After my Hawaii cruise I sent a long detailed email to my travel agent, Julie, about the good and the bad of the cruise. Julie passed my email to NCL, I thought that that would be all I would hear. But today I actually received a letter from NCL acknowledging my email - my "constructive comments, suggestions and criticisms." It's always good to know that someone from the company read my comments.
I am known by friends and family as a letter writer. It's not that I'm a complainer, but I do get satisfaction from writing to a company about the good, bad and the ugly. What is important in writing a letter of complaint, if you want to be taken seriously, is that you need to state specific complaints and when possible write suggestions of how things could be done better. Writing - the food sucked, I always waited for a table and the servers weren't helpful. That's not going to get anything done except make you feel better, it's not constructive enough. Something like - We often waited over 15 minutes for a table at restaurant A, the food was below the standards of other cruises we have been on and we felt that having a different server every night took away from the dining experience over the week. That's made up, but it gives them complaints with real substance that can actually be addressed.
Write your letters, someone might be listening... And maybe they'll give you something for free, I haven't gotten anything yet, but you never know.
