How Long for a Reply?

[CroozBlooz]

Curious to get everyone's reaction to a different aspect of customer service.

 

A few months ago I sent a letter to Princess Customer Relations regarding an issue that I felt needed to be addressed. I receive a reply within about four weeks that really didn't address the issue in a candid fashion, so I escalated the matter with another letter to the President of Princess. It has now been five weeks since the letter was received, and still no reply.

 

I've always felt that letters should be responded to within 30 days, and that failure to do so is reflective of poor customer service. Even if an issue is too complex (which my issue is not), I believe proper protocol is to reply with a letter indicating that the matter is being investigated and that a reply will be forthcoming once the investigation is complete.

 

What do you all think?

[waterrats]

From reading these boards I would have to say that Princess DOES NOT rank up there with customer service. Princess also seems to lag behind on compensation for shortened cruises as well.

[btrojanoski]

I sent a letter to the President of Princess Cruises last fall over an issue with our Transatlantic cruise on the Star.

 

Granted they were having a horrible time right then with hurricanes, shortened cruises, changed ports, missed ports etc but I have yet to get a reply of any kind to my letter.

 

Barry

[Dreamer333]

I think that even if they don't have time to respond right away, they should send a "standard" letter acknowledging that they have received your letter and will get back to you as soon as possible.

At least this would be some sort of acknowledgement that your letter was received.

[Toto2Kansas]

Addressing the letter to the President of the line means nothing. It will be read by someone assigned to take care of different letters that come in.

 

I wrote a letter last year about those that sit on the stairs that last morning and my concern about them blocking the stairways. This was because I personally was tripped and fell down the stairs as they were covered with passengers and luggage. The response I received was terrible and said there was NOTHING they could do as every staff member was busy at that time and they could not make announcements or monitor the main staircase, no time or enough staff to do anything about it. I talked to a friend that knows some of the higher ups at Princess and she recommended that I send the follow up letter, with copies of the first letter and reply to him. Believe it or not, my second letter went right to the original person who replied and never got to who it was addressed to.

 

I specifically said there was nothing I wanted except to alert them that someday someone will be injured badly from them allowing passengers to practice this stair sitting thing the final morning. All I wanted was for them to look into this so that some poor old lady or gentleman would not end up with a broken leg or hip. Again, they blew it off saying that they would not even look into it.

 

So, no matter who you address the letter to, that is not who will read it.

 

BTW-I was injured and pulled a muscle in my back from being tripped, it took over 30 days to heal. I wanted nothing from them, I let them know that, just to alert them to the fact that if this can happen to me, it could be really dangerous to others that did not have a husband to catch them at the bottom as they fell down a dozen plus marble stairs.

 

Oh, and to answer your original question, it took over 4 months for two letters to be sent and responses to be received.

[ajl111]

Interesting thread, similar to one I started a few weeks ago. One suggestion, perhaps your correspondence might get the attention it deserves if it were sent certified mail, with the return receipt card. That sets a serious tone even before the letter is opened -- perhaps those types of letters are reviewed by someone different than a typical customer service rep. A response to my letter came in about 2 weeks (and even then I was getting concerned about how long it was taking to respond).

[Cruisin' Chick]

I sent a letter to customer relations (to the address on their website) back in December or January telling them we really loved our Alaskan cruise but thought the disembarkation was a mess and made a suggestion about making the process better. Within a couple of weeks, received a postcard. Then just a couple of weeks later, received a nice letter with a credit. I actually hope they consider my suggestion. So, I didn't receive a total brushoff.

[DitchWitch]

I mailed a letter to Customer Relations regarding the "Buyers Guarantee". I got no satisfaction on a claim from PPI ( the guarantee group) and was hoping that Princess would step in.(Since I made the purchase at a recommended shore shop, and filled out the Buyers Guarantee issued by Princess) By the sounds of it, that will do me no good either.

[Mbouck1]

After our cruise on the inaugural of the Diamond Princess my TA gave me a name for the head of customer relations about a problem we had on board. We sent the letter and recieved a reply within 2 weeks of sending. We were given an apology and compensation for our problem.

I don't know if this was his signature or not on the letter but I thought it was replied at a very short time and well taken care of.

[starfamily]

could you tell me the name of the head of customer relations? you can email me privately at morin10@charter.net

[Coral]

I cruised in October and sent a letter around Thanksgiving time frame. I received a post card in the mail this weekend saying that a response would be sent in 3-5 weeks.

 

We had a really bad disembarkation in NYC - I wasn't asking for anything, just pointing out that there wasn't enough buses to take people to the airport and no one from Princess was at the pier coordinating anything.

[spongerob]

You might not ever get a personal reply. I don't think it is necessarily indicative of poor customer service if you don't get anything more than an acknowledgement that your letter was received, especially if you aren't asking for anything. I'm sure that every cruise generates several letters, maybe lots more. Only those that stand out as requiring extra attention or those coming from people who are persistent in pursuing their case will likely be addressed. If you case is not unique, or doesn't somehow contain information that makes it a priority, it might not get attention.

[JimnKaren]

Many years ago, my father sent a letter to Princess about some problems he had experienced on a cruise. In my father's typical manner, he hand wrote a multi-page letter to Princess, enumerating each of his problems. He got a reply within 3 weeks, each problem that he addressed was mentioned and he got a credit for a future cruise.

 

Now I will admit that Princess did not have as many ships in those days, but they probably had the proper ratio of customer service reps to number of ships. So, that is not the answer to why he got the response that he did.

 

I am curious, for those who wrote to Princess, how long were your letters. Were they emailed, snail mail, hand written, typed, what?

 

Jim

[asctony]

I think all the cruise lines are the same. Just read on HAL that someone else got the same treatment with HAL. I guess they all have the attitude that 'You paid your way, you cruised and now what else do you want?' I still believe that they are all short on staff, so lets take the easy way out, 'form letter.'

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

[Dreamer333]

I think that Princess should have a standard form letter (or even a postcard) that should be sent out immediately, simply stating something like "We have received your letter and will be addressing it as soon as possible".

 

This way the sender of the letter knows that their letter was at least received, and probably will feel better waiting a few weeks for a letter that specifically addresses the issues.

 

I think this would be great customer service.

[madelinerose]

CroozBlooz...I agree 100%! Customer service, imho, is the number one priority in my book for my repeat business.

 

Recently, I contact a hotel in Bermuda for a 2007 reservation and was blown away by their customer service. Within a week, I had written confirmation of everything, brochures, a personal greeting and notification that I can cancel with a full refund up to 21 days of the booking.

 

Having spent many years in the customer service industry with a Fortune 100 company, nothing, including price, will get me to come back and deal with a company for a second time if I was made to feel like "just another letter or phone call" or if I was simply ignored altogether.

 

Good luck. ;)

[CroozBlooz]

I never did get a satisfactory response, in that Princess simply ignored answering several questions that I posed of them. Their attitude seemed to be, we'll tell you what we want to when we want to tell you.

 

Interestingly, I sent an email to Micky Arison (CEO of Carnival [corporate parent of Princess]) shortly after Hurricane Katrina, commending the company on leasing ships to the government to be used for relief efforts. He emailed me back the same day on his Blackberry. I guess when they like what you're saying they get back to you quickly! :)

[ssbeagle]

I think a lot of it depends on how you word your letters. We were doing a transAtlantic and two weeks before we went I wrote a letter because I wasn't happy with our flights. I got a response back three days before we left home and said they were sorry there wasn't a thing they could do about it. However, we would get a bottle of wine in our cabin. I can't complain as they did respond. Other times I have written and only once did I not receive any type of response. It may take them some time as they get thousands of letters. From the times I have written I have gotten everything from a polite reply to some form of compensation.

[madelinerose]

CroozBlooz...Yes, unfortunately, the major corporations only want to hear the "attaboys".

 

ssbeagle...I agree that the tone of a letter means a great deal. However, 30 days is more than ample time for any company to respond to any correspondence. No exceptions, imho.

 

My TA usually responds to my emails within 2 hours. That, imho, is good customer service. They will get my business over and over again.

 

Happy Holidays, everyone! ;)