Celebrity Cruises review: customer services 1

Fraud on the Solstice
On Sept. 23rd my wife and I took a cruise on the Celebrity Solstice from Hawaii to Australia.
This was a 18 day cruise and was special to us because it was my wife's birthday present.
During the trip we attended a Opal presentation in which we were told that the opals that were presented were Australian Black Opals. My wife fell in love with one of these opals. The opal was in the store on the ship and was priced at $2, 700 dollars. I negotiated with the salesperson and he agreed to sell it to us for $2, 600 dollars. I asked him how was I to know that it was worth $2, 600? He said that he would send me a appraisal. During the cruise I had asked several times where the appraisal was, the salesman told me we would get it on the last day of the cruise. We did receive it on the last day when we were docking and it said that it was worth $2, 600. That was strange to me as it was originally priced and $2, 700. I tried to find the salesperson but the store was closed and he was nowhere to be found. This was very suspicious to me so I decided to have it appraised when we go home. I took it to two different certified appraisers in two different locations. ( the appraisals are attached.) The highest the opal was apprised for was $600 dollars. Both appraisals stated the it was not a Black Opal. To me this is clearly misrepresentation of goods and Fraud.

I contacted customer service and was given the number of Starboard Cruise. I contacted Starboard Cruise on 10/29 and told them what had happened. They sent me paperwork to fill out. I filled out the paperwork and sent them the Opal on 10/31. I got a approval E-mail on 11/1. I waited till 11/20 for someone to contact me to let me know when I would get my refund. I E-mailed on 11/20 and was told that my photo of my sales receipt was not sufficient. Had I not contacted them they would not have contacted me. On 11/20 I E-mailed my Sales receipt. From that point till 12/16 I E-mailed 9 times and called 3 times. No one contacted me until 12/16. I finally got my refund on 12/23. There was not customer service from Starboard Cruise as I had to make all the contacts.

My wife and I are all most Elite members of Celebrity Cruises. We have always felt that we could trust the people on board the ship. But No more, If we had not had the opal appraised we would have been ripped off for $2, 000. We have another cruise booked for September but are talking about canceling it because we have lost trust in Celebrity.

In Summary:
I believe that the opal is probably on its way back out to the fleet to sell to a trusting passenger.
I believe that my wife and I were treated poorly from start to finish as no one seemed to be on our side.
I am out $150.00 in appraisal fee's and mailings.

Please Contact me thru E-mail or phone for more info.
Ron Chapman
rcdc@att.net