rely from HAL...

[Tamara]

...regarding my letter about the lounge reserved for deluxe verandah suite passengers..(earlier post "feeling like a peasant")

Thank you for the e-mail regarding your ms VOLENDAM cruise on May 5, 2004.

We truly appreciate the valuable feedback you have provided us.

We wish to sincerely apologize that your personal interaction with a member

of our staff unduly clouded your overall enjoyment of your cruise, and can

assure you that your experience is the exception, rather than the rule,

within our operation. Our staff is trained to always be courteous,

respectful, efficient, and responsive at all times, and again, we regret

that your experience was otherwise.

Thank you again for taking the time to provide us with your comments. We

look forward to serving you again in the very near future.

[GottaCruz]

I'm really surprised that they didn't offer you something like a discount on a future cruise as a token of good will, since you took the time and effort to write to them. Even an onboard credit of $25.00 would have been a gesture of good will. :sad: I do give you a lot of credit, though, for letting them know what happened.

[Tamara]

Do they usually give a little something for a complaint? Too bad they didn't give me an onboard credit, I could have passed it on to another Cruise Crazy that's about to depart for someplace wonderful.

[sailingrose]

Tamara did you send it e-mail? Usually a snail mail letter will get you some kind of credit but I've never heard of an e-mail getting anything. I'd love to know if anyone has been offered a credit by e-mail.........

[Lisa63]

I agree with sailingrose. Try a snail mail to the Seattle home office -- the address is on the HAL Web site.

At a minimum, I hope the lounge attendant got some sort of reprimand or a refresher course on how to "be courteous, respectful, efficient, and responsive at all times."

[Tamara]

I included the complaint on the evaluation at the end of the cruise and then sent an email when I got back. I wonder why smail mail would get more response than email?

[Dan]

I would say it's because more effort is involved in mailing a letter, so it's perceived as being more of a legitimate gripe.