NCL customer service, not good!

[jennjess]

7 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

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

 

Yes the accident happened on the way back to the hotel for the night about 9.00 PM.  The first thing I did was ask the advice of the reception.  It was either the doctor or the public hospital.  There didn't seem much point in the doctor since he obviously needed a photo made which couldn't be done by a visiting doctor. There are 2 kinds of hospital in Greece public or private.  The public one is free, the private are not. The public hospital did not seem the best option for his care.

It was better to visit the medical service onboard as we would be there next day anyway.

[suometar]

14 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

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.

 

Thank you, YVRteacher. I was also quite bothered by all the NCL bashing when I thought that the first concern should be the health of the child.

[SeaShark]

2 hours ago, jennjess said:

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.

 

I never said it was "wrong" for you to use NCL's medical facility. If you really think I did, could you quote where I said that?

 

What I DO think is "wrong" is for you to purposely delay medical care, then when you do get it, expect NCL to call you, contact you, follow up with you, because, you know "feelz". The point was, nobody else followed up, yet somehow NCL is "customer service not good" (and they had someone phone you from the states to check on you).

[suometar]

Moving on to a slightly different topic: the OP apparently believed that she would get better care at the NCL medical center than at a land based facility. But it is important to point out that the ship's medical center is not a hospital. but more like an urgent care center. That is the reason why patients with serious conditions are either airlifted or sent to local hospitals at ports. (on one of our 7 day cruises there were five medical emergencies on board.) 

On our last pre-pandemic cruise my husband had a medical issue and went to the medical center on Saturday morning, the last day of the cruise. I won't bore you with the details but they kept him overnight and had an ambulance ready to take him to the  nearest hospital upon debarkation. (We were lucky that the debarkation port was New York, our home town.) NCL billed us almost $6000 for their services. (I found it interesting that the single biggest itemized charge was a consultation with the Cleveland Clinic.)

[billslowsky]

3 hours 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.

By all means, share with us your personal experiences getting medical care for an injury in Greece.

[SeaShark]

24 minutes ago, billslowsky said:

By all means, share with us your personal experiences getting medical care for an injury in Greece.

 

I know, right?

 

Sometimes I think people forget that this is a discussion forum where people are free to share their opinions...good, bad, and ugly. Instead, it sometimes seems like some people think this is supposed to be some sort of support group.

[suometar]

2 hours ago, billslowsky said:

By all means, share with us your personal experiences getting medical care for an injury in Greece.

 

Sorry, but why do you think that NCL is responsible for getting medical care for an injury in Greece?

[ShakeDaddy]

Poor child had a broken wrist without any pain meds for how many hours?   

[RD64]

4 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

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.

Agreed - sorry but no sympathy at all..

[RD64]

Also - still waiting to find out what happened with your luggage. Was it on the ship when it left without you? And question of all questions, did you have adequate travel insurance that would have paid for the 150 Euro fee that you didn’t wish to pay?

[Cruisercl]

Hi OP,

First let me express my sympathy for the whole situation your family experienced. Very disappointing to have a vacation end up like this.

I do have a question; who do you believe should have called you? The only department you had contact with really was the medical service which is an urgent/ER care situation. Here in the US they do not do any type of follow up calls. They refer you to your own physician when discharged from their care.

Secondly, when you left the ship, I believe NCL considered you disembarked and no longer a passenger on that  cruise. There may have been laws involved to not let you back on. So your contract with NCL had ended.

IMO, NCL did what they could for your family in your medical needs etc., the rest was your own decisions you made. You said they did make a call to you, how many calls did you expect?

I hope you get your answers but IMO, going by what you said, what you are looking for is questions about getting refunds (which I get). 

Take care.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Cruisercl

[casofilia]

@jennjess

 

SKYPE to USA 1 800 # is FREE.   (That is true for any US Toll Free Number)   We "regularly" call that way.

[mlgb]

12 hours 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. 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.

I would have expected the doctor, likely accustomed to dealing with tourists with urgent care needs, to refer you to the right type of private facility for an x-ray, and to provide temporary first aid. No sympathy for someone with insurance who claims to be an experienced traveler but decides to go to a public hospital and then is surprised by long lines and staff who do not cater to tourists with means.

[argyll1881]

9 hours ago, suometar said:

Moving on to a slightly different topic: the OP apparently believed that she would get better care at the NCL medical center than at a land based facility. But it is important to point out that the ship's medical center is not a hospital. but more like an urgent care center. That is the reason why patients with serious conditions are either airlifted or sent to local hospitals at ports. (on one of our 7 day cruises there were five medical emergencies on board.) 

On our last pre-pandemic cruise my husband had a medical issue and went to the medical center on Saturday morning, the last day of the cruise. I won't bore you with the details but they kept him overnight and had an ambulance ready to take him to the  nearest hospital upon debarkation. (We were lucky that the debarkation port was New York, our home town.) NCL billed us almost $6000 for their services. (I found it interesting that the single biggest itemized charge was a consultation with the Cleveland Clinic.)

$6000 ???   That's crazy.

[jennjess]

6 hours ago, ShakeDaddy said:

Poor child had a broken wrist without any pain meds for how many hours?   

I had pain meds with me, I always carry a supply of basic drugs I think might be needed.  He had them plus the hotel organised ice for him to bring any swelling down. 

[jennjess]

3 minutes ago, argyll1881 said:

$6000 ???   That's crazy.

I think in the UK people have little idea of what medical procedures cost due to the NHS.  Here we have semi private health care and the costs are pretty high but US prices are the highest of all.

[argyll1881]

Just now, jennjess said:

I think in the UK people have little idea of what medical procedures cost due to the NHS.  Here we have semi private health care and the costs are pretty high but US prices are the highest of all.

I get that for surgeries and the like but I can't see what NCL did that justifies the $6000 in this case.

[jennjess]

8 minutes ago, mlgb said:

I would have expected the doctor, likely accustomed to dealing with tourists with urgent care needs, to refer you to the right type of private facility for an x-ray, and to provide temporary first aid. No sympathy for someone with insurance who claims to be an experienced traveler but decides to go to a public hospital and then is surprised by long lines and staff who do not cater to tourists with means.

The doctor would not have been able to anticipate what my health care insurance would consider appropriate care.  All I needed at that point was an xray and diagnosis.

 

 

 

 

 

[jennjess]

2 minutes ago, argyll1881 said:

I get that for surgeries and the like but I can't see what NCL did that justifies the $6000 in this case.

Medical evacuations I imagine are not cheap!

[jennjess]

13 minutes ago, mlgb said:

I would have expected the doctor, likely accustomed to dealing with tourists with urgent care needs, to refer you to the right type of private facility for an x-ray, and to provide temporary first aid. No sympathy for someone with insurance who claims to be an experienced traveler but decides to go to a public hospital and then is surprised by long lines and staff who do not cater to tourists with means.

If you were in a foreign country would you know where to go in the middle of a traumatic experience. 

[jennjess]

6 hours ago, Cruisercl said:

Hi OP,

First let me express my sympathy for the whole situation your family experienced. Very disappointing to have a vacation end up like this.

I do have a question; who do you believe should have called you? The only department you had contact with really was the medical service which is an urgent/ER care situation. Here in the US they do not do any type of follow up calls. They refer you to your own physician when discharged from their care.

Secondly, when you left the ship, I believe NCL considered you disembarked and no longer a passenger on that  cruise. There may have been laws involved to not let you back on. So your contract with NCL had ended.

IMO, NCL did what they could for your family in your medical needs etc., the rest was your own decisions you made. You said they did make a call to you, how many calls did you expect?

I hope you get your answers but IMO, going by what you said, what you are looking for is questions about getting refunds (which I get). 

Take care.

NCL could have called and asked how it was going, could they be of any assistance, told me the additional items I had booked and paid for would be reimbursed and how we could rejoin the cruise at a later port.  But they didn't, it was out of sight, out of mind.

[mlgb]

3 hours ago, jennjess said:

If you were in a foreign country would you know where to go in the middle of a traumatic experience. 

I would have known to use the hotel doctor for an appropriate referral (and maybe they would have been able to tell it wasn't just a sprain without an x-ray). Did you call the travel  insurance 24-hour hotline, assuming you had travel  insurance which includes that? Unless it was life or death I would never just show up at a public hospital and especially with no knowledge of the spoken language.

[billslowsky]

3 hours ago, jennjess said:

If you were in a foreign country would you know where to go in the middle of a traumatic experience. 

"The port agent took us to a hospital and left."

 

That's a pretty good hint.

[mjkacmom]

4 hours ago, argyll1881 said:

I get that for surgeries and the like but I can't see what NCL did that justifies the $6000 in this case.

You obviously haven’t seen hospital bills in the US, my daughter was in a car accident and was taken to the hospital because her car was totaled and the air bag deployed, discharged with bruises in under an hour, $10,000+.

[argyll1881]

6 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

You obviously haven’t seen hospital bills in the US, my daughter was in a car accident and was taken to the hospital because her car was totaled and the air bag deployed, discharged with bruises in under an hour, $10,000+.

That's insane !  I retract all of my complaints over the years about the National Health Service.....