Dear Bill, AZ does get it right!

[California Native]

Dear Bill....

Well, you've taken A LOT of hits about AZ corporate

So, I thought I would share with you this thread on the Seabourn Boards.

I, of course shared my story on how wonderful AZ handled the situation

My post is 102

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1440254

Bon Voyage

K.

[Jade13]

Had no idea you paid $599.00 per person (instead of $2,599.00 per person) for your 12 night Holy Land cruise last year. That was wonderful. Wow.

 

Azamara would NOT honor the price that they quoted our TA earlier this year even though it was a transfer, air was booked, paid, and non-refundable. The problem was that they told us AFTER the transfer was complete including air, and than took 4 weeks to send us an invoice. They just said "sorry" that their Rep had made a mistake. If our air was refundable we would have gone elsewhere.

 

The only reason that we finally have the price (actually lower) than was originally quoted was that the price of the new cruise itinerary went down after Egypt was canceled, so they had to honor it (as they did for others on our roll call). This was in despite of Miami corporate. Note that my rate is still higher than my DH who received the Choice Air credit and we never did get credit for our non-refundable hotel (even though the offer was in writing on this board). We are happy with the rate of our cruise, but Miami corporate handling was VERY poor starting with their lack of communication. Once again, when the rate went down, it took two weeks for the updated invoice and all our TA could say was that they are "slow".

[Jade13]

Dear Bill....

 

Well, you've taken A LOT of hits about AZ corporate

 

So, I thought I would share with you this thread on the Seabourn Boards.

 

I, of course shared my story on how wonderful AZ handled the situation

 

My post is 102

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1440254

 

Bon Voyage

 

K.

 

Did you also get the btb discount on top of the $599.00pp rate? No wonder you stayed in the Inside cabin.

[California Native]

Had no idea you paid $599.00 per person for your 12 night Holy Land cruise last year. That was wonderful. Wow.

 

Azamara would NOT honor the price that they quoted our TA earlier this year even though it was a transfer, air was booked, paid, and non-refundable. The problem was that they told us AFTER the transfer was complete including air, and than took 4 weeks to send us an invoice. They just said "sorry" that their Rep had made a mistake. If our air was refundable we would have gone elsewhere.

 

The only reason that we finally have the price (actually lower) than was originally quoted was that the price of the new cruise itinerary went down after Egypt was canceled, so they had to honor it (as they did for others on our roll call). This was in despite of Miami corporate. Note that my rate is still higher than my DH who received the Choice Air credit and we never did get credit for our non-refundable hotel (even though the offer was in writing on this board). We are happy with the rate of our cruise, but Miami corporate handling was poor starting with their lack of communication. Once again, when the rate went down, it took two weeks for the updated invoice and all our TA could say was that they are "slow".

 

It was the East Med segment.

I think we got it because ... (and this is my personal speculation)

1. I caught it almost right after it was loaded.

2. I was the only one who called in and in reality saved them a major customer service fiasco.

3. We were on a B2B and they felt that we would make up the money throughout the cruise.

All in all, it was a non issue. seriously a complete non issue. I had my invoice in my email as I chatted with the res agent

They owned that they goofed and honored it.

I will be honest, I didn't think they would because companies in the past (especially in the tourism industry) hide behind the fair pricing expectation excuse and won't honor stuff like this.

When I read the Seabourn situation I was SHOCKED :eek: and I had to share with them what AZ did with a $2,000 difference in price.

Our actual price was 1999.00 before it went up to 2599.00 so by the time all was said and done it was almost 3,000USD once taxes were calculated that we saved.

and while onboard we tipped additionally and splurged a bit more than we would of on speciality dining, the gift shop, wine, etc etc and they have future business. So while AZ might have taken a hit with initial price adjustment. They have made money in the long run. THAT's how Customer Service should work when everyone is on point...and they most certainly were regarding this!!!

So, after reading the horrible Seabourn Saga..I wanted to give some credit where credit was due.

K.

[California Native]

Did you also get the btb discount on top of the $599.00pp rate? No wonder you stayed in the Inside cabin.

 

 

YEP!!!!

....and that's also why we upgradee to economy class when flying...

the pricing was for our cabin category...so if you weren't in category 11 and you weren't watching the fares like a hawk you were out of luck.

[Jade13]

Companies do not have to honor "gross clerical errors" which is what your situation was (with a $3,000.00 price error), but it was nice that they did.

 

The Seabourn saga is totally ridiculous because the customer has paid in full. And even if they had not paid in full, suppose the booking was made and there was was non-refundable air? It just makes no sense whatsoever.

 

I obviously got the wrong "customer service" Rep on the phone and that is as much as I will say. We would have lost about $3K in non-refundable airfare if we canceled. This is different than a situation where a price is in error before the booking is made and one can walk with no monetary loss.

 

Btw, when the price of our new itinerary was lowered we did have to give up about $700.00 OBC (old promo) in order to take the new lower price, we we understood and accepted. We could not have both deals.

[Jade13]

YEP!!!!

 

.

 

So, your 12 night cruise was essentially free.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

I've been watching this thread for several days. It's hard to imagine that Seabourn's Managment has not responded nor offered a resolution to those affected. FYI, Seabourn recently relocated from Miami to Seattle, and has new Senior management. I believe many from the Holland America team are now involved with Seabourn. So far, I'm not at all impressed with how this is being handled, or lack thereof.

 

What's fascinating, is that the OP claims to have paid in full. Assuming that's the case, there's only 1 right decision to make. I truly hope Seabourn does the right thing here.

 

Where2next: Thanks for sharing your situation. It's great to hear that Azamara took care of their customer, and honored the price.

[Bill Leiber]

Dear Bill....

Well, you've taken A LOT of hits about AZ corporate

So, I thought I would share with you this thread on the Seabourn Boards.

I, of course shared my story on how wonderful AZ handled the situation

My post is 102

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1440254

Bon Voyage

K.

Hi Karen,

 

Thank you for taking your time to point out to me the thread on the Seabourn message board about not honoring a misquoted price as well as for making the effort to share on the Seabourn forum the positive outcome you received from Azamara with a similar pricing error.

 

Unfortunately, no cruise line operator is immune to “stepping on such land-mines” every now and then although I know from my past experience that every effort is made to avoid such mistakes. When they do occur, however, the solution is usually determined by the cruise line’s assessment of the financial impact of honoring the misquote to the company’s revenue targets compared to the loss of good-will, negative word-of-mouth and future loss of business. Its decision rests with whether it has the leeway with its shareholders to take the financial hit “now” or “later.”

 

After reading the comments on the Seabourn forum, I realized once again how perceptive Larry Pimentel was in creating the CBO position to ensure that someone could serve as the “eyes and ears” for the executive team and tap into guests’ opinions in real-time.

 

It will be interesting to learn the final outcome.

 

Regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_______________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[California Native]

Hi Karen,

 

After reading the comments on the Seabourn forum, I realized once again how perceptive Larry Pimentel was in creating the CBO position to ensure that someone could serve as the “eyes and ears” for the executive team and tap into guests’ opinions in real-time.

 

It will be interesting to learn the final outcome.

 

Regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_______________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

 

 

As you know, I appreciate how perceptive Larry was with this and I appreciate the information you have provided to these boards since your position was created.

You know I was vocal about the Libya cruise, I just feel that I should be as vocal when good is done.

It's only fair and it is the right thing to do.

[Jade13]

The Seabourn thread was closed, but it turns out it was not a public/website advertisement (which is what I had thought), but some internal system glitch that only the travel agents could see. My post got lost as I was typing when the thread was closed, but I really wanted to know if the OP had actually received a written confirmation. Seabourn did offer OBC to stay (pay additional costs), or to pay the OPs non-refundable fees (including train tickets).

[Jade13]

Hi Everyone !

 

 

What's fascinating, is that the OP claims to have paid in full. Assuming that's the case, there's only 1 right decision to make. I truly hope Seabourn does the right thing here.

 

quote]

 

What I wanted to know is if "Paid in Full" means the OP had given the TA their credit card info (and than Seabourn rejected the booking), and/or whether they had received written confirmation (maybe the confirmation was from the TA only). In the US I think this would be covered by the TA's errors and omissions insurance.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

 

What's fascinating, is that the OP claims to have paid in full. Assuming that's the case, there's only 1 right decision to make. I truly hope Seabourn does the right thing here.

 

The Seabourn thread was closed, but it turns out it was not a public/website advertisement (which is what I had thought), but some internal system glitch that only the travel agents could see. My post got lost as I was typing when the thread was closed, but I really wanted to know if the OP had actually received a written confirmation. Seabourn did offer OBC to stay (pay additional costs), or to pay the OPs non-refundable fees (including train tickets).

 

 

What I wanted to know is if "Paid in Full" means the OP had given the TA their credit card info (and than Seabourn rejected the booking), and/or whether they had received written confirmation (maybe the confirmation was from the TA only). In the US I think this would be covered by the TA's errors and omissions insurance.

 

Hi Jade !

 

Regarding your last post - it's a good question, though I doubt we will learn who was actually at fault. What matters is the end result. While it looks like this story may not have a satisfactory ending, I hope all parties will work together and find an acceptable resolution. Situations like this benefit neither the Guest, Travel Agent, or Cruise Line.