HUGE Problems with Travel Agency!!!

[Princess Di]

Hi Zeroni,
Just call 800-Princes and give the Res. Agent your Zip code. She will tell you the Names, address, and phone numbers of the National Accounts that are in your area. Call these Agencies and quiz them as to their Destinations Specialists, as well as what kind of Group Pricing or special promotions they have.

A Smile is just a little curve that sets a lot of things Straight.
Fair Winds and Following Seas!

[maxiesmom]

As a former travel agent with 25 yrs. experience, the problem you're having is with the individual travel agency, not WLT. Most WLT agencies are individually owned and operated. Obviously, the travel agent neglected to request a check for final payment. You should be dealing with the owner or manager of the individual agency. I believe they have a moral obligation to do something to help make it right for you. There is not an agent or agency that has never made a mistake at one time or another. I worked for a local WLT and we had wonderful, competent agents with great service for the most part.

And I'm sure you've learned NOT to pay by check or cash. The credit card is charged by the vendor (Princess in this case). Cash has to be deposited and a company check written and mailed to the vendor which leaves more of a chance of something going remiss. Also the credit card payment protects you much more in a vendor bankruptcy (such as Midway Airlines years ago).

By the way, now that I'm not in the travel industry, I book all my cruises through a large, on-line, cruise only agency. I've not found any local or other on-line agencies who can beat their prices. They are very no-frill with email communication only which is great to me..I hate the phone. And they answer email much quicker than any other agency I've ever worked for or with.

Hope this helps!

Judy

P.S. I want spell check too!

[JohnL1935]

What has me concerned here are the dates. Your cruise is 7/ll. Your lst post was 5/27 and you said this problem was brought to your attention 2 weeks earlier which would be 5/13. The final payment was due to Princess on 5/ll. It seems that if Princess would cancel your cruise it would have been 5/12. I think I've been a few days late in calling my TA's in the past to make the final payment on a CC and I was never cancelled. Most TA's send notice that they will charge my card on the 60 day date. I generally will call the TA to confirm that they did make payment.

Seems Princess should not have cancelled before 5/ll since they had your deposit. I would want to know exactly when Princess cancelled your cabin. It doesn't make good sense to cancel a cruise without a phone call to the TA when they have a deposit for a specific cabin. I can understand their cancelling 30-40 days of the cruise, even with an open deposit, but not 1 or 2 days after the 60 day window. If a person is cancelling a cruise, seems there would be a request to Princess for a return of the deposit and they would know they had to sell that cabin. With no request it seems Princess should make an inquiry to the TA.

I read the posts pretty fast and maybe I missed something. I'm glad it is resolved but these dates bother me since I'm more prone to senior moments these days.

John L.

[meyerhaus]

Good point! I will check and see. That does seem odd.

JON

P.S. He's a smart one. I want you for my T.A.

[url="http://www.geocities.com/pattersandmenus"]www.geocities.com/pattersandmenus[/url]

Click the 7/11 to go to the ROLL CALL:
[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=4763056957&m=4253085267"][img]http://www.picgoo.com/uploads/seven_eleven_copy1.jpg[/img] [/url]
Golden Princess Southern Caribbean-7/11/04
Big Red Boat-1993
Celebrity Zenith-1993

[DrGary]

Hi All,

Just wanted to add some more perspective to all the above. When things sometimes do go afowl with a long-standing booking, there are still good people and companies that stand behind their customers in ways that not only fix the problem, but further enhance the customer's loyalty. Our recent experience...

Here is a fine example of superior customer service and satisfaction, with an added touch of Tahitian hospitality:

We were scheduled to stay at the brand-new Radisson Plaza Resort Tahiti for pre-cruise from Jun 15-16, and then again post-cruise Jun 28-29.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen construction delays in their anticipated June 1st opening date, we received a message that the hotel would not be opening until July 2nd...too late for our visit.

Karine Voguin, the Radisson Plaza Resort Tahiti's Reservations Manager was extremely gracious about accommodating us and overcoming the problem with the opening date.

She offered to arrange reservations for us at Le Meridien Tahiti for Jun 15-16, and then kindly offered the following:

"We would like to make up for it by inviting you to stay at the RADISSON PLAZA RESORT TAHITI as our guests for your second stay, from June 28th to 29th 2004. Our Restaurant Hiti Mahana will have the pleasure of inviting you to taste our chef’s exquisite cuisine, and we would be delighted to offer you a complimentary treatment in our Spa."

With personnel like Karine Voguin, looks like the Radisson is going to be a tremendous success as Tahiti's newest upscale resort!!

Wouldn't it have been nice for your TA to similarly arrange a complimentary accomodation for your trouble! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]

[img]http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/reviews/ships/tahitianp.JPG[/img]
Tahitian Princess June 16, 2004
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;6;16;12;00;00&timezone=GMT-1000[/img]

[PeabodyNVL]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JohnL1935:

What has me concerned here are the dates. Your cruise is 7/ll. Your lst post was 5/27 and you said this problem was brought to your attention 2 weeks earlier which would be 5/13. The final payment was due to Princess on 5/ll. It seems that if Princess would cancel your cruise it would have been 5/12. I think I've been a few days late in calling my TA's in the past to make the final payment on a CC and I was never cancelled. Most TA's send notice that they will charge my card on the 60 day date. I generally will call the TA to confirm that they did make payment.

 

Seems Princess should not have cancelled before 5/ll since they had your deposit. I would want to know exactly when Princess cancelled your cabin. It doesn't make good sense to cancel a cruise without a phone call to the TA when they have a deposit for a specific cabin. I can understand their cancelling 30-40 days of the cruise, even with an open deposit, but not 1 or 2 days after the 60 day window. If a person is cancelling a cruise, seems there would be a request to Princess for a return of the deposit and they would know they had to sell that cabin. With no request it seems Princess should make an inquiry to the TA.

 

I read the posts pretty fast and maybe I missed something. I'm glad it is resolved but these dates bother me since I'm more prone to senior moments these days.

 

John L.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>John - Princess generally has a 75 day window for final payment, not 60 day. With Princess, right after final payment, they will start upgrading passengers and then have more "lower" fare cabins available for special pricing. So really, the final payment was probably due in the last week of April, not the middle of May. They do not usually wait as the system is automated. If final payment is not made on time or within a certain time range, the cabin will automatically open up and the reservation be cancelled.

 

Pea

 

5/9 Golden Princess  

[meyerhaus]

THat is what they said when I called !

 

TA dropped the ball...period.

 

www.geocities.com/pattersandmenus

 

Click the 7/11 to go to the ROLL CALL:

Golden Princess Southern Caribbean-7/11/04

Big Red Boat-1993

Celebrity Zenith-1993

 

 

[Commodore Suzy]

And it could be worse... I'm so happy for you that you are actually cruising and your deposit was obviously credited to you. Let me tell you what happened to one of my friends:

 

 

A newer friend of mine booked thru his local agency he had been using for many years. He booked WAY in advance a QM2 inagural season Europe cruise.. a BIG, expensive one. His deposit was three THOUSAND dollars.

 

His agent failed to call him when his final was due 90 days before sailing. At 88 days from sailing, my friend called and said, "So, when is my final due? 60 days out? 70? what's the date?". The agent completely blew it. My friend missed his final payment, the computer immediately canceled his reservation, gave up his cabin, and his $3K is gone as non-refundable. He has written letters to Cunard, asking for only to be credited with the money to use on a future cruise, but hasn't heard anything back. This all happened in April.

 

Is that a sad story or what? Of COURSE, TAs are supposed to let you know when your final is, but it pays also to read the fine print in your brouchure so you are on top of when those non-refundable things start happening. What's that word? Buyer beware? Coincidentally, if you plan on going on the QM2, be forewarned that there is a $75 fee for canceling ANYTIME after you book, and there are some penalties at 120 days out. (Yes, non-refundable penalties before final is due!)

 

I'm not adding this because it really applies you anything you missed doing meyer.. just wanted to alert everyone since I was on the topic! Cheers! Keep us posted meyerhaus!

 

Suzy

 

NEXT --> Pride of Aloha 6/11/04

Monarch family weekend 10/15/04 & Grand Galveston 12/11/04

Diamond Princess 5/1/04

Star Princess 10/18/03 -- Wind Star Honeymoon 11/14/03

Star Princess Wedding 9/24/03 -- Mercury 10/5/03

Vision of the Seas 10/28/02 -- Amsterdam 4/22/03

Sun Princess 5/10/02 -- Star Princess 6/15/02

Carnival Holiday 9/8/00

[JohnL1935]

Thanks for the info. I'm still in the 60 day time warp. It may not have effected my perspective because my TA's automatically charged my CC for final payment. I still think it is poor business practice for Princess not to make a phone call before cancelling. What if a check got "lost" in the mail? Or, in this instance, a TA without a computer system that tickles them when to do things. Maybe the agency had that and an individual fell asleep--but still the manager should have been overseeing the operation and on and on....

 

We often visit the casinos in A.C. We use a card in the machines for comps. My wife continues to lose them. Once, I went to the desk for a couple replacements and they refused to give them to me. We went to another casino. I wrote a letter to the pres and said I don't understand your practice--we get food comps, room comps,entertainment comps, free drinks but your employees refuse to give me a ten cent card for us to donate to your machines. I did receive an apology and I never had a problem after that. Reminds me of Jon's case. Princess has a paying customer and won't make a ten cent call to find out the problem...

 

John L.

[crlieq]

I am so sorry to hear that you are having to go through so much trouble before your vacation. I complete understand. We had something very similar happen to us in November (different cruise line). We had booked our cruise almost a year out, (with a travel agency we had used several times) made our deposit and final payment on time, only to learn a week before we were suppose to leave that the travel agency had not sent in our final payment and our trip had been cancelled by the cruise line. The ship was full and we had to sail 2 weeks later. It was completely the travel agents fault. They rebooked us, upgraded our cabin (ocean view to balcony) and refunded us 2/3 the cost of our trip.

 

If I were you, I would demand some compensation from my travel agent. I would calmly go into the agency (not call) and ask them how they are going to make it right by you. A little something (flowers in your cabin, sweets, or maybe a onbord credit for you to use) would certainly take the sting out a little and help but some wind back in your sails.

 

Have a great time

[cruisernurse]

a local TA here was just arrested and will be sending a good time behind bars for taking customers money and spending it on her bills, then charging that person's trips to a very wealthy retired man that she had kept his credit card information on. It finally caught up with but the sad part is that those people that had paid her cash or check was left without their money and their hard earned vacations!

[meyerhaus]

UPDATE:

 

I finally called and coaxed the name and phone of the Regional Manager out of the secretary.

 

I called her and she said that she would look into it, but that this was the only day in the office for her this week and she might not get back to us until next Monday or Tuesday. HAH! Gotta love the runaround from this agency!

 

JON

 

www.geocities.com/pattersandmenus

 

Golden Princess Southern Caribbean-7/11/04

Click to go to the ROLL CALL!

 

Big Red Boat-1993

Celebrity Zenith-1993