Question

Bad News to Customers: A Typhoon Disrupts Cruise Ship

Two late-season typhoons severely disrupted a cruise of the Diamond Princess, a 2,600-passenger cruise ship on a 16-night voyage with scheduled stops in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and other Asian ports. It had to cancel port calls in Vietnam, at Okinawa, and at Taipei, Taiwan. Many passengers protested that the ship could chart a path around the storm. One attorney got into a shouting match with the captain and demanded to show the captain how to navigate around the storm. As the ship approached its final port, near Beijing, a few passengers threatened to barricade themselves in their staterooms unless than got $1,000 in ship credit and a future free cruise. Resistance collapsed when the captain noted that the Beijing police would probably not be in the mood for negotiation. A spokesperson for the cruise line said that she understood how disappointed passengers were at missing some ports, but in the end "it's all about passenger safety."

To appease the angry passengers, ship personnel authorized a $250 credit for each passenger toward onboard spending. Still unhappy, many returning passengers wrote letters to the ship owners demanding a full refund.

Your Task. Write a form letter that can be used to respond to unhappy passengers. Address the first letter to Mrs. Erica Evander, 2408 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa, CA 92629. The cruise line flatly refused to refund any payments, but it would give a 50 percent discount on a future cruise. Use block style and sign your name with an appropriate title.

Answer 1

May, 11,2018

Mrs. Erica Evander

2408 Fairview Road

Costa Mesa, CA 92629

Dear Mrs Evander:

First of all, I will take this opportunity to thank you to select Diamond Princess for your cruise and at the same time, I also have a lot of regret for the inconvenience caused to you. As I received the letter from you having the concerns regarding the issues faced by you, I immediately started to look for the cruise delay, compensation and the past experiences which you had with the customer relations.

As far as cancelled ports in Vietnam and Taipei, I would like to inform you that our company does not want these to happen to any of our prestigious customers including you. Due to unexpected and unforeseen typhoons, the caption of the cruise was forced to change the route so that the safety of all the passengers can be ensured as we give the highest priority to the lives and belongings of customers. On behalf of the company, I would like to ensure that we do not provide any kind of misinformation to our customers under any kind of pressure and moreover, we do not have any control on Mother Nature and weather. There was no option to navigate around the storm and all the international protocols were followed by the crew members.

We really recognize your concern about the “Cruise Satisfaction Guarantee” but with reference to the suggested compensation, it is not possible to consider under the given circumstances. But we are offering you a 50% discount on our next cruise with us.

We hope to fulfil all your expectations in the next visit of you to our cruise. You can contact us at our toll-free number and also email us on the customer-care email id. I will request you to contact the booking service department from March to June and take advantage of our Caribbean Cruise package for Diamond Princess Members.

Sincerely,