Scandal! No respect for customers!

[WorldTraveler151208]

I had a reservation for Msc Grandiosa for Easter departing on April 4th from Genoa.  Msc Cruises changed the cruise date to April 6th, which is already after Easter, and they did not even bother to inform me. I wouldn’t know anything but I accidentally noticed the incorrect, new date on a Facebook ad.  In addition, I booked two cabins on deck 16 for my family and I underlined  that they should be close to each other. Msc changed the cabin numbers and now we have one on deck 14 and the other one on deck 18.  I am furious and disappointed.  I know that they have the right to change the cabin number, although it is very annoying, but since when are they allowed to change the cruise date and not even inform you about it? 😡

Edited March 18, 2021 by WorldTraveler151208

[nikkiw60]

Deleted 

Edited March 18, 2021 by nikkiw60
Not valid

[shipgeeks]

2022?  

[Até]

You might want to call and make sure they have the correct email address for you, that itinerary was changed due to government restrictions a while back.  Perhaps the notification went to a spam folder?  There are still several YC Deluxe cabins, and even YC insides, next to each other available on that sailing so it shouldn't be hard to get moved back closer to each other.

[crazyank]

9 hours ago, WorldTraveler151208 said:

I had a reservation for Msc Grandiosa for Easter departing on April 4th from Genoa.  Msc Cruises changed the cruise date to April 6th, which is already after Easter, and they did not even bother to inform me. I wouldn’t know anything but I accidentally noticed the incorrect, new date on a Facebook ad.  In addition, I booked two cabins on deck 16 for my family and I underlined  that they should be close to each other. Msc changed the cabin numbers and now we have one on deck 14 and the other one on deck 18.  I am furious and disappointed.  I know that they have the right to change the cabin number, although it is very annoying, but since when are they allowed to change the cruise date and not even inform you about it? 😡

Welcome to dealing with MSC.  

[WorldTraveler151208]

8 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

2022?  

No, 2021. Just in two weeks.

[WorldTraveler151208]

Indeed, there are still many free cabins, even more than yesterday. Apparently people are canceling this cruise.  I decided to do the same.  Another problem is that they shortened this cruise from 7 to 5 days (Tuesday- Sunday) and the price remained the same as I paid for 7 days. This is not acceptable.

[WorldTraveler151208]

9 minutes ago, crazyank said:

Welcome to dealing with MSC.  

I know Msc has strange ideas sometimes, I've been cruising with them for years, but I haven't experienced anything like that before.

[dexddd]

Not minimizing at all but this seems to be fairly common especially in regards to lack of notice.

[Seanocelt]

I posted a very similar thing 2 weeks ago, they changed my itinerary, then suddenly country of departure, Spain to Italy. Was tempted to go anyway , but glad I took a credit as Italy in totally different shape now covid  wise, ship hardly  making stops.

BUT.......no warning at all from MSC or agent i got all info myself by continually logging in....recommended.

[WorldTraveler151208]

I just don't understand why did they change it so suddenly just two weeks before.  When they were planning these cruises a few months ago, they could have thought about Easter.  I know that on Easter for 3 days the whole Italy will be treated as red zone, but I also know that Msc can imbark guests even in a red zone, because they have already done so.  They just couldn't organize shore excursions in Genoa on Sunday and in Civitavecchia on Monday.  But did they really create all this chaos just because of shore excursions?

[sidari]

51 minutes ago, WorldTraveler151208 said:

I just don't understand why did they change it so suddenly just two weeks before.  When they were planning these cruises a few months ago, they could have thought about Easter.  I know that on Easter for 3 days the whole Italy will be treated as red zone, but I also know that Msc can imbark guests even in a red zone, because they have already done so.  They just couldn't organize shore excursions in Genoa on Sunday and in Civitavecchia on Monday.  But did they really create all this chaos just because of shore excursions?

WT ... The whole of mainland Italy are currently in the Red zone for three weeks.

[Stockjock]

I had some similar experiences.  The most egregious was changing a 4 night cruise out of Barcelona to a 20 night cruise out of Brazil with a totally different date and itinerary and never informing me in any way.  And yes, they did have the correct phone and e-mail address.  

Recently, they moved my 2021 (4Q) cruise up by about 2 weeks and didn't let me know.  Fortunately, hotels were refundable and I hadn't booked flights yet (they are now booked).

Here's a link to a prior thread, MSC Comedy of errors.  Yes, I still like MSC, but the lack of service, lack of communication and screw-ups can be maddening.
MSC Comedy of Errors

[deliver42]

MSC is notorious for this. They never tell anyone about any changes to their booking. Just plain lousy customer service, or whatever you want to call it.

[crazyank]

10 hours ago, deliver42 said:

MSC is notorious for this. They never tell anyone about any changes to their booking. Just plain lousy customer service, or whatever you want to call it.

One more reason to avoid them like the proverbial plague.

[mickey89]

I contacted MSC prior to our YC booking a few years ago about their right to change cabin without consultation.  They responded saying they never change a Yacht Club cabin without the customers agreement, so we booked.  Alas true to form they change our sailing to another ship which didn't even have a yacht club and didn't tell us, we found out on Facebook.  When approached, not even an apology then refused to give a refund.  Our credit card company came to our rescue with the refund. 

 

More people should realise what a disgraceful company MSC have become and avoid like the plague.

[MotownVoice]

My goodness, all this MSC hate!  And complaining about cancellations that occurred during a global pandemic, no less!   Oh well.   It will work out for the rest of us by making just that much fewer people who complain about everything on board.  Who needs the negativity?

[crazyank]

16 hours ago, MotownVoice said:

My goodness, all this MSC hate!  And complaining about cancellations that occurred during a global pandemic, no less!   Oh well.   It will work out for the rest of us by making just that much fewer people who complain about everything on board.  Who needs the negativity?

Nope,  nobody is complaining about cancellations. The complaints (fully justified by the way) are about how MSC is handling the refunds etc.

[nanwel]

They should notify you. But, the cabin change might be because of using every other cabin due to Covid. That you can change if you are all family. But the date of the actual cruise??? What are they thinking... I realize that might too have been out of their control. 

But, they must notify people.

MSC will not make money this year, and will blame Covid - not their incompetency.

[drsel]

On 3/19/2021 at 3:08 AM, WorldTraveler151208 said:

I had a reservation for Msc Grandiosa for Easter departing on April 4th from Genoa.  Msc Cruises changed the cruise date to April 6th, which is already after Easter, and they did not even bother to inform me. I wouldn’t know anything but I accidentally noticed the incorrect, new date on a Facebook ad.  In addition, I booked two cabins on deck 16 for my family and I underlined  that they should be close to each other. Msc changed the cabin numbers and now we have one on deck 14 and the other one on deck 18.  I am furious and disappointed.  I know that they have the right to change the cabin number, although it is very annoying, but since when are they allowed to change the cruise date and not even inform you about it? 😡

Nevermind April 2021, I don't think there will be any cruise until August or September 2021

[shipgeeks]

1 hour ago, drsel said:

Nevermind April 2021, I don't think there will be any cruise until August or September 2021

??

I watched Grandiosa depart again a couple of hours ago, for this week's cruise.

[drsel]

20 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

??

I watched Grandiosa depart again a couple of hours ago, for this week's cruise.

I meant cruises which are open to the whole world, all nationalities

[Markanddonna]

MSC's website is frequently funky and their CSRs are always apologizing for it. "It will be fixed by early next week." is the equivalent of a computer repair guy saying "Try turning your computer off and then on."  

[drsel]

30 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

MSC's website is frequently funky and their CSRs are always apologizing for it. "It will be fixed by early next week." is the equivalent of a computer repair guy saying "Try turning your computer off and then on."  

No problem with the MSC USA website

[MotownVoice]

2 hours ago, Markanddonna said:

MSC's website is frequently funky and their CSRs are always apologizing for it. "It will be fixed by early next week." is the equivalent of a computer repair guy saying "Try turning your computer off and then on."  

In defense of IT people (of which I am not) ... I would say the following:

Notice that you said "the equivalent of a computer repair guy..." and then you followed with a generalization about what all computer repair guys say before they finally listen to you and solve your actual problem.  It's because you've dealt with computer repair guys, and smartphone customer service people, and over-seas troubleshooters.  You made the generalization based on your own empirical evidence.

Likewise, the reason IT people and Repair people jump to the conclusion that you might be someone who is just blowing by all the obvious things that could be wrong with your device, and engaging someone to help you solve your problem; the reason for him making that generalization is because he has dealt with morons who just stampede toward the 800 number before checking their power cord, or figuring out that even though they're pushing their TV power-on button the powerstrip is unplugged.  And they deal with people like that 4 times a day, day after day.

We all generalize based on our own gathered empirical evidence.

We should cut each other some slack.  Begin with the fact that it might actually be you, and you just haven't figure out the quirk that is making the website behave poorly.  Like you have an ad blocker that is prevent the website from going to the page after the login, or there are two methods for logging in to the MSC website, one using your email address, and one using your booking confirmation number.  And if your trip is too far off, you cannot log in using your email address until they've added your profile to a group of active passengers who can now book excursions and make last minute purchases and preparations.

Edited April 20, 2021 by MotownVoice