NCL customer service, not good!

[mlgb]

Someone who didn't want to pay  150 Euros for a doctor visit for their son, doesn't really need much sympathy in my book. 

[mlgb]

6 minutes ago, 4 cruisers said:

You know, until you have experienced this poster's experience, you should probably just stop.  Have you ever experienced finding medical care for a child in Greece?  

NCL is NOT good at communication.  That is a fact.  You can argue that, but many of us have experienced it first hand.  There are other cruise lines that are WAY more service oriented.  That is FACT.  You will say we should cruise elsewhere...we most likely will.  Your "Snarky" viewpoint is offensive.

Did you not read the part where the hotel offered a doctor's visit for 150 Euro which the poster declined? An x-ray and cast is really not advanced medical care. OP is looking to feel better about an unfortunate accident which is in no way NCL's fault, nor would I expect "customer service" to include continued phone follow ups "how are you doing"?

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by mlgb

[kdawg954]

Feel like folks are giving the OP a hard time.  Crap situation and I agree the OP made the wrong decision to board the ship prior to receiving medical treatment but I also can understand where the OP would feel safer/better seeking help with the cruise line vs. in a foreign country.

 

NCL could of been better at communicating, absolutely, but communication in general has went to ***** across the industry, heck industries outside of cruising.

 

Just be thankful you did have insurance.  No brainer when traveling that far but some people still roll the dice.  Hopefully you will be able to attempt that cruise another time.

[jennjess]

25 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

A little more involvement from the company?

 

How about your hotel? What involvement did they give you? Did they go to the hospital with you, sit with you, address all of your concerns?

How about the airline or train company that transported you from your home to the port? What involvement did they give you? Did they go to the hospital with you, sit with you, address all of your concerns?

 

I just am not quite understand why you feel that NCL owed you this level of care? And again...what about the luggage? Did you leave it onboard awaiting your return from treatment, or did you take it with you?

 

 

And as an aside...take it for what it is worth...but you've come here to throw shade at a company for "customer service not good". Now we hear that a family member was injured, you went to a medical facility, and when you saw that there was a long line, just figured "I'm not going through this...we can wait and use NCL's medical facilities instead". Not providing a family member medical care because it was busy...that is MY idea of "customer service not good". I think, given that you had a incident pre-boarding, the NCL met their obligation for care...just my two cents.

Not sure why you think it was wrong of us to make use of NCL's medical services when we paid for those services and we had every right to board the ship which we had also paid for. I trusted them far more than I did the first hospital I visited.  They atleast spoke a language I could communicate in easily which was not the case at the first hospital we visited.

[jkneern]

1 minute ago, 4 cruisers said:

You know, until you have experienced this poster's experience, you should probably just stop.  NCL is NOT good at communication.  That is a fact.  You can argue that, but many of us have experienced it first hand.  There are other cruise lines that are WAY more service oriented.  That is FACT.  You will say we should cruise elsewhere...we most likely will.  Your "Snarky" viewpoint is offensive.

^^^^^THIS^^^^ was just thinking the same!!! 

Some pretty rude comments made here.  

and yes, customer service by NCL is probably the worst in the industry!!!

 

[mlgb]

Well now you know that an onboard medical clinic is not a full-service clinic that is included in your cruise fare.  They charge extra, and exorbitantly, for everything. 

 

Still not understanding why you didn't use the doctor visit to the hotel. That is what most experienced travelers would have done in what was apparently not an emergency situation, given your delay in seeking service.

Edited May 22, 2022 by mlgb

[4 cruisers]

Just now, mlgb said:

Did you not read the part where the hotel offered a doctor's visit for 150 Euro? 

No I did not see that.

 My Mom in law broke her wrist on a cruise and had it set on board...granted this was years ago.  Best recovery and "fix!"

 I just remember when we ended up in ER in Venice the day before a Holland America cruise and I insisted we board in the morning and have an assessment by the ship's doctor instead of hospitalization in Venice....It was dehydration (very hot day in Venice plus, diabetic, etc). Every situation is obviously different.  

Many of us have been having issues with NCL's communication lately.  I think this is where I am looking at it from.

 

[4 cruisers]

8 hours ago, jennjess said:

We should have disembarked the Jade today but a week ago Saturday we arrived in Athens and my son fell and broke his wrist that night.  Not knowing if it was broken or not (it was painful) we boarded and went to the medical centre for an x-ray and it was deemed that he needed hospital treatment and we were disembarked after only an hour onboard and billed almost $400.  The port agent took us to a hospital and left.  One phone call from someone in the USA to ask how it was going, they never got back to us at all.  The hospital we were dropped at wanted 3000 euros up front to do the necessary operation (we already had confirmation from the insurance that the cost would be covered) so we left and went to a hotel for the night.  NCL had supposedly booked this room for us but they hadn't and we had to pay.

Next day we went to a different hospital organised by our travel/health insurer and he was admitted and had the operation on Tuesday with payment guaranteed by them.

He was released on Wednesday and we decided to try to get back onboard, but as everything seemed to go against us, after flying to the next port the ship couldn't dock due to bad weather and we were again stranded.

Decided that we should just go home from that point and took the first flight back home.

Anyway nobody from the ship has contacted us since day one and now I don't know if any of our pre-paid excursions, gratuities or free st sea drink packages will be refunded.

I think my travel insurance will cover most of the cruise cost eventually.  I found it very difficult to contact anyone at NCL for help or advice, my cell phone will not call 0800 numbers.

All in all not the fun filled relaxing holiday we had hoped for.

 

so, did you have NCL's trip insurance or private?

 

[jennjess]

Just now, mlgb said:

Well now you know that an onboard medical clinic is not a full-service clinic that is included in your cruise fare. 

 

Still not understanding why you didn't use the doctor visit to the hotel. That is what most experienced travelers would have done in what was apparently not an emergency situation, given your delay in seeking service.

I never expected the medical services to be included in my fare, and never said that, and knew I had to pay for it. The doctor would have been of no real use since he would just have referred him to a hospital for an x-ray which was what he needed.  I knew there was an x-ray machine onboard the ship.  That x-ray showed it was a fracture that needed an operation to repair.  I have no complaints about the medical services onboard just the quality of the followup by NCL.

[mjkacmom]

5 minutes ago, 4 cruisers said:

No I did not see that.

 My Mom in law broke her wrist on a cruise and had it set on board...granted this was years ago.  Best recovery and "fix!"

 I just remember when we ended up in ER in Venice the day before a Holland America cruise and I insisted we board in the morning and have an assessment by the ship's doctor instead of hospitalization in Venice....It was dehydration (very hot day in Venice plus, diabetic, etc). Every situation is obviously different.  

Many of us have been having issues with NCL's communication lately.  I think this is where I am looking at it from.

 

I just don’t see how it would be helpful for NCL to contact them again, and ask how he was doing.

[4 cruisers]

Just now, mjkacmom said:

I just don’t see how it would be helpful for NCL to contact them again, and ask how he was doing.

Well, weren't they trying to meet the cruise at the next port?  It's all just sad.  Some vacations do turn out like that!..Been there, done that.  I am just reflecting on other communication issues with NCL.

[jennjess]

4 minutes ago, 4 cruisers said:

so, did you have NCL's trip insurance or private?

 

I have private insurance, separate health and travel insurance.  I now have the task of deciding who covers which bits of the emergency and have a stack of papers that need to be sent to one or the other.

[jennjess]

4 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

I just don’t see how it would be helpful for NCL to contact them again, and ask how he was doing.

It would have been enormously comforting if nothing else to know someone cared about the situation we were in.  Since we had paid for their services I do feel they had some duty of care.

[kdawg954]

2 minutes ago, jennjess said:

It would have been enormously comforting if nothing else to know someone cared about the situation we were in.  Since we had paid for their services I do feel they had some duty of care.

 

Its a bigger issue in the broader scope of things.  Customer Service isn't what it used to be, anywhere, and people are now normalized to this and also now lack sympathy for people who expect it to be different.

 

Things didn't always used to be a business interaction in life, companies used to follow up in situations like this and most of these companies built their name and rep off their customer relations.

 

It really does suck, but its less of an NCL issue and more of a "way of life" issue.

[Trimone]

I thought a company the size of NCL would have had welfare officers, that followed all incidents associated with them, it’s call care.

[RD64]

Trimone

 

It is not an incident associated with them at all. It is an independent incident that occurred prior to embarkation. Does this mean that all passengers for all cruise lines should hold the cruise line accountable for any incident on the way to the ship? If your taxi / Uber were in an accident and you required medical care is it the cruise line’s responsibility?
 

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by RD64
Spelling

[julig22]

2 minutes ago, Trimone said:

I thought a company the size of NCL would have had welfare officers, that followed all incidents associated with them, it’s call care.

That would probably be true if the incident had happened on the ship.  But it didn't.  They don't call every passenger who doesn't show up for their cruise.  Yes, they boarded the ship but the reason they didn't complete the cruise had nothing to do with NCL.

[RD64]

39 minutes ago, jennjess said:

It would have been enormously comforting if nothing else to know someone cared about the situation we were in.  Since we had paid for their services I do feel they had some duty of care.

A duty of care for something that happened off the ship and you chose not to deal with it prior to getting on the ship?

[suometar]

42 minutes ago, jennjess said:

I never expected the medical services to be included in my fare, and never said that, and knew I had to pay for it. 

 

Interesting. In your post #29 you say in reply to someone else's post: "Not sure why you think it was wrong to make use of NCL's medical services when we paid for those services..."

 

But moving right along ... most of these posts deal with either how NCL should have/doesn't care for it's customers or types of insurance. My concern, as a parent is about the patient himself. Here is a child with a possible broken wrist and who is in pain. If this had happened to my child I would have found the nearest EMR. I would not have walked out because it was too crowded, go to a hotel for the night, embark, and expect NCL to provide medical services which you apparently thought were included in your fare. 

[WexIrl]

 

Regardless of how this thread goes in the debate.

Best of luck to the patient on a speedy recovery.

[jennjess]

2 minutes ago, suometar said:

 

Interesting. In your post #29 you say in reply to someone else's post: "Not sure why you think it was wrong to make use of NCL's medical services when we paid for those services..."

 

But moving right along ... most of these posts deal with either how NCL should have/doesn't care for it's customers or types of insurance. My concern, as a parent is about the patient himself. Here is a child with a possible broken wrist and who is in pain. If this had happened to my child I would have found the nearest EMR. I would not have walked out because it was too crowded, go to a hotel for the night, embark, and expect NCL to provide medical services which you apparently thought were included in your fare. 

He himself wanted to leave the hospital and maybe if you had been there you would have wanted to too.  It was 11.30 PM and very busy, many patients lying on trolleys in a very bad state of health in the corridors. He may not have been seen for many hours. As a parent you want the best care for your child surely and I trusted the NCL medical services more than this particular hospital.  He wasn't in terrible pain or we would have stayed and waited it out.  The hospital he eventually was treated in was very good of a standard you would expect in the USA or Western Europe.

I meant that I knew that NCL medical services would charge me but I felt more comfortable with their diagnosis than the first place we visited.

[The Shrike]

1 hour ago, 4 cruisers said:

You know, until you have experienced this poster's experience, you should probably just stop.  Have you ever experienced finding medical care for a child in Greece?  

NCL is NOT good at communication.  That is a fact.  You can argue that, but many of us have experienced it first hand.  There are other cruise lines that are WAY more service oriented.  That is FACT.  You will say we should cruise elsewhere...we most likely will.  Your "Snarky" viewpoint is offensive.

Offensive?  Wanting a company to cater to you because of something that occurred completely outside of their sphere of influence is offensive.
 

[jennjess]

4 minutes ago, WexIrl said:

 

Regardless of how this thread goes in the debate.

Best of luck to the patient on a speedy recovery.

Thank you and it's interesting that you are one of the only people to have said that.  He is doing fine just very irritated by being one armed for the time being.

[CruiseMH]

3 hours ago, jennjess said:

I did ask the hotel reception what we should do.  They said I could call a doctor to come to the hotel at a charge of 150 euros (who couldn't obviously make a photo) or go to the hospital.  The one they suggested we went to, but it was a public hospital and to be honest they were swamped with people already, who looked like they needed emergency help far more than we did.  At the time we didn't know it was a break it could just have been a sprain. So we left and decided it would be better to see the medical centre staff onboard.  You have to remember we were all in shock and in a strange country and very unsure where to go or what to do.

thats an important Info that was missing in your original posting: You have been to the reception and the local hospital before.

 

[YVRteacher]

14 minutes ago, jennjess said:

Thank you and it's interesting that you are one of the only people to have said that.  He is doing fine just very irritated by being one armed for the time being.

Perhaps if you had titled your thread “Our Experience with a Medical Incident Pre-Boarding” rather than coming on here and complaining about NCL you would have received more of the sympathy which you are seeking.