Jeannie

Apr 10, 2023

Customer Service Non-Existent

booked a cruise in October and prepaid for several shore excursions, then I received email on January 2 notifying me that, to my surprise, the excursions had been cancelled in addition to my cruise and accompanying flight reservations. I immediately called Celebrity to inquire about this and sat on hold for over 3 hours, including at one point getting disconnected from an agent with no call back (they had my Booking #/phone number). I was informed they were short staffed, causing long delays. Finally, the agent I first contacted told me she did not know why my booking was cancelled and began the process of re-booking. However, she indicated there would be price increases, which was not acceptable to me. Eventually I convinced her that I needed to speak to a supervisor who would be able to satisfactorily solve the situation. I was connected with Yas, who told me that the cruise had been cancelled due to an address change, that their computer system sometimes inadvertently did. I asked what new address was provided and verified that it is my existing address that has not changed in over 10 years. Fortunately, Yas was astute enough to solve the situation by rebooking all but one shore excursion that had been sold out, rebook our flights, cover the increased pricing of all, and offer $200 shipboard credit. He said my October shore excursion payments would be refunded so I needed to pay for rebooked ones again. He was professional and apologetic. A month later, my online account still showed a balance due so I attempted to call Celebrity again, which took another 1.5 hours to speak to an agent. I explained my dilemma to that agent, Estela, emphasizing my frustration over the whole situation, and asked her to leave a message for Yas to call me. I never received a callback from anyone. Eventually, my online account was straightened out. In the meantime, over a course of a few weeks, I sent three emails to their customer service email address begging for assistance with this situation, but to no avail. Why in the world do you have a customer service email address if you don't respond to it??? This entire interaction with Celebrity left me frustrated, disappointed, and exasperated that I had to spend so much of my time fixing a mistake that was caused by Celebrity, who did not seem to care at all. We normally cruise on Holland or Princess, but decided to spend a bit more to try Celebrity again. We will not be back on a Celebrity cruise again, nor will I recommend Celebrity to anyone. A company of their size has no excuse for insufficient staffing, untrained agents, unacceptable phone wait times, and non-responsive customer service contacts.