PCC and Calling HAL - Just Venting

[BashfulBeki]

For my 2nd/3rd HAL cruise (blame Covid), I was assigned my 3rd PCC. Let’s call him Andy. Andy and my husband and I had pretty bad communications via phone due to differing accents but I really wanted to give him a chance so I tried to email as much as possible.  Due to this wonderful board, I applied and was approved for the AARP and the Educator OBC. Feb 7th, Andy said he would get back to me as soon as the OBC was applied (he’d lost one OBC approval already).  I gave him 2 weeks and then emailed a reminder; a week later another reminder; 4th week, I called the PCC # to speak to a supervisor. I got reservations, who sent me to PCC, who sent me to reservations, who sent me to PCC, who sent me to reservations …. more than an hour later, I finally got to someone who told me my new PCC was ‘Billy’. Andy was no longer with the company. I suggested an email informing me of the change would have been appreciated 3 weeks ago. Her response - you will receive an email. No mention of when.  This same afternoon, I receive a promotion email with Andy as my PCC.  
 

I love being on HAL ships with their wonderful staff and calm atmosphere but they need to step up their customer service reps.  
I know you will tell me to get a good TA but I’ve researched and tried but all my trusted TAs have retired or left due to Covid.

TIA for the sympathetic ears, I feel better getting this off my chest.

[cbr663]

Not surprising.  I have noticed that it takes a long of patience to deal with HAL"s shore side staff, and has been since the restart.  Shore side service is part of the cruising experience.  I have described it as HAL is sometimes making it very difficult to book a cruise. 

[scooter6139]

I've been pretty lucky with the PCC we have.  She is very good at finding out stuff and making changes.  Heck, she even saw our fare had dropped by a lot and rebooked for us (before the final payment).

[Paulinda]

Fortunately my PCC is long term, professional and efficient.  I receive offers from him every so often.  I did notice that calling him now requires that I set up an appointment date and time.  He will schedule a call back.  I'm pretty sure that HA let go a lot of the PCC's during the pandemic.  

[Sea Hag]

1 hour ago, Paulinda said:

Fortunately my PCC is long term, professional and efficient.  I receive offers from him every so often.  I did notice that calling him now requires that I set up an appointment date and time.  He will schedule a call back.  I'm pretty sure that HA let go a lot of the PCC's during the pandemic.  

I'm really new to HAL, with our first cruise being on the Westerdam last September. My assigned PCC also requires setting up an appointment date and time. I've nicely told her that doesn't work for me, but she ignores that. I like an email trail, rather than remembering what I think a person said over the phone (and this nice lady is really vague and wordy). I also like to book quickly when I see a cabin and price combination that I like. So, this method of setting up an appointment doesn't work for me on two levels. I won't be going through this PCC and will be asking for a new one when I get around to doing so. Right now, we're all booked up for 2024 and 2025, so this is a can I can kick down the road.

[mcrcruiser]

17 hours ago, BashfulBeki said:

For my 2nd/3rd HAL cruise (blame Covid), I was assigned my 3rd PCC. Let’s call him Andy. Andy and my husband and I had pretty bad communications via phone due to differing accents but I really wanted to give him a chance so I tried to email as much as possible.  Due to this wonderful board, I applied and was approved for the AARP and the Educator OBC. Feb 7th, Andy said he would get back to me as soon as the OBC was applied (he’d lost one OBC approval already).  I gave him 2 weeks and then emailed a reminder; a week later another reminder; 4th week, I called the PCC # to speak to a supervisor. I got reservations, who sent me to PCC, who sent me to reservations, who sent me to PCC, who sent me to reservations …. more than an hour later, I finally got to someone who told me my new PCC was ‘Billy’. Andy was no longer with the company. I suggested an email informing me of the change would have been appreciated 3 weeks ago. Her response - you will receive an email. No mention of when.  This same afternoon, I receive a promotion email with Andy as my PCC.  
 

I love being on HAL ships with their wonderful staff and calm atmosphere but they need to step up their customer service reps.  
I know you will tell me to get a good TA but I’ve researched and tried but all my trusted TAs have retired or left due to Covid.

TIA for the sympathetic ears, I feel better getting this off my chest.

You are not alone in dealing on the phone with HAL 's land side of the business . I had a $1600 problem about having it back to my AARP gift card which is the normal policy .After long hours dealing with people in all areas of the world I finally connected to HALs accounting department .what they did was credit my creidt card in stead of sending the $1600 back to the AARP gift card  .  There is no question in my mind that HAL  needs vast improvement in their ability to communicate effectively  with customers . 

[foodsvcmgr]

This is not just an HAL problem.

Fortunately my lady at Holland America is pretty good.

However my Celebrity PCC stopped all contact after Covid, if he left they never gave me a new one.

The lady I’m assigned to at Cunard takes days to reply to emails.

I assume these folks get some sort of commission so it seems odd they don’t have a greater sense of urgency if it impacts their paycheck.

[mcrcruiser]

12 minutes ago, foodsvcmgr said:

This is not just an HAL problem.

Fortunately my lady at Holland America is pretty good.

However my Celebrity PCC stopped all contact after Covid, if he left they never gave me a new one.

The lady I’m assigned to at Cunard takes days to reply to emails.

I assume these folks get some sort of commission so it seems odd they don’t have a greater sense of urgency if it impacts their paycheck.

It has been known for many years that cruise lines are great at sea but horrible on land