X Customer Service: any good stories??

[PoseidonGodoftheSea]

I'm a brand new X customer and I am getting so nervous with all these customer service horror stories. I'm scared to death that a similar surprise is going to come and bite me in the behind just when I thought everything was in order. Not that I'm doing anything complicated like these people are doing. I made a simple new booking on Celebrity.com. sailing out of my own city (Seattle). No air transfers, no b2b's, no cancelled bookings being applied to a new one.

 

HAL offers their loyal repeat pax base personal cruise consultants so that bookings are less of a hassle. And as excited as I am about experiencing the Infinity it is taking all my willpower to not abandon ship and sail over to the Amsterdam because while HAL's customer service isn't great, it is nothing like this!! And it has always been comforting to know their offices are within easy driving distance; I can always "storm the Bastille" so to speak.

 

Doesn't X have this kind of service for their repeat pax? I haven't heard anybody talk about it. The idea behind it is so that your loyal repeat pax base, the kind of people with a dozen or more cruises under their belt who often have more complicated itineraries than the average newbie cruiser, do not have to deal with the kind of hassles that we're hearing about.

 

Can someone tell me if X does this?

 

And this thread is for the good stories only so new X pax have a place to go for reassurance. There are plenty of places to post the bad stories.

 

Thanks.

[Susan-M]

I've had excellent customer service with the two bookings that I've made directly with Celebrity (Bermuda and Galapagos). The service rep that I dealt with for our Xpeditions/Galapagos cruise was knowledgeable, courteous and went 'above and beyond' with helpful advice and suggestions as she was familiar with Ecuador and had taken the Xpeditions cruise. I would not hesitate to book directly with them again.

[poppop1507]

I always use a travel agent that way they can fight with customer service if needed.

All I do it tell her of any problems or complications (if any) and she takes care of them instantly

As far as I know she hasn't had any problems with Celebrity customer service

[Drew B]

My father and I had received future cruise credits worth a decent amount of money because we had been on a ship that experienced pod problems. It was very difficult to schedule a time when we could both take another cruise - he only has a 3-month period of the year when he can even CONSIDER leaving work, and those 3 months had other issues this year - and time was running out. It looked like one or both of the vouchers was going to go to waste.

 

I realized that the vouchers were non-transferable, but as a last ditch effort, I called X to see if there was any way to get his voucher transferred to his daughter (my sister) so that we could cruise together instead. I actually found a woman at X who went up the chain of command and fought on my behalf to make this happen. She wasn't the first Customer Service rep I spoke to, but I just kept calling back until I found somebody inclined to help. When I found her, I got her name and her extension and I was able to stay in touch with her directly (instead of getting shuffled around the representative pool) and it all had a good ending.

 

My advice is, if you find a good person, DON'T LET HIM/HER GET AWAY!

[NorCalCruiseGuy]

We always use a travel agent who specializes in cruises. We communicate through email and by telephone. We're in the San Francisco Bay Area, she is in Seattle. Our agent has had some difficulties at times dealing with Celebrity, but nothing major. We have been able to get the same or lower fares that are listed on the Celebrity website, and also get a shipboard credit from our agent. We're very pleased with this arrangement. If there is a problem, we have an agent who can smooth it out for us. This agency does a large volume, so has a bigger voice.

A reservation booked directly with Celebrity can be transferred to a travel agent after booking.

[CelebrityMan]

Hi PGOS,

 

There are ALWAYS good stories! Don't despair, don't lose heart....

 

Just yesterday I had an online issue (albeit minor) appear on the website when I attempted to complete the online check-in for our upcoming Mercury sailing. A quick call to the Captain's Club resolved the problem, and I was even able to 'watch it' in process online. I was treated courteously, professionally, and with good humor.

 

As far as I'm aware, the Captain's Club call center is as close as Celebrity gets to a HAL-style "personal cruise consultant." While not all situations and circumstances are easily handled by the Captain's Club phone center personnel, I've found them to generally be as helpful as possible.

 

And, while customer service issues and online quirks will arise, unavoidably, and will as often be loudly trumpeted, also rest assured that your onboard experience can be among the BEST in the mass market cruise industry. It's one of those modern dichotomies that causes a lot of head scratching wonder....

 

Have a great time aboard Infinity!!

 

To whet your appetite, I'll include a photo link of a "Grand Buffet" aboard Infinity:

 

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560347975sqPCQw

 

Bon Voyage!

 

 

 

 

 

CM

[PoseidonGodoftheSea]

Hi PGOS,

 

There are ALWAYS good stories! Don't despair, don't lose heart....

 

Just yesterday I had an online issue (albeit minor) appear on the website when I attempted to complete the online check-in for our upcoming Mercury sailing. A quick call to the Captain's Club resolved the problem, and I was even able to 'watch it' in process online. I was treated courteously, professionally, and with good humor.

 

As far as I'm aware, the Captain's Club call center is as close as Celebrity gets to a HAL-style "personal cruise consultant." While not all situations and circumstances are easily handled by the Captain's Club phone center personnel, I've found them to generally be as helpful as possible.

 

And, while customer service issues and online quirks will arise, unavoidably, and will as often be loudly trumpeted, also rest assured that your onboard experience can be among the BEST in the mass market cruise industry. It's one of those modern dichotomies that causes a lot of head scratching wonder....

 

Have a great time aboard Infinity!!

 

To whet your appetite, I'll include a photo link of a "Grand Buffet" aboard Infinity:

 

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560347975sqPCQw

 

Bon Voyage!

 

 

 

 

 

CM

 

Fantastic!! Now that's what I call a midnight buffet! And it looks so much more elegant in the dining room rather than around a pool on one of the upper decks where there are never enough tables. Thanks for the link, I'm going to revisit that one quite a bit.

 

And thanks for the good stories, I feel a lot better now. I think part of the problem was the fact that I booked it online. I trust the website but it would probably help if I call Celebrity and talk to a real live person and confirm everything is in order.

[Dick in Falls Church]

I'm not trying to make excuses for RCCL or X (though I proudly own 100 shares for OBC). Take a ship. Holds 2500 passengers. I'd guess that translates to some 1100 reservations. Every 7 to 14 days, 12 months a year.

Then multiply by the number of ships in the fleet (didn't do the research).

 

It amounts to a pretty good slug of folks cruising.

 

Are there some problems? Sure there are. Are they solvable? Most of them are. Are they solved equitably? Mostly--but some will certainly fall into the cracks. Does that make those OK? Of course not. But if the service was as bad as picture by the one whose ox is being gored, cruisers would stay away from the line in droves, and the company would be going all-out trying to fill empty spaces. Oops, doesn't seem to be quite that way.

 

Again, not trying to defend them--bad service is unacceptable.

 

If you want to look at bad service--have you dealt with our government lately? Folks stopped at airline screening points for having such dangerous pieces of equipment as a screwdriver in an eyeglass repair kit.

 

Our neighbors, who have lived in the area for many, many years. A couple of years ago, they applied for citizenship. Wife's came through over a year ago, husband's application is somewhere in the system.

 

How about the airlines? Sit on the tarmac for 6 hours? Overbooking caused missed connections?

 

We've not had any problems in our 8 cruises

[YOW]

We've had the full spectrum of customer service experiences with X/RCCL. Sometimes I've had a rep who seemed disinterested in his job or was maybe at the end of her shift -- I've found that, as someone said in a different thread, it's best to cut those conversations short and call back. I've had other CSRs who have been extremely friendly and who've gone above and beyond in their efforts. For a while it seemed that the reps in Miami were less friendly and helpful than those in other call centres, but over time I've decided that not to be the case. It does seem that the results are better overall on the Captain's Club line.

 

A shame, though, that customer service across all industries has seen a real decline in recent years. In a perfect world, I'd like to see X adopt a Nordstrom-type service mentality, that the word "no" not be in anybody's vocabulary both on land and at sea. It's more important to us, of course, that they get it right on board, and for the most part they really do. Most of the cruise lines seem to get negative marks for their service on land these days. Hopefully that will change at some point. Unfortunately the defections of some loyal pax to other lines may not have the right impact, as other lines are also losing some loyal clients. At the end of the day, it may be a wash, with the cruise lines saying 'rather than invest in customer service and retention, we're willing to give up 100 (1000, or however many) clients because we'll get that many back from other lines.'

[Albert Ross]

I'm not trying to make excuses for RCCL or X (though I proudly own 100 shares for OBC). Take a ship. Holds 2500 passengers. I'd guess that translates to some 1100 reservations. Every 7 to 14 days, 12 months a year.

Then multiply by the number of ships in the fleet (didn't do the research).

 

It amounts to a pretty good slug of folks cruising.

 

Well said!!!

Actually when you work out that RCI have 22 ships with one more next year, X have 7 with 4 new Solstice class coming, and then there are the 2 Azamara ships and finally Xpedition - the agents are dealing with 37 ships...with diverse itineraries and various ports. You cannot expect them to be an 'expert' in all areas and yes, sometimes things will go wrong. But more often than not things go smoothly. You rarely hear about those times!

And yes, RCI/X do have the personal cruise specialists who handle the private clients and give that personalized service.

[Schplinky]

We were not fans of the shore-side customer service but onboard, we thought the concierge was great. My clothes were not in the port (airlines) by the time we arrived even though we came in a day early but they were swell and tracked them down for me and got them to the ship. They also offered a free tuxedo rental for the formal if the clothes didn't make it.

[valandjerry]

We have sailed with Celebrity five times and number six and seven are coming up. We sailed with Princess once and will never go back, it had nothing to do with the ship, rather the people sailing on the ship. We were once on a ship that was later cancelled and we were very propfessionally and courteously transferred to another cruise of the same type and was also give OBC for our troubles as well as a credit for our airline transfers that had already been made. In our minds Celebrity is best. You are always going to find someone who likes to complain. Mainly, because I work with the public in retail, and they know that if they complain loud enough they will get what they want, todays business is so competitive that the customer is always right even if they are NOT. as the sayinf goes THE SQUEAKLY WHEEL GETS THE GREASE much to the dismay of the rest of us.

[Pontius Navigator]

Pre-cruise - we had no contact with Celebrity other than the cruise booklet nor did we need it. Our TA handled everything.

 

On the cruise almost all the departments gave excellent service and those that were slightly deficient did absolutely nothing to spoil what was a first-class ship and excellent itinerary.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[Leela]

I have booked eight cruises with Celebrity, and have taken five of them so far. All of them except for one were booked either onboard a Celebrity ship or through Celebrity.com.

 

The only trip I had any pre-cruise customer service issues with was the one booked through the travel agency. I used a travel agency pushed by my airline's frequent flyer program so I could get 2,500 miles -- which I *never* got, but that was the least of the problems. Every time I had a question, I'd have to call the travel agency, and they would call Celebrity, and then a day or two later I'd get an answer. I basically got more, and better, help through the boards here at Cruise Critic than I did from the agency! For instance, our cruise docs never arrived, and I kept calling and emailing the travel agency in a panic, and rather than telling me "don't worry, just bring your ID -- you are in the computer, it's basically like an airline e-ticket" they just got all huffy and said "well, we emailed them to you already." Well, I never got the darn things. My husband at the time ran an email service, and is a VERY tech-savvy person, and he checked all our blocking lists and spam filters etc. and never could find any record at all that we had received an email from the travel agency. We went back and forth with this several times while my distress increased. Finally I asked here on Cruise Critic, and someone told me not to worry, it would be fine, I could just show up with my ID and I could get bag tags at the pier. There were other things besides that made me never want to use that particular travel agency again (one thing was related to the agency randomly changing us from the Sky Suite we had booked to some other cabin, and then moving us back when I noticed and complained, and then trying to charge us more, and that took many phone calls and emails to fix). And then not getting the promised frequent flyer miles was just the crud at the bottom of the barrel.

 

On my other cruises, that I've booked through Celebrity.com, everything has gone perfectly. I enjoy being a do-it-myselfer when it comes to travel plans, and I very much like being able to log in to my reservation record at any time on the web site and see my payment record, etc.

 

Like the original poster, all my cruises have been simple -- no b2b, no Celebrity air, no custom air. However, there was one cruise that I booked that I had to change three times due to scheduling issues. Each time I needed to change it, I would call up the Captain's Club and they would make the change -- and then just a very few minutes later I could see the change reflected in my records on the Celebrity web site.

 

Another positive Captain's Club story I have is that I booked my parents on a Zenith trip to Bermuda, that became an Azamara Journey trip when Celebrity retired Zenith. My parents had some definite problems with the ship because their date ended up being only the 2nd or 3rd one for Journey. My parents had their issues worked out while on board, and also wrote a long note in their cruise survey about what had happened and how it was resolved. About two weeks after their cruise, someone from the Captain's Club emailed my father and asked him to call them. So he did, and they spent 45 minutes on the phone going over the various issues that my dad had mentioned (things like workmen needing to come into their room and tear out the ceiling tiles to repair heating/ventilation ducts, and that their sliding glass door kept popping off the tracks, etc). Afterwards, the Captain's Club representative thanked my father for his time, and said they would send a discount certificate to him and my mother.

 

Lo and behold, the certificate arrived as promised! And when my parents went to redeem it, they called Celebrity for instructions on what to do, followed them, and the credit was applied to the next cruise they were taking within a week.

 

So, my family has had nothing but positive experiences when dealing directly with Celebrity.

 

As for the travel agent thing: if you have a good one for cruises, know that this person is special, because there are a lot of fools out there who are basically order-takers and don't really know anything at all about cruising.

[ImpulsivePuppy]

Though it has been some years since our single Celebrity experience, they hold the gold medal in customer service compared to the others I have sailed on.

[shipshape sam]

We have had a good experience with Celebrity when we had an issue. Granted it was a big issue, but Customer Service jumped on it, called me to tell me what they would do, then called me to tell me then completed it.

 

I also watched Celebrity step up the the plate when a fellow passengers luggage did not make it to the port of embarkation and the ship sailed. Celebrity helped with some extra clothes, and cleaning till the luggage caught up with the ship, which was 3 days later.:)

[Longboysfan]

Though it has been some years since our single Celebrity experience, they hold the gold medal in customer service compared to the others I have sailed on.

 

Same here. From time to time as cruises come and go I have called Celebrity about ten times. Regular lines and Captains Club.

I have always gotten the information or answer I was looking for.

 

Additionally When I have written the line letters they always have followed up with a call right after that.

 

I can't say the same for Princess - They would be in the failure category.

HAL gets a passing grade.

[debkaysmith]

We booked a two week cruise one year in advance and shortly before we were to sail, found we had an issue with my husband's job situation. When we called Celebrity to reschedule, they found us a one-week cruise that fit our needs and moved everything around, with a bump to a suite included! Our airfare was transferred, our cruise docs redone, our pre-cruise hotel stay was changed over and all was concluded in one phone call. Thanks Celebrity!!!