Help!! My final payment is due and my TA is MIA!!!

[travelntreats]

Hey Travelntreats how's it going?

 

A couple post above you OP responded that her deposit said Carnival on her credit card statement so at least that part should be OK.

 

TA's like OP's make all TA's look bad unfortunately which they are not.

 

Bill

OOOoppps sorry I missed that post Bill ! Some TA's do give some of us a bad rap. There are good TA's out there....

 

Hows things with you ?

[mohavemommy]

Thank you everyone. I will call Carnival directly this evening and explain the situation. I know when my depost was made the charge on my cc was made directly by Carnival (at least that is what it said on my statement). Hopefully they can just use that same CC# and charge my balance. I'll post tomorrow and let you all know what they said... :-)

 

I am anxious to hear how this is being resolved for you. If in deed this person is part of the home based travel agents, then they will have some sort of parent company they work for. You might want to check your documentation for that name. Carnival might also be able to provide it.

 

I have heard that you can ask that Carnival do a three-way call with your TA if there are issues. In this case at least it would be documented if all they receive is an answering machine as well. I have also heard on the rare occasion that a non-performing TA can be 'fired' by the passenger and have the reservation assigned directly to Carnival.

 

Best of luck in getting this resolved.

[elcuchio24]

Your TA's in Miami?:)

[blindrid]

Hi Smithkids5521,

 

How have you been paying for this cruise?

 

If you used a credit card, call the credit card issuing company and tell them the story. Perhaps you can recover your money and then book with Carnival directly?

 

Good luck,

 

Lee

 

Why not just transfer the existing one from the TA to a PVP?

[Ken076]

Why not just transfer the existing one from the TA to a PVP?

 

TA's don't normally voluntarily do this as they lose their commission, and Carnival doesn't unilaterally take back a booking unless the TA is almost criminally misbehaving. ken

[kwilliams137]

does anyone else think that the travel agent might have scammed the OP??? i mean yes she saw a charge from Carnival, but maybe the charge wasnt for her booking?? Call carnival and make sure you give them your booking number and compare the details..as far as paying them, you might not be able to as sometimes with travel agents they sometimes charge you more then whats in Carnival's system...

 

I personally dont trust TA's, I have seen so many TA mistakes in the past few years (I work at a Hotel). I feel so much better just booking with the company itself then trusting a thrid party...

[lsw9658]

I hope this works out okay. OP - Any answer yet from Carnival? :confused:

[KeywestK]

I was in this exact situation many years ago. We, along with our friends, booked an RCI cruise with a small "mom 'n pop" travel agency near where our friends' live in Pennsylvania. All was fine and dandy 'til it was time for the final payment. The TA went MIA and we were freaking out. We called RCI and explained the situation to them and they were very calming. After we gave them all the information, they asked us to give them two weeks to "check it out." Two weeks later, RCI informed us that the TA cancelled our reservations, absconded with our returned deposits (which were paid with checks, not credit cards--learned my lesson with THAT one!) and we no longer had reservations. Oh, and the TA could not be located. Again, we were freaking out. RCI then went on to say that they were reinstating our reservations, and were only requiring us to paid what the original balance would have been. In other words, they essentially ate the difference, we were going on our cruise, and were grateful beyond words. When I asked the rep at RCI why they would do that for us, his response was, "None of this was our fault, and they wanted us to have our vacation."

 

I hope your situation won't be quite as dramatic as ours' was, but if it is, I hope Carnival will work with you and help you out. Good luck, and please let us know what happens.

[Essiesmom]

does anyone else think that the travel agent might have scammed the OP??? i mean yes she saw a charge from Carnival, but maybe the charge wasnt for her booking?? Call carnival and make sure you give them your booking number and compare the details..as far as paying them, you might not be able to as sometimes with travel agents they sometimes charge you more then whats in Carnival's system...

 

I personally dont trust TA's, I have seen so many TA mistakes in the past few years (I work at a Hotel). I feel so much better just booking with the company itself then trusting a thrid party...

If she can go to Carnival.com and pull up her reservation, then Carnival got the money...EM

[betty215]

i am sitting at the edge of my seat wondering if things worked out for you. Please update us!!

[Vanessa L]

does anyone else think that the travel agent might have scammed the OP???

 

Yep.

 

I was in this exact situation many years ago. We, along with our friends, booked an RCI cruise with a small "mom 'n pop" travel agency near where our friends' live in Pennsylvania. All was fine and dandy 'til it was time for the final payment. The TA went MIA and we were freaking out. We called RCI and explained the situation to them and they were very calming. After we gave them all the information, they asked us to give them two weeks to "check it out." Two weeks later, RCI informed us that the TA cancelled our reservations, absconded with our returned deposits (which were paid with checks, not credit cards--learned my lesson with THAT one!) and we no longer had reservations. Oh, and the TA could not be located. Again, we were freaking out. RCI then went on to say that they were reinstating our reservations, and were only requiring us to paid what the original balance would have been. In other words, they essentially ate the difference, we were going on our cruise, and were grateful beyond words. When I asked the rep at RCI why they would do that for us, his response was, "None of this was our fault, and they wanted us to have our vacation."

 

I hope your situation won't be quite as dramatic as ours' was, but if it is, I hope Carnival will work with you and help you out. Good luck, and please let us know what happens.

 

I smiled big at this one. Not because of your issue, but because there is no way, not even if hell froze over, Carnival would EVER give that kind of customer service. No way.

 

It's ironic that Carnival is called the "Wal-Mart of the Seas" since Wal-Mart has WAY better customer service than Carnival. Carnival could take some lessons from Wal-Mart in that department, IMHO. Wal-Mart will do just about anything to make a customer happy. I've been able to return things without hassle or difficulty, I've had employees change the price on demand if I noted it was lower on the shelf than it rang up for, and have never, ever had the run around that Carnival gives people for the SIMPLEST of things. It kills me.

 

OP, I hope to God your TA has not run off with your money!! Best case, I hope you paid with a credit card. Please let us know how this turned out. I too am following this thread with interest.

[blindrid]

TA's don't normally voluntarily do this as they lose their commission, and Carnival doesn't unilaterally take back a booking unless the TA is almost criminally misbehaving. ken

 

Thanks Ken. I thought my solution was too easy.

[black forest]

Hopefully you could talk to Carnival and got help and a good solution to this problem. I keep my fingers crossed!

[travelntreats]

OK OP... where are you ? We are curious as to what the outcome was on this topic !

[maggieworkman]

I don't know if your TA might have set it up this way, but my TA set up my final payment to be applied to my credit card automatically on their due date. So even if they weren't around, my final payment would have been paid.

 

I used a large, online TA (which I don't recommend and won't do again), so maybe that is the difference. I'm not sure if that would be something a small mom-and-pop TA would do.

 

I only know this because I called about a week before my final payment was due (their payment date, which was one week earlier than Carnival's date. I could see on my form where they whited-out the due date and wrote in their own date). They wouldn't allow me to pay early and said it would automatically get paid on the date scheduled.

 

Maggie

[NavarreCruiser]

Yep.

 

 

 

I smiled big at this one. Not because of your issue, but because there is no way, not even if hell froze over, Carnival would EVER give that kind of customer service. No way.

 

It's ironic that Carnival is called the "Wal-Mart of the Seas" since Wal-Mart has WAY better customer service than Carnival. Carnival could take some lessons from Wal-Mart in that department, IMHO. Wal-Mart will do just about anything to make a customer happy. I've been able to return things without hassle or difficulty, I've had employees change the price on demand if I noted it was lower on the shelf than it rang up for, and have never, ever had the run around that Carnival gives people for the SIMPLEST of things. It kills me.

 

OP, I hope to God your TA has not run off with your money!! Best case, I hope you paid with a credit card. Please let us know how this turned out. I too am following this thread with interest.

 

We cruise with Carnival and RCI and like them both. However I feel fairly comfortable saying that with all the cutbacks RCI has recently implemented it is unlikely they would be so benevolent now. Also OP you were supposed to update us yesterday, what happened?

[FloridaGators]

Have we heard anything from the OP???

[betty215]

Have we heard anything from the OP???

 

No and it's driving me insane!!! :eek: Please update us! I am crossing my fingers that carnival was able to help you.

[Vanessa L]

Maybe the TA did run off with her money and she is too embarrassed to come back and say so???? I hope that is not the case, OP :(

[black forest]

I hope that everything has been solved in a positive way. Please let us know!

[caribbeanboy]

How does she know that her TA is in MIA if she haven't hear back from him/her?

[gracie65]

How does she know that her TA is in MIA if she haven't hear back from him/her?

 

 

I believe she met MIA as Missing in Action not MIA as in Miami.

Now I think she is MIA as well.

[black forest]

I believe she met MIA as Missing in Action not MIA as in Miami.

Now I think she is MIA as well.

 

You may be right and she is MIA, your first version. And for me it is because the result wasn't very positive. So she is not in the mood to let us know. I am sorry for her. I really hoped it would turn out fine.

[JonV]

I had this happen on my first cruise and it turned out the Travel Agent died. I was so sorry to lose him but the coporate company he worked for assigned someone else to me but the reservations got changed from the Fascination to the Festivale because of the travel agent. We did get switched back to the Fascination and had a great cruise. It will all work out as there is some leeway and your deposit showing Carnival is a very good sign.

 

But we are all axiously awaiting your outcome and I hope it is positive.

[goodml]

Maybe the TA did run off with her money and she is too embarrassed to come back and say so???? I hope that is not the case, OP :(

 

The TA didn't run off with her money. She said her credit card statement showed she was charged by Carnival directly. I'm sure the reason she hasn't come back is because it was all highly anti-climactic really. She was going to call Carnival directly that day. Carnival WILL take payments directly even if a TA is involved when the TA can't be contacted. One of our friends had this exact scenario happen. I doubt it ended up being a big deal at all.

 

Worst case scenario if it's not as I think it is- she files a chargeback with her credit card company and never, ever uses that TA again.