Was Noordam Pricing Error Now Rotterdam Pricing Error!

[james j feller]

Just got a phone call from my travel agent and he said that HAL raised the price of the cruise we were going on.

 

ROTTERDAM'S 43 day cruise leaving MARCH 20 2007.

 

We paid the down payment which was high and at that time the ta said that he bets he will get a phone call in a few weeks and HAL will raise the price of the cruise.

 

Well sure enough he did.

 

I called HAL and spoke to a supervisor and she said they double discounted the cruise and that is the reason for the higher price (3300), i said how long have you been in business you should know better.

 

Now i have sailed quite a bit with HAL and others and have never experienced this before.

 

HAL should be ashamed of themselves for doing this.

 

So watch out folks if you book with HAL as there word isn't worth anything.

 

JIM

[Randyk47]

Jim,

 

Just a few questions so I better understand the situation.

 

1. When you booked it sounds like the TA thought there was something wrong with the fare. Is that right?

 

2. How long was it between booking and HAL getting back with the correction?

 

3. You said "their word" wasn't worth anything. Had you or the TA talked to them earlier about honoring the first quoted fare? If so are you now saying they're reversing their previous position that the fare was correct?

[sail7seas]

What made your TA say that he thought HAL would raise the price? That is a very odd thing for a TA to say without some reason. Did he think the price you were quoted was ridicuously low? Did you?

 

[AlohaPride]

Within time the whole story will come to light. I just can't help but say, "Oh, No!!"

[james j feller]

RANDY and 7,

 

When my TA told me the price of the cruise he mentioned that a previous cruiser of his was going on the NOORDAM and they did the same thing to him,raised the price a few weeks later so he warned me about the same thing.

 

The TA got two fax's from HAL stating my price and he thought of the past cruiser and said to me to watch out, i guess he just didn't trust them.

 

Now they called and said they double discounted the group price on my fare.

 

I booked this fare on 11/27/06 and just got word on the new price today.

 

The TA did call HAL and they said they would not honor the quoted price on the fax's.

 

JIM

[jhannah]

HAL better get their pricing glitches ironed out fast or it will surely cost them some business.

[WindyCity]

At the time our final payment was due, HAL told the TA that the price was wrong - needed to be higher. Bottom line is, our TA went to bat for us, argued with HAL and we got the price we contracted for and over 300 less for the 3rd person in our cabin because of a promotion going on.

I really think a good TA is worth their price in gold!

[zaandam_2]

as long as people continue letting HAL get away with this, HAL will do nothing to fix the problem. i'd cancel on principal alone.

[Randyk47]

The good news is that it only took HAL 8 days to realize their mistake.....the bad news is that it took HAL 8 days to realize their mistake and then they didn't honor the original "agreement". My point is that 8 days is better, relatively speaking, than the 6-week ordeal with the Noordam but why is HAL having this kind of trouble in the first place??? That's disturbing. 8 days or 6 weeks really doesn't matter in the sense that HAL is initially honoring fares and then backing out because of a mistake.....mistakes that seemingly are happening at their office, not with the TA. Bad business.

[TedC]

If it sounds too good to be true it probably isn't - and it appears the TA suspected that.

 

"Stuff happens"

[AuntieBon]

If it sounds too good to be true it probably isn't - and it appears the TA suspected that.

 

"Stuff happens"

 

You're right stuff happens but HAL should have a serious review of it's policies and procedures & it's database to resolve the problem. It is poor business practice to have this pricing issue come up, at least twice now, within a short period of time. Their credibility is going to come into question for a lot of their past, current and future cruisers if they continue to have this problem :(

[bepsf]

It doesn't seem appropriate that HAL should put out discounts and pricing, then take reservations and back out on their commitment saying "Wrong Price"

When I was in sales, if I charged the wrong amount or made a costly mistake the company ate it - it's covered in "Errors & Omissions" insurance.

How is a customer to know that the price/discount is correct? How is a TA supposed to know? It's up to HAL to determine what the proper price is, put it out there and stick with it.

Time for Micky A. to fly someone from Miami over to Seattle pronto and put this to rights - and maybe spill a little blood on the way for causing such bad PR...

[Jemima]

I see that your 43 day cruise consists of 2 cruises: 16 days Santiago to Rio and 27 days Rio to Greece. I couldn't find this advertised as one cruise, but assume if was. Did you combine the two or were they offered as one cruise? Also you mention "group price". Does that mean you are part of a group with a group rate? Were the two faxes the TA initially recieved for the same or different prices? Were they both for the 43 days or was one for the 16 day and one for the 27 day cruise?

[Pam in CA]

If it sounds too good to be true it probably isn't - and it appears the TA suspected that.

How can you tell if a deal is too good to be true? You'd have to be pretty knowledgeable and do quite a bit of comparison shopping to figure out that you got an "unbelieveable" deal. If a cruiseline publishes a fare, you need to be able to trust that fare price. Faxing rates to a TA constitutes IMHO publishing the fare price.

 

There are so many variables in the cruise industry re: pricing. You could pay $X for a cruise next week and pay 3x as much for the same ship, itinerary and cabin three weeks from now. How does the average cruiser know which is the better deal? Given supply and demand, the holiday rate could be the better bargain.

 

There are stories in the media of car dealers and retailers having errors in their advertising. Unless there's a disclaimer in the ad that they are not responsible for errors, they must honor the published price. I'm astonished that HAL would jeopardize the public trust in their pricing by not honoring a mistake that they have said is theirs.

 

The upshot is that anyone who books a HAL cruise will now look over their shoulder and wonder if the fare they were quoted, and have a booking confirmation for, will be honored or will be raised substantially. That's an awful lot of public distrust that they've generated.

[james j feller]

PAM,

 

You are 100% right.

 

JIM

[Scrumpy]

It is disturbing to hear of this happening again. I was very disappointed by the reaction to the Noordam glitch, but had tried to remain hopeful that most (or all) of the people affected would eventually get a better resolution than what we'd seen offered initially - and thought maybe it would even happen once folks were actually on the ship, which would be a great surprise and great PR. But, the bad PR will add up to a fair number of customers lost at some point. And, at this rate, it will be sooner rather than later.

 

The sad thing for us personally is that we have been so very, very, very reluctant to try another cruiseline. We have enjoyed such friendly, courteous staff who have gone out of their way; it's such a wonderful change from the way things are handled on land. I had an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude about HAL and was hoping we'd be able to reconcile ourselves to any issues and keep doing what we liked. In time, I figured things would work themselves out and we'd be able to cruise on HAL with confidence.

 

Now, I'm thinking: What on earth is going on? Is it going to stop? We put up with inconsistent service and differing answers from CS before we board and now we have to worry about incorrect pricing, too? C'mon, the ship experience itself is great, but these hassles and errors are starting to over-shadow the joy of planning (for me). I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that a lot of us wouldn't balk at paying several hundred dollars more on a 7-day or a fair proportionate amount on a longer cruise - if we knew it when we booked. It's this after-the-fact "correcting" that is causing a lot of ill will and suspicion.

 

To the OP - I am very sorry this happened to you. Very sorry!!!

[u4ea]

That's an awful lot of public distrust that they've generated.

I too agree, but not sure about that statement. I would guess only a small percentage of folks follow the industry and even bad publicity, maybe there’s enough new customers and repeaters that HAL can do what it wants. We’d need to see the numbers. With the mass of affluent population, big businesses lose the concern about an individual, or even an “expendable” group.

“Your call is important to us, please stay on the line”…..”Well if it’s so #%^$ing important, why don’t you answer the damn phone!!”

Just my thoughts IMHO

Mark…..

[Pam in CA]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that a lot of us wouldn't balk at paying several hundred dollars more on a 7-day or a fair proportionate amount on a longer cruise - if we knew it when we booked. It's this after-the-fact "correcting" that is causing a lot of ill will and suspicion.

Exactly. People book what they can afford and many times, their choice of ship, itinerary and cabin are based on the rates they're quoted. If that's thrown into disarray, you have chaos.

[turia]

It's the exact same thing that happened on the Noordam that fare to was double discounted. Someone up there doesn't know how to do their job.

[fcorey]

It doesn't seem appropriate that HAL should put out discounts and pricing, then take reservations and back out on their commitment saying "Wrong Price"

 

When I was in sales, if I charged the wrong amount or made a costly mistake the company ate it - it's covered in "Errors & Omissions" insurance.

 

How is a customer to know that the price/discount is correct? How is a TA supposed to know? It's up to HAL to determine what the proper price is, put it out there and stick with it.

 

Time for Micky A. to fly someone from Miami over to Seattle pronto and put this to rights - and maybe spill a little blood on the way for causing such bad PR...

 

we were thinking the same thing, I cant imagine how much bad publicity that this is generating, eating the cost would have been better for business at this point

[dakrewser]

PAM,

 

You are 100% right.

 

JIM

Jemima asked a couple of questions above to try to get more detail on the problem - I'd appreciate seeing those answers myself...

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Now that the Noordam pricing incident has been picked up by USA Today, HAL will have to do some major damage control in a hurry. I am in the planning stages of another 15-night Hawaii cruise and was seriously considering the Zaandam this time (last time we did Hawaii was on the Infinity). These pricing incidents have me thinking twice about HAL now.

 

For me to book HAL at this point, there needs to be a statement made by HAL that software problems have been corrected (whether or not they have) and that ALL fare quotes from now on will be honored without future increase.

 

Just my $.02.

[bdcbbq]

I've only been on one cruise and that was HAL in 2002. We chose HAL because their cruise style is exactly what we wanted. I'm looking to start cruising annually in another year when the mortgage gets paid off. This incident and a few of the other things that have been changing are "pushing", not "nudging", me away from HAL. When I book I will be much more open to checking out other lines.

 

Little things like the ability ease of use on HAL's website are pushing me away. They have to have one of the least intuitive website designs I've seen.

 

I've been considering buying some stock to support for the shareholder's benefits and I do like to invest in the brands and companies I'm partial to, but I'm not sure I will now. If the bottom line is so tight they can't absorb a couple of small financial errors, I wonder what the real story of the bottom line is.

 

Maybe we have another "Enron" in the cruise industry. :)

[kryos]

8 days or 6 weeks really doesn't matter in the sense that HAL is initially honoring fares and then backing out because of a mistake.....mistakes that seemingly are happening at their office, not with the TA. Bad business.

I agree ... this situation is a bit different than the one on the Noordam. At least with the shorter period, the client is not left dangling with non-refundable airfares booked, possible hotel stays, independent shore excursions, etc. In the six week scenario, the client could almost be forced to go ahead and pay the additional amount charged by HAL, or lose a whole lot more when trying to cancel the other items. At least with a period of eight days, hopefully the client hasn't yet arranged any of those other things and can therefore tell HAL to stick it.

 

But either way ... HAL has a major problem here that they need to get fixed. Personally, if I were the brass at HAL, I'd go ahead and give this customer his cruise and the pre-agreed amount and then fire the dope who double discounted it. I'd save the money on his or her salary for the period of time until I replaced them.

 

I don't know what is going on at HAL, but I can say that if anyone made a major mistake like that on my job ... and this could be major depending on how many customers were involved ... they'd at the very least be getting written up for it ... and that would only be if it was their first such mistake. If it was a repeater, they'd be gone in a flash.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Roz]

HAL has a software problem and/or a problem with data input. Either way, they need to get this situation straightened out. Internally, you would think there should be some accountability. First, with the vendor who developed and installed the software, and second, with the employees or vendor putting in the data.

 

Roz