Tone-deaf customer service

[hcat]

Seems Celeb has started with upcharges for holiday dinners... but not much difference in menus.  We will  have to pay attention to the trend..but once booked at the going price,  that should be the price! 

 

We are hoping for a nice Mother's Day menu on  Summit in the mdr... and have already booked Tuscan for a different night.

Edited January 17, 2020 by hcat

[cwayne]

On 1/11/2020 at 10:31 AM, KurtMo said:

Faith in mankind's ability to make sense of nonsense is (at least partially) restored:  Upon a call to customer service, a very nice and efficient rep named Lisa found us a Murano reservation on a different evening, and then proceeded to refund the original reservation.  She then advised me that she added OBC to the reservation to cover the cost of the Murano dinner, so it is "free".  A good gesture which recognizes the hassle factor for the guest and at least shows that they understood the whole exercise was Celebrity's issue.

 

I wanted to be fair and recognize X for the ultimate response to the situation they created!

I'm glad to hear they made this gesture and you may enjoy this evening even more. We had considered a Valentine's Day dinner but didn't go for it.  We figured we would be tired from traveling,  everything that's involved with boarding and unpacking and everyone else trying to get into a restaurant for that special day. Figured that a couple of days later it might be a more relaxed, enjoyable evening and it will mean just as much!

[drakes2]

On 1/11/2020 at 11:38 AM, awhfy said:

That’s customer service

Like I always state: 10 phone calls equals 10 different answers. And they start their call by yawning in your ear. 

[1980dory]

On 1/17/2020 at 6:06 AM, drakes2 said:

Like I always state: 10 phone calls equals 10 different answers. And they start their call by yawning in your ear. 

 

 

P.S.  Only after you are put on hold because they are too busy answering other calls.  Throughout you must listen to a machine asking you 50 questions and making 50 different sales pitches.  You now have at least a 50/50 chance of having your call dropped.  Then you start the process all over again.

If you finally ever get a live person, they in turn will transfer you to another expert who will keep transferring you to another, ad infinitum.  Interspersed throughout all this, you get repeated recordings telling you how important you and your call are to them.

Now, if you were 'really' important to them, they would answer your call within two rings by a live person who is pleasant and speaks English fluently.  But that's too simple.  That would cost money.  They parcel their customer service to third world providers for pennies, and rely on recordings to provide insufficient information and make sales pitches.

That is what society has to come to expect of 'good' customer service.

[Bo1953]

4 minutes ago, 1980dory said:

 

 

P.S.  Only after you are put on hold because they are too busy answering other calls.  Throughout you must listen to a machine asking you 50 questions and making 50 different sales pitches.  You now have at least a 50/50 chance of having your call dropped.  Then you start the process all over again.

If you finally ever get a live person, they in turn will transfer you to another expert who will keep transferring you to another, ad infinitum.  Interspersed throughout all this, you get repeated recordings telling you how important you and your call are to them.

Now, if you were 'really' important to them, they would answer your call within two rings by a live person who is pleasant and speaks English fluently.  But that's too simple.  That would cost money.  They parcel their customer service to third world providers for pennies, and rely on recordings to provide insufficient information and make sales pitches.

That is what society has to come to expect of 'good' customer service.

I Am sorry this has been your experience, I must say it has not been ours.

 

The longest wait time I have ever had was approximately 18 minutes and usually after six (6) I will hang up and call at another time as more often than not I leave it to my TA to handle so I do not need to really bother...

 

Then again when I place it on speaker phone, I can keep working or doing something else while waiting and sometimes forgetting that I called.. LOL

 

Since we do not know which country you would be calling from, the odds of the Call Center being in the U.S. is very high. In fact I have never been routed to a 'foreign call center' in all of these years. Possibly lucky??

 

Maybe other U.S. callers will weigh in on this aspect and foreign call centers.

 

bon voyage

[Bo1953]

On 1/17/2020 at 7:06 AM, drakes2 said:

Like I always state: 10 phone calls equals 10 different answers. And they start their call by yawning in your ear. 

May be time to get a TA to avoid the this type of situation.

 

bon voyage

[Luvcrusn]

22 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

I Am sorry this has been your experience, I must say it has not been ours.

 

The longest wait time I have ever had was approximately 18 minutes and usually after six (6) I will hang up and call at another time as more often than not I leave it to my TA to handle so I do not need to really bother...

 

Then again when I place it on speaker phone, I can keep working or doing something else while waiting and sometimes forgetting that I called.. LOL

 

Since we do not know which country you would be calling from, the odds of the Call Center being in the U.S. is very high. In fact I have never been routed to a 'foreign call center' in all of these years. Possibly lucky??

 

Maybe other U.S. callers will weigh in on this aspect and foreign call centers.

 

bon voyage

I've only reached X call centers located in Miami and Kansas. Although sometimes I've reached representatives that spoke with an accent different than mine, I've always reached reps who spoke English fluently. I've also never been transferred from one to another. There have been extended wait times, usually when the website is experiencing malfunctions during a sale, but not very often. I do dislike phone systems with multiple choice options that take forever to access a human being, but by an large that is not my experience with X. Most times, when calling X, I just call the Captains Club, choose no option and am connected to a person.

[Big_G]

On 1/11/2020 at 11:31 AM, KurtMo said:

Faith in mankind's ability to make sense of nonsense is (at least partially) restored:  Upon a call to customer service, a very nice and efficient rep named Lisa found us a Murano reservation on a different evening, and then proceeded to refund the original reservation.  She then advised me that she added OBC to the reservation to cover the cost of the Murano dinner, so it is "free".  A good gesture which recognizes the hassle factor for the guest and at least shows that they understood the whole exercise was Celebrity's issue.

 

I wanted to be fair and recognize X for the ultimate response to the situation they created!

 

Well done.

[DebInAntigua]

I'm a USA caller (using a USA Voice over IP phone), and have spoken to many Celebrity phone reps who are working from a call center in Guatemala City. They end up telling me that fact when I mention that I am physically in Guatemala myself, but until I do, they certainly don't volunteer that they are outside the USA. Their English is quite good and I have no problem understanding them or being understood. Much better command of English than other companies that use Indian call centers.

[1980dory]

To all:

Yes I do agree with you all, believe it or not.  My comments are in general, and refer to the overall calling experience.

Within the cruise industry I do have an excellent TA who is always readily available to help.

My comments and frustrations come from a very recent experience with getting customer service (yesterday) with someone else.  And that pattern has been typical overall in other industries.  I was indeed too quick to pull the trigger on the cruise industry also.

Thanks Bo, et. al.

[bbnjcruiser]

People who are tone deaf -- unable to hear differences in pitch and tone -- aren't just awful singers. At the most extreme, they're unable to perceive music, period.