New website.

[JYDCruise]

4 hours ago, Riocca said:

TA should be able to call on the U.K. trade support team who can make things happen, new U.K. call centre is fine for simple things but they have only been with Azamara for approximately three months and refer anything unusual to Wichita who are snowed under.

We have recently had a nightmare of Azamara’s making with a booking that’s a little out of the ordinary. Although we’re direct bookers we still know some of the personnel from the old days and the situation was resolved quickly, these are the people travel agents should be using to resolve problems.

Even the top-line people at Azamara have been dropping the ball, though. When I finally got a call, weeks after an agreed and confirmed time with "CR", she mentioned that first-line customer support wasn't her usual job, typically she handled high-level escalations - things directly from Carol Cabezas's desk. While she was helpful during the call, there were a couple of unresolved items that she promised to take care of, with a "and if you don't hear from me by Wednesday at 10AM, please contact me at my direct email". Wednesday at 10AM came and went with nothing from CR, and I never got a response to multiple emails to her direct address. It's pretty damning when someone in her position is ghosting customers.

Edited July 28, 2023 by JYDCruise

[Mackdogmolly]

18 minutes ago, kent4489 said:

Yes, I have disgust for the TA who promised me in writing, OBC from her agency and now is refusing.)

If the promise is in writing, can you move it up the chain of command at her agency?

[Riocca]

14 minutes ago, JYDCruise said:

Even the top-line people at Azamara have been dropping the ball, though. When I finally got a call, weeks after an agreed and confirmed time with "CR", she mentioned that first-line customer support wasn't her usual job, typically she handled high-level escalations - things directly from Carol Cabezas's desk. While she was helpful during the call, there were a couple of unresolved items that she promised to take care of, with a "and if you don't hear from me by Wednesday at 10AM, please contact me at my direct email". Wednesday at 10AM came and went with nothing from CR, and I never got a response to multiple emails to her direct address. It's pretty damning when someone in her position is ghosting customers.

Currently there appears to be so many issues it’s “Whack a Mole” time and you do need to be persistent to get your problem to the top of the pile. 
Currently everything on our account & bookings, with the exception of OBC values, is correct just hoping it stays that way and that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

[kent4489]

16 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

If the promise is in writing, can you move it up the chain of command at her agency?

At this point, my husband and I have decided to wash our hands of her. This whole situation has been stressful and I've lost too much sleep over it. I just want to move on with the knowledge that I will never make that mistake again. We booked 63 nights in a Club Continent over the past year. I booked and turned it over to her. Her loss as we travel a lot. Until this mess with Azamara, she had to do nothing for our bookings.

[blag]

1 hour ago, kent4489 said:

made a mistake listening to this board about the glories of using a TA

As in life, not all TA's are good.

The trick is to find one that is good. Of course, this is not necessarily easy, and may be a matter of luck. In my experience, a relationship with a good TA has been extremely beneficial, and I feel totally confident that I am unlikely to face the problems that you are experiencing.

With Azamara's current problems I, for one, would certainly not deal direct with Azamara.

[kent4489]

1 hour ago, blag said:

As in life, not all TA's are good.

The trick is to find one that is good. Of course, this is not necessarily easy, and may be a matter of luck. In my experience, a relationship with a good TA has been extremely beneficial, and I feel totally confident that I am unlikely to face the problems that you are experiencing.

With Azamara's current problems I, for one, would certainly not deal direct with Azamara.

Yes, of course you are correct. But, this experience (and one in 2010 with a TA) has soured me. My husband absolutely would not let me use a TA again. Personally, I would love to deal direct with Azamara and get this corrected, which I feel I would have been able to do. 

[PirateWife]

I have stayed away from reading the comments on this topic for my own sanity. As I and my TA try to fix a problem with one booking, Azamara's solution is to combine it with another cruise booking--they are b2b--and charge me more, change the final payment day, and throw out half of the OBC. In someone's wisdom, rather than fix the problem with one cruise, they have entangled it with another cruise that was correct so that now I have two cruise bookings that are wrong.

[MamaFej]

52 minutes ago, blag said:

As in life, not all TA's are good.

The trick is to find one that is good. Of course, this is not necessarily easy, and may be a matter of luck. In my experience, a relationship with a good TA has been extremely beneficial, and I feel totally confident that I am unlikely to face the problems that you are experiencing.

With Azamara's current problems I, for one, would certainly not deal direct with Azamara.

This is so true in my experience. 

 

My post in this thread #1971 is just the latest (and strongest) example of why an excellent TA is invaluable. It is sheer, dumb luck that I have him. I went to high school with his sister, he was two years behind us, along with my brother. We have become very dear friends, and have traveled together on 4 continents so far, with a fifth booked next year and a sixth booked together in 2025. 

 

However, I have seen how awesome he is to people without our personal connection. During the early months of the pandemic, he and his wife came to our back yard every day so she could swim laps in our pool for exercise. He was on the phone nearly the whole time every day, getting dozens of people home, and losing lots of money in commissions in the process. He even spent a couple of weeks working on getting a 16 year old kid and his racing bicycle home from Europe to New Zealand, via two continents and countless volumes of red tape. The kid was not his client, just someone in need of help. The kid's parents were friends of a client. 

 

I wish everyone could have someone as awesome as my TA in their corner. 

 

 

[nonrev1]

In some cases I think no matter how good your agent is, Azamara is just so messed up they are making it impossibleq for agents to do their jobs. I have two completely separate issues going on with two different cruises.  One cruise that we are trying to cancel has been a 4 month saga.  My othe cruise we are leaving on next week.  We have had no communication from Azamara.  An email would be nice telling us about check in times etc. ( no, my agent did not receive, either). I signed in the other day to see if everything was ok with my tours, OBC etc…..and to my surprise, everything was gone and in its place I had a new loyalty number, no upcoming cruises and no points.  Imagine my surprise.  So I called Azamara to find out what happened and to also find out where my credit card credit was for a tour that i canceled.  I had a wonderful agent …but her hands are tied and limited by the capabilities of the booking system.  She said she saw where I called several times inquiring about the credit but it was never processed.  As far as my new number, she was not sure why I received a new one.  She was able to pull up my original number….the loyalty points after sending in many “forms” are still incorrect.  Plus, my points from my April 3 cruise have never been added.  They don’t show anywhere…almost like it never happened. She is putting through a form for immediate attention.   I am sure it will get fixed but most likely not in time to book the free nights I’m eligible for while I’m on the ship.  I am kind of over Azamara now.  In my eyes, this tarnished them.  

[Toronto Guy]

If I had a dollar for every time an Azamara agent was convinced my OBC problem was solved, I could have already paid for my next cruise.  It just goes on and on and on and on.  Another 2.5 hours on the phone with them yesterday, they promised it was fixed.  Then I got 3 automated emails....all with different OBC amounts.  There's just no end to this mess.  How are they possibly profitable at this rate?  I'm now getting worried that they are going to leave me stranded mid-cruise in a bankruptcy situation.

 

[kent4489]

4 hours ago, Toronto Guy said:

If I had a dollar for every time an Azamara agent was convinced my OBC problem was solved, I could have already paid for my next cruise.  It just goes on and on and on and on.  Another 2.5 hours on the phone with them yesterday, they promised it was fixed.  Then I got 3 automated emails....all with different OBC amounts.  There's just no end to this mess.  How are they possibly profitable at this rate?  I'm now getting worried that they are going to leave me stranded mid-cruise in a bankruptcy situation.

 

I am not to that point yet, but this mess has gone on too long. In one day, between my (useless) TA and Azamara, I was quoted 3 different amounts of OBC. Just yesterday, Azamara (finally) sent me paperwork showing actual $ amount of OBC. Of course, it is incorrect. Only short by $100 so at this point I am through arguing. At least I now have paperwork to take with me. 

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, kent4489 said:

I am not to that point yet, but this mess has gone on too long. In one day, between my (useless) TA and Azamara, I was quoted 3 different amounts of OBC. Just yesterday, Azamara (finally) sent me paperwork showing actual $ amount of OBC. Of course, it is incorrect. Only short by $100 so at this point I am through arguing. At least I now have paperwork to take with me. 

Interestingly my TA rang Azamara yesterday to add an Experience More package to our Feb 24 cruise. She also asked why she hadn’t been sent any sort of invoice, as previously. The agent she spoke to said they no longer automatically send out invoices, but agreed to send one, which she has now forwarded to me. Thankfully it has all the right information on it - OBC and Experience More package.

[uktog]

14 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Interestingly my TA rang Azamara yesterday to add an Experience More package to our Feb 24 cruise. She also asked why she hadn’t been sent any sort of invoice, as previously. The agent she spoke to said they no longer automatically send out invoices, but agreed to send one, which she has now forwarded to me. Thankfully it has all the right information on it - OBC and Experience More package.

Isn’t this the sort of information that the travel agent should have already eg we’ve changed the process here’s how we do things now. No wonder some agents are beyond frustrated 

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, uktog said:

Isn’t this the sort of information that the travel agent should have already eg we’ve changed the process here’s how we do things now. No wonder some agents are beyond frustrated 

Probably

 

[john1970]

If invoices aren't automatically issued how would any discrepancy be picked up? That seems dangerous. My agent always inserts the invoice into their own bespoke documentation. I always take a printed copy with me

[Riocca]

Can only say that for direct bookings confirmations have still been sent while I’m on the phone to Azamara.

I thought from previous posts on CC that travel agents have access to their own system and could print details themselves. Maybe this is not available in all countries.

[Grandma Cruising]

14 minutes ago, Riocca said:

Can only say that for direct bookings confirmations have still been sent while I’m on the phone to Azamara.

I thought from previous posts on CC that travel agents have access to their own system and could print details themselves. Maybe this is not available in all countries.

Yes they have access to a TA booking site, but the invoice wasn’t on there as a document.. She had to ask them to email the document to her.

[babykay]

Let me give everyone a word of caution.  I just returned from a beautiful Azamara cruise but ran into a massive problem.  I had booked a couple shore excursions and brought the Azamara receipts with me.  When the excursion tickets didn't arrive at my stateroom, I went to the ShoreEx desk.  They asked me for proof that I had actually paid for it.  I told them that I had the confirmation from Azamara.  That wasn't enough - they wanted bank records.  Seriously - they wanted me to show them my bank entry that showed I paid for it.  Exactly not what I wanted to do or worry about on the first day of my vacation.  

[JaneStarr]

42 minutes ago, babykay said:

Let me give everyone a word of caution.  I just returned from a beautiful Azamara cruise but ran into a massive problem.  I had booked a couple shore excursions and brought the Azamara receipts with me.  When the excursion tickets didn't arrive at my stateroom, I went to the ShoreEx desk.  They asked me for proof that I had actually paid for it.  I told them that I had the confirmation from Azamara.  That wasn't enough - they wanted bank records.  Seriously - they wanted me to show them my bank entry that showed I paid for it.  Exactly not what I wanted to do or worry about on the first day of my vacation.  

Yikes! How was this resolved?

[babykay]

I had to look up my banking information then I was given the shore excursion tickets.  Without any kind of apology.  They acted like it was my fault. 

[uktog]

1 minute ago, babykay said:

I had to look up my banking information then I was given the shore excursion tickets.  Without any kind of apology.  They acted like it was my fault. 

That’s so wrong- which ship?

[babykay]

Persuit to Scotland.  Everyone else was fantastic.  The entertainment was not great, however. 

[Toronto Guy]

I found the shore ex team on the onward in January was similarly poor.  Could have cared less about the quality of their tours or client satisfaction.  Re: entertainment, I've said it before....but my local high school puts better entertainment on stage.  Such a shame.

[uktog]

19 minutes ago, Toronto Guy said:

I found the shore ex team on the onward in January was similarly poor.  Could have cared less about the quality of their tours or client satisfaction.  Re: entertainment, I've said it before....but my local high school puts better entertainment on stage.  Such a shame.

Likewise our experience onboard there - didn't want to hear any feedback - not looking for a refund just wanted future experiences to be better than ours but all we had was the defensive stonewall

[JaneStarr]

6 hours ago, babykay said:

I had to look up my banking information then I was given the shore excursion tickets.  Without any kind of apology.  They acted like it was my fault. 

Unacceptable!