A letter to Princess, yes, a negative one

The following is a letter that I sent to Princess concerning problems I had with Princess Transfers from San Francisco pier on Tuesday, September 26, 2006.

Let me start by saying we had a wonderful cruise. This was my first cruise. Everything was great onboard and I will post a review soon. I realize this letter is a negative but I do want to share my experiences.

The only things changed in following are that the names have been substituted with letter in quotes.

September 27, 2006

Passenger Relations Department

Princess Cruises

23405 Town Center Drive

Santa Clarita, CA 91355

Dear Passenger Relations Department:

I am writing this letter to you as instructed to do so by “EEE” of the Princess Customer Services Department. For your reference this is concerning booking number ------, voyage number D636. My Captains Circle number is ---------A.

This letter concerns my displeasure over Princess Cruise Lines handling of a service issue upon disembarkation of Dawn Princess in San Francisco on September 26, 2006.

Some background on why we took this short cruise. My wife and I decided to take a cruise in December instead of our normal December vacation trip to Las Vegas. This was to by my first cruise; my wife has previously sailed on Carnival about ten years ago. We booked Diamond Princess for the December 9th Mexican Riviera run. While researching this cruise we came upon the two day Coastal Cruise from Vancouver to San Francisco. We thought this would be a great long weekend and a nice way to get our feet wet into cruising and Princess Cruises in particular. We live just north of San Francisco and decided to fly to Seattle for the weekend prior to the cruise out of Oakland Airport and then take Amtrak to Vancouver to pick up the ship.

We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise. Our waiter Mel was wonderful and our steward Maricel helped us get our bags picked up when we missed the pickup schedule the night before disembarkation. We met some wonderful people onboard and really didn’t want to leave the ship. We wished we could have just continued on to the Mexican Riviera right then!

One of the things I had not pre arranged was getting from Pier 35 in San Francisco back to Oakland Airport to pick up our car. Some people on Cruisecritic.com had mentioned that Princess sells transfers onboard the ship so decisions didn’t have to be made right away. On Monday the Princess Patter had an announcement that transfers would be sold from 12-2. I went down to the desk and asked if they had transfers to Oakland Airport. The gentleman said yes. Now I know I was clear about this because he asked me what airline and I said we didn’t have a flight we were just picking up out car in Oakland. I gave him my card and he printed up two transfers. I even looked at the transfers expecting them to say something about which airport they were for but all they said was “San Francisco Transfer”. They did not mention any airport so I questioned the gentleman again. I specifically asked him if these were for Oakland Airport, he again said yes. I do not have this gentleman’s name.

On Tuesday we arrived in San Francisco, Princess transfers in hand. We picked up our luggage and walked to the busses. The attendant asked us what airline and I stated we just are going to Oakland Airport to pick up our car. He told us they do not go to Oakland Airport and we were on our own. He said it was not their responsibility to get us to Oakland. Now remember, we had Princess Transfers in hand purchased onboard and a representative of Princess now told us to basically go away and figure out for ourselves how to get to Oakland Airport. I asked to speak to a supervisor. One of the other representatives came over to me and asked if I was a passenger on their list. I was not. She told me this other passenger had also been sold Princess transfers to Oakland. The ground transportation personnel said they tell Princess “all the time” that they do not go to Oakland and yet Princess still sells them.

I then spoke with “AAA”, whose card says she is the San Francisco Operations Manager. Ms. “AAA” restated that it not their responsibility to get us to Oakland as they do not go to Oakland. She also stated that they were not employees of Princess.

The pier workers were dressed in blue jackets all with Princess logos on them. Ms. “AAA” even had pins on her jacket including the C.R.U.I.S.E. (Courtesy, Respect, Unfailing In Service Excellence) customer service program pin that I saw many employees onboard wearing. I know this is my first cruise but when I see people in Princess outfits I assume they are representatives of Princess. At that moment in time, she WAS Princess to me. She told me to call 1-800-Princess and they would take care of a refund. Of course she already told me she was not a Princess employee so why should I just take her word for this? I asked for something in writing. Nothing was provided but she did call 1-800-Princess. I could see her exasperation as she maneuvered through Princess employees on the phone for some kind of resolution. She then handed me the phone to speak to a Princess representative.

I then spoke to “BBB” (I do not have her last name). “BBB” told me that I had to send my receipt to the Passenger relations department and they would treat this as an unused transfer for a refund. This is NOT an unused transfer. I’m trying to use this transfer! I just wanted to go to Oakland exactly where Princess sold me a transfer to go. She stated that it was not Princesses responsibility, a recurring theme in all this. Never did she say it would be taken care of, only that we had to apply for a refund. It really doesn’t appear that anyone cared at all. I asked to speak to her supervisor. I was then connected to “CCC”.

I had already realized that Princess was not going to do anything about this and we were on our own. All I really wanted was a Princess employee to take responsibility for the mistake and say a refund was forthcoming. With Ms. “CCC” I got neither. I was stunned by her response! Ms. “CCC” informed me that this was my entirely fault. It was my fault because I purchased Princess transfers on the ship and not from my travel agent. I could not believe what I was hearing. I think I must have asked her three times if I heard her correctly. She was adamant that this was my fault. She said the travel agent would have known better. Well I guess I am a fool for expecting that Princess would actually provide the service that was sold onboard. I purchased four Future Cruise Credits onboard, two each for me and my wife. The future cruise credits were also purchased onboard. I have to wonder if these will be honored or is this another non-existent Princess service. Why should I think that when I go to use them, they will work correctly? I have worked in various customer service related jobs throughout my life and if I ever told a customer that it was “their entire fault” when clearly it was not, I would be fired. All I can assume is that if the attitude Ms. “CCC” has is Princess company policy, I picked the wrong cruise line.

I ended up being transferred to her boss, “DDD”. I asked her if she had heard what her underling had said and she said yes she did. Once again, no effort from anyone at Princess to “make it right” just the standing attitude of go file a claim and please leave us alone. I told Ms. “DDD” what the ground personnel said about Princess selling transfers to Oakland all the time. I mentioned that at least one other passenger was sold Oakland transfers for this voyage. She told me that two out of 1600 passengers isn’t all the time. She felt the need to quantify a Princess failure. What is an acceptable failure rate for Princess? Would ten have been too many? Would five have been acceptable? Do you set rates like this for every aspect of your business?

Needless to say, I ended up exactly where I started. I was made to feel that Princess could care less about this. Send us a receipt and we’ll consider a refund. I ended up taking a cab to Oakland Airport for $70. The Princess transfers were $27 each.

The next morning I contacted “EEE” who told me where and what to send to Princess. Once again, she said they will consider it when all the receipts are received. I made sure to get the name and address of the Princess CEO, Peter Ratcliffe. I want a copy of this to go to his office so he can see what kind of people represent his company. I also talked to “FFF” at the Princess CEOs office. She gave me the name of Micky Arison, head of Carnival Corporation. I feel they also should know about how Princess handles customer service. A copy of this letter will also be submitted to Cruisecritic.com.

Sincerely,

cc: Micky Arison, CEO Carnival Cruises

Peter Ratcliffe, CEO Princess Cruises

Cruisecritic.com

Resolution: "FFF" called to tell me that they would refund the price of the Princess transfers and as a goodwill gesture issue us $70 in onboard credit for our next cruise.