Celebrity Listens - appreciate the attention

[Elusive_Cruiser]

So, I’ve searched and searched these boards to see if anyone else had my same experience in the jewelry stores, but it would appear that mine, fortunately, was an isolated case.

 

My DH and I were recently on the Equinox (Feb 11-13) (Excellent cruise!!) and over the course of our stay, we looked at purchasing a ring – now, personally, purchasing ‘fine’ jewelry on a cruiseship is not normally something we would do, but circumstances were such that we decided to ‘just do it’!

 

Guess it wasn’t meant to be! Here’s my comments in my review that has been posted: “Extreme sexism at the jewelry store. Staff did not want to discuss selling unless my husband was with me. They were very rude to me unless he was with me, and then, they would direct all conversation to him, despite the fact that he kept telling them that I was the one purchasing, not him. No big loss... we purchased back at home, at a better price, of course. We will no longer waste our time in the Celebrity stores. Didn't let this affect our trip."

 

Since I know that the retailers are contracted by Celebrity, and since Michael Bayley has plugged into his clients here on CC, I decided to also send an email to Celebrity, using the email address we got here. I gave more detail than in my review (such as how the saleman ran after my DH when he walked out of the store, leaving me to close the deal..saying, ‘sir sir, please come back’). I expected a form letter acknowledgement, but lo and behold, I got a phone call at home! I did not leave my phone number in my email, so the representative would have had to look up my email address to associate the rest of my personal information. The young lady who called me was genuinely sympathetic about my complaint.

 

Bottom line – I appreciated the extra effort that went into finding my phone number to call me. Celebrity obviously wants to be 1st in customer service. As I said, I expected a generic ‘thanks for your comments’ kind of email, end of story, so for them to take the extra step affirms my decision that Celebrity is Quality, as this was a Class Act J

[goodycruising]

Good to hear. I hate being fobbed off, and sometimes there seems to be a culture of deny everything at Service Desks. Nice to hear about a pleasant response.

[Literary Lynne]

Glad that management made the effort to contact you. Let's hope the sales staff 'get the message' too.

 

Magnanimous of you to let us know about this.

Lynne :)

[Clydesmom7865]

Interesting because I had the same experience on Eclipse. I had won a nice sum in the casino and after a little alcohol decided I needed jewelry. The sales people had absolutely NO interest in me or my friend who was shopping with me. Now neither of us are married so there was going to be no husband to show up and make the purchase. After being ignored even when asking to see a couple of pieces we left and never went back. I decided to keep my money!

 

Funny, I don't think they sell too much jewelry on a cruise ship but who knows. You would think their customer service would be better.

[Project_gal]

It works the same in reverse! We were celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary on Eclipse and had some time to kill waiting for our reservation in Murano. My husband led me into the jewellery shop and mentioned it was our anniversary. It did not take me very long to decide that I did not like anything but we had the hardest job getting away despite saying that we did not want to buy anything and need to go to dinner.

 

That would have been bad enough but we had to spend the resto of the cruise planning routes that did not go past the shop because the same guy kept chasing after us each time we went by.

 

Sue

[ghstudio]

Memories of Julia Roberts walking into the dress ship in "pretty woman".

[ABC Cruisers]

Unfortunately that just doesn't happen on ships, many salespeople just "assume" the man is in charge. I own a bakery and when there is a trade show, sometimes I take my husband and a couple times I have taken my mother. Neither have ever worked at the bakery and know nothing about it. If my husband is with me, they talk to him, even after he tells them he knows nothing about their product and he's just a guest there, I'm the owner. The same thing with my mother, I guess they figure it's a family business and they talk to her instead of me. As soon as they speak to her, she tells them she's only there as a guest, then they speak to me, but with hubby they still keep right on talking to him. He has even pointed to his name tag that says "guest" and mine that says "owner", but it rarely makes a difference....

[jomf]

You were lucky, we had a suite on our last cruise, which did not live up to our expectations.

I emailed Celebrity on our return and did not even receive a response. I supposed that they don't reply in the hope that you will give up and go away!

 

We received some very good service in the jewellery store, but my husband was with me each time!

I will try out the Eclipse store staff on my own on our next cruise and report back!

[kasowell2]

I cannot believe you got that type of service in a jewelry store. When I go into a famous jewelry store here (I'm not going to mention the name but it's the same name as a person that advertises sub sandwiches) I (the male) get no attention at all. My wife walks in and they run to help her. Now it is different at a car dealership though.

[rjuray]

Regretably, I think it is a cultural thing. In the USA, Women have power and money. Not so much in many other countries.

[patty1955]

Celebrity is just a sexist. Although I do all the booking, paying and communicating, everything we get is address to DH and his name is first on everything

[Algebralovr]

I ran into a little of the same thing on Reflection where they were happy to visit with DH but ignored me.

 

Last year on the Eclipse, the shop girls (and it was mostly females) were from the UK. This year, many of the shop keepers were male and were from countries which I do it think of as progressive when it comes to women's rights.

 

As for mailings from Celebrity, we have started getting some in my name recently. BTW, I called investor relations about that one to complain. I own the stock, DH does not. I don't know if that had an impact or not, but the summer sizzle mailing came with my name on it. OTOH, I no longer get the Tuesday special emails, and neither does he.

[Barn Goddess]

Celebrity is just a sexist. Although I do all the booking, paying and communicating, everything we get is address to DH and his name is first on everything

 

I noticed that as well - We get information for his Captain's Club but not mine. I booked the cruise, made all the excursion reservations, dining reservations, alcove reservations.

 

My name is first on our reservation but everything comes in his name - we just received our luggage tags (Yay!) and they came in his name. So odd....

[mandream]

Celebrity is just a sexist. Although I do all the booking, paying and communicating, everything we get is address to DH and his name is first on everything

 

Not always. For our upcoming TA, I made the reservation, paid with my CC, and my name is listed first on the reservation. However, all the mail we are getting for this cruise (snail and e) is addressed to "Brooke".

 

Mike

[Jade13]

“Extreme sexism at the jewelry store. Staff did not want to discuss selling unless my husband was with me. They were very rude to me unless he was with me, and then, they would direct all conversation to him, despite the fact that he kept telling them that I was the one purchasing, not him.J

 

They would have gotten an ear full from me, such as I am the one with the credit card making the purchase...

[Karynanne]

Sexism is alive and well even on land. I had to purchase a new PC, and my right before I made my decision, my tech asked me if I needed to "check with your husband", before making my purchase. I just nicely told him no, and went ahead and purchased what I wanted.

 

Apparently, sexism crosses all cultural boundaries.

[wwcruisers]

OP, thanks for letting us know about the problem, as well as Celebrity's excellent response to it. Funny thing, I do a lot of "window shopping" in the on board jewelry stores, and the staff has always been friendly and accommodating, without hovering. On our Century cruise last year, the manager of the jewelry store was a woman. DH learned that, when he went to complain that all of the jewelry store's raffle-type drawings (spot-the-fake, etc) were held at the start of second dining. In order to participate, we had to be present -- which meant being late to dinner. The lady who managed the store agreed with my husband that their raffle were poorly timed, and actually moved the times up by 15 minutes. :cool:

[skandls]

Maybe you can sail on Royal. I was in the jewelry store and they happily showed me an $85,000 ring marked down to $46,000.

[Lois R]

Memories of Julia Roberts walking into the dress ship in "pretty woman".

 

LOL:D......very good.......;)

 

I can see her speaking with that b---h........"Big Mistake".....LOL

 

I think I have seen that movie a dozen times (or more)....

[Lois R]

I sail solo and I guess I have been lucky....they have never asked

me if "I need to check with anyone".....and I am sorry the sexism still

exists:(

 

Who mentioned buying a car? I guess I just use my assertiveness......

I have been buying them on my own for years.....actually I got a new

car in 2011....in my case the sales rep was fine but I had a bit of

a run in with the "Finance Guy"....not sure if it was because I am a

women or not but I stood my ground and got what I was promised.

When I told him I would take just take my money back and leave?

HA!......that seemed to work:rolleyes:

[wwcruisers]

LOL Lois, it's just amazing how fast some sales people can change their tunes when you get up to leave! :cool:

[Lois R]

LOL Lois, it's just amazing how fast some sales people can change their tunes when you get up to leave! :cool:

 

Hi Suzanne:).....I know:rolleyes:....it was quite interesting to say the least.:cool:

[smoosh21]

It works the same in reverse! We were celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary on Eclipse and had some time to kill waiting for our reservation in Murano. My husband led me into the jewellery shop and mentioned it was our anniversary. It did not take me very long to decide that I did not like anything but we had the hardest job getting away despite saying that we did not want to buy anything and need to go to dinner.

 

That would have been bad enough but we had to spend the resto of the cruise planning routes that did not go past the shop because the same guy kept chasing after us each time we went by.

 

Sue

 

yikes. I dont recall the Store salesmen being that pushy. Have they changed. Its been a few years since I last sailed on Celebrity (other than Xpedition).

[Elusive_Cruiser]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments! I guess I now am feeling blessed that I seriously, in my 50+ yrs, have not experienced this type of discrimination! But again, would like to re-iterated, my kudos are to Celebrity for their great customer service. :)