What has happened to Customer Service

[peteukmcr]

How much is a customers' time worth to a corporation?

 

If I spent 2 hours on the phone for something that is clearly RCI's error, I would want $100 OBC.

You're joking right? $100 OBC for a typo?

[tampacruiser]

Ok let me clarify since most of you have jumped all over me for being such a bad person!

1. The invoices emailed me were correct, this was an internal error in the "my cruises"

section of the website.

2. My time is worth money so after being on hold for a longer than expected time I should have been told we can work on this and get back to you. Instead I was stuck listening to the lovely advertising they played for me on hold for over an hour.

3. When they found the error there was no apology. The young lady just chuckled and said good thing we figured this out.

 

I was not looking for something for free. I asked because why shouldn't I? No on said "I'm sorry, no one acknowledged that a client was made to hold for over an hour. I just spent a large sum of money and I spent my time trying to get something corrected. I understand mistakes happen and I appreciate they spent the time to fix it, however the way they handled it did not make a happy customer, They found their mistake but in doing so kept me sitting on a phone listening to music for over an hour. I knew if I hung up I would just have to start again. Like I said in my first post I work for a company that is obsessed with client service "Every Client Every Time, No Excuses, No Exceptions"

I guess all the folks on here that have made it clear that I am some petty jerk just don't get it

[Cindy]

Sorry Tampacruiser, I get it but I have to disagree. While I understand your frustration, I think they did what they should have done in persistently working to locate the error and correct it.

 

This is just a general statement, not specific to this incident...Not everything bad that happens is compensable. I think one of the reasons cruise lines have gotten so "cranky" with legitimate complaints is the number of people who expect to be compensated for the smallest thing that goes wrong. I don't think people have that standard in their daily lives, but they step on a ship and expect perfection. When real humans fail to deliver the ideal fantasy, people stick their hand out.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Cindy

[mr walker]

If your time is worth so much why are you wasting your time & presumably your money posting on the internet whinging. And coming back again to justify yourself.

 

As others have posted most of us regular folk would have been happy to get the problem sorted, but hey I guess that's just us & I guess you are right - we just don't get it. Or maybe we aren't the ones who don't get it

[PLEIKU68]

So i booked a cruise on Allure for my daughters high school graduation. Connecting balcony rooms so she can bring a friend along. Called today because I could only pull up one of my reservations online (my room, my daughters room would not show up?) The girl was very nice and patient but after an hour and ten minutes on the phone with her and the problem not being resolved my patience started to wear thin. She tried to fix it, her supervisor tried to fix it, then they called the loyalty department who also tried to fix it, then the loyalty supervisor tried to fix it...after over an hour they call the the guys in IT.....took 5 people to realize that my daughters last name was misspelled...2 letters were reversed....problem solved! So I said to the girl now that I have given up over an hour of my time on a busy weekend in the spirit of customer service can you do something to make it up to us? I just booked 2 rooms, the error was due to a RC employee who spelled SMITH wrong and I just wasted over an hour sitting on hold multiple times...surely you can throw me a bone here. Her response very sheepishly was "NOW?" I said yes now..she again placed me on hold to go ask someone....bottom line my wife and I will get a plate of strawberries in our room....not what I was expecting but what can you do. I work for a company that is obsessed with Client Service and I think that has spoiled me because I now expect that type of service from everyone I deal with. Problem is most companies today don't feel the same way about "Creating an Amazing Client Experience"

 

 

Your kidding me right . How's that feeling of entitlement working for you ? Enjoy your strawberries. :eek:

[tampacruiser]

ok, I get it you all think I'm just feeling entitled, you all think I have some nerve, again you don't get it. Basically people have come to accept mediocrity in how companies treat situations. No company or person is perfect. Mistakes are made and no I don't think I should be compensated but at the same time when a company really gets client service they will go above and beyond the norm to make that happen. Look at companies that truly get that the culture of the client experience. Publix Supermarkets, Chik-Fil-A, Quicken Loans. Just a few companies that foster a client first mentality throughout their organizations because they understand without the client they would not exist. Ask a kid in Publix where the peanut butter is....he wont just tell you, he will walk you to the item and then ask you if you need anything more.....go to Chik-Fil-A....the staff looks neat clean professional, you rarely see a drive thru customer standing inside complaining their order was wrong (you see that all the time at other fast food operations) and when they are done they will tell you it was "their pleasure" serving you. Quicken Loan, who has revolutionized the mortgage industry by placing the client first in all it does. There are plenty of other companies out there doing the same.

 

All I was saying was from a client service standpoint they could have handled this differently. Whether I am compensated or not is not the issue. Will I ask, YES...they can say yes or no, its all up to them.

 

The mainstream cruise market in this country is basically dominated by just a few companies that own and run most of the cruise lines. In the 22+ years I have been cruising I have seen the focus on the client become less and less important and that was all I was saying. If coming on here and bashing me makes you feel better go for it! All I was trying to convey was as customers that keep these business afloat (no pun intended) we should all have higher expectations of how we are handled as customers.

Edited June 29, 2015 by tampacruiser

[StolidCruiser]

They found their mistake but in doing so kept me sitting on a phone listening to music for over an hour. I knew if I hung up I would just have to start again. Like I said in my first post I work for a company that is obsessed with client service "Every Client Every Time, No Excuses, No Exceptions"

 

Please let us know the company you work for that is obsessed with customer service so that we can bombard you with requests for cash rebates for any miniscule transgression and be apologized to profusely for a simple human error.

 

It's interesting that those who claim to be employed in customer-focused enterprises view their own customer service experiences with a microscope. My own behavior is completely the opposite because I understand the difficulty of identifying and resolving a customer problem and try to be the kind of calm, pleasant and understanding customer with whom I would want to deal.

 

You never mentioned no apology with your original post, just that you wanted "something for your time". Now you add that you are annoyed because you got no apology or "compensation" for your troubles.

 

I'm sure the customer service representative would enjoy being referred to by you as "girl". Classy.

[reallyitsmema]

ok, I get it you all think I'm just feeling entitled, you all think I have some nerve, again you don't get it. Basically people have come to accept mediocrity in how companies treat situations. No company or person is perfect. Mistakes are made and no I don't think I should be compensated but at the same time when a company really gets client service they will go above and beyond the norm to make that happen. Look at companies that truly get that the culture of the client experience. Publix Supermarkets, Chik-Fil-A, Quicken Loans. Just a few companies that foster a client first mentality throughout their organizations because they understand without the client they would not exist. Ask a kid in Publix where the peanut butter is....he wont just tell you, he will walk you to the item and then ask you if you need anything more.....go to Chik-Fil-A....the staff looks neat clean professional, you rarely see a drive thru customer standing inside complaining their order was wrong (you see that all the time at other fast food operations) and when they are done they will tell you it was "their pleasure" serving you. Quicken Loan, who has revolutionized the mortgage industry by placing the client first in all it does. There are plenty of other companies out there doing the same.

 

All I was saying was from a client service standpoint they could have handled this differently. Whether I am compensated or not is not the issue. Will I ask, YES...they can say yes or no, its all up to them.

 

The mainstream cruise market in this country is basically dominated by just a few companies that own and run most of the cruise lines. In the 22+ years I have been cruising I have seen the focus on the client become less and less important and that was all I was saying. If coming on here and bashing me makes you feel better go for it! All I was trying to convey was as customers that keep these business afloat (no pun intended) we should all have higher expectations of how we are handled as customers.

 

You keep saying you don't think you should be compensated, but yet you asked the rep if they could do something for you. You are really contradicting yourself.

 

I understand that you are frustrated by the problem you had but you say you spoke to five different people. At some point, you could have easily said that you were not going to hold any longer and had resolutions call you back once things were corrected. With an IT problem, I would have waited until today to get one of the weekday people. I tend to have better luck with calling on weekdays, instead of weekends.

 

At the end of the day, there was a problem and it is now fixed. I don't think asking for "something" was appropriate.

[PLEIKU68]

You still convey the feeling of entitlement if something goes wrong. How do you reward your customers when you company fouls up .

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

I don't understand how everything was correct on the invoice - which I believe IS the exact same information that's on the reservation - but not in the system. THAT makes no sense - and honestly sounds like a very human case of looking at it and seeing what you expect to see. I had a professor in college once recommend reading a paper backwards to find errors that would be commonly missed because, for example, our eyes would see "from" when we had mistakenly typed "form" because we knew the word was supposed to be "from". And it sounds like this is the case here - your eyes expected to see "Smith" and so they saw "Smith" in a quick read-through.

 

I don't understand how they couldn't find it with the reservation number though...you did have that, right?

[Havingfun2010]

I'm a big fan of expecting companies to do the right thing. Sometimes companies do things that make you wonder. Like charging you $29.00 for underpaying your credit card $1.00. Yes, it was a "typo" on my part, but I did spend some quality time on the phone, where they reversed it, but recharged me the next month because I did not pay the late fee, they just told me I didn't need to. They lost my business for life.

 

However, typo's happen, and mistakes happen, and yes, my time is valuable, but in today's society, things are faster already. I look for whether they correct the mistake or not.

 

Many years ago, I booked a flight and "someone" booked my return flight on the same day, and in fact, I was suppose to board within an hour after landing. OK, I get it, I should have checked, but after some chuckles when I showed up a week late for the flight (still did not notice), they managed to fix it. Yes, I was stressed, no I did not make the mistake, and no, I was not upgraded to first class. However, they got me on the plane w/o extra fees.

 

Moral of the story is mistakes happen, and if it is fixed, and the resolution is the same, than I'm happy.

 

It's when the resolution is negative, than I'm going to be vocal over it. RCCL fixed the mistake, and all is well. That's good enough for me.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

All I was saying was from a client service standpoint they could have handled this differently. Whether I am compensated or not is not the issue. Will I ask, YES...they can say yes or no, its all up to them.

COULD they have handled this differently? Of course. But it seems your gripe is you think they SHOULD have handled this differently. Most people disagree with what RCI SHOULD have done.

 

Personally, I agree with the majority. If my day was so busy that I couldn't stay on the phone, I'd tell them that and ask them to call me back when they get a resolution. Ideally, they'd offer that, but they may have thought keeping you on the phone was better in case there were follow up questions.

[mizzoufinal4]

I guess all the folks on here that have made it clear that I am some petty jerk

 

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! You hit the nail right on the head there!

[bouhunter]

I guess all the folks on here that have made it clear that I am some petty jerk just don't get it

 

Yes we have, and you are. :D:D Everyone's "time is worth money". Get over it, we all deal with people on the phone for various reasons and don't expect "compenstation" for it...............:rolleyes:

Edited June 29, 2015 by bouhunter

[bouhunter]

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! You hit the nail right on the head there!

 

Love it, too funny!:D:)

[Paul65]

ok, I get it you all think I'm just feeling entitled, you all think I have some nerve, again you don't get it. Basically people have come to accept mediocrity in how companies treat situations. No company or person is perfect. Mistakes are made and no I don't think I should be compensated but at the same time when a company really gets client service they will go above and beyond the norm to make that happen.

 

I'm sorry that all the other people didn't get it. I think I understand now:

 

1. You don't think you should be compensated.

2. You asked to be compensated, anyway.

3. They compensated you with an offer of a strawberry plate on your cruise.

4. You were upset, because you felt this was inadequate compensation for the issue for which you claim not to think you should be compensated.

 

Simple as can be. I don't know why people are having such a hard time getting your point.

 

:)

[rilco33647]

This was not explained correctly!!! This was reservation made on the phone which was the only way to secure connecting cabins (always normally book cruises on line ourselves). The error was nothing we could see on our end--not on a receipt or invoice--it was only something they could see. The misspelling was preventing us from pulling up the cabin made under our daughter's misspelled name (show reservations, dinner reservations, and most importantly payment to be made for the cruise). We needed to have access to her reservation and were on the phone for 1 hour+ trying EVERYTHING, very patiently, to resolve the issue. When finally the mistake was uncovered as a spelling mistake on their part we absolutely did not fight or get an attitude. We simply asked nicely if there was anything they could do to compensate for over an hour wasted due to a human inputted spelling error. We acknowledged that we understood 'people make mistakes'. We thought it wasn't completely ridiculous to ask for some type of compensation. We weren't looking for a free cabin! We were just a little surprised that strawberries were the best they could do for returning cruisers, such as ourselves. Not a big deal in the end and I'm sure we'll have a great time!

[Paul65]

We thought it wasn't completely ridiculous to ask for some type of compensation.

 

It's probably not "completely ridiculous," but not something I would expect or ask for, because I had been on hold for an hour, while they tried to figure out the issue for me.

 

Many people feel that too many consumers have gotten spoiled and/or greedy, and always want "compensation" for anything that doesn't go perfectly. You can ask, but don't expect a lot of sympathy posting an I-didn't-get-the-compensation-I-deserved story here. They are pretty common and just don't tend to get much sympathy.

[Paul65]

who's going to pay my for reading this whole thread?

 

I will. Send me your bank account and routing numbers, along with your name and SSN, and I'll deposit $1 into your account.

[reallyitsmema]

This was not explained correctly!!! This was reservation made on the phone which was the only way to secure connecting cabins (always normally book cruises on line ourselves). The error was nothing we could see on our end--not on a receipt or invoice--it was only something they could see. The misspelling was preventing us from pulling up the cabin made under our daughter's misspelled name (show reservations, dinner reservations, and most importantly payment to be made for the cruise). We needed to have access to her reservation and were on the phone for 1 hour+ trying EVERYTHING, very patiently, to resolve the issue. When finally the mistake was uncovered as a spelling mistake on their part we absolutely did not fight or get an attitude. We simply asked nicely if there was anything they could do to compensate for over an hour wasted due to a human inputted spelling error. We acknowledged that we understood 'people make mistakes'. We thought it wasn't completely ridiculous to ask for some type of compensation. We weren't looking for a free cabin! We were just a little surprised that strawberries were the best they could do for returning cruisers, such as ourselves. Not a big deal in the end and I'm sure we'll have a great time!

 

Not sure why you were unable to book connecting cabins online. When booking, you choose 2 cabins instead of one and then you check the box that says staterooms need to be connected under stateroom options. The only reason you wouldn't be able to do this online was if the two are under aged and booked into their own cabin. In that instance, you need to call to have the cabin booked.

[tlatrice]

This was not explained correctly!!! This was reservation made on the phone which was the only way to secure connecting cabins (always normally book cruises on line ourselves). The error was nothing we could see on our end--not on a receipt or invoice--it was only something they could see. The misspelling was preventing us from pulling up the cabin made under our daughter's misspelled name (show reservations, dinner reservations, and most importantly payment to be made for the cruise). We needed to have access to her reservation and were on the phone for 1 hour+ trying EVERYTHING, very patiently, to resolve the issue. When finally the mistake was uncovered as a spelling mistake on their part we absolutely did not fight or get an attitude. We simply asked nicely if there was anything they could do to compensate for over an hour wasted due to a human inputted spelling error. We acknowledged that we understood 'people make mistakes'. We thought it wasn't completely ridiculous to ask for some type of compensation. We weren't looking for a free cabin! We were just a little surprised that strawberries were the best they could do for returning cruisers, such as ourselves. Not a big deal in the end and I'm sure we'll have a great time!

 

Question: Was the reservation made on a different day than when the issue of not being able to find the reservation took place? I'm just wondering why you had a reservation, but no reservation number? Even if the reservation was made over the phone, did you not write down the reservation number when the reservation was made?

[Cindy]

We thought it wasn't completely ridiculous to ask for some type of compensation. We weren't looking for a free cabin! We were just a little surprised that strawberries were the best they could do for returning cruisers, such as ourselves.

 

Obviously most of the people on this thread DO think it was completely ridiculous to ask for compensation.

 

I'm always curious what point people are trying to make when they have a complaint and include a comment about their status as past passengers. Perhaps they think the cruise lines should offer tiered compensation for errors. I can just see the ad...If you're a new cruiser you get nothing. Gold members get one strawberry, but by golly we're going to give a whole plate full of fruit to our Pinnacle cruisers if we screw up!

 

Ridiculous? In my opinion no more so than asking for compensation for a human error that resulted in spending time on the phone.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Cindy

[dacsmom]

This was not explained correctly!!! This was reservation made on the phone which was the only way to secure connecting cabins (always normally book cruises on line ourselves). The error was nothing we could see on our end--not on a receipt or invoice--it was only something they could see. The misspelling was preventing us from pulling up the cabin made under our daughter's misspelled name (show reservations, dinner reservations, and most importantly payment to be made for the cruise). We needed to have access to her reservation and were on the phone for 1 hour+ trying EVERYTHING, very patiently, to resolve the issue. When finally the mistake was uncovered as a spelling mistake on their part we absolutely did not fight or get an attitude. We simply asked nicely if there was anything they could do to compensate for over an hour wasted due to a human inputted spelling error. We acknowledged that we understood 'people make mistakes'. We thought it wasn't completely ridiculous to ask for some type of compensation. We weren't looking for a free cabin! We were just a little surprised that strawberries were the best they could do for returning cruisers, such as ourselves. Not a big deal in the end and I'm sure we'll have a great time!

 

So your daughters name was misspelled on an internal document, but correct on the e-mail confirmation and in my cruises? What happened when she tried to pull up her reservation? Glad you finally got it straightened out though.

[reallyitsmema]

Was the spelling error on your daughter's crown and anchor account? Did you set up a new crown and anchor account for her when you were booking your cabins? If that is where the error was, that can cause havoc with a reservation. When we got my son his crown and anchor number, they somehow combined his information with my husband's information and my son ended up with double the cruise history as I have and my husband's account disappeared into IT hyperspace. Our issue was because my son is a junior and there is nowhere to put the Jr. in the database and the person who setup his account did something bizarre. It took more than one phone call to fix and we got nothing for our time.

[KevInPitt]

This was not explained correctly!!! This was reservation made on the phone which was the only way to secure connecting cabins (always normally book cruises on line ourselves). The error was nothing we could see on our end--not on a receipt or invoice--it was only something they could see. The misspelling was preventing us from pulling up the cabin made under our daughter's misspelled name (show reservations, dinner reservations, and most importantly payment to be made for the cruise). We needed to have access to her reservation and were on the phone for 1 hour+ trying EVERYTHING, very patiently, to resolve the issue. When finally the mistake was uncovered as a spelling mistake on their part we absolutely did not fight or get an attitude. We simply asked nicely if there was anything they could do to compensate for over an hour wasted due to a human inputted spelling error. We acknowledged that we understood 'people make mistakes'. We thought it wasn't completely ridiculous to ask for some type of compensation. We weren't looking for a free cabin! We were just a little surprised that strawberries were the best they could do for returning cruisers, such as ourselves. Not a big deal in the end and I'm sure we'll have a great time!

 

The details surrounding the issue are still not being explained correctly because a misspelled last name shouldn't have caused an issue to pull up a booking.

 

Regardless, it is perfectly clear that there was an expectation of "some type of compensation" for a human error which took some time (about an hour or so) to identify and correct. Which was done.

 

You might not find it completely ridiculous to expect some type of compensation for a lost hour of your time but just about everyone else does. Hopefully you'll take the forum viewpoints under consideration and adjust yours accordingly. But I doubt it.