Has Holland America offshored its personal cruise consultants?

[asebastian]

Agree with the comments above on the new sales consultants lack of knowledge. Just booked a 2025 Mediterranean cruise with the early bonus HIA+ with my TA, and she had a lot of issues speaking to the consultant, even having to explain which side of the ship was Port and Aft (where I wanted our cabin)!

[dockman]

9 hours ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

 

And it will all work as smoothly as HAL's website.  Guffaw.

 

Doubt it will be perfect but seems current system is not exactly perfect either by looking at number of people complaining about calling and getting incompetent or poorly trained humans.

[nannygoatjunction]

On 10/6/2023 at 5:48 AM, hobo1937 said:

Hopefully they won’t have the situation like at Princess, where they are either working from home or the call center is on a farm, as you can hear dogs, cows and children in the background.

We have very limited reception on our farm, thus I usually call from a paddock. I often wonder what they think because the moment I park up there is a cacophony from various animals, mooing, bleating, baaaing, woofing et al as they think it's feed time. 😁

[DaveOKC]

We all need to complain to HAL about this new "idea" of offshoring the PCC call center.  Stop it now before it is too late.  My experience was terrible - being outright lied to.

 

[Duane S.]

Add me to the list of frustrated callers, I have a PCC but they NEVER return calls or emails?  

So basically the pcc is worthless for me.

 

I have had to make several calls to HAL, which related in great frustration trying to get answers, one person could BARELy speak English others were not knowledgeable or could not provide info. 

I have finally developed a routine of calling, if the person who answers does not speak English in a tangible manner, I simply hang up and try again until I find someone who can actually communicate. I know this sounds rude but which is worse very poor customer service or me not wasting their time and mine going around in circles?

 

Call centers are cheap labor and unfortunately there are so many people traveling and cruising nowadays that the companies have absolutely NO reason to improve or even care, they are making money and that quite frankly is all that matters to them.

 

If I ever find a good TA I will use them exclusively, but alas that has not happened yet, it does not help that I am in a small town so my choices are very limited.  

 

Is Viking any better?

[ontheweb]

16 minutes ago, Duane S. said:

 

Call centers are cheap labor and unfortunately there are so many people traveling and cruising nowadays that the companies have absolutely NO reason to improve or even care, they are making money and that quite frankly is all that matters to them.

 

If I ever find a good TA I will use them exclusively, but alas that has not happened yet, it does not help that I am in a small town so my choices are very limited.  

 

 

You are not limited to mortar and brick TAs in your hometown. There are plenty of TAs online. I know  we have a good one (though the rules do not allow me to name him or his firm.)

 

Wishing you good luck finding one that you will be happy with.

[Duane S.]

28 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

You are not limited to mortar and brick TAs in your hometown. There are plenty of TAs online. I know  we have a good one (though the rules do not allow me to name him or his firm.)

 

Wishing you good luck finding one that you will be happy with.

very true and I do realize that but that's just as difficult as finding one locally. Being a TA is probably a tough gig and few people want to deal with it.

 

[ontheweb]

56 minutes ago, Duane S. said:

very true and I do realize that but that's just as difficult as finding one locally. Being a TA is probably a tough gig and few people want to deal with it.

 

No way you will find one if you do not try! They really are out there.

 

I'm sure Covid put some of them out of business. I know mine once told me if he had known how bad it was going to get, he would have got out of the business. As it was he basically laid off all of his staff except one person.

[Blackduck59]

Like I said....

[C 2 C]

I book my cruises based on advertised specials on certain websites.

I then book the cruise while on board or at home and transfer the bookings to the company offering the best deals.

I have a number of cruises booked through a large box retailer to get the gift cards at the end of the cruise.

The call center is based in Montreal and I have yet to get an agent whose native language is English (or French).  Call centres are not known for great salaries or benefits for their employees.

I enjoy talking to Filipino staff on board.  I don't mind at all talking to them on the phone.

There are a number of American states that have accents way worse than the people with whom I have had contact with overseas.

[KAKcruiser]

I do not necessarily object to the accents.  I object to the lack of knowledge about the product they are selling.  

[Smmessineo]

3 hours ago, C 2 C said:

I book my cruises based on advertised specials on certain websites.

I then book the cruise while on board or at home and transfer the bookings to the company offering the best deals.

I have a number of cruises booked through a large box retailer to get the gift cards at the end of the cruise.

The call center is based in Montreal and I have yet to get an agent whose native language is English (or French).  Call centres are not known for great salaries or benefits for their employees.

I enjoy talking to Filipino staff on board.  I don't mind at all talking to them on the phone.

There are a number of American states that have accents way worse than the people with whom I have had contact with overseas.

I'm a New Yorker who retired to Florida and no one understands me😀 

As for bookings, I have sailed a lot with Celebrity and had a great assigned cruise planner. I didn't even have to call, I could email him for bookings, changes etc. And they would match with the big box place by giving me obc equivalent to the gift card amount. But he left recently and now Celebrity has outsourced too. HAL won't match the big box , so I'm doing the same as you, book with the store and wait for the gift card after. They've been knowledgeable and helpful so far.

[zgscl]

IMO the problem is not that the call center is overseas - as many have noted the onboard crew are international and do a fantastic job. The issue is you are taking a bunch of reps and PCCs with tons of experience (many of whom have sailed on HAL ships), and replacing them with people who have a script and maybe saw a video or powerpoint. Hopefully with time it will get better, but as a customer it is very frustrating when what used to take 5 minutes with a knowledgable rep who could answer all of your question now takes 30-45 minutes. 

 

At the end of the day this will save a lot of money for HAL and most people will not choose another cruise line because the call center is in the US - it is just not really a factor 99% of people would ever consider when booking their cruise (and many of the other comparable  cruise lines have overseas call centers, or are in the process of outsourcing now). If anything, this could hurt them if a significant number of folks switch to a TA to avoid this (I don't think that will happen either). 

[rodndonna]

My first thought when I hear of a really good PCC with years of experience leaving HAL is that it was likely their decision.

 

Like any industry dealing wth highs and lows, we are coming back out of a pretty tough and long low. Our first PCC with HAL (we only started with HAL coming out of Covid) left before our first sailing. When I checked LinkedIN, I found her working for Ritz Carlton Yachts. I expect the potential renumeration (mostly commission) would be much higher there being a luxury line. 

 

If I were a really good PCC, no doubt I would be looking for opportunities with the luxury lines.

 

We have a PCC now, but honestly, I just throw her the booking after we have it all sorted ourselves on-line to finalize the booking. It costs us the same, and if I can help someone with a commission from it, why not.

[waterbhoy]

On 10/4/2023 at 5:50 PM, Pylon said:

Following up on an email I received from the account of my personal cruise consultant, which had the word "inactive" by her name, I tried to telephone her extension and was diverted to Manilla.

 

After waiting on the line for several minutes while the person who took the call sought to speak to a supervisor, the supervisor assigned me a new personal cruise consultant also in the Philippines who seemed very young. That and the noise in the background suggested to me Holland America is going down market in the services it provides its customers.

 

Further, we normally sail Princess Cruises and as of earlier this week, while we still have our personal cruise consultant in California, I am worried about that given he is also under the whim of the executives at Carnival.

 

Can others who have a personal cruise consultant with Holland America comment of this matter? My old consultant, a very experienced and knowledgeable older woman at Holland America, is out the door with an incoming young woman offshore?

 

I am not very happy about this development (Princess Cruises has already offshored its regular representatives when booking) and I thought that was very short sighted driven from the top at Carnival. But are they planning to go after their personal cruise consultants in North America? They could destroy their Holland America and Princess brands in pursuit of lower costs.

 

As far as I know as I've been a onboard FCC for the 2 companies you mentioned , Princess has hived off the OBSM position to a company called ONE and in turn instead of 1 FCC you now have a team of 3-4 consultants onboard and a team of reservation Cruise Consultants in Arizona.   So far seen or heard nothing about the Phillipines at Princess

[WA Bubbles]

• Today, I tried to change my room from a balcony to a Neptune Suite.  The call center did not know what a "neptune suite" was, finally provided her an available room indicated on HAL website (1 of 3 rooms).  She provided a price of $1500pp OVER the price on the website (??).  When informed of the price on the website, she indicated I would have to provide information on the lower price for HAL to honor.  WHAT?  Gave up may try back later.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

6 hours ago, WA Bubbles said:

• Today, I tried to change my room from a balcony to a Neptune Suite.  The call center did not know what a "neptune suite" was, finally provided her an available room indicated on HAL website (1 of 3 rooms).  She provided a price of $1500pp OVER the price on the website (??).  When informed of the price on the website, she indicated I would have to provide information on the lower price for HAL to honor.  WHAT?  Gave up may try back later.

Not supporting the Over Seas Call Center but, the HAL Website initially only shows fares with Non-refundable deposits NO Perks, No Have It All. Think of it as Lead in Pricing. Do you have Have It All? The Price of $1500 pp more makes total sense compared to the Non-refundable no perks.

[Toofarfromthesea]

No company ever experienced an increase in customer satisfaction by out-sourcing their customer service.

[Cyberhwk]

FWIW, I got a call from my PCC on Friday and seemed more concerned with an on-board PCC taking his business during my cruise next week than his job being outsourced.

[Mary229]

I have gotten good and bad service at HAL regardless of the location of the personnel.   There are many new agents working now.  It may be a good time to find a travel agent for a consistent experience, at least until these new people are fully trained and more experienced.   It is not costing you anything to work with an agent.  
 

It was predictable that once companies learned remote working works they would seek a lower wage environment to find employees.  Many countries have been recreating an education system focusing on careers in remote work. They saw the opportunity.  

[Mary229]

On 10/13/2023 at 1:48 PM, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Not supporting the Over Seas Call Center but, the HAL Website initially only shows fares with Non-refundable deposits NO Perks, No Have It All. Think of it as Lead in Pricing. Do you have Have It All? The Price of $1500 pp more makes total sense compared to the Non-refundable no perks.

Yes, they really should show all tiers. 

[POA1]

As a general rule, HAL's US based employees are in the office from 6 :00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday through Friday. There are also some inbound people during the day on the weekends. I only call in during regular hours, which are 9-9 M-F for me on the east coast of the US.

 

I realize that we live in a 24/7 world but I want results more than universal availability.