C&A..please hire some high school kids

[cruzincurt]

We appreciate being C&A members, but.... we made it to Diamond in November, the web site shows our history but no credit, so when we got on the ship this week...still Platinum.

 

Simple, says C&A, call us the week before and we will fix it for your upcoming cruise. Did as directed, email to the ship promised...Nada.

 

Loyalty Ambassador on the ship says we're still Platinum in the comuputer, sorry.

 

He apologizes that they have been working on the software since last May...How about hire a couple of high schoolers to fix the software? No problem with adding fuel surcharges in "the software" overnight, but can't seem to fix the C&A cruise history software. Nothing like torking off the repeat customers.

[cruiserbryce]

completly agree!! A company the size of RC should have no problem getting this issue under control...we went on Liberty in May and weren't awarded the cruise credit for it until early September...it didnt affect our other cruises but still...kind of odd that something like this cant get resolved

[Cruiserccl]

LOL! I’m willing to work even though I’m in the 8th grade, as long as I get a discount for my next cruise! :D

[lulybellsea]

Apparently RCI has 3 computer systems that do not interface. 1) Reservations, 2) C & A, 3) Webpage. The RCI agent said the reservation system was antiquated and doesn't tie in with Crown & Anchor. That's why when making a reservation they have to ask for your C&A numbers, your address, etc., time and time again. I took a look at the screen the last time we made an onboard booking. It doesn't look like the software has been updated in 20 years.

[Nancynurse]

If you like, you can have the extra cruise credit that we received with their computer glitch. We were supposed to be Diamond after the cruise we just took, but for some reason with the glitch, we became Diamond four months early. Go figure...

 

Nancy

[cruzincurt]

Mega-million dollar ships, 10 cent software. Maybe they are just poor in picking software for ships and on land? On the cruise this week, the sail'n sign software was down for some time so all purchases had to be written by hand.

 

During the Q&A with the captain, he was asked what happens if the computers go down. His reply, "We still keep charts by hand in case but don't have any instruments to shoot the sun anymore."

 

LOL Maybe, they travel just over the horizon from the nearest land in case?

 

Now I know why I must give them my C&A member number, or enter it myself on the web site, have to ask for balcony discounts to be applied, have to "send" in C&A coupons, because nothing in their system is linked together.

 

 

But...On the Mariner, they have state-of-the art facial recognition software to sort out those hundreds of photos for you to buy. Go figure.

[ShillyShally]

The whole system screw up with our C&A status was the one thing that really irritated us too on our last cruise - granted we were only just Gold but we were looking forward to experiencing being C&A members - nope, I must have entered, double checked, called, triple checked and more and still nothing when we showed up and little help on board. Fortunately we snagged the coupon books from the front desk but no other perks or invites and only 1 of the 5 of us got the bag (I know I could have gone and tried to get all of us the bags but I didn't think they were worth getting 4 more of). It didn't change that we had a great time but it was an annoyance that shouldn't have occured!

[ckrobyn]

I feel your pain. If I had made it to Diamond and my status was not recognized on the ship....I would be pretty pissed :mad: Hope this works itself out very soon before it happens to more loyal Royal folks!!! Not nice.

[rclcruzer]

I feel your pain. If I had made it to Diamond and my status was not recognized on the ship....I would be pretty pissed :mad: Hope this works itself out very soon before it happens to more loyal Royal folks!!! Not nice.

I agree! I am getting hot under the collar just thinking about how mad we would be if that happened to us. That's just too much d*** money spent on one cruise line to reach that status and get screwed :mad::mad:

[CRUIZIN SUZAN]

Just wondering if anyone else is having continual problems with missing cruise credits or incorrect cruise history? I have been emailing C&A once a month since Nov. with the standard "we are looking into it-no need to reply" email. Well today, I have one that says:

 

Thank you for your recent e-mail. We apologize for any delay in our response.

Recently, the Crown & Anchor Society has implemented a new computer software

program. This change may cause some of your cruise history to reflect

inaccurately. We are working diligently to solve this problem and regret any

inconvenience this may cause.

 

We regret that we are unable to determine when the problem will be resolved.

Please allow additional time for our new program to update your cruise history.

 

Now I read that the software has been an issue since last MAY? How hard is it to link a booking# to a sailing date and manually update my cruise history. We missed out on the coupon books and extras on our sailing in Nov. because we did not sign up for the C&A society- unaware that we HAD to. On other lines, they KNOW past cruisers and there is nothing to sign up for, they just thank their past guests with freebies and coctail hours and discounts. Even when I now call C&A- the reservation dept. can verify by our past booking # that we did indeed sail on EOS Nov 07- so why can't they pass this info on to C&A? The Loyalty Ambassador aboard in Nov was not able to help us either after we were referred there by the Pursers desk. By time someone got back to us, there were 2 days left of the cruise, no coupons were offered, we missed the past guest coctail hour, etc. Now THAT cruise is not listed in our history. sigh.

 

I find it ironic that they can get the software up and running so quickly for the fuel surcharge info and update on their website, can facially recognize you from your Seapass in the photoshop, but can not even work interdepartmentally to give credit for past patronage. But on the upside- I just recieved my reimbursement check for the damaged luggage from our Nov sailing (minus the policy 25%) so that I can go buy a replacement for my nextg cruise. Yipee! THAT only took 4 calls and 6 months to resolve.

 

Thanks for letting me vent. I am just frustrated and find the time it is taking Royal Caribben and their semi-explanation and non commitment to when the issue will be resolved is kind of lame. Am I alone?

[CruisinMinnie]

Wow! I just found this thread. Not 10 minutes ago, I checked my cruise history/credits and found a cruise listed with no credit. I sent off an email right away. From what I have read here, it's not just me. For some reason that makes me feel better. I guess there's some comfort in knowing I'm not alone. But, I would really be upset if I was supposed to be diamond and was not credited correctly. Don't get me wrong, I still think that Royal Caribbean is a great cruise line, and will probably be booking another RCI cruise for January 2009. I just hope my credits are correct by then. :rolleyes:

[BPWJR]

Had to do the credits versus new level status tango for a few months before my recent Mariner cruise and I had the same message as above about the software. Got on ship and I had the right level, but my wife had not been moved up and we had been linked always in the past. We had my ship card with correct level and her C & A number, so we got her moved on-board - loyalty ambassador got her the right coupon book and all the other invites from then on were correct.

 

So, if you do not have right level showing, but credits are correct online, have your C & A number with you and try to get to loyalty ambassador on-board as soon as possible - did work for me.

[Mammado]

My C&A account (and Captain's Club) is so messed up it isn't funny. There is someone whose name is almost exactly the same as mine. When she joined C&A after me, they pulled up my account, updated my address and gave me her cruise credit, but left her married to my husband. I have been trying for two years to sort it out. I also have an extra cruise credit on Celebrity because of her. (I guess I'll keep that:D ). I told them that wasn't my cruise, they said it is now! It's impossible to remove them.

 

Then I asked when I would be able to access my C&A account on-line so that I could look at coupons. I was told that it could be six months to a year to get it sorted out. That the C&A system that they have does not update the website C&A system and that they don't know when the updates will happen. Luckily, my husbands account is fine and I can look up coupons, etc. that way.

 

The lady I spoke with said that she put notes into the system that my personal information should not be updated before full verification anymore. Unfortunately, the other person who almost shares my name, keeps calling in to fix her record also, but it's not her record it's mine!

[mckinna]

This is very worrisome. We've all been told to not worry about what the website shows, because RCI can still tell what the correct level is. I guess that is not so. After our next cruise in August, we'll be Diamond- hope they get it fixed by then! Our "cruise value" is 9 but our cruise credits remain at 7- the credits haven't been updated since our recent cruise, but the value column has? How can that happen? It is on the same page!

[JJ2sail]

My credits have never been right, but they did make me Platinum after I earned it, but it has never showed up in the credits. I think mine says I have 3! But it definately says I am Platinum on the website and on my seapass cards.:confused:

[yogimax]

Truly amazing that a corporation the size of RCCL cannot fix this simple computer problem that has existed for months on end.

 

My guess is that they outsourced their computer operations to a firm in Mumbai.

[BILL-WI]

Keep the Seapass card from each of your cruises in a safe place.

 

Keep a spreadsheet of all your cruises with the reservation number, ships name, date sailed, and your cabin number. Trust me, at some point you will be glad you have all the information...when C&A tells you..."We have no record of you on that ship in that cabin!:eek:

 

I Just received credit for a cruise I took 7 months ago! Well actually, I did not receive credit, but it does show up in my cruise history....but not in my cruise credit total! :(

 

Maybe next year the credits will be right?

 

BILL

[BILL-WI]

Truly amazing that a corporation the size of RCCL cannot fix this simple computer problem that has existed for months on end.

 

My guess is that they outsourced their computer operations to a firm in Mumbai.

 

I think they outsourced it to American Airlines!:eek: :eek: :eek:

 

BILL

[yogimax]

I think they outsourced it to American Airlines!:eek: :eek: :eek:

 

BILL

 

Yes, but American Airlines outsourced their computer operations to Mumbai!:D

 

Actually, Delta Airlines has outsourced their reservations to India. They actually train their agents to speak in a southern (USA) dialect!

[maitaiguy]

I see that this is an old thread from December but half the responses are today.

 

Earlier this week I was on the RCI website. On the Crown and Anchor page my cruises were listed correctly but my cruise credits were one less. I emailed them and got the canned reply that someone would get me an answer soon.

 

Beautiful ships, friendly staff and crummy, frustrating software. Unbelievable.

 

I'm sure that they understand that screwing up the cruise credits can lead to a really unsatisfying experience in the middle of an otherwise great vacation. Why don't they spend the dollars necessary to avoid ticking off their valuable repeat customers? It's bad for business.:rolleyes:

[pmfan]

My credits haven't been right for over two years. :eek: RC get with the program.:(

[Onessa]

RCCI does not have a committment to quality customer service. They are willing to "get by".

 

They talk about computer problems, and that their systems don't interface. This is simply a smoke-screen. To folks not in the IT industry, it is easy to blame the software. What the issue generally is is that the business (in this case RCCI) does not want to make certain business decisions so blames the software. If they knew what they wanted to do and committed to it -- there is no reason why a whole new "frequent cruiser" software system could not be designed, coded, tested and implemented in 9 to 12 months. I'm in market research and I've seen retailers build their own systems from the ground up in 8 or 9 months when they are committed to it.

[critterchick]

I have the opposite issue from most of the posters - RCI credits me with about 10 more cruise credits than I have. The last time I called C&A to get my DP amenity I went through the errors with the representative. She was certainly making plenty of noise typing away, so perhaps their records are now correct. My cruise history has vanished AGAIN from the website (it was MIA from May to October and has disappeared periodically since then), so I have no way of knowing what they've done to it.:mad:

[CruiseKeeper]

I have the opposite issue from most of the posters - RCI credits me with about 10 more cruise credits than I have. The last time I called C&A to get my DP amenity I went through the errors with the representative. She was certainly making plenty of noise typing away, so perhaps their records are now correct. My cruise history has vanished AGAIN from the website (it was MIA from May to October and has disappeared periodically since then), so I have no way of knowing what they've done to it.:mad:

 

Mine is AWOL again too. :mad: :rolleyes: :mad:

[The Flying Pirate]

I have had the same problem, I called them and got it fixed last year and I went and looked the other day. Is shows I am Platinum (which is correct) but it only shows 4 cruises (which is wrong) So you are not alone, I think it is part of the process to become diamond, you have to have 10 cruise credits and at least one major screw up with their computer system!

 

I agree they need to get that fixed!