Celebrity finally "speaks"

[PapaBill]

We have finally heard from Celebrity regarding our delayed Sept 17 Alaska and West Coast cruise on Summit. We had been given a rather inadequate settlement prior to the cruise . Apparently after we left for Vancouver a "sweetened offer" was made to all travellers. The catch was you had to know about it before sailing. Having left 5 days prior to the sailing the offer never caught up with us. The second offer works out to be about $1200 to $1600 more favorable to us. Well, Celebrity has decided to not extend us the second offer and hopes that I have no "residual disappointment".
As most of you know, we kept vey upbeat about this despite missing out on 3 days (3ports) of our cruise and being out roughly $1000 to stay in Vancouver and entertain and feed ouselves for 3 days. My "residual disappointment" with Celebrity will be everlasting. I am now and will forever be disappointed in Celebrity's failure to make good on it's own offer and in their customer service failure to respond until my seventh request .
It was still a great cruise, but Gram and I will have some talking to do tonight about cancelling the April 30 Century cruise we have already booked.
I'm going to go play with Donald and Sabrina now. They never disappoint me.
Papa

[Mike M]

Papa:
I can tell how disappointed and irritated you are. I do think that this by no means fair. You are doing the right thing and speaking with your wallet. Will it show Celebrity a lesson? Probably not; but it will show a number of people that they could have done better.

There are many other lines you can try and in a few years you can see about giving them another try.

Sorry about how it turned out. Have fun playing with Donald and Sabrina.
Mike

[KimJack]

I'd certainly cancel if I were you, Bill. Not just because Celebrity decided against you, but also for the inordinate time it took for them to acknowledge your petition. I assume that you and Gram are Captain's Club members, as are we, which should give you an idea of how far that will get you in the long run. Sorry that you were mistreated in this matter, and I hope that you will exercise your right to protest (as Mike said) "with your wallet".

Jack

[bigjohn461]

While I reallly do feel for you Bill and I am sorry they decided not make good on the deal, I will not be booking any trips with Celebrity due to the way they have treated you.
I am like Mike..I will speak with my wallet..and afterall, is that not the CM motto. Your Opinion Counts..I think all CM should be counted on this one and let the wallets show our Opinion. IMHO

We had a bad situation once with Celebrity and a cancellation of a cruise and their refund. We were also disappointed with how they handled the situation and have avoided Celebrity because of this. I am glad there are other good lines out there.

[Kuki]

Bill... sorry to hear that Celebrity isn't being cooperative in balancing your compensation.

The speed with which your complaint was dealt with seems to unfortunately be about standard in the industry. 6- 8 weeks. Especially if the contact is via e-mail.

I don't know if that's how you directed your complaints in this instance. But, even in today's world of "instant communication" where we expect we can get at least an acknowlegement as quickly as we send an e -mail, I still think a snail mail letter directed to the proper person still gets dealt with more quickly.

I think this is because of the daily deluge of e mail they deal with each day. Some it definitely legitimate, but with the ease of e-mail, I'd bet they get a ton of annoyance e-mail complaints as well.

The other thing is I think it's important (and I don't know if you did this or not) to have your agent carry your voice to the cruise lines. The agent going to work for you, with the weight of their agency business does, right or wrong, bear more creadence, and can open more doors than individual complaints.

In my opnion, the land based customer relations depts. of all the mass market cruise lines "suck" . It is the achilles heel of the industry.
90 % of cruisers don't know it, because they go on their cruises, basically problem free, and go home happy customers.

So... if you haven't written anyone in authority at Celebrity directly, and if you haven't had your TA involved, I'd recommend continuing to persue more compensation.

Not saying you'll get it, but at least you can carry the battle to them some more <G>

We had a similar incident with NCL. Well after many letters (snail mail) and calls. We decided no more NCL. After about 6 months they sent us $600. credit for a future cruise. Which I immediately tore up to my husband's shock and said no more NCL. There are too many other cruise lines out there.

Jeanne

[Thomas]

I agree with you Bill and think you are doing things correctly. I support you all the way.

I live in Jacksonville where the Zenith sails from. Want me to stand at the port with a sign that says, "Celebrity Customer No Service, read about it on CruiseMates.com?"

Regards,
Thomas

[Travelnut]

Wow that's really a sad way to treat their paying customers. But I'm afraid it's a sign of the times we live in.

[PapaBill]

Thanks to all for your support and kind words. TA is involved and getting very abruptly told no. Emails have been addressed to higher ups. All we are seeking here is not so much MOREcompensation but the same compensation that was offered to most other people on the cruise.
We have been told that we were given a letter when we boarded the ship (not) and that we did not respond to the offer in time.
I will not ley this get to me. I just find Celebrity's position to be a bit bizarre in that they are essentially withdrawing an offer they apparently voluntarily "upped" during the cruise.
I also understand that it takes time for them to respond , but I must say again that if an
employee of my firm was contacted 7 times by a customer over a 6 week peroid and failed to respond they would soon be amoung the ranks of the unemployed.
Part of the offer we did get was 25% off a future cruise. They now tell my TA that the certificate will not come to me until January. Why? Just bizarre.

[Brenda in Canada]

PapaBill, Sorry to hear about this news.It is just not fair.