HAL customer service/complaints ordeal

[Stilldocked]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and relatively new to cruises having done only a couple before. Just wondered if any of you has had any dealings with Holland America's customer service office in Seattle, or tried to make a complaint.

I recently booked two cruises with HAL and had to cancel them due to a medical condition. Although I had not taken out cancellation protection insurance, I was told by my 'personal cruise consultant' when I cancelled that I would be able to swap the two cancelled cruises to two later ones "that are of the same value or more". I informed the consultant of the ones I wanted to do that fitted these conditions and he told me he would "get those booked".

However a couple of days later he got in touch to say that he had made a mistake and was "not aware" of the criteria in these situations and that the two cruises had to be in the same "cancellation window", which they weren't, and therefore I could only swap one of the cancelled cruises. I found this was poor customer service as I believe he should have checked with his superiors and informed me of the criteria for rebooking at the start. I believe HAL should have honoured what the consultant said. The correspondence was also becoming slow and he even managed to get my name wrong.

When I tried to make a complaint and escalate the matter things became even more difficult. There seems to be no complaints department and the consultant could only connect me by phone to his "lead", a person who gave only his first name and would not even furnish me with his surname, job title, contact phone number or email address! I got no direct answers to my questions but I was given a lot of jargon, although I was told that I would be able to rebook both the cruises if they were in the same "cancellation window" though this was not explained to me in a way I could understand, no actual dates were given and no help was given as to any cruises that I may potentially be able to swap to.

I found the whole process quite shocking and rather sinister. I've dealt with a lot of customer service departments in my life but nothing as unhelpful as this, and I have lost a lot of sleep as I have a lot of money at stake here.

I just wondered if anyone here has had any similar experiences, can offer any advice or direct me to someone who may be able to help.

 

 

 

 

 

[sammiedawg]

See if your credit card will refund for a medical cancelation.  High end credit cards have generous insurance built into the yearly fee. 

Dont hold your breath with Holland America.  

[*Miss G*]

Here’s the thing.  It is up to the consumer to be aware of the conditions when they make a purchase.  If you want trip protection they make it available.  If you choose not to purchase it you are saying you are willing to live with the results.  If the TA or PCC has made a mistake (humans sometimes do that) you are still obligated to the terms of the contract you agreed to.    It is all in your booking confirmation under “IMPORTANT NOTICES”.  HAL is not being “sinister” if they are acting within those Terms & Conditions.

[Caribbean Chris]

I don’t think anyone here has answers for you (other than to always understand any contract you enter into before making payment, and always purchase trip cancellation insurance in the future).

 

Your profile says you are in Asia, and most people who might respond here are residents of the US and Canada. Other countries’ residents bookings (UK  passengers on Celebrity, to give one example,) may be subject to different policies.

 

You also did not provide any detail (cancellation date, sailing date, itinerary) which always affects the ability to get a refund.

 

Here is the HAL US cancellation policy.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/pre-post-travel-cruise/cancellation-policy.html

...which says “Fees incurred as a result of cancellation cannot be applied to future bookings.”  

 

So if you were offered an opportunity to rebook and apply all the payment to another sailing date for one of your cruises, you were apparently much better off than most people who cancel.

[DaveOKC]

Good points so far that different countries have different booking rules, so us US folks may not be of much help in advising you.

 

Further, HAL offers (at least in the US) different fare types, some of which are non-refundable, but naturally the price is lower.  So, you need to know what fare type you booked under.  If you are past Final Payment Date, then you cannot cancel without paying a penalty.

 

Personally, I often (like yesterday for example) do a cancel/rebook to get a lower fare or change itinerary and never have a problem (unless it is after final payment date).  HAL is very accommodating I have found.

[knittinggirl]

I don't understand all the intricacies of booking, but we just got stuck for a deposit when we cancelled something on Princess.  Our TA was just as shocked as us.  The TA did manage to convert the penalty to future credit.

 

I'm not sure anyone's mentioned the importance of travel insurance. 

 

We had a hard time w/ travel insurance the first time too.  But we decided to go ahead and pay for it.  DH broke his hip right after final payment, and we got our money back since we had travel insurance.  We rebooked the cruise, and it went well until the last day when we were eight hours late returning to port due to weather.  They re-booked our airfare (in those days we made everything through the cruise line.)  We finally returned to the disembarkation port, and the ship transfer actually broke down in the middle of the airport!  We finally dragged our luggage (no wheels) to the gate only to be told we had missed the flight.   Another transfer bus arrived and took us to the hotel, gave us meal vouchers and hotel vouchers and re-booked us to fly out the next day.  All courtesy of insurance.   One guy from our dining table didn't have insurance and was sweating bullets.

 

For pre-existing coverage, you must purchase travel insurance w/in 15-30 days from date of first deposit.

 

The last five or six cruises, we've have ended up in medical nearly every trip!

[terrydtx]

In examples like this I have no sympathy for anyone who fails to purchase trip cancellation insurance and then complains about losing their money when they have to cancel. When you pay thousands for a trip and do not purchase the insurance you are saying you are willing to take the risk of losing anything you pay for the trip. This is not HAL's fault.

[VennDiagram]

I will be a contrarian here.  OP, whenever I phone HAL there is a recorded announcement that "This call is being recorded for training and quality assurance  ...." or similar.

IMHO, since a HAL representative gave you incorrect information, I think you should phone and (if necessary) email and request that a manager find and listen to the phone call in which you were given  incorrect information from that HAL representative.  Use that proof to negotiate.

[Copper10-8]

HAL complaint department:

 

Orlando D. Ashford, President, Holland America Line

450 Third Ave. West, Seattle, WA 98119

[bennybear]

Agree about the need for travel insurance.

 

But also like venndiagram,  I think that employees need to be held accountable for what is said.   Maybe then we would get straight answers when we call.  

 

When we were in a situation where our TA had called HAL and they had it taped as well, and still HAL didn’t want to honour what was said.  Fortunately our big box TA went to bat for us and made us whole.  

 

So IMO two separate issues here.  

Edited March 30, 2019 by bennybear

[Fouremco]

Seems to me that there are at least three separate issues here:

 

First, the lack of insurance. On this, there is no question that the OP brought on this mess by not purchasing travel insurance in the first place.

 

Second, the erroneous information provided by the PCC. As others have pointed out, human errors are made. In this case, however, the PCC's mistake did not result in a loss to the OP, it simply gave the latter false hope for a couple of days. Note that the OP didn't make the cancellation based on the condition that future cruise credit were to be made available, something that the PCC only mentioned when the cruises were cancelled for medical reasons. Again, while the PCC erred initially, his mistake cost the OP nothing.

 

Third, the lack of an easily identifiable complaints mechanism. Here I have to agree with the OP. While those of us who hang around the HAL board have seen countless threads started by people with the same problem: who do I contact to resolve an issue? While HAL's website has a "Contact Us" link to a page with numerous options, none of them deal with complaints or problem resolution. On this point, I don't think that HAL is alone in the cruise industry, and the only time that I had a major complaint to be resolved with Celebrity, I did exactly what Copper10-8 suggests and wrote to CEO Michael Bailey. 

Edited March 30, 2019 by Fouremco

[iancal]

Difficult to say since there is only one perspective on the issue.

 

In our experience, erroneous information by a CSR is not the exception.

[3rdGenCunarder]

6 minutes ago, knittinggirl said:

I don't understand all the intricacies of booking, but we just got stuck for a deposit when we cancelled something on Princess.  Our TA was just as shocked as us.  The TA did manage to convert the penalty to future credit.

 

I'm not sure anyone's mentioned the importance of travel insurance. 

 

We had a hard time w/ travel insurance the first time too.  But we decided to go ahead and pay for it.  DH broke his hip right after final payment, and we got our money back since we had travel insurance.  We rebooked the cruise, and it went well until the last day when we were eight hours late returning to port due to weather.  They re-booked our airfare (in those days we made everything through the cruise line.)  We finally returned to the disembarkation port, and the ship transfer actually broke down in the middle of the airport!  We finally dragged our luggage (no wheels) to the gate only to be told we had missed the flight.   Another transfer bus arrived and took us to the hotel, gave us meal vouchers and hotel vouchers and re-booked us to fly out the next day.  All courtesy of insurance.   One guy from our dining table didn't have insurance and was sweating bullets.

 

For pre-existing coverage, you must purchase travel insurance w/in 15-30 days from date of first deposit.

 

The last five or six cruises, we've have ended up in medical nearly every trip!

 

HAL is starting to do nonrefundable deposits on some fares. Just another thing to watch for when you book. 

 

I agree about travel insurance. We haven't cruised without it for about 20 years. Didn't have claims until last year when we needed it big time for a medical emergency.

 

[knittinggirl]

We've had two huge medical claims involving the entire cruise fare.  One was DH's hip.  The other was a third leg of a trip.  We got sick on the second leg, spent the night in a hotel before the third leg, but cancelled the cruise instead and returned home early.

[RDC1]

5 hours ago, VennDiagram said:

I will be a contrarian here.  OP, whenever I phone HAL there is a recorded announcement that "This call is being recorded for training and quality assurance  ...." or similar.

IMHO, since a HAL representative gave you incorrect information, I think you should phone and (if necessary) email and request that a manager find and listen to the phone call in which you were given  incorrect information from that HAL representative.  Use that proof to negotiate.

However, since the error the HAL employee made was in telling him he could cancel and rebook, the corrective action for that error would be to reinstate his original booking then allow him to make an informed decision with the actual facts.  A solution that corrects the original error, but does nothing to solve the OP's problem. 

[VennDiagram]

16 hours ago, Stilldocked said:

I found this was poor customer service as I believe he should have checked with his superiors and informed me of the criteria for rebooking at the start. I believe HAL should have honoured what the consultant said.

 

That's what I consider the OP's problem.  What do YOU consider the OP's problem?

[RDC1]

38 minutes ago, VennDiagram said:

 

That's what I consider the OP's problem.  What do YOU consider the OP's problem?

That he is losing the value of the booked cruises since his rebooking window is much more limited than the HAL rep indicated indicated.  If it was not for that I doubt we would see his posting.