MSC have screwed up our booking and i'm scared!!

[pollyhog]

Well, the rumors of horrible customer service errors with MSC came true for me yesterday! My party of 8's Super Family Plus guaranteed booking on board the Seaside for March was allocated room numbers a couple of days ago, which was fine - 3 interconnecting balcony staterooms, exactly as planned. The trouble came when I phoned to sort out who they had assigned to each room! For example, they put 4 adults in the middle room and my teenage son ALONE in the 3rd room 😂😂 So I called to get this sorted, and Patrice Burke the customer service rep took all the details and told me she would work on it off the phone, and email me back to confirm all changes. I understood it needed to be done delicately, I know that on these bookings it's all about life boats and jackets, and you can't just move people around willy nilly 🙂 So I told her, if you can't do it it's not a huge deal, just let me know!!!

 

Well, after a full day of no email as promised, I look online, and not only has she not made the requested changes, my teenager had vanished from the booking, my parents were on there TWICE and the price (I had paid $6470 in FULL) had now over DOUBLED to nearly $16k, and it said I owed well over $8k!!!! I called in a panic because I know that since we are past the date to pay a booking in full, I was in danger of the whole booking being kicked out for non payment or something!! (Again, I had PAID IN FULL).....

 

Spoke to Gene, who promised to sort it out. He managed to get us all allocated correctly in the staterooms, but now it said the cruise cost was over $14k, and he had no clue how to fix! Again, he would call me back as soon as he could talk to a supervisor.

 

NO CALL BACK.... Phoned AGAIN and spoke to Gustavo, who eventually told me I should email with the original booking proving I had paid in full, he had no idea how to fix this, anf maybe someone else could! He said I probably couldn't get any decent response until Monday (this was Friday evening).

 

I mean REALLY!!!! We have book flights of over $500 each for 8 people, we have hotel for 8, airport parking... I have sunk so much money into this, what if they ruin our booking and can't retrieve it???? I'm terrified they won't be able to fix this massive screwup of their own making!!

 

Has anyone else experienced this kind of error with MSC, and was it resolved?? Any ideas how I can escalate this to people who might be more tech savvy at MSC, rather quickly??

 

Thanks for reading 🙂

[alyssamma]

FWIW, it should get fixed. MSC's accounting dept is even worse than their customer service. I've had errors with them in my favor (in which case I kept quiet) and errors in their favor, in which case I had to jump through hoops to get it resolved...but it did get resolved.

 

It will be a pain for you, but should work out.

 

First step, as you mentioned you already did, is to send them the original booking info. This should help in getting it fixed.

 

The important thing now is to keep calling them and try to get a manager. They will all be "in meetings", but be persistent.

 

Kevin

 

[Skoobdo]

1 hour ago, pollyhog said:

Well, the rumors of horrible customer service errors with MSC came true for me yesterday! My party of 8's Super Family Plus guaranteed booking on board the Seaside for March was allocated room numbers a couple of days ago, which was fine - 3 interconnecting balcony staterooms, exactly as planned. The trouble came when I phoned to sort out who they had assigned to each room! For example, they put 4 adults in the middle room and my teenage son ALONE in the 3rd room 😂😂 So I called to get this sorted, and Patrice Burke the customer service rep took all the details and told me she would work on it off the phone, and email me back to confirm all changes. I understood it needed to be done delicately, I know that on these bookings it's all about life boats and jackets, and you can't just move people around willy nilly 🙂 So I told her, if you can't do it it's not a huge deal, just let me know!!!

 

Well, after a full day of no email as promised, I look online, and not only has she not made the requested changes, my teenager had vanished from the booking, my parents were on there TWICE and the price (I had paid $6470 in FULL) had now over DOUBLED to nearly $16k, and it said I owed well over $8k!!!! I called in a panic because I know that since we are past the date to pay a booking in full, I was in danger of the whole booking being kicked out for non payment or something!! (Again, I had PAID IN FULL).....

 

Spoke to Gene, who promised to sort it out. He managed to get us all allocated correctly in the staterooms, but now it said the cruise cost was over $14k, and he had no clue how to fix! Again, he would call me back as soon as he could talk to a supervisor.

 

NO CALL BACK.... Phoned AGAIN and spoke to Gustavo, who eventually told me I should email with the original booking proving I had paid in full, he had no idea how to fix this, anf maybe someone else could! He said I probably couldn't get any decent response until Monday (this was Friday evening).

 

I mean REALLY!!!! We have book flights of over $500 each for 8 people, we have hotel for 8, airport parking... I have sunk so much money into this, what if they ruin our booking and can't retrieve it???? I'm terrified they won't be able to fix this massive screwup of their own making!!

 

Has anyone else experienced this kind of error with MSC, and was it resolved?? Any ideas how I can escalate this to people who might be more tech savvy at MSC, rather quickly??

 

Thanks for reading 🙂

Yes, I've experienced this 3 times so far.  There's other threads of people reporting the same.

 

The problem with MSC is, when you call and they go into their system, the representative, who is generally less than knowledgeable about their computer system ends up rebooking the entire cruise (with current prices), instead of just updating it.

 

Every time this has happened to me, it involved getting a supervisor and accounting involved.

 

And yes, you will receive a notice of cancellation if they don't fix it soon, or at least, they need to manually go into your booking and input "DO NOT CANCEL" in the notes and header, which they had to do in my case to avoid it being cancelled.

 

After my latest fiasco, I've decided to never call them about anything, because they screw up everything.  Adding a discount increased my price, switching to an identical cabin increased the price, and calling in another booking to add a discount increased the price when the total appeared on their screen. Supervisor couldn't fix it, but told me to pay the correct price and they will fix it, not, I received a cancellation notice.  Went through 3 operators over 3 hours and a week to fix. The other situation took numerous weeks and one took one day.

 

Just don't call them for jack. 

 

I have a current issue that I'm going to remedy while I'm on my next cruise in April, since they lied about a cabin change.  I'll be straight up talking to the guest services' manager on board.

 

Good luck to you.  You're not the only one.

 

[BermudaBound2014]

1 hour ago, Skoobdo said:

 

 

After my latest fiasco, I've decided to never call them about anything, because they screw up everything.  Adding a discount increased my price, switching to an identical cabin increased the price, and calling in another booking to add a discount increased the price when the total appeared on their screen. Supervisor couldn't fix it, but told me to pay the correct price and they will fix it, not, I received a cancellation notice.  Went through 3 operators over 3 hours and a week to fix. The other situation took numerous weeks and one took one day.

 

Just don't call them for jack. 

 

 

I take this advice one step farther. I don't even prebook anything, Yes I know that you can forgo the service charge if you pre-book packages, but I just won't do it with MSC. Firstly, not sure how avoiding the service charge isn't stiffing the staff but that is for another discussion. Mostly my concern is that not only are there a plethora of stories like those described above, there have been too many incidents of serious data breaches over the years for me to be comfortable with MSC online. I book (with an agent) at a rock bottom price and never touch the booking again. Set it and forget it.

 

I hope you both find solutions as quickly and painlessly as possible.

 

PS: To the OP, I haven't ever read of a screw up like this not being rectified eventually, so in that, the odds appear in your favor. Best to you!! 

[pollyhog]

Update: I called today even though it is the weekend and didn't think i'd get far, but i'm so glad I did! Spoke to Tom who simply submitted it to the support team, who fixed it in abot 15 minutes, and I *think* there's extra on board credit added too! WHYYYYYYY couldn't the reps yesterday just do that???

 

Crazy 🙂

[April42749]

7 minutes ago, pollyhog said:

Update: I called today even though it is the weekend and didn't think i'd get far, but i'm so glad I did! Spoke to Tom who simply submitted it to the support team, who fixed it in abot 15 minutes, and I *think* there's extra on board credit added too! WHYYYYYYY couldn't the reps yesterday just do that???

 

Crazy 🙂

DH always says....if the rep isn't helping....call back and try another rep.

I've never has an issue such as yours...but I've hung up "mid-sentence" many times and rep #2 was much more helpful.

[mafig]

30 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

. I book (with an agent) at a rock bottom price and never touch the booking again. Set it and forget it.

 

 

Hi, BB😀

I do the same.  I don't even go near their website.  

I check prices on other websites, and I've only been on two MSC cruises, but fortunately I never saw a price drop.  I don't know what I'd do if I saw one.  LOL

[April42749]

7 minutes ago, mafig said:

Hi, BB😀

I do the same.  I don't even go near their website.  

I check prices on other websites, and I've only been on two MSC cruises, but fortunately I never saw a price drop.  I don't know what I'd do if I saw one.  LOL

I check the price on line but I have the agent book.  Many agents don't bother with MSC.

Also...I make sure the agent gets the same price as me.  With the discounts etc....reps have been known to not get the correct price.  And when all is set....I never touch the reservation again although I do monitor it.

[jdvmd]

6 hours ago, pollyhog said:

Update: I called today even though it is the weekend and didn't think i'd get far, but i'm so glad I did! Spoke to Tom who simply submitted it to the support team, who fixed it in abot 15 minutes, and I *think* there's extra on board credit added too! WHYYYYYYY couldn't the reps yesterday just do that???

 

Crazy 🙂

Glad it all got worked out!

[aprilF]

Ah, rep roulette.  Almost always helpful.

[snowsuits]

I posted about something similar a few days ago. Same set-up - Super Family Plus cabin, priced and paid as one, then changed later to be billed separately. They only tried to add $500 to ours - I can understand the panic at having a cruise double in price!

I fervently hope and pray ours is fixed and remains fixed. I'm leery of adding the dinner package before boarding now. Good luck!