.

Gregg

 

I do agree with you about all cruiselines (any company really) have had customer service problems. The most important part (in my opinion) is that the TA have first hand knowledge and experiance.

 

If somebody said to a TA that Carnival has crappy customer service then the TA shouldn't just take their word or it. However, if the TA has felt the crappy customer service themselves then they should really look hard at that instance and consider whether they should advise clients to travel with Carnival (or whomever).

 

Stuff happens. It is how a company handles the aftermath that makes all the difference in the world imo. If they can't correct their own mistakes then I wouldn't send a client of mine to deal with them. That's just me.

 

You do make a very valid point.

[fightingokra]

I never said the TA works for the cruiseline, you are the one confused. I would expect a TA to handle a problem directly with the cruiseline. I would expext a TA to have the contacts and to know the procedures to follow when they encounter a problem.

 

I would not expect a TA to post on a message board that they aren't selling a particular product because of a problem they have encountered with a vendor. I find that unprofessional. I wouldn't expect my hair dresser to post on a hair forum that they are no longer selling Paul Mitchell because they owe them a check and I have the same expectations of my TA.

 

I hope the OP gets her money back, RCI has admitted they made a mistake and will send a check.

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I have stated mine.

 

What if your hair dresser bought some Paul Mitchell shampoo that bleached her hair? Would you then feel it was okay for her to stop selling the product if when she contacted PM they said, " Too bad, so sad but you ain't getting a refund."

 

I don't think you'd appreciate your stylist selling you a product that could bleach your hair. Maybe you would be like, "That's okay. I know it bleached your hair too but I'm glad you didn't tell me when I purchased it."

 

I'm sure you'd be understanding and grateful that your stylist didn't stop selling the product and allowed other customers to get the same results.

 

I don't expect anyone to sell a crappy product or a product that doesn't live up to it's claims. RCI has a great product I'm sure but they have to follow through on their end of the deal. That means, when you buy air through them that you actually get a ticket. If something wild happens then you are properly reimbursed for the ticket and the problems associated with their mistake.

 

You seem to believe that first hand experiance doesn't account for much. I, on the other hand, value first hand experiance over any other "review." If a TA had a bad experiance then she/he should advise their clients of that. That is what being a professional is all about.

 

It's just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

[xcomet]

That is terrible, Did you ever think about disputing it on your charge card? The charge card company will charge them back, I bet that will get RCL's attention.

[TBSCruiser]

We are paid in full b/c we were supposed to cruise November of 2008 but due to my husbands knee surgery we had to postpone to November 2009.We are flying out of Newark and I'm getting really nervous reading this thread

 

 

It sounds like you transferred your booking from one date to the other but in reality final payment is not due on the new cruise until Sept or so (don't have a calendar in front of me) CALL and see if they will let you still cancel the air and book yourself.

 

Make sure you check the flights yourself first for price, http://www.sidestep.com is a great way to find flights.

[cruisinfanatic]

That is terrible, Did you ever think about disputing it on your charge card? The charge card company will charge them back, I bet that will get RCL's attention.

Disputing what? way too late for the original air charged by RCL. The $900 the OP spent for a new ticket was through the airline.

[temple1]

Just curious, I've never used a TA and I've never done a cruise air or even cruise hotel package.

 

How do you confirm the air?

[elkdude]

I'm sure this is a VERY rare occurence.

 

I would agree about it being rare. When you factor in a group of 43, that also increases chance for error. I've booked groups of 10-12 several times and never had a problem. Not excusing the RCCL response at all, but things do happen.

[long4theocean]

Just an update. It is now June 5th and still no check in hand. I continue to get the run around from RCI and they really act like they don't care. I have emailed one of our local news stations with there "problem solvers" but I guess they are not interested since I have not heard from them.

 

Will keep you posted. I'm still very angry with Royal.

[cruislovin]

Did you check your seats on the flights once you received the air details?

[xcomet]

Disputing what? way too late for the original air charged by RCL. The $900 the OP spent for a new ticket was through the airline.

you can dispute the charge back to rccl, , you can do this up to 1 yr.

especially since she has all the documentation and the charge billl.