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 Travel & Outdoors | June 2008 
Cruising On Complaints Can Lead To Dry Dock
 Spud Hilton - SFGate
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Refund Babies: So you're one of those people who treat being compensated for grievances as an Olympics-grade competition. Maybe you're a blue-ribbon haggler and have left Moroccan rug merchants sobbing like little girls. Well, if you've complained your way into plenty of refunds and credits on cruise ships, you should probably keep it to yourself.
An Ohio couple made headlines (most of them misleading) last week by being banned for life from Royal Caribbean and its related lines, Celebrity and Azamara. The basic story (at least the one that got re-reported everywhere) is that Gerald and Brenda Moran were 86ed because they complained too much in the online forums at CruiseCritic.com.
Anyone who bothered to read to the end of the Tripso.com article by Anita Dunham-Potter that broke the story learned that the Morans were told to take their business elsewhere: A. after Brenda Moran reported at CruiseCritic about every complaint and how she got compensation; and B. after other members of the same board wrote to Royal Caribbean urging the company not to reward professional complainers who were, essentially, teaching everyone how to scam their way to credits and upgrades.
The short version: Couple go on six ships in three years and have complaints about each one - ranging from an overflowing toilet to a mistimed birthday cake - and haggle for compensation for each, including a $500 credit on a future voyage (which she gets, somewhat ironically, after someone at Royal Caribbean reads her complaint at the online communities).
The couple detail the latest complaint and the $500 compensation, other posters cry foul and a cruise line executive asks the couple to remove the post about the credit. The wife says no, and a few days later, the couple receive a $500 check (covering the promised credit) and a letter encouraging them to cruise all their want, just not on Royal Caribbean. (For the long version, see the story at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24711659/.)
At neighboring online site CruiseMates.com, member posts have been running solidly in favor of banning the couple, labeling Brenda Moran a scammer, not just for her Royal Caribbean experiences but with other travel companies as well.
CruiseMates editor Paul Motter said that members loyal to a specific cruise line can, at times, be downright rabid toward anyone who attacks it. He adds, however, "The worst thing for us regular consumers would be to teach potential cheapskates a systematic method of getting discounts by complaining until they burn out a cruise line, and they just move on," said Motter.
It's a game to some, particularly for those who have nothing better to do than calculate how they've been wronged and decide who should be responsible, and especially those who can justify it by saying, "The cruise lines are nickel-and-diming me; why shouldn't I get everything I can?"
Answer: If it's a legitimate complaint and the cruise line should be responsible for making it right, go for it. But don't brag about it because karma - and big corporations tired of spending so much time on one chronic complainer - has a way to coming back to bite you. |
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