Sandras cruise tours, Buyer beware: Months long investigation determines she owes passengers refunds

[staceyglow]

1 minute ago, fvandewouwer said:

there is much more information now, is it possible to try to put in your claim again ?

you will find a detailed and very sufficient article on consumer rescue.org

afther that the storty exploded

cruise mummy, la lido loco, semiprocruiser.com,  cruise hive,  doug parker,  cruise radio 

are all talking about her scam even John Heald answered how sorry he felt about what happened.

surely if you  send the information from consumer rescue.org they cannot unsee what is going on.

 

I am not sure if the moderator of CC will allow this post, you can reach out for help if you need.

I don't believe they can do a chargeback if the vendor no longer has an active merchant account, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here.

 

[BlerkOne]

56 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

I don't believe they can do a chargeback if the vendor no longer has an active merchant account, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here.

 

Perhaps not, but then isn't the bank on the hook to provide a refund? At least for some credit cards. 

[fvandewouwer]

3 hours ago, staceyglow said:

I don't believe they can do a chargeback if the vendor no longer has an active merchant account, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here.

 

she is no longer accepting credit card payments but zele which can only be used in the US and this lady is from Canada.It is possible she has no active cc anymore

[jimbo5544]

3 minutes ago, fvandewouwer said:

she is no longer accepting credit card payments but zele which can only be used in the US and this lady is from Canada.It is possible she has no active cc anymore

Her site changed dramatically since the debacle on this cruise.  A LOT more restrictions (including the CC items posted above).

Edited July 16 by jimbo5544

[fvandewouwer]

3 hours ago, staceyglow said:

I don't believe they can do a chargeback if the vendor no longer has an active merchant account, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here.

 

payments are from last year some of the year before because they were all related to the Greenland cruise on the Legend in September, my payment was from april 2023 but as I said I got the refund in January this year, a lot of the passengers have tried more than once to file for a refund which all got denied.

[revengeful87]

So for those asking questions: over 1200 passengers booked tours with her for the Greenland cruise in September 2023.  Over 800 passengers got no refunds for the iceburg tours.  The other tours in other ports went off but not without issues.  Most of us booked before she changed the terms and conditions on her website,  When she did change her terms and conditions she failed to notify anyone of those changes.  One person who booked the same day as we did got a full refund because she booked before the new website went live.  So the question is why not the rest of us? We did do chargebacks on our credit cards and she provided false documents and information to the cc companies and they found in her favor.  She changed the terms to non refundable on September 19th, after the cruise was over.  On September 6th she was on the Facebook page stating refunds would be forthcoming.  All lies! Matter of fact she told the tour operator to keep 10k of our money and that he would get all the business back and more when we returned on our free cruise in 2024! There was no free cruise.  The tour operator sent her an email on August 28th stating ship won't make it please cancel for full refund so I can book other tours.  She refused to do so and cost him thousands of dollars.  Is this why she told him to keep 10k of our money?  She provided partial refunds to some guests with the understanding the rest would be coming.  They have never seen that money.  Most of us have received no refunds.  She spends her time cruising around the world on our dime.  A Facebook page was created to discuss options on getting  refunds and we discovered then that this was not the first time she has done this, but it is the most passengers she has refused to give refunds to.  Upon investigation we learned she is not licensed, bonded or insured.  She states on her page that if something happens she can not be held responsible.  BS! She has now lost her ability to take credit cards most likely due to the high number of chargebacks against her. Now the form of payment is Zelle which is illegal in Canada and is the known form of payment for scammers.  She also does personal checks if you dont have zelle and they are made out to her not the business.  This is done to avoid paying taxes on that money.  

Check out the full story done by Michelle Couch-Friedman of Consumer Rescue.  Michelle spent over 9 months going through documents and trying to get all of these people their money back.  In the end Sandra stopped communicating with her after getting caught in lie after lie.  SO buyer beware.  We vetted her, asked her direct questions to which she responded if the ship does not port it is 100% refundable.  She had her cheerleading squad post only positive reviews (anything else is deleted or not posted).  I strongly urge anyone thinking of using her to check the reviews on various pages and the stories out there about her.  

[jimbo5544]

27 minutes ago, revengeful87 said:

So for those asking questions: over 1200 passengers booked tours with her for the Greenland cruise in September 2023.  Over 800 passengers got no refunds for the iceburg tours.  The other tours in other ports went off but not without issues.  Most of us booked before she changed the terms and conditions on her website,  When she did change her terms and conditions she failed to notify anyone of those changes.  One person who booked the same day as we did got a full refund because she booked before the new website went live.  So the question is why not the rest of us? We did do chargebacks on our credit cards and she provided false documents and information to the cc companies and they found in her favor.  She changed the terms to non refundable on September 19th, after the cruise was over.  On September 6th she was on the Facebook page stating refunds would be forthcoming.  All lies! Matter of fact she told the tour operator to keep 10k of our money and that he would get all the business back and more when we returned on our free cruise in 2024! There was no free cruise.  The tour operator sent her an email on August 28th stating ship won't make it please cancel for full refund so I can book other tours.  She refused to do so and cost him thousands of dollars.  Is this why she told him to keep 10k of our money?  She provided partial refunds to some guests with the understanding the rest would be coming.  They have never seen that money.  Most of us have received no refunds.  She spends her time cruising around the world on our dime.  A Facebook page was created to discuss options on getting  refunds and we discovered then that this was not the first time she has done this, but it is the most passengers she has refused to give refunds to.  Upon investigation we learned she is not licensed, bonded or insured.  She states on her page that if something happens she can not be held responsible.  BS! She has now lost her ability to take credit cards most likely due to the high number of chargebacks against her. Now the form of payment is Zelle which is illegal in Canada and is the known form of payment for scammers.  She also does personal checks if you dont have zelle and they are made out to her not the business.  This is done to avoid paying taxes on that money.  

Check out the full story done by Michelle Couch-Friedman of Consumer Rescue.  Michelle spent over 9 months going through documents and trying to get all of these people their money back.  In the end Sandra stopped communicating with her after getting caught in lie after lie.  SO buyer beware.  We vetted her, asked her direct questions to which she responded if the ship does not port it is 100% refundable.  She had her cheerleading squad post only positive reviews (anything else is deleted or not posted).  I strongly urge anyone thinking of using her to check the reviews on various pages and the stories out there about her.  

Fair summation.  Caveat emptor.   

[fvandewouwer]

4 hours ago, revengeful87 said:

So for those asking questions: over 1200 passengers booked tours with her for the Greenland 

I was not able to create such a good resume of what she did to so many people in all those years, and she is still doing it selling excursions and hotels for the carnival Panorama cruise  in October

. I hope these people read this to.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

F.

[starstruck05]

6 hours ago, revengeful87 said:

So for those asking questions: over 1200 passengers booked tours with her for the Greenland cruise in September 2023.  Over 800 passengers got no refunds for the iceburg tours.  The other tours in other ports went off but not without issues.  Most of us booked before she changed the terms and conditions on her website,  When she did change her terms and conditions she failed to notify anyone of those changes.  One person who booked the same day as we did got a full refund because she booked before the new website went live.  So the question is why not the rest of us? We did do chargebacks on our credit cards and she provided false documents and information to the cc companies and they found in her favor.  She changed the terms to non refundable on September 19th, after the cruise was over.  On September 6th she was on the Facebook page stating refunds would be forthcoming.  All lies! Matter of fact she told the tour operator to keep 10k of our money and that he would get all the business back and more when we returned on our free cruise in 2024! There was no free cruise.  The tour operator sent her an email on August 28th stating ship won't make it please cancel for full refund so I can book other tours.  She refused to do so and cost him thousands of dollars.  Is this why she told him to keep 10k of our money?  She provided partial refunds to some guests with the understanding the rest would be coming.  They have never seen that money.  Most of us have received no refunds.  She spends her time cruising around the world on our dime.  A Facebook page was created to discuss options on getting  refunds and we discovered then that this was not the first time she has done this, but it is the most passengers she has refused to give refunds to.  Upon investigation we learned she is not licensed, bonded or insured.  She states on her page that if something happens she can not be held responsible.  BS! She has now lost her ability to take credit cards most likely due to the high number of chargebacks against her. Now the form of payment is Zelle which is illegal in Canada and is the known form of payment for scammers.  She also does personal checks if you dont have zelle and they are made out to her not the business.  This is done to avoid paying taxes on that money.  

Check out the full story done by Michelle Couch-Friedman of Consumer Rescue.  Michelle spent over 9 months going through documents and trying to get all of these people their money back.  In the end Sandra stopped communicating with her after getting caught in lie after lie.  SO buyer beware.  We vetted her, asked her direct questions to which she responded if the ship does not port it is 100% refundable.  She had her cheerleading squad post only positive reviews (anything else is deleted or not posted).  I strongly urge anyone thinking of using her to check the reviews on various pages and the stories out there about her.  

It maybe more of pain than it's worth but have yall considered a lawsuit? I'm sure it's enough for a class action.

[jimbo5544]

23 minutes ago, starstruck05 said:

It maybe more of pain than it's worth but have yall considered a lawsuit? I'm sure it's enough for a class action.

The only winner in class actions are the lawyers….

[BlerkOne]

40 minutes ago, starstruck05 said:

It maybe more of pain than it's worth but have yall considered a lawsuit? I'm sure it's enough for a class action.

You might have to file it in Canada.

[fvandewouwer]

5 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

You might have to file it in 

 

Everything that could be done has been done.  Being from other countries doesn't make it easy, I am from Belgium and most of our group is from the US, she is from Canada and she had an account under a friend's name in the US so that way she could avoid paying taxes. 

Her businesses went down from posting tours for all Europe to just one cruise coming up in oktober.

We hope to get her out of business completely but I guess she will keep on doing it as long as Carnival allows it. And yes they know about her actions, she practically lives on a Carnival Cruise ship, and is honoured every week for having the most cruise days at sea. I saw her a couple of weeks ago enjoying her cruise life playing in the casino as nothing is going on.

 

 

[fvandewouwer]

this is strange :

I tried to post the topic number of this post in the roll call of the Carnival Panorama cruise 25 days Transpacific October 12th

and I get this message  " sorry this post is not available anymore "

Is there a way to put a link to this post ?

still trying to warn those people.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

9 minutes ago, fvandewouwer said:

this is strange :

I tried to post the topic number of this post in the roll call of the Carnival Panorama cruise 25 days Transpacific October 12th

and I get this message  " sorry this post is not available anymore "

Is there a way to put a link to this post ?

still trying to warn those people.

 

 

Lots of strange things…..sad

[ontheweb]

13 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

The only winner in class actions are the lawyers….

But there is a loser. At least that might bring some satisfaction to some.

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

But there is a loser. At least that might bring some satisfaction to some.

Another topic for another day.  I am not stating that the Op should not seek remedies, just that this one will not bear fruit, at least not for the op.

[erby2283]

On 7/14/2024 at 1:58 PM, ninjacat123 said:

We experienced issues with Sandra’s Cruise Tours on our Carnival cruise that ported in Santorini and fortunately we made it back to the ship. I emailed her about the issues and she responded that she would address these issues. After reading this post, I would never book with her again. Thanks for posting!👍

Was just about to tag you to make sure you had seen this. 🙂 

[BlerkOne]

3 hours ago, fvandewouwer said:

this is strange :

I tried to post the topic number of this post in the roll call of the Carnival Panorama cruise 25 days Transpacific October 12th

and I get this message  " sorry this post is not available anymore "

Is there a way to put a link to this post ?

still trying to warn those people.

 

 

The post must have been deleted.

[belkin]

I was not on the Greenland tour but thought I would share what happened to us.  We first met Sandra on the Splendor cruise from Long Beach to Singapore back in 2019. She was doing tours, and I heard many good things. 

 

Fast forward to 2022 when we booked a b2b out of Dover on the Pride.  She popped up in the groups I belonged to so I thought why not, people we happy with her on the Splendor. So I booked several tours with her for each sailing. This was back when you had to have a negative Covid test to get on the ship. Well we got a big surprise when my hubby tested positive 2 days before sailing. 

 

I immediately contacted Sandra to let her know and started posting on the groups we were a part of to see if anyone was interested as many of the tours were sold out.  I found replacements for a few of the tours and contacted Sandra to let her know.  She told me she wanted the people to pay her instead of me. This made me very uneasy and sent up a big red flag.  To make a long story short she never refunded me for the tours that I was able to replace and asked me to make a claim with my travel insurance company.  Very unscrupulous!

[jimbo5544]

6 hours ago, belkin said:

I was not on the Greenland tour but thought I would share what happened to us.  We first met Sandra on the Splendor cruise from Long Beach to Singapore back in 2019. She was doing tours, and I heard many good things. 

 

Fast forward to 2022 when we booked a b2b out of Dover on the Pride.  She popped up in the groups I belonged to so I thought why not, people we happy with her on the Splendor. So I booked several tours with her for each sailing. This was back when you had to have a negative Covid test to get on the ship. Well we got a big surprise when my hubby tested positive 2 days before sailing. 

 

I immediately contacted Sandra to let her know and started posting on the groups we were a part of to see if anyone was interested as many of the tours were sold out.  I found replacements for a few of the tours and contacted Sandra to let her know.  She told me she wanted the people to pay her instead of me. This made me very uneasy and sent up a big red flag.  To make a long story short she never refunded me for the tours that I was able to replace and asked me to make a claim with my travel insurance company.  Very unscrupulous!

leopards do not lose their spots.

[revengeful87]

7 hours ago, belkin said:

I was not on the Greenland tour but thought I would share what happened to us.  We first met Sandra on the Splendor cruise from Long Beach to Singapore back in 2019. She was doing tours, and I heard many good things. 

 

Fast forward to 2022 when we booked a b2b out of Dover on the Pride.  She popped up in the groups I belonged to so I thought why not, people we happy with her on the Splendor. So I booked several tours with her for each sailing. This was back when you had to have a negative Covid test to get on the ship. Well we got a big surprise when my hubby tested positive 2 days before sailing. 

 

I immediately contacted Sandra to let her know and started posting on the groups we were a part of to see if anyone was interested as many of the tours were sold out.  I found replacements for a few of the tours and contacted Sandra to let her know.  She told me she wanted the people to pay her instead of me. This made me very uneasy and sent up a big red flag.  To make a long story short she never refunded me for the tours that I was able to replace and asked me to make a claim with my travel insurance company.  Very unscrupulous!

File with your insurance so she gets to steal your money. That’s insurance fraud. She needs to learn what providing a refund actually means. 
snakes are snakes and she’s one of them 

[d9704011]

1 minute ago, revengeful87 said:

File with your insurance so she gets to steal your money. That’s insurance fraud. She needs to learn what providing a refund actually means. 
snakes are snakes and she’s one of them 

Insurance fraud, how so?  I don't much care for Sandra's practices but it looks more like a non-refundable reservation (like a hotel) than fraud.  belkin simply wasted her/his time trying to find replacements under an understandable (but mistaken) notion that a refund from Sandra's would follow.

[revengeful87]

On 7/18/2024 at 6:56 PM, starstruck05 said:

It maybe more of pain than it's worth but have yall considered a lawsuit? I'm sure it's enough for a class action.

Yea we couldn’t find a lawyer willing to take the case because she is in Canada and we are spread out throughout the United States 

[revengeful87]

On 7/19/2024 at 8:09 AM, fvandewouwer said:

this is strange :

I tried to post the topic number of this post in the roll call of the Carnival Panorama cruise 25 days Transpacific October 12th

and I get this message  " sorry this post is not available anymore "

Is there a way to put a link to this post ?

still trying to warn those people.

 

 

Post the story from Michelle couch Friedman from consumer rescue. Google it and you will find the story. Thanks for getting the message out 

[revengeful87]

On 7/19/2024 at 8:54 AM, ontheweb said:

But there is a loser. At least that might bring some satisfaction to some.

The article written by Michelle Couch Friedman will hurt her business even more. She has lost a lot more business than she owes refunds at this point in time. She has already canceled several tours and many people have decided not to book with her as a result of her shady business practices. She chose to dig her feet in the sand. We chose to dig ours deeper and tell the truth! She’s told so many lies she can’t keep them straight anymore. This is our revenge.