Had poor service?? do you still tip, if so... WHY

[cruiserforlife]

I personally think It'd be impossible not to receive minimum quality service to warrant the $10/pp daily tip requirement.These people work very hard for their money and anyone who would try to stiff the help is just plain cheap and shouldn't be cruising in the first place.

 

At times the service may not be "five star" but it has never in my experience,been below my level of expectation and we travel and stay and eat at some of the finest establishments known to mankind.

 

I'm willing to accept some people may not be having a "great" day and when you sign up for a six month (or longer) shift with these cruiselines and work basically day & night for practically the whole term,some bad days are going to occur.

[woodofpine]

I think there is NOTHING wrong with adjusting the tip account. I've done it downwardly only once or twice; usually the crew earns every penny and then some. But if an adjustment is necessary - it needs to done intelligently. If done intelligently, it will improve service. Otherwise, it will be perceived as being just cheap.

 

I've almost always done traditional dining so I've rarely suffered in terms of dining service. Cabin stewards have varied. If one element of service has seriously dropped the ball then adjust that element only. The crew watches these things closely. Hotel management watches the comment cards closely. If a particular steward team for instance is not pulling in their coin - those other crew members will exert peer pressure.

[jennat]

We were on the recent 5 (4) day sailing of the Car. Princess and had the most horrendous service you can imagine (more on this see roll call for 9/25). I still tipped the same amount. I guess I look at the tips now as part of the price of a cruise. I always tip extra to my steward and waiters. I brought the cash to tip extra but took it home with me. Couldn't see myself rewarding that kind of service. There are a lot of letters going out to Princess with regards to that week. It will be interesting to see how much they care.

 

jen

[cruiserforlife]

jennat,

 

When you say "horrendous service",what specifically do you mean?

Room steward,dining room,front desk,etc?

[jennat]

You should check out the roll call for this ship to be stunned, but as an example.....an older gentleman was asking (politely) where the oj was. He was told in the buffet. He asked why it wasn't with the other drinks and was told "I guess if you want it bad enough you will walk to the buffet and get it, if not (shrug)."

We were hounded to buy alcholic drinks (it was obvious they got to keep the tips) and had rude looks and even eyes rolled when we ordered coke.

I hardly ever saw my waiter one night. We had a free bottle of wine and he did not get ANY drinks for the others in the party. There was no assist waiter. He never checked to see if we liked everything. Just dropped it off and got out of there.

Several complaints about the DJ in Club Fusion, "if you don't like the music leave" and "you F****** thirty year olds always ask for the same f****** song" (this happened to others).

Ten deep in line to use restrooms and the steward was cleaning and blocking the stall (not that big of a deal, just another example)

One of our group was made to cry at the service desk over something that was later told to her that it was no big deal.

MOstly just complete apathy. Everyone has examples but you just felt like either the staff had somewhere else to be or had total disdane for you. I just feel like the cruise lines "sell" the concept of service and I would have been a little bent out of shape on land.

I feel like I am being rather negative and hate that. We had a good cruise (like I state earlier...in spite of Princess). I just feel like I was sold a bag of goods. Especially, when you come back and find out every thought the same thoughts you were having. It makes you resentful. I'm sure that every other Princess experience is fantastic.....does that make it alright?

 

Sorry,

Jen

[margaritawoman]

We have never experienced bad service on Princess but this past June on another cruiseline we had bad service in the dining room and our room steward was not up to parr. We just put up with our waiter/server. I did however go to the pursers desk to tell them I would be changing the tip (something we have never done in 15 cruises) if our steward did not step up and do a better job. He must have gotten in trouble because he came to us and said he would try to do a better job. He made excuses saying he had been given to many cabins to keep up with. The pursers desk and the Hotel staff called several times to see if things had improved. They also sent us a nice bottle of wine as a gift. We did not lower our tip amount but we did not give more than the expected amount either.

 

I do think that service has gone down since tips are added to your ship board account we can tell a difference. I like the fact you don't have to come up with cash at the end of our cruise. I don't know if it's a good idea to tip someone before the service is given. We will be leaving on the Sun in 7 days.

We can't wait!

[getaway101]

We have never experienced bad service on Princess or Holland American. When we went HA they didn't have automatic tipping on your account they left it up to you. On P as you know, it's charged to your account. Still it totally amazes me the amount of people who don't show up in the dining room the last night so they won't have to tip any extra.

 

We loved our room steward on P and every port he would tell us where to go and what to see. Always brought him back a little something each port plus an extra tip and end. He loved the macadamia nuts in Costa Rica!

[cruiserforlife]

jennat,

 

WOW,sounds horrible!

 

We have noticed the rather pushy drink servers in the past and service that was not terrific but nothing like you encountered.

[jennat]

Like I said, we had a good cruise and did not let it ruin it for us. It is just something I hope doesn't happen again to us or anyone else. Venus must have been out of alignment with Jupiter :D

Only positive thoughts!

(I'll try :p )

Jen

[katisdale]

I leave the auto-tip on since I am not cleaning the toilet, making the beds, nor cooking and serving the food. However if the service is poor I would not give anything extra. I had the world's best room steward last May on the Royal. Maria was from Mexico and on her own noticed that I might find a shower chair useful. She offered to get me one (I have had lots of knee surgery and limp and am a little unsteady) and really saved me from a possible fall when the ship got a little rocky one evening. I don't think this type of service can be taught. She observed and acted on her observations. She was not assigned to suites, she was a steward for the "regular" cabins. Princess should attempt to clone her and others like her. I also think it must be horribly difficult to have to smile when people berate you. I had a tablemate on the Independence (old ship many years ago) who always sent her food back. The waiter never said a word. I could not have done it.

[bobbie0253]

I have a question.

 

We have never cruised Princess (just RCCL) how do you "tip extra" with automatic tipping?

 

Do they have envelopes still available? Or do you contact the Pursers desk?

 

I am hoping we will be using the extra tip money set aside for great service :)

 

Bobbie

[sueandkent]

The problem arrises that with auto-tipping unless you confront the person whom you feel did not offer the service level you expected they will never really know if it was them or someone else (your dinner watier etc.) that provided the poor service. If it was manual tipping then that person would be aware of their poor performance when no tip showed up at the end of the cruise.

Sue

[bdjam]

We always tip in person. So, we will be asking to have the auto tip removed from our cruise in January. We feel we want to look in the eyes those that have served us and thank them verbally and with the tip. We have no hesistation in loowering or raising tips. If the service was truly bad then a word to the supervisor shoud do it.

Please know that removing the auto-tip means that personal tips are put into the pool and the recipient gets only a percentage of what you give. If you leave the auto tip on your account, then that amount goes into the pool and the recipient gets all you give him.

 

Handing the money to them personally and removing the auto tip doesn’t do a thing for their bottom line…

The problem arrises that with auto-tipping unless you confront the person whom you feel did not offer the service level you expected they will never really know if it was them or someone else (your dinner watier etc.) that provided the poor service. If it was manual tipping then that person would be aware of their poor performance when no tip showed up at the end of the cruise.

The auto tip can be adjusted specifically for wait or room staff. Supervisors know performance issues by monitoring this.

[NASH99]

Do they have envelopes still available? Or do you contact the Pursers desk?

The answer is yes and yes. We got ours at the pursers desk and handed it to the 2 employee's that made our cruise special. A bartender and our steward.

Steve

[sueandkent]

bdjam

please explain more about the auto tipping being adjusted. This is the first I have heard of this.

Sue

 

____________________________________

Diamond Princess 11/6/04

[Painter]

Kimba ...Kimba... Kimba...we are "Aussies". We only tip in Australia for good service. The stafff receive very good wages for their work and as an incentive to get a "tip" they must give good service to impress the customer.

Now....in some countries the wages are very low and to build up their income they count on "tips".

I for one would not "tip" ...if the person did not value their job enough to earn the "tip".

If I get exceptional service I reward this work with a generous "tip"

Some staff always spoil it for others.

A "tip" is a reward ...not a... give it to me or I'll spit in your soup approach.

 

Boy I am not always so vocal. *G*

[kimba_99]

Thanks Marleneann... you made me laugh. Yes, I agree, a tip is a reward for good service.

 

I do also understand the concept of tipping and I'm happy to do in 'Rome'.

 

Originally I wanted to know why/if people still tip if the service is extremely poor ie. not even basic service. Most people have never had this issue, and nor should they, but others have stated they still leave a tip. This is basically all I wanted to know and I thank everyone for their comments.

 

I have to say I particularly liked what Katisdale wrote; I leave the auto-tip on since I am not cleaning the toilet, making the beds, nor cooking and serving the food.

I hadn't thought of it that way before so thank you for making it so simple.... this is basic service so a tip would be appropriate and if the basic was not done then I know I would have a problem that needed fixing.

 

sueandkent; All the tips are itemised individually on your account. Each day there will be a charge for wait staff and a charge for your room steward. So if, for instance, your not happy with your dinner waiter one night you can go to the Purser's desk and ask to have the dining/wait staff charges for that day removed.

BUT... as I have learned from many posts here that you should first seek out that persons supervisor and discuss any issues you have with them first! Correct..??

 

Ahh.. I'm getting there! :)

Cheers,

Kim