What's the record for being on hold

[geoherb]

I wonder what the record for being on hold with Princess is? I certainly tired of the Princess hold music today. I started my calls at 9:24 in the morning and finished at 6:30 tonight. My longest wait time between representatives was 2 hours. The eighth one of them put me on hold to check on something. Thirty minutes later I started hearing the "all reps are busy helping other customers and to remain on the line for the next available rep" message. I realized he had dropped the call. The ninth rep finally got around to resolving my booking problem, more nine hours after I started. My total time talking to reps and on hold was nearly the whole time.

[cr8tiv1]

I think you win the prize.  I have been disconnected, transferred, on hold for hours at a time.  Thank goodness for wireless ear pods that allowed me to room around and go to the bathroom. 

 

Congratulations.  Glad you were able to get your issue resolved without having to call back another day.  It shouldn't be this difficult to get on a cruise.

[Mud_Shark]

I certainly hope no one can top that!

[generichandle]

I had 2 tries of 2 1/2 hrs each where I just gave up. Then I found the 'live chat', and 3 tries and 10 minutes got me $1,000+ savings and a couple other tweaks! Tank God, since my PCP [whatever] has NEVER contacted me in many tries. She is Gone, as far as I am concerned. 

[geoherb]

2 minutes ago, generichandle said:

I had 2 tries of 2 1/2 hrs each where I just gave up. Then I found the 'live chat', and 3 tries and 10 minutes got me $1,000+ savings and a couple other tweaks! Tank God, since my PCP [whatever] has NEVER contacted me in many tries. She is Gone, as far as I am concerned. 

 

I tried the live chat and never got through today. The last time I did (before this booking), the rep was useless. She just told me to call the toll-free number. I'm glad it works for some people. I may need to use it one day.

[generichandle]

4 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

I tried the live chat and never got through today. The last time I did (before this booking), the rep was useless. She just told me to call the toll-free number. I'm glad it works for some people. I may need to use it one day.

I called very early in the morning [9:20 EST, or 6:20 PST], and on the third try 'voila'! Good luck

[pris993]

I got thru in 1.5 hours to track medallion... worked!  I read cruise critic boards while waiting.

[Lucky TGO]

2 hours ago, geoherb said:

I wonder what the record for being on hold with Princess is? I certainly tired of the Princess hold music today. I started my calls at 9:24 in the morning and finished at 6:30 tonight. My longest wait time between representatives was 2 hours. The eighth one of them put me on hold to check on something. Thirty minutes later I started hearing the "all reps are busy helping other customers and to remain on the line for the next available rep" message. I realized he had dropped the call. The ninth rep finally got around to resolving my booking problem, more nine hours after I started. My total time talking to reps and on hold was nearly the whole time.

That’s SICK!! If that happened to me it would be my last cruise with Princess.

Tony

[Level six]

3 1/2 hours on hold.  I kept wanting to hang up, but thought, they will probably answer any minute, haha.  Then they messed up my reservation and I got it fixed on chat the next day.......it's bad. 

[caribill]

3 hours ago, Lucky TGO said:

That’s SICK!! If that happened to me it would be my last cruise with Princess.

Tony

 

No doubt they are losing bookings from people who are tired of long waits in order to do business with Princess.

[MissP22]

Even my TA has to go through extreme waits to get through. She told me that she can spend up to 2 hours if she tries calling before they open & even longer during their business day.

I can't see how she can stay in business. 

[clarky213]

Must be a US problem as I have phoned the UK number 5 times since beginning of January and got through within 3-4 minutes every time.

 

On the first call I actually connected to the US office.

 

Must be the only advantage for us here in UK😁

Edited January 21, 2022 by clarky213

[pms4104]

Nine hours, seriously?

 

There are very few issues thst would keep me on hold that long, and cruising isn't one of them.

[geoherb]

8 hours ago, Lucky TGO said:

That’s SICK!! If that happened to me it would be my last cruise with Princess.

Tony

 

I thought the same thing several times as I was waiting. If the fifth rep had not messed up by canceling my original booking, I may have given up. The problem then became that she moved me into the new booking but without Princess Plus.

A brief history: I booked the cruise the night before. It leaves February 5. I booked a solo inside cabin at a great price. Yesterday, though, I noticed balcony cabins had come down overnight and were now the same price and Princess Plus was available at $40 a day. (When I booked, it was more than $90 a day.) The first rep said she could not get it to work, but that she would transfer me to customer service. She transferred me to a dead line.

 

The second rep said she saw an even better price than I did for switching over to a balcony and adding Princess Plus. She said she would be able to change it in my booking. But after she sent me confirmation of the change, she noticed that Princess Plus was not showing up. She transferred me to customer service.

 

The third rep said she was not seeing the price I saw on the website. She said that if it was a glitch, I would not be able to complete the booking. She suggested trying to complete it online and calling back. I was able to do that and place it as a courtesy hold. She said she was able to give me a goodwill credit for the problem I had on my December cruise. 

 

The fourth rep could see both my original booking and the courtesy hold. She was not able to get the new pricing to work on the original booking. She said she would transfer me back to customer service. That was the longest hold time--2 hours. I gave up because that phone was dying.

 

The fifth rep was very earnest at trying to resolve it, but she did the most damage. She canceled the original booking without telling me the consequences of doing so (getting a partial refund to my credit card and the remainder as a future cruise credit). But after doing that, she could not get the booking for the courtesy hold to work. She transferred me to customer service.

 

The sixth rep explained what the fifth rep had done and why I would have to pay in full for the new booking. I made the payment with her. She mistakenly applied two future cruise deposits to my booking, but I'll buy more next month. But when I checked the travel summary, the Princess Plus was not showing up.

 

The seventh rep commiserated with what I had been through and tried various booking codes to fix it. She couldn't. She transferred me back to customer service.

 

The eighth rep sounded great. He originally asked if I was a travel agent or the passenger. I thought I had finally broken through. But he's the one who placed me on hold, supposedly for a few minutes, and then dropped me back into waiting for someone else to pick up the line an hour later.

 

The ninth rep fixed also asked if I was a TA or the passenger. He fixed the problem. I can now see the Princess Plus perks on my travel summary. 

 

The good news is that I got my balcony and Princess Plus and I'll be leaving for Fort Lauderdale in two weeks. But if I had not sailed on Princess before, I would have been tempted to look at other cruise lines that fit my flights or ones into changing my flights to fit them.

 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by geoherb

[JF - retired RRT]

14 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

I thought the same thing several times as I was waiting. If the fifth rep had not messed up by canceling my original booking, I may have given up. The problem then became that she moved me into the new booking but without Princess Plus.

A brief history: I booked the cruise the night before. It leaves February 5. I booked a solo inside cabin at a great price. Yesterday, though, I noticed balcony cabins had come down overnight and were now the same price and Princess Plus was available at $40 a day. (When I booked, it was more than $90 a day.) The first rep said she could not get it to work, but that she would transfer me to customer service. She transferred me to a dead line.

 

The second rep said she saw an even better price than I did for switching over to a balcony and adding Princess Plus. She said she would be able to change it in my booking. But after she sent me confirmation of the change, she noticed that Princess Plus was not showing up. She transferred me to customer service.

 

The third rep said she was not seeing the price I saw on the website. She said that if it was a glitch, I would not be able to complete the booking. She suggested trying to complete it online and calling back. I was able to do that and place it as a courtesy hold. She said she was able to give me a goodwill credit for the problem I had on my December cruise. 

 

The fourth rep could see both my original booking and the courtesy hold. She was not able to get the new pricing to work on the original booking. She said she would transfer me back to customer service. That was the longest hold time--2 hours. I gave up because that phone was dying.

 

The fifth rep was very earnest at trying to resolve it, but she did the most damage. She canceled the original booking without telling me the consequences of doing so (getting a partial refund to my credit card and the remainder as a future cruise credit). But after doing that, she could not get the booking for the courtesy hold to work. She transferred me to customer service.

 

The sixth rep explained what the fifth rep had done and why I would have to pay in full for the new booking. I made the payment with her. She mistakenly applied two future cruise deposits to my booking, but I'll buy more next month. But when I checked the travel summary, the Princess Plus was not showing up.

 

The seventh rep commiserated with what I had been through and tried various booking codes to fix it. She couldn't. She transferred me back to customer service.

 

The eighth rep sounded great. He originally asked if I was a travel agent or the passenger. I thought I had finally broken through. But he's the one who placed me on hold, supposedly for a few minutes, and then dropped me back into waiting for someone else to pick up the line an hour later.

 

The ninth rep fixed also asked if I was a TA or the passenger. He fixed the problem. I can now see the Princess Plus perks on my travel summary. 

 

The good news is that I got my balcony and Princess Plus and I'll be leaving for Fort Lauderdale in two weeks. But if I had not sailed on Princess before, I would have been tempted to look at other cruise lines that fit my flights or ones into changing my flights to fit them.

 

 

Did you get names/times? Maybe, a letter to the powers that be with all the details. They need to know how bad it is.

[geoherb]

21 minutes ago, pms4104 said:

Nine hours, seriously?

 

There are very few issues thst would keep me on hold that long, and cruising isn't one of them.

 

It was a total of nine hours. My longest conversation with a rep lasted about half an hour, including various short holds. I did manage to get in my 10,000 steps while waiting on hold. I played bridge online, cooked lunch, took care of some drying pots (I'm a potter), and made pasta for dinner (homemade pappardelle with lobster and shrimp sauce). I kept thinking someone would probably pick up whenever I was brushing my teeth or when I flushed, but that never happened.

 

Overall, I was frustrated at the inability of the reps to fix what seemed like a simple thing (and the one who did fix it made it sound very simple). I was pleased at the courtesy and earnestness of most of the reps, disappointed in a couple of them, and indifferent about a couple of others.

[geoherb]

2 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Did you get names/times? Maybe, a letter to the powers that be with all the details. They need to know how bad it is.

 

My list of the experiences above is condensed from the notes I started making after the third rep. I don't have all of the names but do have a few. I saved the nine emails with changes. I don't know if Princess could track down who did what to my bookings.

[loge23]

We finally got through this AM after an approximately 1 hour wait. We tried last night and it was virtually impossible to get through.

The reason for this, at this time, is that Princess has made numerous changes to existing itineraries - including flight selections, room selections, and routes this week.

As for ourselves, we were visited upon by not the mythical "Upgrade Fairy", but by her evil sister, the "Downgrade Ogre".

We had an extended balcony mini-suite on the Caribe deck that we picked out months ago and fully paid for, turn into a regular-sized balcony mini-suite on the 14th deck. I know - first world problems - but we never have experienced anything like this before. Of course, COVID changed everything. We were told that this was due to setting aside rooms for isolating stricken passengers. What?? Is Princess anticipating that we will contagious, infected passengers onboard?!

The rep offered us a Club Class mini-suite for an approximate $600 upgrade - obviously unacceptable; for what, a dedicated dining area??!

Then, on another trip, we lost our preferred transatlantic flight. That may not be Princess's fault but the hits keep coming. Thus, jammed phone lines. It's becoming simply too much of a hassle to deal with.

 

 

[CineGraphic]

27 minutes ago, loge23 said:

What?? Is Princess anticipating that we will contagious, infected passengers onboard?!

 

Yes, they take a huge chunk of at least one deck for use as isolation cabins for both passengers and new crew members.

This is why Princess is still able to sail while other lines are cancelling.

[CineGraphic]

If we gave a prize for this, what would we call it?

 

The Janny?

[geoherb]

3 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Did you get names/times? Maybe, a letter to the powers that be with all the details. They need to know how bad it is.

 

Do you have a suggestion to whom to send such a letter? 

[geoherb]

57 minutes ago, loge23 said:

We had an extended balcony mini-suite on the Caribe deck that we picked out months ago and fully paid for, turn into a regular-sized balcony mini-suite on the 14th deck. I know - first world problems - but we never have experienced anything like this before.

 

 

Did you get a satisfactory answer eventually? 

[JF - retired RRT]

35 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

Do you have a suggestion to whom to send such a letter? 

Somewhere on here there's an email for "customer relations" (or similar). Never done it, so not sure what the correct term is.

[HBCcruiser]

15 hours ago, generichandle said:

Then I found the 'live chat',

Is that still a thing? I think they disconnected it because it is no longer showing up for me.🤷‍♀️

I have been on hold 2x second time going over an hour. I am trying to book (online) an excursion to replace one that they just cancelled for our April Hawaii cruise, but the website is not allowing me. After calling the Excursion Booking line, I was able to talk to a rep, but she could not fix the problem either. She put me on a "short" hold t transfer me to someone who could assist with the issue. Well, after over an hour on hold listing to that crappy musaaak,  I hung up. Done. I'll book my excursions through Viator. Princess really needs to have a better way to solve issues/communicate. 

[waterbabyfish]

14 hours ago, Lucky TGO said:

That’s SICK!! If that happened to me it would be my last cruise with Princess.

Tony

All the cruise lines are like that now, just talked to my TA he told me that.