Tag Archives: Complaints

Royal Caribbean ‘working with’ agents over building work complaints

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Royal Caribbean International admitted it is “working with” agents whose customers had complained about building work on new ship Harmony of the Seas.

But it insisted most of its retail partners had offered “very strong support and positive feedback”.

Negative press last week branded the ship ‘Calamity’ or ‘Disharmony’ of the Seas after guests reported several areas unfinished and claimed some parts were “unsafe”.

Royal declined to reveal how many complaints it had received, but said: “We are working closely with agents whose customers are dissatisfied and are dealing with these on a case-by-case basis to help resolve any queries.”

Agents gave a mixed response  on the Travel Gossip site, with some reporting disappointed customers.

Agent Emily Trumble described her four-night sailing as “awful”.

But agents who attended the previous ‘shakedown’ cruise defended Royal Caribbean.

Claire Brighton, senior commercial manager at Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “I didn’t witness signs of the extremes being reported in the national press. A few areas were not 100% complete but work seemed to be kept to a minimum and did not affect any passengers. The ship was fantastic.”

Si Prentice, group marketing director at The Travel Network Group, said the ship was in “excellent condition” and was disappointed by the negative coverage.

Sharron Gallagher, senior travel consultant at Regent Travel in Stone, Staffordshire, who paid to be on the second cruise on May 26, said: “It may have been hyped up a little. I have no complaints; the majority of things were open for use.”

Phil Nuttall, managing director of The Travel Village Group, said no customers had raised concerns.

A Royal Caribbean spokeswoman said the line had had “some fantastic feedback from a huge number of guests” on pre-inaugural sailings.

Defining adequate compensation

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Defining adequate compensation

By Michelle Baran
InsightMassive flooding in Central Europe earlier this month deprived many river cruise passengers of the journey they had paid for, leaving many of them very disappointed and looking for proper compensation. But that begs the question: What kind of compensation is proper?

At least one group of passengers expressed their unhappiness by forwarding to members of the media an email exchange between them and their cruise line in which the passengers requested a full refund for a river cruise they claim was severely damaged by the flooding.

“We missed Koblenz, Speyer, Rudesheim and all the castles along the scenic Rhine River Gorge — which was our primary reason for choosing this particular cruise,” they wrote. “We had a wonderful visit to Marksburg Castle, but it took a multihour bus ride there and back to do so. We paid for eight days on a boat, not partial days on a bus and missed itinerary points. … We did not get what we paid for.”MichelleBaran

In this case, the river cruise line explained that because the rains and floods were a force majeure, or act of God, beyond the company’s control, the passengers were not granted a full refund for the disrupted cruise. Instead, they were provided with a future cruise credit.

Whatever the outcome of this individual case, it was certainly one of many individual customer service disputes that each river cruise line had to resolve on a case-by-case basis.

And while the email exchange brought to light the fact that a number of passengers were unhappy with how the crisis was handled, the situation was just as disappointing for the river cruise companies, which lost untold millions of dollars when they were forced to cancel or shorten cruises. And those losses will continue as the companies honor future cruise credits.

While some travelers clearly felt that river cruise companies came up short in terms of customer service and crisis management, the fact is, the cruise lines and passengers alike suffered losses in the path of Central Europe’s surging rivers.

Thomas Cook TV ad banned after consumer complaints

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Thomas Cook TV ad banned after consumer complaints

Thomas Cook TV ad banned after consumer complaintsThomas Cook TV advert has been banned after viewers claimed it could cause harmful copy-cat behaviour among children.

More than 100 complaints were made against the ad which showed a holidaymaker remove a valve from a wheel of one of the company’s coaches with a pair of pliers to cause a flat tyre in an apparent bid to avoid returning home from a sunny destination.

The advertising watchdog ruled that the Thomas Cook campaign was “irresponsible” after it received 118 objections.

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints which suggested children could emulate the potentially dangerous scene.

The ASA ruled: “Although we were satisfied that adults would not view the ad as condoning the act of removing the tyre valve, we considered that children, including teenagers, were unlikely to identify the fantastical nature of the story.

“We also noted that the scene in which the tyre valve was removed was central to the ad’s narrative and, because of the risks to children in emulating that action, considered that the ad unreasonably featured that behaviour.

“We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible.”

Cook argued that the “horrified and outraged” reaction of the other holidaymakers in the ad indicated that the behaviour of the man letting down the tyre was not condoned.

The company said it did not consider that the ad was irresponsible because it clearly showed a comical scene and the man’s actions were immediately challenged as being wrong.