eCruiseStore.com Just Went Bankrupt

[Driftwoodgal]

We were booked on a cruise through an agency in the UK that went bankrupt. As posted previously agencies in over there are insured. We booked the cruise along with a friend that lived in England. All of it was a mess, but RCI worked with us and honored our cruise deposit, but our price did increase by the discounted amount the TA was going to give us. I didn't know about the differences of cancelling a cruise in the UK vs the USA. We could not get our deposit back, it was lose it or take the cruise at the higher price. Glad that I don't have to follow their rules all of the time.

 

So sorry to hear about those that are having TA problems. I hope that you either get to go on the cruise or get your money back. Nothing worse than being at the mercy of someone that you find out isn't reputable.

 

I had an issue with a hotel in Miami four years ago. It took over a year, but my disputed charges were finally refunded to me by my credit card company. It took several letters and phone calls, but I did get my money back, so don't give up.

 

I went to this companies website ...... I noticied that they list themselves as members of the BBB and CLIA......or so they say.

[billie5]

So sorry to hear about this situation.

 

People, please do not believe the pseudo-legal discussion in this thread. Unfortunately, these TA bankruptcies have occurred and been discussed many times over the years. Although a cruise line may voluntarily offer some assistance to those whose deposits have disappeared, it has no such obligation under the law. Sadly, there have already been many examples of this over the years. The legal responsibility for "agency" is complex, and does not correspond very well to what most of us would expect from common sense.

 

In the U.S. at least, the probability of receiving a refund from a credit card company for non-delivered services, with or without bankruptcy, is very high.

 

For what it is worth, I use internet services all the time, and have booked more than 20 cruises online without a problem (often using Cruise Compete for offers, but not taking the best offer if I can not check the ratings of the agency via Google). I suppose I have been fortunate -- anyone can be caught by a bankruptcy. Alas, I wish I had been equally careful with my 10 year/100,000 mile bumper-to-bumper extended warranty on my 2002 Camry. I thought a big online insurance company, re-insured with a separate life insurance company, would be completely safe. In fact, the auto insurance company and re-insurance company went bankrupt at the same time!

 

Bill

[cruisegal101]

This is nothing new with ecruisestore. There are posts online going back several years with tales of woe. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g34438-i92-k1374357-ECruisestore_com_has_anyone_used_them_to_book_a_cruise-Miami_Florida.html

 

As others have said, if the charge on your card is not directly to the cruise line, it is a major red flag about the company's cash flow situation. I have booked online many times but I always check out tripadvisor for information before booking.

 

I am really sorry for those of you who are having to deal with this. There have been horror stories on HAL and Cunard boards about this same agency and others that are operated under different names by the same individual. You might want to google his name and see what others have done to get resolution to the problems that they've had.

[jfrenaye]

Well, this does suck. Different credit cards have different rules. Often if you do not dispute a transaction within 30 or 60 days you lose clout. So, when you make a final payment say 120 days out and your sailing is imminent, you indeed may lose the cruise.

 

The poster who said an agency/vendor relationship is complex is correct. Most cruise lines will NOT honor a booking if they did not receive payment-period. How are they to know that you (as a consumer) are not pulling a fast one on them?

 

Even when Joystar went bankrupt and was refusing to pay their agents, the cruise lines continued to pay Joystar and refused to take over any bookings without specific permission from Joystar.

 

I hope this all works out and it is a difficult lesson in trust. Sometimes it makes a lot more sense to go with a trusted and well known source (be that the vendore or a trusted agent--both of course who COULD go under as well) rather than an unknown online entity.

 

It is all too easy for someone today to call themselves an "agent" and take money from people and not forward it to the supplier. In the past year or so, I recall an "agent" from YTB who took money from over 100 high school seniors for a Carnival Cruise as a graduation party and never made the booking. The kids were yound and naive and to my knowledge, the woman was never caught. Not that Carnival woudl have readily taken a group of 100+ 17 and 18 year olds sailing alone)

 

Two other ones (also with YTB) were in Houston and Baltimore where it was a similar deal. The deposits and final payments were made and never sent to the suppliers. Vacations ruined.

 

Makes all the sense in the world to thoroughly check out who you are dealing with and make the logical and fact based decision on if that $100 OBC or that bottle of wine is really worth the possibility of losing out on your experience!

[CanCruzer]

How many of these stories could have been avoided if it was known that eCruiseStore had such questionable practices? KweenKaren had her woes back in the spring. With that knowledge, I'll bet many would not have used their services. I still maintain that it is an injustice to not be permitted to share TA horror stories.

 

The argument has been presented that malicious folks could spread bad rumours about agencies. Well, there are no shortage of "one post wonders" that tell some horrible story here. We are smart enough to tell them apart, so I think we could do likewise with TA posts.

 

I understand the rules are the rules, but I think they should be rethought.

[mafig]

How many of these stories could have been avoided if it was known that eCruiseStore had such questionable practices? KweenKaren had her woes back in the spring. With that knowledge, I'll bet many would not have used their services. I still maintain that it is an injustice to not be permitted to share TA horror stories.

 

The argument has been presented that malicious folks could spread bad rumours about agencies. Well, there are no shortage of "one post wonders" that tell some horrible story here. We are smart enough to tell them apart, so I think we could do likewise with TA posts.

 

I understand the rules are the rules, but I think they should be rethought.

 

 

There was a time that TAs were allowed to be mentioned. I found a couple that were excellent from postings here.

However, we had less people then. Even then some of the posts went like this:

Where's Cruisin Cameron, I've been emailing him for days, no answer.

 

He's on a cruise, I think.

 

No, he's not, I just heard from him.

 

He never answers my emails either.

 

He always answers mine.

 

etc. etc. I think you get the point.

 

Even with that I still used to agree with you, until I booked a cruise with an agent that I wasn't familiar with. Although she was recommended by someone I trust I still wanted to check her out. I went to another board where they allow mentioning TAs (and those boards do exist). I asked about this TA and there were no replies.

So I booked anyway.

About two weeks later, several people came on saying she was the worst TA ever, dishonest, "you'll be sorry, etc." I was frightened, but kept the booking.

You know what, it turned out that those TAs were jealous of her, had some sort of run in with her in the past and were out to do her harm. She turned out fine. More than fine actually, she got me a great OBC after final payment on a cruiseline that actually doesn't usually grant them.

So I do understand CC's position now.....although I certainly see both sides.

[klingoncruiser]

We will continue to just go directly through the cruise lines. I have up on Cruises only a long time ago, despite them doing a good job. Just never trusted them.

 

Oh well.....

[steponboard]

This company has ruined it for a online TA"S because I'd never use a TA again. I'll book directly with the cruise from now on and know my deposit is safe and then final payment is made directly to the cruise.

[CanCruzer]

This company has ruined it for a online TA"S because I'd never use a TA again. I'll book directly with the cruise from now on and know my deposit is safe and then final payment is made directly to the cruise.

Such a shame that one bad apple spoils the whole pie. We all have to be so vigilant in everything we do these days because there are so many people wanting to prey on us. It used to be that just the vulnerable were at risk. Now the bad guys have gotten so savvy that we are all at risk. Sigh.

 

Reassuring that there are still lots (mostly) good people out there! :D

[Blackrobe]

Those who have been scammed by eCruiseStore should check the activity on the credit card they used with eCruiseStore. I like many others paid for my cruise in full in May. In June eCruiseStore "accidently" charged my credit card a second time. eCruiseStore promised to refund the money which they never did, however, a complaint to the credit card company corrected that problem. Yesterday, after being notified of the bankruptcy I learned that my credit card had been charged a third time using a different named company about three weeks ago. Obviously, the criminals were trying to get funds from wherever they could immediately before the bankruptcy. Check your credit cards to protect yourself.

[sirwired]

1) As far as I know of, no travel insurance covers agent BK, even the ones with default coverage. They will cover Cruise Line, Airline, and Tour Operator BK, but not agent.

2) Initiate a dispute with your credit card NOW. This MUST be done in writing. If you are within 60 days of the statement date the payment appeared on, you are fine; you will get your money back. (If you are close to that date, FedEx your dispute in writing TODAY. A phone call will not cut it.

3) Even if you are outside the date, dispute anyway. When Windjammer went BK, I got my money back even though I was months outside the regular dispute window. I still don't know why, but they didn't even make me mail them anything, and credited the money by the next morning.

 

If you still want to take your vacation, you can't expect the cruise line to honor the TA's fares or OBC, as the cruise line hasn't been paid for either one.

 

SirWired

[ptsaint]

Hi everyone,

 

we had two cruises - two rooms booked this year (4 rooms total) with eCruise - no problem

 

we have three fully paid for for next year - BIG PROBLEM - HAL has no record of any payments in full at all for any of them

 

I was advised immediately to do the following:

1. dispute the charge on my credit card

2. cancel and have any cc used by them re issued

 

My CC company immediately disputed the amounts charged, is sending a new CC overnight and I have already filed my dispute papers - please have your cc card reissued as soon as you can.

 

I can tell you this is a $40K issue and one that is making me sick to my stomach.

 

there are other charges that went directly to HAL which for now I am not worrying about - hoping that is the right thing to do

 

they operate under a bunch of names - eCruiseStore, Cruise Planners, Galaxy Travel - when I spoke with HAL they advised me that the company is still doing business and has not turned any bookings over to HAL directly

 

I am hoping we are the only one, but that is doubtful - but my advice is to call and confirm your status ASAP with the cruise line

 

Patrice

[Sailkeywest]

I am confused, I stumbled across this thread and became curious about this horrific company "ecruisestore," so I googled their name and they are still up and running? How can this be?

[ptsaint]

I am confused, I stumbled across this thread and became curious about this horrific company "ecruisestore," so I googled their name and they are still up and running? How can this be?

 

according to Holland America they are still doing business but they will no longer be doing business with me

 

Patrice

[Aruba]

We dodged a bullet with this agency. We had 2 cruises booked with them and they offered us a further 5% discount if we pre-paid the entire cruise fare at the time we made the reservations. When the charges appeared on our credit card statement, I noticed that the deposit was charged to the cruise line while the balance was paid to eCruiseStore. Thanks to CruiseCritic and the many people who advised us NOT to do this, we contacted eCruiseStore (this was several months ago), asked them to reverse the charge, and that we would pay the original amount, without the 5% discount, at final payment date. The agent said OK.

 

60 days went by. We heard every excuse in the book about why the agency did not process the reversal ("the person who does that is away on vacation" or "just left for the weekend", etc). On Day 60, we contested the charge with our credit card company, which reversed the charge and refunded the disputed amount. We never heard a word from eCruiseStore, which should have been a sign that something was not right.

 

To those in a similar situation, we were told by our credit card company that we had only 60 days to contest the charge, that if we had waited one day longer we would not have been able to do so. Like I said, that was one bullet we dodged. Of course, we now have to rebook the cruises at (likely) higher prices.

[steponboard]

Such a shame that one bad apple spoils the whole pie. We all have to be so vigilant in everything we do these days because there are so many people wanting to prey on us. It used to be that just the vulnerable were at risk. Now the bad guys have gotten so savvy that we are all at risk. Sigh.

 

Reassuring that there are still lots (mostly) good people out there! :D

 

Although I agree with you I find it isn't worth my time and effort to research a company when I can pick up the phone and call the cruise directly avoiding any potential issues. The second advantage to this is that the cruise line will talk to me if I want to change cabins or take advantage of a lower fare immediately and doesn't charge any fees to do anything. So it has proven to me to be a no brainer ALWAYS DEAL DIRECTLY WITH THE CRUISE LINE.

[TMLAalum]

Running their Ponzi scheme operation, eCruiseStore has collected 100s of 1000s of dollars before payment was due to the cruiselines. They have also floated money through double & triple charging their customers cc's.

 

Bankruptcy? Where did they hide all the money they have collected from us "prepay" suckers (I am one)? There should have been at least a million in their coffers. The whole operation was a scam from the get-go. Even their email that reads, "To ensure the completion of your refund, you may want to contact your credit card company and place a dispute against the charge made on your account. We will endorse the paperwork for an approval of the refund; this should speed up the process and prevent any charges being applied to your account by your bank. You may have to advise your bank that the reason for the dispute is due to services not rendered." does not ring true, especially the underlined sentence.

 

I agree with the posters who feel that CruiseCritic should allow experiences such as that of Kween Karen to be posted. Or, what could work, given the influence of this board on cruiselines, would be a CruiseCritic ombudsman who intervene when services aren't delivered as contracted by a travel agent. I for one would be willing to pay a membership fee to belong to CruiseCritic and defray the cost of having an advocate.

[ptsaint]

Running their Ponzi scheme operation, eCruiseStore has collected 100s of 1000s of dollars before payment was due to the cruiselines. They have also floated money through double & triple charging their customers cc's.

 

Bankruptcy? Where did they hide all the money they have collected from us "prepay" suckers (I am one)? There should have been at least a million in their coffers. The whole operation was a scam from the get-go. Even their email that reads, "To ensure the completion of your refund, you may want to contact your credit card company and place a dispute against the charge made on your account. We will endorse the paperwork for an approval of the refund; this should speed up the process and prevent any charges being applied to your account by your bank. You may have to advise your bank that the reason for the dispute is due to services not rendered." does not ring true, especially the underlined sentence.

 

I agree with the posters who feel that CruiseCritic should allow experiences such as that of Kween Karen to be posted. Or, what could work, given the influence of this board on cruiselines, would be a CruiseCritic ombudsman who intervene when services aren't delivered as contracted by a travel agent. I for one would be willing to pay a membership fee to belong to CruiseCritic and defray the cost of having an advocate.

 

I have to be honest got considerable accomplished today - mind you I didn't get any work done

 

its been a roller coaster to say the least - off line if anyone would like to have additional info - I would be happy to provide contact info for you to be in touch with (I got this info after pressuring HAL, and I also got an email with a contact for HAL from Richard of all people today) so happy to share.

 

sorry I thought I was a reasonably smart person and didn't realize this was something to be wary of - lesson learned and a hard one to stomach - esp since we had 4 rooms on two cruises without issue this year

 

I can be reached vie email

 

patrice AT sysres DOT net

 

please put ecruise in the subject line

 

thanks

 

Patrice

[CoffeeBoy]

I would suggest to anyone who has done credit card business with this company or any of it's many dbas alert your credit card companies.

 

Frankly, I would simply get new cards with new numbers. This Richard Turner/Tanner/Dare guy will simply submerge and pop up somewhere else.

 

He has your credit card numbers, and is a proven scammer. Don't take chances.

[steponboard]

.

 

I agree with the posters who feel that CruiseCritic should allow experiences such as that of Kween Karen to be posted. Or, what could work, given the influence of this board on cruiselines, would be a CruiseCritic ombudsman who intervene when services aren't delivered as contracted by a travel agent. I for one would be willing to pay a membership fee to belong to CruiseCritic and defray the cost of having an advocate.

 

I agree we should be able to post without censorship but if CC charged a fee I'd be outta here.

[ptsaint]

I would suggest to anyone who has done credit card business with this company or any of it's many dbas alert your credit card companies.

 

Frankly, I would simply get new cards with new numbers. This Richard Turner/Tanner/Dare guy will simply submerge and pop up somewhere else.

 

He has your credit card numbers, and is a proven scammer. Don't take chances.

 

for sure call your cc company have new cards sent - as fast as you can!

[imsulin]

Actually that is not true. Back in 2001, when Premier Cruise Line (Big Red Boats anyone?)filed for bankruptcy, I had been in conversations with them about a partial reimbursment of our cruise fare due to our cabin not having air conditioning even though it was advertised as a "deluxe" cabin and charged as such. Once on board we, and many others who also had no air conditioning complained and we were all told, don't worry, it will start running as soon as we leave port.

 

Well of course it did not and all of the sudden cabin stewards appreared with literally hundreds of fans. Turns out the AC hadn't worked for months and yet the Cruise Line continued to sell these cabins as "deluxe" with a higher price. Once on board the customers were lied to about the situation.

 

Anyway, once the bankruptcy was filed my TA and my husband (an attorney) said, well there is nothing you can do.

 

Well I called Mastercard and was told by a clerk that "you went on the cruise, so there is nothing that can be done". After speaking with a supervisor and then asking to be put through to the legal department I was told yes, my claim of fraud was legitimate.

 

The company knew the AC didn't work in these cabins and yet continued to advertise and sell them as deluxe with the accompanying higher price.

 

I told them I would be willing to pay the minimum fare for the lowest level cabin. We had booked two cabins, the inside cabin (at the lower price) had AC that worked great. They agreed and even though the bankruptcy went through I signed my rights to the claim to a 3rd party and was credited $1,400 on my mastercard.

 

Colleen

 

I booked a cruise with Premier on the old HAL Rembrandt for a 7-night Western. It was only $350.00. I think this was in late 2000/early 2001. I had retired, and was just beginning work as a TA. I also booked a couple on the same cruise. We all paid by CC. A few weeks later, I received a call from Premier saying, "Your ship has been chartered by the DOD". What?? This was well before 9/11. Premier offered us our money back, which we took. Surprisingly, our CCs were credited within two weeks! Not much later, Premier declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. So did Regal. So did Commodore. No trip insurance was involved...I was a new TA, and didn't even know about it! Anyway, we all got our money back very quickly. "Whew"!!

[marci22]

Regarding the 60 day rule: it is good to make every effort to accomplish this, but if your payments were made earlier than that, don't give up. I was in a situation with a company in Canada that promised me a rebate after certain things were done (this was worth about $900) and when the time came for me to collect, they told me that they weren't sure when I would be reimbursed (they had "cash flow" problems).

 

I disputed the charge, which had been paid many months earlier, and this particular cc did reimburse me. I guess it is up to each individual issuer what to do on a case by case basis. So don't give up easily.

[TMLAalum]

Regarding the 60 day rule: it is good to make every effort to accomplish this, but if your payments were made earlier than that, don't give up. ...I guess it is up to each individual issuer what to do on a case by case basis. So don't give up easily.

 

Thanks for the encouraging words, Marci.

 

When I did contact my cc company, I explained the situation. Even though 60+ days have passed, dispute forms are being mailed for me to provide documentation. I am keeping fingers X'd and praying that things work out for all of us in this situation.

[Cahroozer]

AS the OP and one of the people caught up in this unfortunate incident, I'll pass on the resolution of my situation:

 

Royal Caribbean was very helpful and took over both bookings, making them direct purchases.

 

My credit card company (am I allowed to say Citi?) reversed the charges on outstanding amounts on both cruises. One of the the charges was very recent and the other occurred on Aug. 4 - long past the 60-day limit some are worried about. A bankruptcy by the agent and failure to pay the cruiseline the money I'd paid the agent appeared to be an obvious reason to grant the disputation. The only thing we lost was the OBC the agency offered.

 

As for this agency, they clearly were a high-risk bunch who also offered very attractive onboard credits. We found them through the compete site also. We had used them several times before successfully, and back in the days when RCCL allowed us all to combine benefits, we had a sizable OBC! I liken this to buying junk bonds.

 

It became clear that this agency profited from holding large sums of money for as long as possible. As one poster said, they offered 5% of the booking in OBC if the tickets were paid for in advance and in full, on top of the OBC they offered up front.

 

I, too, once saw a spurious charge on my credit card by them, and it took a while to get it reversed. However, "accidental" charges crop up a lot these days. In a trip to Hawaii I saw three such "accidents". I recall that the car rental company charged me a second time for a prepaid rental, the hotel charged me excessively and even the company that meets you at the airport with lei's charged me twice. They all reversed the charges cheerfully once I called them, but it makes you wonder.

 

I hope others who were involved in this agency also have a satisfactory outcome. I wouldn't go so far as to say the lesson is to avoid internet TA's. A little caution is in order, but certainly the big lesson is to use a credit card. I suspect a debit card may not have worked as well, and of course if we'd paid by check we might really be SOL.

 

Thanks to all for your well wishes. I look forward to seeing how others have fared.