Do you note poor service on comment cards?

[flagger]

I was reading recent reviews which mention poor service by dining staff and/or stateroom attendants and many of them stated that they did not say anything or note anything on the comment cards because they would not want someone punished or to lose their jobs. This struck me as interesting.

 

Why would anyone want someone who provided poor service to continue to do so to other passengers? There are some people who are not cut out for certain lines of work and there is no way management can know unless people report poor service. You are not responsible for someone losing their jobs, the person providing poor service is. I have noted good service and poor service and will continue to do so. I feel those that don't are doing their fellow cruisers a disservice as well as management who could institute more training or perhaps separate the wheat from the chaff.

[Gonzo70]

I would not be afraid to doucment poor service. Mediocre service I would probably let pass as I do not want to be responsible for possibly having someone demoted/fired if they just had an off week, but I would not excuse poor service. That said, my fiance tends to snag the comment cards before I get the chance and she is a bit more of a harsh critic than me!

[Longboysfan]

I would only on the # given in the rating card.

 

If I felt strongly about it I may talke to the Mater'd. Last time I did that it was the Servers first week as a waiter after getting promo from Bus boy.

I left it alone.

 

On the reverse side I always say something nice if the bus person is really good. Helps them advance.

[flagger]

We actually got the "excellent" speech on our second cruise on Infinity. We were told that anything less than excellent was cause for training and or demotion. Our stateroom attendant was less than excellent and we noted that.

 

Again they are hired to be on every week, week in and week out. I do not excuse someone for having a bad week and I feel in no way responsible for their demotion or firing. Yes, I had bad weeks in my prior life but did not take it out on my employer or clients. Sometimes you have to suck it up and put on a happy face.

[usha]

When our waiter made a very rude comment to my husband on the first night of a 10nt cruise, my husband simply went to the Maitre D and asked if we could be changed to a different waiter's table. Believe me, the Maitre D wanted to know what the waiter did. We got another table with a terrific waiter, and the rude waiter became an assistant waiter for the rest of that cruise. Sometimes, you don't have to mess with comment cards.:cool:

[NorCalCruiseGuy]

I was reading recent reviews which mention poor service by dining staff and/or stateroom attendants and many of them stated that they did not say anything or note anything on the comment cards because they would not want someone punished or to lose their jobs. This struck me as interesting.

 

Why would anyone want someone who provided poor service to continue to do so to other passengers? There are some people who are not cut out for certain lines of work and there is no way management can know unless people report poor service. You are not responsible for someone losing their jobs, the person providing poor service is. I have noted good service and poor service and will continue to do so. I feel those that don't are doing their fellow cruisers a disservice as well as management who could institute more training or perhaps separate the wheat from the chaff.

 

I agree with you completely. If you don't comment about poor service, it will just continue.

I guess I'm not sure where this notion of not reporting bad service because the person might have to have additional training, be reprimanded, demoted or fired has come from. It only promotes bad service.

If you've ever managed and supervised employees, you probably know this all too well.

[Lois R]

When our waiter made a very rude comment to my husband on the first night of a 10nt cruise, my husband simply went to the Maitre D and asked if we could be changed to a different waiter's table. Believe me, the Maitre D wanted to know what the waiter did. We got another table with a terrific waiter, and the rude waiter became an assistant waiter for the rest of that cruise. Sometimes, you don't have to mess with comment cards.:cool:

 

Wow..Usha...that must have been some nasty comment:(

 

Glad you said something!.....I had a problem with one of the wait

staff when I sailed on Constellation. This happened in Cova. I also had to bring it to

the appropriate person's attention. I was so taken aback

by the attitude it took me a few hours to realize how upset it actually

had made me:eek:

I think that was the only time something like that has happened. (thankfully)!

[Lois R]

Usha, thanks:o

 

And that comment to your hubby must have been way out of

line too.....

 

Those 2 instances are definitely out of the norm.

[usha]

Absolutely, freak incidents! We've been blessed to have so many incredible waiters & assistants, wine stewards, cabin stewards, bar staff on Celebrity; there's bound to be a jerk or two that pops up somewhere (briefly).:D

[hajekfam]

Yes, I would report consistently bad service in the comment card with details. I have done so in the past with one waiter who was extremely arrogant. On our next cruise, we saw him as a busboy (that is what asst waiters were called back then).

[SusieV]

I have to confess that we didn't on our honeymoon when our stateroom attendant was just terrible. She not only was not "excellent", she actively made our vacation worse.

 

My husband still wanted to give her the regular tip and not say anything, so I went along with it until we got home and there were huge minibar charges and missing towels/robes (that we did not drink or take) added to my credit card. That was the last straw so when I called Celebrity to dispute the charges, I told them the whole story.

 

I don't know what happened to her but I hope she wasn't allowed to continue dampening other people's vacations.

[Desertbelle]

I will always report poor or even mediocre service. I am not impressed with the Excellent pleas of the staff, in my mind, if you want an excellent, you'd better be excellent.

 

I plan on doing a lot of cruising in the future and I want my cruising experience to remain great. If people are too afraid to let the powers that be know about bad or mediocre service that will only make cruising less and less special. A team is only as good as their weakest player.

[Muushka]

We had heard how great the wait staff on X was, so I was very surprised that our assistant waiter was less than friendly, and not that great a waiter to boot. Except for the last night when suddenly, he was friendly and actually remembered that I had iced tea with dinner. I had to ask every single night prior. Wanting a good tip :confused::rolleyes::eek:?

 

I can understand when while working there is 1 bad day. But rude comments (not my waiter, he wouldn't even talk to me!) and poor service for 5 nights is unacceptable. I did comment on the card AND I gave a portion of his tip to the main server, who was nice and made every attempt to be a good waiter.

[tuggers]

I address the situation wth the proper person, saying how disappointed I am, etc, etc. If that doesn't correct things then I have no problem mentioning it on the comment card. Why should the next person sailing suffer poor service like I did. Better to do something about it.

[geoherb]

One of our tablemates spoke to the maitre d' after the first night's dinner service was a disaster. Our table had a great new waiter for the rest of the cruise.

 

I hate the "excellent" speech. On one Princess cruise, one of the assistant maitre d's had a toque with "Everything Excellente!" printed on it. Not everything was excellent about our waiters on that cruise. It was not to the point that we complained, but I did not give them excellents across the board on the comment card.

[Steamboatin]

I address the situation wth the proper person, saying how disappointed I am, etc, etc. If that doesn't correct things then I have no problem mentioning it on the comment card. Why should the next person sailing suffer poor service like I did. Better to do something about it.

 

Wife did the same thing on our only Celebrity cruise. The Department Head called her as the problem was passed up to him through the chain of command. She stated the the problem and provided him with the name of the employee. He told the wife that the employee will be immediately disciplined by him once he got off of the phone.

 

We both mentioned it in our respective comment cards as well.

[djquog]

When filling out the comment card on our recent Connie cruise, I remembered that the table number we were given, was not the table we actually used. On the first night, we were directed to our table area and then the waiter in that area could not find our table for 2 and gave us another table. This perhaps was a clue that we would experience the only bad dining room service we've had on 8 cruises. To make sure my comments on the service did not go to the wrong waiter, I went to the dining room and asked to speak with an assist. maitre d' to find out the number of our table. I could not zip my lips and told him we gave up eating in the San Marco because we could find other areas to eat on the ship at night. Going through the problems with this waiter spoiled the fun of dinner. I was embarrassed to complain, but I agree, management needs to know about problems and I did write about the service on the comment card.Jan

[willy paul]

My atttude is that you get what you give. I will overlook a bad day, we have all had them, but no more than one. The excellent speech goes in one ear and out the other. I tip and score based on what you did not what you want. In some cases I will deal with the problem immediately and other times I will wait for the comment card. It depends on the circumstances. I also reward for excellent service with additional tips and special praise on the comment card.

[Mr. Mudd]

I do put things down on the comment cards but in my opinion they are just there for your personal entertainment. I think the cards only purpose is to make the passenger feel that someone is listening and that is all. When you consider how many Celebrity ships sail every week of the year, I think you have to ask yourself how many employees it would take to read all those comment cards. Even if they did, what would they do with all of those comments after they did read them?

 

Oddly enough my only personal problem with any crew member on any cruise line was also on a Celebrity ship. I did note it on the comment card and was promised that I would receive a call about the matter from corporate. That was over a year ago and still no call; lets just say I am not hanging by the phone waiting anymore!

[Schplinky]

I was reading recent reviews which mention poor service by dining staff and/or stateroom attendants and many of them stated that they did not say anything or note anything on the comment cards because they would not want someone punished or to lose their jobs. This struck me as interesting.

 

Why would anyone want someone who provided poor service to continue to do so to other passengers? There are some people who are not cut out for certain lines of work and there is no way management can know unless people report poor service. You are not responsible for someone losing their jobs, the person providing poor service is. I have noted good service and poor service and will continue to do so. I feel those that don't are doing their fellow cruisers a disservice as well as management who could institute more training or perhaps separate the wheat from the chaff.

 

Yours is an interesting question. Like you, we have been told by staff that they are generally held responsible for areas outside their control, owing to the comment cards. For instance, when we went on Constellation, our waiter said that when we comment on the quality of the food, he is held responsible because if something had not pleased us, he should have intuited that and found us something to our liking. I find this unfair for a couple of reasons. First, sometimes a plate was not particularly good but I would not have cared enough to say or would not have wanted to hold up my party's service by requesting a replacement. In reality, I thought that while the food itself was well prepared, that the variety of food offered was lacking and repetitive. If I had noted this and the waiter had been held responsible, that would have been incredibly unfair.

 

I asked recently, on Brilliance of the Seas, how to comment on the variety of food offered without it being a reflection of the waiter and was told the best thing to do is to write comments in the comments area, to give a more nuanced message to staff (as opposed to a 1-5 ranking).

[Schplinky]

Another note about this: I have difficulty with the whole excellent, speech, too. It is mindlessly parroted in a way that says we're really not meant to interact with staff meaningfully. I dislike any prescribed response when it gets in the way of sincere interaction.

 

Another issue I have is that while I would like to deal directly with a problem when it arises, sometimes it's simply not that black and white. Our waiter on Constellation was not very friendly and it "felt"" as though he really did not "feel" as though he needed to be as pleasant to a table of 6 men as he would to a mixed table. I say "feel" because that what it was. Did he bring food? Yes. Did he ask if it was ok? Yes. Was there any warmth and sincerity in the way he served us? It didn't feel like it but how do you quantify that? Certainly, his service could have been improved by a few more warm exchanges but I am at a loss to explain that someone could have been friendlier, at the risk of getting them in trouble, when they've not done anything wrong in particular. Now, I'm at a crossroads. While the server is doing what he is supposed to, in my opinion, he has not provided excellent service. Which of the 5 boxes do we check now?

[dkjretired]

Another note about this: I have difficulty with the whole excellent, speech, too. It is mindlessly parroted in a way that says we're really not meant to interact with staff meaningfully. I dislike any prescribed response when it gets in the way of sincere interaction.

 

Another issue I have is that while I would like to deal directly with a problem when it arises, sometimes it's simply not that black and white. Our waiter on Constellation was not very friendly and it "felt"" as though he really did not "feel" as though he needed to be as pleasant to a table of 6 men as he would to a mixed table. I say "feel" because that what it was. Did he bring food? Yes. Did he ask if it was ok? Yes. Was there any warmth and sincerity in the way he served us? It didn't feel like it but how do you quantify that? Certainly, his service could have been improved by a few more warm exchanges but I am at a loss to explain that someone could have been friendlier, at the risk of getting them in trouble, when they've not done anything wrong in particular. Now, I'm at a crossroads. While the server is doing what he is supposed to, in my opinion, he has not provided excellent service. Which of the 5 boxes do we check now?

 

 

 

I would and have reported problems but I am not going to nit-pick every little thing. Interesting that a couple of the waiters told me of one of the ways of rewarding good behavior. He stated those waiters getting good comments have table closer to the kitchen doors. Less lugging of trays, etc. Makes sense and answers the question of where to ask for a table to get the best service other than the Captains table.

[usha]

Hmmmm, hadn't thought of that, Don. It does make sense, though.

Thanks!:)

[greeneg]

My solution to this is to try and comment fairly, on the comment cards, as best I can, both positive and negatives. When we get home, I write a letter to management detailing what my wife and my observations were and highlighting those individuals who either pleased us or the converse.

 

I have been told several times, both by letter and phone response, that those comments are invariably forwarded to the ship and the employees concerned as well as their supervisors.

 

I really think that Management does read that sort of comment and does take it into consideration.

[djquog]

Our experience of a tabel for 2 near the kitchen doors after two cruises with these tables led us to a different supposition. We like some of these tables because they are near the entrance and a little less ship motion for me. One waiter was outstanding and he told us he was asked to come on the Constellation for our cruise because they were short staffed. On our cruise just ended we had terrible service. It's hard to believe this waiter was experienced and truly understood English. We are not picky people, have few requests and have never sent back a dish and always gave extra in the envelope. Not this cruise. To our steward and assistant we did. I've read glowing comments on the service on this cruise, but after two previous cruises on the Constellation last year, we don't agree. I think the food staff at times was not well supervised compared to last year. We saw tables in the buffet and Aqua Spa area sitting with dirty dishes for long periods and two or more waiters in the buffet chatting in groups and not offering tray help. I've read comments that the staff worked extra hard because of the extra cleaning measures. One of our Constellation cruises last year was truly a "Bleach" cruise that appeared much more labor intensive than this just completed cruise and the service in all areas was outstanding. None of this spoiled our wonderful cruise and we booked for next year.

 

Jan