Forbes rates Celebrity #3 in Customer Service ----

[sheeng]

On a recent cruise we filled out a guest comment card, wrote to the guest services manager, wrote to celebrity engagement center and to X President on a particular  issue.
Not a word back from anyone!

Edited February 25 by sheeng

[Oceangoer2]

14 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Which lines were #1 and #2 and if Celebrity offers welcome drinks and gift baskets, then what are the others offering?

Don't know the date of this reporting, but it may have been when X did provide a pseudo champagne on boarding.  I also assume the 'gift baskets' may have been offered to the highest suites?  or perhaps refers to the personal shower care items?

[upwarduk]

4 hours ago, C4HCG said:

Forgetting the welcome drinks and gift baskets, we have no complaints on the customer service we receive from Celebrity at all.  So no surprise it’s ranked 3!

For the first time I have a true complaint.

I was served chickpeas as vegetables with my fish on our most recent cruise.

Along with the withdrawal of gratuities from the AI package, we have changed cruise lines for our next cruise.

 

[Oceangoer2]

1 minute ago, upwarduk said:

For the first time I have a true complaint.

I was served chickpeas as vegetables with my fish on our most recent cruise.

Along with the withdrawal of gratuities from the AI package, we have changed cruise lines for our next cruise.

 

Your plate sure looks a mess!  How was the fish?  I don't mind the grats removed from  AI.  We just pay them with our booking and the cost comes out much the same as before.  Some apparently just didn't want the grats included and paid onboard (or not).  Would not change our cruise line only for this but we would for the 'different' experience of another line in the future.  I'm told each has their own ship 'complaints' and some are switching to X...😉.

[upwarduk]

Fish was OK, but I am used to clearing my plate( I was brought up in the war and rationing ).I was told there are many starving people who would love the food, so we learnt to eat everything.

[Pinboy]

I didn’t read the attached article, only a few posts— so, here goes.

We just got off the Equinox yesterday:

Positives:

clean ship, great service throughout, Murano excellent—MDR very good, several choices—OVC( buffet ) very good, several choices— entertainment very good— Tuscan Grill AM breakfast service superb—

Negatives: 

Nothing , zero to complain about unless no appetizers at Elite HR , no welcome aboard glass of wine, or you couldn’t understand the Captain’s daily announcement of the position of the ship and / or  the height of the waves means “ anything “(?) to you.

The entire Staff works so hard to satisfy all of us, yet as evidenced on CC, there are way too many that just can’t allow themselves to be happy.

LOL— come to think of it, there were no round tomatoes at the buffet!!!

( A missed opportunity for a complimentary Specialty restaurant ) 

 

 

 

[Lastdance]

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, as comparing experiences, ships, # of cruises is impossible.  If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands; if you're unhappy and you know it, you have that right!  This is not a contest, but lots of different experiences.  As for the gift basket...I found something similar under my bed with a little dust and soap; just something to sneeze about, yet nothing in it.  If your basket was better...lucky you! (No, this is not a joke)

Edited February 25 by Lastdance

[NMTraveller]

So if we get past the point of many parts of the article being outdated or incorrect...

 

I can say that there is no way in the world that I would purchase a Celebrity cruise without a TA.  Have the TA deal with Celebrity customer service.  My TA has provided feedback when she has been on the phone with them for long periods of time,  or had to get things corrected that should have been easy but were not.  Sometimes the person on the other end of the phone is very good and other times they are not.

Edited February 25 by NMTraveller

[Vagabond Knight]

I think "best of" results are only helpful if the evaluation was done by neutral parties who tried all the options within a relatively close period of time.  Getting votes of "The Best" from someone who only has sailed a specific favorite cruise line is not helpful. Comparing a pre-Covid experience on one line and a post-Covid experience on another is not helpful.  

[patty1955]

19 hours ago, hcat said:

We like X but never heard of the author..sorry! Were the results paid ads?

 

Obviously  impressed  by technology some of which dors not work well like the app  and  def out of touch..

 

was there a  poll?

The writer is Chris Elliott, a well-know travel ombudsman and consumer advocate. I'm surprised he got it so wrong.

[Liao]

1 hour ago, Pinboy said:

I didn’t read the attached article, only a few posts— so, here goes.

We just got off the Equinox yesterday:

Positives:

clean ship, great service throughout, Murano excellent—MDR very good, several choices—OVC( buffet ) very good, several choices— entertainment very good— Tuscan Grill AM breakfast service superb—

Negatives: 

Nothing , zero to complain about unless no appetizers at Elite HR , no welcome aboard glass of wine, or you couldn’t understand the Captain’s daily announcement of the position of the ship and / or  the height of the waves means “ anything “(?) to you.

The entire Staff works so hard to satisfy all of us, yet as evidenced on CC, there are way too many that just can’t allow themselves to be happy.

LOL— come to think of it, there were no round tomatoes at the buffet!!!

( A missed opportunity for a complimentary Specialty restaurant ) 

 

 

 

Exactly!  My two recent cruises were on the Edge and the Summit.  BOTH were excellent in every way.  I suppose not perfect, but I really can't recall finding anything to complain about. The service was among the best I've experienced, the food was very very good, especially in Luminae.  I'm relatively new to this site but my gosh, there is an awful lot of complaints about what seem to be minor things.  All I can say is they definitely always kept my glass half full.  Enjoyed it so much booked another cruise while I was on board, this time for Apex.

[MarkWiltonM]

4 hours ago, upwarduk said:

For the first time I have a true complaint.

I was served chickpeas as vegetables with my fish on our most recent cruise.

 

Interesting because we love chickpeas! Have them almost every day, and we make hummus every week. So we would be happy to see them on a plate with fish. 

[Liao]

4 hours ago, upwarduk said:

For the first time I have a true complaint.

I was served chickpeas as vegetables with my fish on our most recent cruise.

Along with the withdrawal of gratuities from the AI package, we have changed cruise lines for our next cruise.

 

Did it say served with chick peas on the menu or did you ask what your veggie options were?

[ArgoNereus]

The first days of a new ship launching, travel agents and writers are invited and gifted with stuff on promo sailings.

They don't pay for the experience and some have been known to strip the ship of stuff not nailed down.

 

 

 

[upwarduk]

1 hour ago, Liao said:

Did it say served with chick peas on the menu or did you ask what your veggie options were?

I am Dairy Intolerant, so any food is adjusted for me. This usually means no butter on the vegetables.

[Mr. Click]

7 hours ago, sheeng said:

On a recent cruise we filled out a guest comment card, wrote to the guest services manager, wrote to celebrity engagement center and to X President on a particular  issue.
Not a word back from anyone!

On our recent cruise I had a problem in the cabin and talked to Guest Relations.  They made calls but no one fixed the problem that day and it created more problems.  The following morning I went to a Captains Club event and was introduced to the GR director and explained my issue to her and offered to get off the ship at the first stop if she would just refund my money.  Needless to say she was taken aback and apologized but in the long run the problem was finall fixed but that did not fix the earlier broken promises.  Offers were made to "apologize" but the offer was too low because it was only made to us and not our friends who were effected too so I asked that be included and was told, three days later no but we will give you some FCC....and I let it go.  Survey comes and a big Zero goes to GR staff.  Two weeks go by and nothing from that so I wrote to the Exec Offices email and actually just gor a reply asking me to call so we could discuss the issues.  They listened, apologized again and upped the FCC AND gave a bit to our friends too.... For great customer service you should not have to go way up the line...it should happen right then and there on the ship....Sorry Forbes, I misses by boarding drink in the cattle call that is boarding today and my gift basket?  I am only an Elite, I guess I don't rate one...

[BPCW]

As someone who has dealt with Forbes in my day job, they are mostly pay for play now. So Celebrity likely paid them for this (poor) write up. 

[NMTraveller]

2 hours ago, BPCW said:

As someone who has dealt with Forbes in my day job, they are mostly pay for play now. So Celebrity likely paid them for this (poor) write up. 

How much does something like this cost?

[CMW5060]

Surely this a joke. I have to contact Celebrity Executuve offices for a THIRD time today due to more pricing issues showing on my account.  They allegedly corrected them in December and sent me a revised confirmation. Now when I log in they are showing my fare at full price for my November sailing, no promised on board credit, and they moved my confirmed dinner seating from 6pm to 8:30 pm!  I’ve about had it and ready to tell them to stick it! 

[Oceangoer2]

2 hours ago, CMW5060 said:

Surely this a joke. I have to contact Celebrity Executuve offices for a THIRD time today due to more pricing issues showing on my account.  They allegedly corrected them in December and sent me a revised confirmation. Now when I log in they are showing my fare at full price for my November sailing, no promised on board credit, and they moved my confirmed dinner seating from 6pm to 8:30 pm!  I’ve about had it and ready to tell them to stick it! 

I had the same issue last month and my CVP advised that when the first issue was corrected she had to do a manual revision which came out correctly when she sent my booking confirmation.  Then the booking went through the IT process which auto created a new booking (but same number) at current prices, dropped OBC, changed the available dining time, etc.  The website is wonky IMO.  Unfortunately you will have to call again to correct...the site won't correct itself. 

[Shiba_Lover]

I had to re-read the article to figure out "who" is saying "my advocacy team almost never hears from Celebrity customers".  OK - so what Celebrity customer would actually contact Christoper Elliott if they had an issue 🤣.  It says he has a customer advocacy group.  His group is not who anyone contacts.  And where / when do you get a welcome onboard drink and a gift basket?  And what is a virtual reality excursion?  This guy is living in la virtual reality.

Edited February 26 by Shiba_Lover

[patty1955]

32 minutes ago, Shiba_Lover said:

I had to re-read the article to figure out "who" is saying "my advocacy team almost never hears from Celebrity customers".  OK - so what Celebrity customer would actually contact Christoper Elliott if they had an issue 🤣.  It says he has a customer advocacy group.  His group is not who anyone contacts.  And where / when do you get a welcome onboard drink and a gift basket?  And what is a virtual reality excursion?  This guy is living in la virtual reality.

 

The author's name was a the top of the article.

I've contacted Chris about a number of issues. He's been very helpful.

[markeb]

1 hour ago, Shiba_Lover said:

I had to re-read the article to figure out "who" is saying "my advocacy team almost never hears from Celebrity customers".  OK - so what Celebrity customer would actually contact Christoper Elliott if they had an issue 🤣.  It says he has a customer advocacy group.  His group is not who anyone contacts.  And where / when do you get a welcome onboard drink and a gift basket?  And what is a virtual reality excursion?  This guy is living in la virtual reality.

 

Apparently a lot of people contact him, just not people on this board and this thread.

 

https://www.elliott.org/about-christopher-elliott/

 

Interesting bio. I may have heard of him in the past, but we have a ton of consumer reporters in the DC area (he worked for the WaPo for 14 years). "Travel Troubleshooter" will get you dozens of Google hits on his travel advocacy articles. So, yeah, people with travel issues contact him and his team constantly.

[Shiba_Lover]

11 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

Apparently a lot of people contact him, just not people on this board and this thread.

 

https://www.elliott.org/about-christopher-elliott/

 

Interesting bio. I may have heard of him in the past, but we have a ton of consumer reporters in the DC area (he worked for the WaPo for 14 years). "Travel Troubleshooter" will get you dozens of Google hits on his travel advocacy articles. So, yeah, people with travel issues contact him and his team constantly.

 

1 hour ago, patty1955 said:

 

The author's name was a the top of the article.

I've contacted Chris about a number of issues. He's been very helpful.

Interesting.... I guess everyone from here needs to start contacting this guy instead of contacting Celebrity directly when they do something like start charging for room service or wipe out entire sailing seasons (like take out South America and replace it with more Caribbean) and so on....  Sounds like he may be able to actually do something.

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 2/24/2024 at 2:54 PM, lv2cruisgrl said:

Lol that's pretty funny. I guess they haven't cruised in awhile and had to try and order a drink from a bar lately at 5-7 pm!  What gift baskets!???

 

"Welcome aboard!  No free drinks for you on embarkation day"