Poor Viking Customer Service - What is my next recourse?

[les37b]

On 1/20/2023 at 4:17 PM, longterm said:

We had a situation in 2020 that very nearly went as badly as the OP's unfortunately story.

 

We wanted to try a Viking ocean cruise, after enjoying a river cruise, but we'd never done any cruising, so I selected the shortest/cheapest cruise that Viking had, which was a 5-day trip into the Caribbean. Our departure date was February 2020.

 

The day before we were to leave, I got an email telling me that they'd oversold the cruise, and we were offered a choice of 2 or 3 alternate cruises, plus $1500, plus upgrade to a suite instead of a Veranda stateroom. Since Covid had yet to become catastrophic, and since we had a flexible schedule, and since it was such a good deal, I went for it. We were given an 11-day cruise (West Indies Explorer) in a junior penthouse, for December 2020.

 

Then Covid.

 

So our cruise was canceled; I called to find out when it would be rescheduled, and was told that we would get a credit for what we'd actually paid, not the value of the upgraded cruise.

 

I was not pleased. I explained that we'd deferred our trip, could have gone that February, but didn't because we were given such a good deal. I went through 3 reps on the phone, and got more irritated with each new and useless Viking rep.

 

Finally, the 3rd one mentioned that the "move-over" department handles these upgrade offers, and that I might get better help from them. She gave me an email address, I sent a plaintive email, got a quick response telling me that they would honor their deal for a future cruise, but I only got ONE shot at it--if the subsequent cruise didn't happen, all bets were off.

 

So I scheduled us to go in December 2021, hoping that it was far enough in the future that a 2nd Covid cancellation wouldn't happen. Luckily, we went on the cruise, enjoyed it immensely, got our suite (had already gotten the $1500), and I was restored to being a loyal Viking customer.

 

The lessons for me were these:

 

1. Keep an eagle eye on reservations; check on MVJ almost daily to make sure things are still as they should be. This includes excursions (we had one cancel in Venice last March, the day before).

 

2. Don't give up on getting resolution. Call as many times as it takes to get escalated to someone who actually knows something, because some of the phone reps are woefully short on reliable information or assistance.

 

3. Use a TA. We didn't have a TA for that cruise but we use one all the time now. Haven't had to use him for any heavy lifting, but you never know...

 

4. Keep every email, make notes on every phone conversation, get the name of the rep you speak to EVERY time and note it in your trip notes.

 

 

 

Glad you got things resolved eventually.

 

There is also unfortunately a further lesson to come of this in respect of FCC. Like you, I had a very similar experience with several time cancellations with a Silversea booking. They were adamant the amended booking I got when the US banned Cuba again (and covid cancelled) was irrelevant going forward and only offered me a refund of what Id paid for a 10 night Caribbean cruise, not the 15 night Panama replacement. I did eventually get it resolved, though lost my flight upgrades Id paid.

 

When it was cancelled a second time, I feared the worst. I fought my case and with the help of the Vice President, had the booking granted on a like for like basis. I was fearful it was going to happen again, but luckily we sailed - though my wife caught covid (god knows how - we were both very careful. She had zero symptoms and I never caught it thankfully!)

 

I had a similar situation with another booking we got bumped. It was a Tokyo to Seward sailing, which was cancelled and a year later became Osaka to Seward and 2 additional days added. It took a lot of persuading to let the FCC be used on the like for like sailing, but it was again. I had feared with Japan not opening, this may be lost again, though thankfully its looking good to sail in April.

 

What's clear here is the financial hit is making decisions of goodwill and customer car harder to receive. That's all lines. 

 

 

[longterm]

58 minutes ago, les37b said:

 

Glad you got things resolved eventually.

 

There is also unfortunately a further lesson to come of this in respect of FCC. Like you, I had a very similar experience with several time cancellations with a Silversea booking. They were adamant the amended booking I got when the US banned Cuba again (and covid cancelled) was irrelevant going forward and only offered me a refund of what Id paid for a 10 night Caribbean cruise, not the 15 night Panama replacement. I did eventually get it resolved, though lost my flight upgrades Id paid.

 

When it was cancelled a second time, I feared the worst. I fought my case and with the help of the Vice President, had the booking granted on a like for like basis. I was fearful it was going to happen again, but luckily we sailed - though my wife caught covid (god knows how - we were both very careful. She had zero symptoms and I never caught it thankfully!)

 

I had a similar situation with another booking we got bumped. It was a Tokyo to Seward sailing, which was cancelled and a year later became Osaka to Seward and 2 additional days added. It took a lot of persuading to let the FCC be used on the like for like sailing, but it was again. I had feared with Japan not opening, this may be lost again, though thankfully its looking good to sail in April.

 

What's clear here is the financial hit is making decisions of goodwill and customer car harder to receive. That's all lines. 

 

 

The smarter reps realize that when a company resolves things in a good manner, like what eventually happened with us and you, it pays in the long run when we tell others about it. After things resolved amicably, I was once more a Viking fan, and we've gone on more cruises and have 3 more booked in the future.