TheAgitator.com
Happy Ending
Saturday, December 1st, 2007The woman who got screwed out of an Alaskan cruise by evil Princess Cruises will now get to take her cruise after all—thanks to the Internets.
Last week, about four dozen readers e-mailed CoGo offering help. “How can we contribute to making this poor woman’s dream trip happen?” “To whom could I make a contribution to help this woman realize her dream?” “I would love to make a contribution. That dear woman deserves to go to Alaska.”
Then the issue hit the blogosphere. More than 200 people posted comments at Reddit, a site where people post items they find interesting. Some wanted to know if there was a way to contribute. One woman wrote: “I have $9 in my account right now, but after I get paid I could spare $20. But where would I send it?”
Chris Harrell of Waxahachie, Tex., responded by setting up a fund at Fundable.com, a site that takes a small cut for organizing fundraisers. He quickly amassed pledges of more than $700. But that money won’t be collected, because by Wednesday, McKan was already set.
The first e-mail The Post received was from Dave Wood, a Centreville man who owns 17 Domino’s pizza outlets. Wood said he immediately thought of his elderly parents and how they would react in similar circumstances. He and his wife, Nancy, wanted to foot the entire bill for McKan.
An Annapolis couple decided to help send a companion with McKan. “I just couldn’t get the story out of my head,” said the Annapolis woman, who wishes to remain anonymous. “My husband and I talked and decided, ‘We have the resources to help; let’s do something.’ ”
“I just can’t believe it. It’s just the best Christmas present ever,” said McKan, who already has put out the Christmas decorations in her apartment, where she lives alone, surrounded by pictures of her two children, grandchild and dozens of other relatives. “I knew I could never afford to take this trip again, and it was a great surprise.”
This of course doesn’t make Princess Cruises any less evil.
Those damned corporate tycoons with their multiple businesses. They are ALWAYS screwing the little guy.
I’m happy for the lady that she will get to take her Alaskan trip. I just hope she uses a different cruise line then Princess this time. They certainly don’t deserve any more money from her.
Good for her, and good for me as now I know what company not to cruise with.
I sure hope they picked a different cruise line!
Don’t forget that Princess Cruises is OWNED by Carnival and does Carnival’s bidding. Carnival should have ordered Princess to make this right. Instead they’ve permanently lost business from me and anyone I can influence.
So get this: I actually called Princess to complain about this. Their customer-care reprepsentative claimed not to know anything about it, so I asked for a supervisor. She demanded my name. I said “Mr. Fox.” She said, “No, I need your real name. That’s an alias.” She actually called me a liar!
She then left me on hold. After waiting 10 minutes and not getting a supervisor, I called back, and another rep took my complaint (both of them, at this point) professionally. But this whole affair is starting to look pretty typical of Princess’ “customer service.”
Blessed be thy tubes.
I’m with Ochressandro. If it was possible to get this woman the same trip with another cruise line, I hope they did it. I’m glad this story had a happy ending, but seriously, F*** Princess Cruises.
My fiancee and I are planning a cruise for our honeymoon. Needless to say, Carnival and Princess are out of the question. Also, my best friend and his family go on cruises once a year (it’s 9 of them, paid for by his rich grandfather). I’ve told him about this story and he convinced his grandfather NEVER to use Princess or Carnival again.
I hope they go out of business for being so customer unfriendly and greedy.