MSC COMPLAINT NO. SR Number: 2-15661240954
Few months ago, I booked a family Cruise Holiday with MSC Cruise. We are 3 in the family and were holding Indian Passports. We planned this trip with two other friends’ families. The cruise was scheduled to start from Southampton on 27th May 2022, touch two ports in the Netherlands and France and return to Southampton on 30th May 2022. We asked MSC cruise if we will need a visa for this trip as we did not have any plan to disembark at any of those ports. Received mixed responses via email and via phone. One person responded by email that we would need a visa but there was no date of the appointment available before 27th May. Our ticket was cancellable and we approached MSC to cancel our trip.
However, one person we talked to on 20th April convinced us that we do NOT need any visa as long as we have a UK resident permit. And if there is any issue at the port he himself will deal with that. He also mentioned that he will put a note against our ticket and there will be no issue with this.
We got full preparation for the family holiday, spent a lot on that and looked forward to our trip. Situation turned out to be completely different at the immegration desk on 27th. The members of the MSC cruise did not allow us to embark the ship. We told them we were told by their colleague (Miguel is his name) and we asked to contact him immediately. Our friends immediately tried to contact him by phone but we were told by other MSC staff that he is not available at that moment. The staff at the immegration desk also tried but failed to establish contact. FORTUNATELY, myself and my wife recorded that entire conversation on 20th April with Miguel and we presented that to the staff members at Immegration desk. After hearing the conversation, they were shocked and admitted on the spot that we had been completely misguided by this guy. However, they could not do anything to let us embark the ship but tried to solace us by telling that they already logged a high level complaint to their head office (They did not give us any proof of that though) and awaiting a response from Italy. We waited for a couple more hours to get our luggages back from the ship and to receive at least a black and white document showing that our complaint has been logged. We got our luggage back but no proof of that complaint MSC escalated to their higher level management.
Emotionally we three families were shattered as two of those embarked the ship and we could not. To make things even worse, our 9 year old son got extremely upset. He started crying as he could not make this trip with his friends from the other two families. He looked so upset that I needed to call the NHS for medical advice. Without having much option and time, I called the AE Department of Southampton Hospital to get some help. They talked to me and told me that AE is not the best place to get such help. They advised me to contact 111. I tried to contact 111 twice but failed to establish contact due to the long queue. I could not afford to hold the line longer as I had to take care of my son at the same time.
One of the friends who boarded the ship was an NHS doctor and I sought some medical advice from her. With her advice and using some distractions our son looked better after some time.
The day after I wrote a strong email to MSC cruise. An automated reply was received. Since then I have only received one liner from them asking the same information which was already written on my first email. I sent them a reminder but no response yet. I feel we have been completely cheated and need legal help.
I understand from your website that you offer No Win No Fee service so I am contacting you. Please contact me first via email first and we can then have a chat over phone if you agree to deal with this issue.
I can provide you with –
1) Audio file of the conversation we had with the MSC employee on 20th April
2) Screenshot of the calls I made to NSH on that day
3) Text messages exchanged with my Doctor friend who gave some medical advice for my son.
4) My email to MSC Cruise with a strong complaint. They provided me with a complaint number also !!
Thanks
Sumon Kumar Ray
