Terrible customer service with RCL when booking first cruise

[ctsharpie05]

i just had a really bad customer service experience with RCL that totally made me rethink cruising with them.

I am a long time DCL cruiser - platinum level - but with the recent high prices, I decided to look at other cruise lines. I've been checking out RCL and their recent schedule and decided to try them out.

 

Last night I booked a cruise for Feb 2018 (kinda of a planner ). I went thru the entire booking process and paid the deposit. It displayed a deposit of $250 so that is what I paid. I received an email a little bit later to create an account to manage the reservation. I set that all up. Once I logged in , I noticed that it said I still owed $250. I thought maybe what I had just paid hadn't posted to their system yet. They did have a promotion that ended yesterday that offered 1/2 deposit on some cruises. My cruise didn't indicate if it was in the promotion or not but since it came up wth the 250 deposit I figured it was.

 

I logged in this morning to see if it was displaying correctly. It still showed I owed the 250. I called RCL and explained the issue. He said that apparently my cruise didn't fall under the promotion. I'm like then why did the website offer the 250 deposit. He acted it was my fault and said if I didn't want the cruise to auto cancel then I needed to pay the rest. I asked to speak to his supervisor

 

I waited about 10 minutes and I talked to another person and explained the situation. She said that my cruise apparently didn't fall under the promotion. I'm like then why was I offered the 1/2 deposit. I would not have arbitrarily decided to pay 1/2 if I knew it was 500. I asked if there was any way to honor what their own site provided. She took my email and said she could see what she could do but no promises.

 

Couple hours later I received an email from her, the revenue team could not add the promotion back on my cruise since it ended last night (reason I booked). Only thing she could do was place a note on my account to not cancel and hope the payment team didn't cancel due to deposit not fully paid. Then she wanted to know when I was sending the 250. I'm like when final payment is due. That one question sealed the deal of not keeping this reservation. The entire phone call was about that issue so why ask when it's the reason I called in the first place.

 

This whole CS experience left a really bitter taste in my mouth. I told her that I was a long time cruiser on another line but we wanted to give RCL a try. This was not a good first impression. We decided to just cancel the cruise instead of dealing with the hassle. If this was the level of customer service we received on the phone, hate to see what we get on the ship.

 

I have been a Disney World girl since the 1980s. I have to agree with you 100% RCI has horrific customer service and a subpar website. I will see if that also translates to a horrific cruise. I really hope not.

[BecciBoo]

This raises some obvious questions:

 

WHAT should someone come here to ask? "I want to book a cruise on Royal Caribbean, so what screw-ups should I expect?"

 

Why should a global company with 2015 net income of $665 million expect its customers to rely on a completely unrelated message board to act as its help desk?

 

"Educate yourself" is simply blaming the customer for Royal's problems, when the fact is that Royal needs to address its IT & CS issues.

 

I have never had these problems because I come here and find out what happens and how to handle it from people who have...that is what I meant, educate yourself about what can happen. I am in no way blaming the OP for this, I am actually agreeing that RCCL has problems. But if you realize that things can happen you don't end up getting bent out of shape about something.

 

But you also run into people here who take what you post out of context and misrepresent what you meant...just like you did.:cool::rolleyes:

 

Gotta just ignore it and use the dang button....so don't bother replying...I won't be seeing it....

Edited March 10, 2016 by BecciBoo

[dcgrumpy]

I have been a Disney World girl since the 1980s. I have to agree with you 100% RCI has horrific customer service and a subpar website. I will see if that also translates to a horrific cruise. I really hope not.

 

I also love WDW. I've been going regularly for years and own DVC. I've had bad customer service over the years and there are times where their website is equally as bad as RCCL. I remember an annual pass rate fiasco from years ago.

 

That being said, I've always enjoyed my cruises on RCCL. And I've never had bad customer service. Of course not everyone will enjoy their cruise. But the chances of having a horrific cruise are probably slim.

[cruisinfanatic]

You are admitting that Royal Caribbean makes mistakes and then suggesting the customer should educate themselves so that they learn how to get around Royal Caribbean's mistakes.

 

Well, why doesn't Royal Caribbean fix the issue and stop making the mistakes in the first place, or if a mistake is made, own up to it and give the customer service reps the tools they need to fix the mistake.

 

It is extremely poor customer service to expect the customer to fix your mistakes.

Agree. Either fix it or stop offering it.

Absolute silliness. The op has to pay up in the end anyway.

[cruisinfanatic]

I have been a Disney World girl since the 1980s. I have to agree with you 100% RCI has horrific customer service and a subpar website. I will see if that also translates to a horrific cruise. I really hope not.

I used to be a TA and had never once had a problem dealing with customer service. Not once!

If you take your cruise expecting the worst, you will

[sha88]

My reservation says that I owed $500 by Jan 2016 and that i had only paid $250 (the promo that I reserved under). I never thought to worry about it. I am going to just pay the entire balance due on the final date due.

[cruisinfanatic]

My reservation says that I owed $500 by Jan 2016 and that i had only paid $250 (the promo that I reserved under). I never thought to worry about it. I am going to just pay the entire balance due on the final date due.

Too easy for some to comprehend.

[cheezwiz]

I used to be a TA and had never once had a problem dealing with customer service. Not once!

If you take your cruise expecting the worst, you will

 

Do TA's call in on the same number as everyone else or is there a dedicated line?

[cruisinfanatic]

Do TA's call in on the same number as everyone else or is there a dedicated line?

They do with some lines.

I don't think I've ever waited for an agent more than 10 minutes

[reallyitsmema]

Too easy for some to comprehend.

 

I booked under the reduced deposit sail and my booking confirm says I owe $500 by 3/8/16. I only paid $250 under the sale. They should be able to program their system to omit that line or add an additional line saying what the promo was at the time. My booking is over 425 days out. I really don't want this reservation to be a problem that their ever finicky computer system decides to cancel because it is a full moon.

[Cuizer2]

I used to be a TA and had never once had a problem dealing with customer service. Not once!

If you take your cruise expecting the worst, you will

 

Well neither have I. However, sometimes I have to listen to my TA complain about the problems with _______ customer service.

[cheezwiz]

I booked under the reduced deposit sail and my booking confirm says I owe $500 by 3/8/16. I only paid $250 under the sale. They should be able to program their system to omit that line or add an additional line saying what the promo was at the time. My booking is over 425 days out. I really don't want this reservation to be a problem that their ever finicky computer system decides to cancel because it is a full moon.

 

RCCL claims that they are making a "100+ million investment in new & enhanced technology in the next 5 years," so I hope that means a little attention to the reservation system when they're not busy teaching robots to play mini golf with passengers!

Edited March 10, 2016 by cheezwiz

[Debitoo]

Yes, I believe that it was a website error/glitch.

 

Getting a half-price deposit has never been one of my deciding factors.

 

I am someone who knows that it all has to be paid in the end, so what is the real difference?

 

Pay me now, pay me later. Bank accounts pay NO interest to speak of these days anyway.

 

Amen, sister!

[Winghunter]

I have never had these problems because I come here and find out what happens and how to handle it from people who have...that is what I meant, educate yourself about what can happen. I am in no way blaming the OP for this, I am actually agreeing that RCCL has problems. But if you realize that things can happen you don't end up getting bent out of shape about something.

 

But you also run into people here who take what you post out of context and misrepresent what you meant...just like you did.:cool::rolleyes:

 

Gotta just ignore it and use the dang button....so don't bother replying...I won't be seeing it....

 

With such thin skin and narrow blinders I'd be surprised if you see more than 8 posts.

[Cuizer2]

With such thin skin and narrow blinders I'd be surprised if you see more than 8 posts.

 

Apparently some people believe that after they post only people that agree with them can comment.

[cheezwiz]

Apparently some people believe that after they post only people that agree with them can comment.

 

Amazing, isn't it? Sometimes those who dish it out liberally are the least willing to take it when it comes back their way.

[fourkittys]

As I post a zillion times, don't imply that your rare experience is the norm and basically tell others not to cruise RCL because of your isolated incident. I wonder if it was as bad as you say. Most complainers that go beyond just pointing out their experience have a tendency of complaining about everything in general and stretch the truth.

 

We will be going on our 30th RCL cruise in a less than two months and have always booked with RCL over the phone. Never, has there ever been any misunderstanding, rudeness or, anything else. Smooth and enjoyable.

So, do I call you a liar, and you call me a liar?

All I'm saying is...if you had or have a bad experience, that's fine and you can say so. But don't basically tell people not to cruise RCL implying that everyone will be treated like you were, because that's not true.

 

HMM! I went back and reread his post two more times and all got out of it was a person expressing their personal experience with RCL and nothing more. Why was the word "LIAR" even mentioned? That wasn't rude? Too many assumptions maybe from a diehard RCL fan????

[fourkittys]

the fuss is that they were stuffed about and things kept changing. It can cause some to lose confidence in the product.

 

The way i read it, the amount of the deposit wasn't the big issue.

 

agree!

[tigerbad]

RCL call centre is extremely poor.The don't know their stuff at all. Always difficult or don't know anything. No attempt to check into an issue. Other than changing your cabin number - forget it. Found a manager to email to with issues. Sick of being angry from phone calls.

[Paul65]

The fuss is that they were stuffed about and things kept changing. It can cause some to lose confidence in the product.

 

The way I read it, the amount of the deposit wasn't the big issue.

 

The amount of the deposit was the only issue they were trying to resolve. And things didn't "keep changing." What changed, other than booking with 1/2 deposit, then getting a statement that indicated the other half of the deposit was owed?

[Nickymjw1]

RCL call centre is extremely poor.The don't know their stuff at all. Always difficult or don't know anything. No attempt to check into an issue. Other than changing your cabin number - forget it. Found a manager to email to with issues. Sick of being angry from phone calls.

 

I work in a calk center. Call on a weekday as early in the morning as possible. The best reps work the best schedules. They either have schedule bids based on performance or by seniority...

 

Must say I have called other times during the day and never had an issue..