Carnival Customer Service

[cruise missile]

I would like to start this letter by saying the cruising experience my family and I had aboard the Carnival Freedom the week of March 15, 2008 was wonderful. Actually, we were part of a group of neighborhood friends (a total of 54 people which consisted of 12 families) The overall experience was outstanding. While it was my family’s first cruise, it won’t be out last. As a matter of fact, all 54 are ready to go again for Spring Break in two years. We took off from Miami and went to Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Jamaica.

 

It was our 1st cruise. We didn't know what to expect. Some of the others with us had gone on cruises, so we took their cue on most things.

 

 

The rooms were fine. Had an ocean view which was cool.

 

 

The staff were friendly. We had 29 children (ages 5 - 17) with us. At dinner, they took care of the children and entertained them and had them served and out of the dining room before our appetizers were served. They did a great job.

 

 

The meals were good. Some of our party said they had the same items on the menu which was the 1st time that happened to them. I liked it and they did a good job accommodating our large party.

 

The entertainment shows were fun. Lots of work by the dancers and band. Good job by them.

 

 

A few times the bar service around the ship was lacking. I went once and a couple other guys went at other times to get served because no one was walking around to serve us drinks. I stood at the bar for a while and was not served.

 

The ports were great. Laughed hard in Cozumel. Grand Cayman was relaxing. Jamaica was fun. Did the Dunn's River Tubing and waterfall "hike". Got pics of all of it.

 

 

I would like to share with you one huge disappointment that I experienced on the last night of the cruise, (March 21, 2008). After another great dinner, my husband and I (along with several of the other neighborhood cruisers) proceeded to the 10:30pm show (comedian) in the Victoriana Lounge. As we entered the room, (approximately 10:15pm), the final call to purchase BINGO cards was being announced. The grand prize was a 7 day cruise for 2 or $1,000 cash. A few of us decided at the last moment to purchase a BINGO card. I had not played BINGO in years. In fact, the last time I remember playing we used little red “tiddly winks” to cover the numbers. As it was, my husband was one of the last to be able to purchase a card. The game immediately started. About half way thru the number callouts, I began to tear off the numbers on my card, so I could see which numbers had been called out. Bottom line, I eventually was the first person to call out BINGO, but when the employee came over to verify it, I was told my card was INVALID because I had not followed the rules, by tearing my BINGO card. The lady calling the numbers scolded us by saying, “I told you not to tear your card……how many heard me saying don’t tear your card?!” The whole audience raised their hands. She may have said that for the people who played BINGO all night or on previous nights of the cruise, but in the 3 minutes we sat there, she did not give any instructions. They continued to play the game, and awarded the GRAND prize to another player (a football player who was picked out of the crowd the first night to perform in one of their on-stage skits). I was very upset and devastated. The remainder of the cruise was not enjoyable. I didn’t sleep the entire last night as I continued to replay this experience over and over in my head knowing I had just missed out on $1000 cash.

 

Upon my return home, I did contact the guest relations department on March 26 to log my complaint with the BINGO game. On March 27, guest relations supervisor, ______________________, and I spoke also. It was after my conversation with her that I felt compelled to share my experience with you. First off, my original request was to merely have my account credited for the $20.00 BINGO fee due to the following reasons:

1. My husband and I entered the Victoriana Lounge just minutes before the game started and didn't hear all the earlier verbal announcements made by the Carnival employee about not tearing the BINGO card or it would be invalid. I shouldn’t be held responsible for an announcement made when I was not present to hear it.

2. Each BINGO card has a preprinted serial number on it; therefore, there should be a computerized record of what numbers are preprinted on the card, for verification.

3. If the rule about not tearing the BINGO card is that critical, there should be written instructions preprinted on each BINGO Card. This rule should not be left to a verbal announcement, which requires people to be in the room for the announcement and be fully paying attention, rather than conversing with a cocktail waitress at the time, etc.

4. Again, if this rule is so critical, it should be in writing on the large screen projector that is used to call out the BINGO numbers.

 

Long story short, after a lengthy and at times very unpleasant discussion with _______________, she agreed that the above recommendations for putting this in writing would be good and agreed to refund my $20.00 BINGO refund.

 

I would like to share a few points about the unpleasant discussion that did take place prior to _________________ actually listening to my recommendations listed above. At one point when she was refusing to grant my $20.00 refund, I pointed out that there were 54 people in my party who are planning on cruising again for Spring Break 2010, and perhaps we would be better off trying another cruise line, since this Carnival was so inflexible. (Also, it could be more families since we live in a community with over 800 families and many have children in the same age range and had indicated they would like to go next time). She stated that was OK if we felt we needed to do that. I pointed out the bottom line was that the 12 families spent on average $8,000 per family and she was willing to let that business walk away over a $20.00 refund. She said yes. I then asked her if the CEO of Carnival would agree with that business decision, if I asked him. She immediately informed me that the CEO “doesn't talk to customers". I was astounded at that reply. I reminded her that Carnival was in the service industry and I couldn’t believe that a CEO of a company in the service industry (or for that matter, any industry) doesn’t talk to customers. I then stated OK, but asked who was under the CEO that would talk to a customer. She stated she was as high as I could go. She wouldn’t even give me her supervisor’s name.

 

It was at this point when I asked her to just listen to my recommendations listed above. She then stated that she would check into this and call me back within 24 hours. About 30 minutes later, she returned my call and informed me they were good recommendations and I would be receiving my $20.00 credit.

 

I doubt we choose Carnival again.

[Tapi]

Are you the same person that posted a few days ago (but with a different name) about missing out on the bingo for tearing up the middle number? I'm just wondering if there's a trend and changes are indeed in order.

 

I'm glad that they refunded your $20 for the bingo cards. I'm in no way saying that the supervisor is right for not treating you properly. Everybody deserves a certain level of respect. However, from working in the service industry I know that there are legitimate complaints and then there are bogus complaints. The supervisor's job is to weed those out. I'm assuming that the supervisor maybe had classified yours as a bogus complaint (which in my humble opinion, before knowing all the details, sounded bogus), but after reading the whole thing, I actually could understand how it happened and I sympathize with you.

 

With that said, I wouldn't stop cruising on Carnival , or any other cruise line for one problem (which in this case snowballed). It seemed like you had a great time, which was unfortunately tarnished by a few minutes at the bingo game.

[mics pics]

Tapi, yes, it's the same post. Just with the addition in different type on the bottom.

[Mikel1733]

Whats the point of starting this all over again?

[fllady]

Sorry about your experience and loosing out on the winning card,:( but rules are rules and you are lucky that they are refunding your cost. To also let you know every cruiseline has the same rules and of course they cannot tell every individual the same thing over and ovr again. I don't know what I would have done in your place, but I wouldn't let it ruin your other cruises, as you said the cruise was so nice for the whole family. Maybe try another cruiseline. Did you write a letter to the CEO, DH said to keep trying, be polite in your words and you might get OBC for your next cruise. Good luck.:)

[DebBrown]

Whats the point of starting this all over again?

And what's the point of using a different name? Didn't this get pulled before? No use beating a dead horse here!

[marty30907]

Yep, same person with another name. Guess she was not happy the other post get zapped!

 

Still gives no credence since she did not obey the rules.

[murcielago]

Hello there, I was actually one of the ones that felt sorry for what happened to you with the Bingo situation; however, you do not have to keep posting the same thing over and over.

Have a nice day

[Blackchips Ahoy]

Example of personal responsibility or lack thereof. I feel sorry for the children involved because the lesson of personal responsibility has gone right out the port hole.:confused: What a shame.

 

 

:: prune here ::

[skylock]

While I agree she was not entitled to win, she does make some valid points. It should be printed on the card and up on the screen.

 

You could not pay me to play bingo on a cruise, but I have been in the lounge when it was starting up. I agree they are very lax at giving the rules lots of times esp with the free cruise game as free cruise seems to be every other word and if you are not paying strict attention, you could miss the part about not tearing the cards with all the other crap they are saying. And since it is so important, that should be the last thing they say before the first number is called.

[cruise missile]

Just to clear things up.....

Yes, Kruze Miss Aisle and Cruise Missile are the same person. It is I. I submitted the 1st post Tuesday. I checked on it Thursday. It was deleted. I emailed the board and they said it got "too hostile" so they had to do that. Not sure what was all said, because I didn't see any of it. I thought when it was "deleted" my account was deleted. I re-registered as Kruze Miss Aisle and the moderator said do a comprehensive review of the cruise and re-post it. I didn't know I could do it under the same name. Nothing nefarious. Just a newbie on posting.

I submitted it again because the first was gone, not to "whine again". A friend, who has cruised over 100 times, said go here and tell my story. It's read by many people and they may be interested in what happened. They couldn't read it if it was deleted, so I did it again - not to beat a dead horse.

Yes, the cruise was fun. Yes, we will cruise again. No problems w/ cruising. If we didn't play BINGO that night, you'd never hear from me. If the customer service rep would have researched our story, you wouldn't have heard from me. When told the cards needed the printed "rules", she said they already did. We weren't looking for any OBC for the next cruise. Nothing free. Just wanted them to realize word of mouth may not be the best idea. What if I was deaf or hard of hearing? They put the game being played on the screen (it was a diagonal X in our case). They put the number just pulled on the screen. They put the numbers that had been pulled as a yellow highlighted number. What if I couldn't understand the person due to her heavy accent? To play the game, I didn't need to hear. I could do it all by seeing the screen. Not sure what personal responsibility has to do w/ this. We played. They had rules. We didn't know the rules. Now we do. We learned. Our children are fine. Thanks for being concerned about them.

The "guts" of this post were a letter being mailed to Micky Arison, Chairman & CEO Carnival Cruise Line. I would not have mailed the letter if the customer service rep handled it differently. I would not have posted, either. We didn't ask him for anything other than print the rules. We weren't rude when it happened. We didn't swear at anyone or raise our voice. We were polite. The letter was polite.

I wanted people to read this and make a determination if they would choose Carnival. Power of association. Free will.

[freebsmom]

I too was on that cruise and had a wonderful, fabuluous time. Yes, we played bingo all week and yes, we heard over and over and over again not to rip the card. Rules are rules and just because you arrived late and didn't listen doesn't make it Carnival's fault. You made your point! I certainly wouldn't let this incident stop me (or my friends, neighbors & family) from every cruising Carnival again. If you decide not too well then so be it. You'll be missing out on a WONDERFUL CRUISE LINE!

[DebBrown]

Thanks for clarifying. There tend to be a lot of "first timers" that love to just get things stirred up at times.

 

I'm glad to hear that this will not stop you from cruising again and I'm glad to hear that all in all you had a good trip. :)

[momofzeke]

cruise missil, thanks for coming back and clearing things up. I guess it's just hard to believe that a person would choose not to cruise a whole fleet of ships based on a BINGO game mixup. :confused: To each his/her own, though. I hope you enjoy your next cruiseline.

[CanTex]

As I posted in your earlier thread, I'm generally sympathetic to what happened to you. There should be a single announcement about the "no tearing" rule immediately before the games starts. Maybe that happened and you simply didn't hear it or pay attention. Or maybe it didn't happen, at least not immediately before the game started. In my opinion, the refund of your card cost is a reasonable compromise in such a dispute.

 

However, if you write to MA and happen to state that you will never cruise on Carnival again (or threaten that), don't expect them to do much more for you. They'll have already concluded that they've lost you as a future customer, so not much point in continuing to try to please you. If your letter was friendly and conciliatory, then don't be surprised if you get a future cruise discount letter in return... then you'll have an interesting choice to make!