waited 45 minutes to talk to Celebity

[NovCruisin]

I called this morning to make a payment on my upgrade drink package...I was on hold from the automated system to an agent in less than 1 minute! Her taking my credit info and finishing up the call in total took less than 3 minutes...maybe I'm just lucky :p

[Hlitner]

 

.................

 

Hank, it isn't as easy as you think with TA's. The most recent time we used one, it was a nightmare. Closed during the weekend when prices dropped, gave wrong cabin information, nobody responded to e-mails when a worker was 1) on vacation and 2) out sick (total of 2 weeks) etc. Perhaps you have found an agency beyond these problems, but enough of us have had major problems that we are now gun-shy.

 

I never said it was "easy" to find a really good cruise agency. Over the years we have probably used close to 10, and currently divide our bookings among 4 agencies (our own short list) all of whom have proven, again and again, that they can give me great service and always save me money (sometimes thousands of dollars on a single booking) over the cruise line sites,

 

I should mention that only one of our favored TAs keeps M-F business hours (the others all operate 7 days a week with extended hours). The one particular M-F agency is well known among RCI/Celebrity cruisers and we have been told (by a Celebrity FCC) that this particular agency is one of the highest volume agencies for Celebrity/RCI. Personally, we are not happy they are closed on weekends, but have been willing to put up with this issue because they often have the best overall deals (for these 2 cruise lines plus Azamara). Since we deal with an agency and do not confine ourselves to a specific TA..vacations are never an issue. As to being closed on weekends, this can be inconvenient but has never caused us any kind of financial loss. Cruise lines generally do their price changes on Tues, Wed or Thur (depending on the line) and most promotions start on weekdays.

 

It should also be noted that our "favored" agencies are only as good as their last booking, and if things degrade they quickly get "dumped." We generally learn about other good agencies via word of mouth from other cruising friends. Now, some might disagree about saving real money with an agency vs a cruise line booking....but we could provide some amazing examples (not allowed to do this on CC). And I should add that before we finalize a booking with any agency we will log onto the cruise line's site and price out exactly the same cruise (and cabin category). On only one occasion, in more then 70 bookings, have we booked direct with a cruise line (ironically it was Celebrity) when they had a very special deal for those qualifying for military rates...which was not available from any of our TAs. Celebrity has apparently fixed that issue by now making those military rates accessible to agencies.

 

And the old story keeps happening. Sometimes when we are cruising there are situations where a group of folks might discuss bookings and decide to compare pricing. And then somebody will always say something like "how in the world did you get that deal?" And the response is always "we shopped around among a few favorite agencies." And then the next comment is usually something like, "Oh, I never book through an agency and will only deal directly with the cruise line....or I have been using the same TA for years and would never change." We just smile and count the money :)

 

Hank

Edited February 28, 2014 by Hlitner

[languageartslady]

Today I had a somewhat ridiculous wait time... twice. First was at work, where I was on hold for 28 minutes when the call was disconnected. Annoying.

 

But this evening, I was on hold for 67 minutes before 1st contact with anyone. 67 minutes. To reach a rather apathetic and unhelpful woman. She couldn't help me, so I was transferred again, and had to wait, again, and added 22 minutes to my wait time, for a total of 89 minutes.

 

I am okay waiting for up to 20 minutes, patiently, but this was insane and the hold information/music/Visa advertisement loop is WAY too short.

 

Not sure what's up with X and their customer service, but they need to figure it out and get it addressed.

[lizzy77]

In Australia it is just as bad. In January I wanted to book a cruise and after waiting 45 mins I finally got through to a real person. Did the booking and there was a problem with my captains club No. So..... She put me through to another department and I was left on hold again for 20 mins and I gave up!! I can sort that out on the ship.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to book another cruise and after a long wait ..... I finally got through to a person but..... It was an Asian call centre and he had no idea about the ships or any details. I found it ludicrous, and if they didn't have the 123 deal, I would definitely have booked another princess cruise.

 

Celebrity need to get their act together on their most important area, customers trying to book a cruise!!!!!

[wen_c82]

It seems to me that X could have made it's web site more robust for those who feels comfortable with doing it and thus reduces # of calls. A few examples -

 

- we couldn't pay online - had to call.

- we found out a friend booked the same cruise and wanted to link our reservations so we can seat together at dinner. The 'add companion' link didn't work. Had to call and our friend had to call also.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

[SIZE="3"]Definition of [B][U]Modern[/U][/B] [B][U]Luxury[/U][/B] is waiting for 30+ Minutes (some days were 50+ minutes) on Hold :rolleyes:
Just when 123 Go Ends and one could get through on the phone lines it starts up again with Pick Your Perk :eek:[/SIZE] Edited March 3, 2014 by LAFFNVEGAS