Change to Celebrity Customer Service

[PTC DAWG]

34 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

Follow up . . . the refunds are now pending on my credit card.

Seems you fired everybody up for no reason..they said 2-3 weeks, looks like less than 2 to me..

[DennysDad]

Is there a number to call to be sure to get customer service rep in America who speaks and comprehends English?

[patty1955]

2 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Seems you fired everybody up for no reason..they said 2-3 weeks, looks like less than 2 to me..

My complaint wasn't about the refund, it was about the scripted customer service!

[PTC DAWG]

2 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

My complaint wasn't about the refund, it was about the scripted customer service!

What about the service didn’t work?  Apparently it was not to your taste, they can’t please everyone…

 

I am glad your funds are pending..
 

 

Edited August 23 by PTC DAWG

[canderson]

1 hour ago, patty1955 said:

If I can tell it's a script, it's not a good script. Repeatedly saying "Thank you for that information" is not a good script.

I'd be a lot more concerned about the results than the presentation. True in a lot of life's adventures.

[hcat]

1 hour ago, patty1955 said:

Follow up . . . the refunds are now pending on my credit card.

glad you have progress!

sometimes they need a push!

X has a byzantine process.. very segmented!

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, PTC DAWG said:

What about the service didn’t work?  Apparently it was not to your taste, they can’t please everyone…

 

I am glad your funds are pending..
 

 

They explained the issues up thread.  On hold 10 times etc.

Edited August 23 by zitsky

[hcat]

Our experience is that scripts are used to make sure the main points are covered...but reps can and do look closer into issues

[sasset]

You need to get a personal vacation planner. When you call you have an extension number and it goes directly to the same rep everytime.

[zitsky]

6 minutes ago, sasset said:

You need to get a personal vacation planner. When you call you have an extension number and it goes directly to the same rep everytime.

 

Can someone in any cabin request that?  

[joetop2467]

We canceled an ocean view on a Beyond cruise in January 2025 because we found a balcony guarantee on another website a little cheaper.  We had our refund credited to our Visa account in one day as well as excursions we had also booked credited too.  So I have no complaints about their accounting.

[NMTraveller]

Why would you subject yourself to this punishment?

 

This is why I have a TA ...

[hcat]

3 hours ago, sasset said:

You need to get a personal vacation planner. When you call you have an extension number and it goes directly to the same rep everytime.

not sure they assign them anymore..we just call in with any issues we have..as many times as needed.

[patty1955]

4 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Why would you subject yourself to this punishment?

 

This is why I have a TA ...

I had a TA for my last Celebrity cruise. They're a big, box, membership store and they f---ed up our All Included package and it took months to straighten out. That's why we didn't have a TA for this cruise. 

[canderson]

9 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

I had a TA for my last Celebrity cruise. They're a big, box, membership store and they f---ed up our All Included package and it took months to straighten out. That's why we didn't have a TA for this cruise. 

You expect personalized service from a big box TA?  Yes, they often leave you with a better net on $ in the end, but at what cost?  Given what we pay for a cruise, and it's on the higher end of what's possible, I'm not about to entrust the trip to a big box that treats a vacation like any other commodity in their inventory.  We're not talking the logistics of getting the canisters of Utz cheese balls that are past their sell by date off the shelf.

 

Granted, there can some advantage in scale in this business, but you need your own TA who works for a business large enough to get the scale advantage, but who will give you one on one service and knows your situation and preferences.

[Oceangoer2]

17 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

Seems you fired everybody up for no reason..they said 2-3 weeks, looks like less than 2 to me..

Not the OP but I did have a refund issue.  Mine was received yesterday but it took 2 months.  I think you'd agree that's a tad long to wait.

[Oceangoer2]

13 hours ago, zitsky said:

 

Can someone in any cabin request that?  

yes!  absolutely.  And mine is terrific.

[drakes2]

13 hours ago, zitsky said:

 

Can someone in any cabin request that?  

I've had the same CVP for years. He's even checked his email on his days off and responded. 

[TeeRick]

On 8/21/2024 at 1:19 PM, patty1955 said:

 

Does anyone know when this change was made? I'm sure they weren't a call center last week. Has anyone else had this happen?

Patti first and foremost, I am happy to hear your situation was resolved.  But I'm a bit confused about what you are referring to as a change?  A change to a call center (or a change from US to ex-US)?  I pretty much always get call centers from cruise lines or pretty much any customer service number for most anything these days.  Yes quite often I have a very hard time getting through the heavy accents - but I try to be polite and ask them to repeat.  It is a process sometimes.  If I really cannot understand I hang up and call back and many times I get somebody that I can understand.  As for Captain's Club, there are probably millions (?) of members so they definitely need a call center to screen calls.

[patty1955]

1 hour ago, TeeRick said:

Patti first and foremost, I am happy to hear your situation was resolved.  But I'm a bit confused about what you are referring to as a change?  A change to a call center (or a change from US to ex-US)?  I pretty much always get call centers from cruise lines or pretty much any customer service number for most anything these days.  Yes quite often I have a very hard time getting through the heavy accents - but I try to be polite and ask them to repeat.  It is a process sometimes.  If I really cannot understand I hang up and call back and many times I get somebody that I can understand.  As for Captain's Club, there are probably millions (?) of members so they definitely need a call center to screen calls.

I've never had a call center when I called; at least not that I've known. The surprise to me was that literally one week I got unscripted reps and the next week very heavily scripted responses.

The accents don't bother me. I lived in the SF bay area almost my whole life and can understand  most accents.

[NMTraveller]

9 hours ago, patty1955 said:

I had a TA for my last Celebrity cruise. They're a big, box, membership store and they f---ed up our All Included package and it took months to straighten out. That's why we didn't have a TA for this cruise. 

I would not count the big box TA as a TA.  You don't get the same person or personalization of a TA.  I have tried them,  but get a real TA ...

 

My real TA has had to deal with similar issues with Celebrity ...  Not myself.

 

 

Edited August 24 by NMTraveller

[canderson]

There's a huge difference between a physical call center and an ACD system with lots of geographically separated individuals as the end points.  As some have noted, it can be easy to know which is which -- a call center often provides the background noise of many other people on the phones taking customer calls, but when you hear kids, dogs and roosters in the background, that's a system that is sending you to the next person available, wherever they are (often at home!). 

 

This all became much easier and a whole lot cheaper with VOIP systems (routing calls over the internet), but became much more popular as an approach to help lines during COVID when people were NOT able to go to a central location to do this kind of work.  It has since stayed popular since it allows a company to scale down their physical footprint.  It costs money to keep the building heated and the lights on.  Why not let the operators absorb those costs in his/her own homes?

 

It is of course possible to have a hybrid system where some people do congregate in a central location while others don't.  The ACD queue doesn't care where the assistant is when it finally hands off the call.  In that case, where your call lands is a roll of the dice.

 

 

[edgee]

14 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Why would you subject yourself to this punishment?

 

This is why I have a TA ...

Plus my TA offers additional value in the form of rebates and cruise credit, sometimes gratuities. By not using a good TA who offers extra value, you are in effect paying ten to twelve percent extra for your cruise. Why would anyone want to do that?

[patty1955]

47 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I would not count the big box TA as a TA.  You don't get the same person or personalization of a TA.  I have tried them,  but get a real TA ...

 

My real TA has had to deal with similar issues with Celebrity ...  Not myself.

 

 

 

12 minutes ago, edgee said:

Plus my TA offers additional value in the form of rebates and cruise credit, sometimes gratuities. By not using a good TA who offers extra value, you are in effect paying ten to twelve percent extra for your cruise. Why would anyone want to do that?

I would love to find a good TA. I don't care for the Oceania rep assigned to us and I'd love to have someone else deal with this  type of issue. We love our small town but there isn't a good TA available. I may have to research one farther afield. 

[Lastdance]

Back in the day, I used a big box center which led to a huge mess.  Believe it or not, it was a representative from corporate(Celebrity) who actually helped me.  He was a gem.  Those days are gone and even with paper work, I have had my bottom line cost changed, not to mention percentages changed in my documents.  When getting insurance, one needs to have the correct amounts for customer 1 and 2, in order to buy the correct insurance, not just 50% each. So when Celebrity runs these “sales,” make sure you subtract the fees and taxes too.

Edited August 24 by Lastdance