MSC? 2nd, 3rd and 4th thoughts

[MrsLeo]

I entered with an open mind that MSC was neither better or worse than any other cruise line, but it was just different. Well it has certainly been different. I did my homework. Read all the reviews I could get my hands on, went to their website and finally found a nice 18 day transatlantic cruise leaving from Genoa and ending in Fort Lauderdale in November.

I called my TA and she went to work getting me pricing. She called back a while later and I told her to go ahead and book it. My sister was interested in booking the same cruise but wanted a suite,so she called MSC directly they informed her none of the suites were quads, then she asked how much for a category 10 which happened to be the same category we chose, well the price just happened to be $700 less if you booked directly with MSC. My sister went ahead and requested a courtesy hold on that cabin under my name. So now I have two bookings, one is deposited and booked through my TA and the other is on courtesy hold and booked directly with the Cruise Line.

 

I call my TA and inform her for some reason MSC is charging me $700 more when booking through her, than if I call them directly. We are both pretty annoyed by this. She's frustrated for obvious reasons and I am ticked because I really love my TA and dont like seeing her get hosed by a cruise line. Not to mention the fact they are trying to relieve me $700 of my hard earned money. I immediately email Rick Sasso, President of MSC.

In the meanwhile my TA is contacting MSC to try and find out why they are basically undercutting her. They have no explanation. Then they are determined to make life as difficult as possible for us. They refuse to change the price on the deposited reservation, forcing us to cancel the first booking and then wait for their accounting people to transfer the deposit over to the new booking, then we have to transfer that reservation over to my Travel Agent, which took three faxes and 4 phone calls to follow up and ensure they got the paperwork. Because they refused to take a verbal order to move the reservation over to my TA like every other cruise line on the planet would have. Everytime I would call to confirm they got the faxes the guy on the phone would inform me how busy he was and that he would call me back sometime... After dealing with the lunatics running the asylum at MSC I am contacted by one of Rick Sasso's "people" This gal has no business working in any form of customer service. She had an attitude and a very unprofessional manner. She was reluctant to take ownership for any of the negative things that had transpired and made lots of very poorly thought out excuses. She then told me that she had taken care of moving the reservation over and transferring the reservation over to my TA which was BS, because my TA and I spent the better part of the day doing it ourselves, because no one at MSC would care for the situation they created without making us jump through all sorts of hoops.

At this point I am really starting to wonder if this is the sort of company I want to do business with. I exchanged a few emails with someone claiming to be Rick Sasso, I'm not sure if it was really him or someone responding to the MSC's hate mail that day. He claimed that MSC would never try to undercut a TA and it was some sort of pricing glitch /error etc... which I don't understand and no one was really able to explain it to me. Perhaps it was, why are they making me work so hard for their screw up if thats the case?

I asked for copies of the kid's program dailies on a transatlantic itinerary and a floorplan or photo's of the room we were staying in, since it is what is referred to as a "family cabin" and there are only two of them on this ship, and they do not have anything that really shows you the layout of the cabin on their own website. I also requested pricing on a another cruise in May 2009 which is advertised on their website, but when you called for pricing, it wasn't avalable. Rick Sasso (I think, a least that's who he claimed to be) emailed and promised me his minion Ms. Badittude would be following up with me on the requested information. Well days pass by with no word from anyone, so I dropped him a note asking when he thought I might be hearing from them. I then get an email from Ms. Badittude explaining that she was still trying to get the pictures of the cabin and the kid's club dailies for the transatlantic and she would be in touch the first of the following week which would have been the week of January 7th. Well on the 11th I email asking for an update since I still hadn't heard anything, no response. Then on the 14th, I basically said hey you must have enough business that you obviously don't need mine etc.. Then I get another email from Rick Sasso claiming that Clare is trying to get a copy of the kid's club dailies Transatlantic itinerary from their home office in Italy.

 

So finally yesterday I get an email that says: Attached please find photos of the family cabin onboard the Lirica and an example of the kid's program for a transatlantic sailing. OK I am no geography whiz but since when is Port Everglades, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Antigua, Tortola and the Dominican Republic considered a Transatlantic cruise? And why if she is in Miami did she need to contact Italy for that? I did get the pictures of the cabin and it was nice and roomy enough.

 

Ok now here's the kicker, They finally give my TA the pricing for the May 2009 cruise I asked about. If you go their website, and on any of their correspondence, even the emails I had gotten from Ms. Badittude it says in big bold letters:

ASK ABOUT OUR SPECIAL $100 DEPOSIT OFFER: ALL SHIPS, ALL SAILINGS, ALL ITINERARIES!

 

So then we come to find out this promotion ended at the end of the year, but they're still advertising it and not honoring it.

 

This was an amazing odyssey. I doubt very much that I will hang on to this reservation too terribly long.

[Carol Anne]

Hi, funny what they told you about the $100.00 deposit. We just booked the April 25th sailing to Bermuda with only the $100.00 each deposit. Sounds like they don't have their act together thats for sure. I'm amazed that you are still sailing with them, I wouldn't have put up with all that nonsence thats for sure. If you do sail hope you have a great time though.

[MistyMoo]

I am not surprised you had problems with their accounting department. My friend went on an MSC Mediterranean cruise last fall. Before she went, I called MSC in the US to pay for some on-board credit for her as a gift. MSC charged my credit card, but my friend never received the on-board credit. While I was able to get a refund on my credit card, that only happened when we disputed the charge. MSC did not give me an explanation as to why the on-board credit was not applied to my reservation. They didn't apologize either.

 

To top it off, my friend did not even enjoy the cruise. We will not be doing business with MSC.

[owl61]

If you spend a little time reading about MSC on these threads your experience should come as no surprise.