Celebrity Call Center - Long Hold Times (Several Threads Merged)

[shoelover536]

So because she doesnt want it youre going to cancel it? WOW.

 

I think she means she's going to cancel her sister's soda package because the sister does not want it. What is "wow" about removing something that is not wanted?

 

I agree that you should be able to do this online through manage reservations. I've cancelled dinner in specialties this way.

[shoelover536]

I was one of the people who suggested (I hope I didn't attack! :o ) that it might be weather related, based on long holds I had with other companies during the same (bad weather) period. But its been going on too long now for that to be the reason. They need to fix this stat!

[gizmodog]

how funny that people make excuses for Celebritys awful customer service. I booked a cruise through them a year ago and NEVER had difficulty getting through to them to make payments throughout the year until about a month ago, after final payment had been made. Bad weather has nothing to do with their service, I don't care how bad the weather is, something is wrong.

I appreciate your advise as to not "give them my money" but I still like their cruises and I am not complaining about them, I am complaining about their phone service. It is very very frustrating to sit on hold for 30, 45, minutes. This is the first cruise I have booked directly with Celebrity and I will never do it again because of this, I will always use a TA even though they hate calling them too.

[memory-minus]

the music cuts, your heart races... "please continue to hold. your call will be answered by our next available representative." :mad:

 

that's modern luxury! :rolleyes:

[smitty4971]

Rick,

 

I'm assuming that the reason you're not a manager of a call center anymore is because you were "Downsized" when that center was moved to India or some other country where labor is much cheaper and the lack of government interference makes it much easier to do business.

 

The evolution of handling customer calls and emails has moved past call centers, both US based and foreign. Cruise lines, as well as other large corporations such as AT&T rely on third party subcontractors, like ARISE, to handle their customer inquiries today. The folks that are handling your calls, are primarily, working out of their homes.(That's why when you choose to have them call you back the area code could be anywhere in the country). They sign an "Independent Contractor" contract with a company like ARISE who provides them with basic training to handle a specific client's calls. These "work at home" folks are not employees and are responsible for all of their own expenses. They get paid based on the number of calls they field and may receive a bonus based on positive customer surveys. (If you're really interested, do a quick google of employee complaints against ARISE and you'll see why customer service has gotten so bad).

 

This eliminates the need to set up, staff and maintain expensive call centers. Less full time employees means no expensive benefit packages. Not saying that Celebrity does not have staff dedicated to handling phone calls. Today they are just used in a different manner. When you do finally get through to a person and ask a question that they have trouble with, they put you on hold and call their contact with Celebrity. This is why you can have multiple instances of being put on hold and being transferred.

 

It appears to be a win for business. That is until their customers start heading for the doors. Bad customer service has crippled some of the biggest companies in this country. The folks at Celebrity should do a little research on how bad customer service affected Sprint and Dell Computer.

 

I would bet that you will see major management changes at Celebrity within the next 6 months to a year, when their "chickens" start coming home to roost!

[smitty4971]

how funny that people make excuses for Celebritys awful customer service. I booked a cruise through them a year ago and NEVER had difficulty getting through to them to make payments throughout the year until about a month ago, after final payment had been made. Bad weather has nothing to do with their service, I don't care how bad the weather is, something is wrong.

I appreciate your advise as to not "give them my money" but I still like their cruises and I am not complaining about them, I am complaining about their phone service. It is very very frustrating to sit on hold for 30, 45, minutes. This is the first cruise I have booked directly with Celebrity and I will never do it again because of this, I will always use a TA even though they hate calling them too.

 

Maybe the folks that work on the ships need to teach the folks who work on the land the proper way of taking care of customers?

[miched]

It is also a common ploy for businesses to automaticaally put up you on hold to force you to listen to their promos and commercials but this is beyond that.

 

I don't know what the problem is but I don't think it will be resolved by complaining on this forum. If they don't have enough personnel to handle the phones I doubt that they would employ anyone to monitor this forum.

 

I think the best would be to bombard the president of Celebrity with emails, or letters. Also make sure that on your cruise you mention it in the survey and attention to detail card.

 

 

🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅🍸🍻

[memory-minus]

Oh, I'm not complaining too much. But I am on hold (30 minutes now) as I type. I do wish the promos were a bit more compelling...

[miched]

I think the problem may be that they wipe down the work space and wash their hands after every call to prevent spreading the Noro.

 

 

🌊🍻🇺🇸🌅🍻🍸

[Celebrity Cruises]

the music cuts, your heart races... "please continue to hold. your call will be answered by our next available representative." :mad:

 

that's modern luxury! :rolleyes:

 

Due to the popularity of our 123Go sales promotion, we have been experiencing unprecedented phone call volume. We are in the process of hiring, training and deploying additional staff - and expect to reduce our wait times soon. We regret the inconvenience to our guests, appreciate their patience and look forward to helping them plan their Celebrity cruise vacation.

[Celebrity Cruises]

Due to the popularity of our 123Go sales promotion, we have been experiencing unprecedented phone call volume. We are in the process of hiring, training and deploying additional staff - and expect to reduce our wait times soon. We regret the inconvenience to our guests, appreciate their patience and look forward to helping them plan their Celebrity cruise vacation.

[smitty4971]

That took longer than I thought it would.....

[smitty4971]

LOL

 

Actually, I think you might be surprised on how many things get "Fixed" by complaining on these forums!

 

I wish they had message boards like these for other industries(Airlines!)

[hulamoon]

I hope there is training happening, because weird answers and asking people to call back was happening last fall, before 123go.

 

I was suspecting people were being paid by the call, and if this is so, that is causing some chaos. I was told to call back every day at one point.

 

Clearly the promotions have been working for celebrity, but they have rules that are difficult to track for the staff. And they really should look into why travel agents don't like to call. Because if they don't like to call, then they are not going to promote them.

[dkjretired]

Due to the popularity of our 123Go sales promotion, we have been experiencing unprecedented phone call volume. We are in the process of hiring, training and deploying additional staff - and expect to reduce our wait times soon. We regret the inconvenience to our guests, appreciate their patience and look forward to helping them plan their Celebrity cruise vacation.

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond, it is appreciated.

[jgreenwo17]

Wow! Thanks for getting back with all of us who have been living on hold with X.

 

My faith is restored.

[cherylroslyn]

There are currently four threads started about these ridiculous hold times. I am wondering, where is the "Official" Celebrity poster that sometimes chimes in on these thread. What does the company have to say for itself? What is going on?

 

On my Roll Call for my April 26, 2014 Summit repositioning cruise there has been comment after comment about being on hold in excess of 45 minutes.

 

 

Why wont Celebrity "Official" come on here, like they often do, and tell us what is going on?????

Edited February 27, 2014 by cherylroslyn

[amster65]

there are currently four threads started about these ridiculous hold times. I am wondering, where is the "official" celebrity poster that sometimes chimes in on these thread. What does the company have to say for itself? What is going on?

 

On my roll call for my april 26, 2014 summit repositioning cruise there has been comment after comment about being on hold in excess of 45 minutes.

 

 

Why wont celebrity "official" come on here, like they often do, and tell us what is going on?????

 

 

yeaaa!!!!

[Tucker in Texas]

I called on Monday at 7:30 a.m. CST and got right through! Not expecting to, had set up "camp" to wait (lol). Don't know if it was because of the time or just luck. I expected a long wait due to the last week of 1-2-3 promotion plus weekend business that needed to be taken care of when the lines opened for business on Monday.

 

Other than that time, same experiences everyone else has had: l-o-n-g waits.

 

Tucker in Texas

[Tucker in Texas]

I actually told one booking agent after a long wait that it was a good thing she picked up because I was researching other cruise lines with similar itinerary and price while waiting. If I had found one, I would have been history (lol).

 

I don't think she cared. I don't think Celebrity cares either.

 

Tucker in Texas

[smitty4971]

There are currently four threads started about these ridiculous hold times. I am wondering, where is the "Official" Celebrity poster that sometimes chimes in on these thread. What does the company have to say for itself? What is going on?

 

On my Roll Call for my April 26, 2014 Summit repositioning cruise there has been comment after comment about being on hold in excess of 45 minutes.

 

 

Why wont Celebrity "Official" come on here, like they often do, and tell us what is going on?????

 

The "Apology Tour" has already started on some of the other threads.

 

No real answers. Just the same canned statement they've been responding with for the last several months.

[go noles]

There are currently four threads started about these ridiculous hold times. I am wondering, where is the "Official" Celebrity poster that sometimes chimes in on these thread. What does the company have to say for itself? What is going on?

 

On my Roll Call for my April 26, 2014 Summit repositioning cruise there has been comment after comment about being on hold in excess of 45 minutes.

 

 

Why wont Celebrity "Official" come on here, like they often do, and tell us what is going on?????

 

Hopefully manning the phones.

[kimlovesfl]

It is puzzling isn't it? They could cut down on the wait time by reducing the amount of time they spend with customers on each call. It seems that when I call RC or X they are instructed to go through and confirm a lot of details each time regarding the reservation and it's unneccessary. That is already done at the time of the booking.

 

I worked in a call center for a tour wholesaler many years ago (land packages), and our agents were clearly trained to reverify a reservation every single time a TA or customer called in with a question or to make a change, and this is to make sure that the reservation is correct. You would be surprised how many people don't pay attention to this, don't read confirmations, etc, and find an error when they get their travel documents (this was before the e-ticket world) and then blame the company.

 

Isn't their call center in Miami? If it is, why would bad weather affect them, unless there are more people calling in because their flights have changed or canceled. If they have more than one call center, and one is in a location with severe weather, then that may mean many calls are being transferred to one call center because of agents not being able to get into work, no electricity or internet access, etc.

 

I can also tell you that for booking vacations of any sort, January-March are the busiest times. We would often have hold times of 30-45 minutes or more in the winter, even with all hands on deck and people working overtime, simply because the call traffic increased so much. Then, in December, we would sit idle with 10-15 minutes between calls.

 

So, before we judge, let's find out WHY the wait times are so long. When I booked my cruise in May, I got right through.

[Andy]

Isn't their call center in Miami?.

 

Hi Kim,

 

The call center in question, is located in Wichita.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

As there were various threads of the same topic created in recent days, I've merged all the "newer" threads, and retitled the thread.

 

Hope this is helpful !