Balance due and TA is MIA - any TA's out there

[Morning glory]

We put down our deposit and rec'd our booking # in November. The balance of our cruise is due 4/10/05. Being first time cruisers, I guess I expected the TA to touch base with me but when I didn't hear from him I called him today. Turns out he's out of the country from 4/1 to 4/13 and has no access to voice mail and limited access to e-mail. I just wanted to cry.

I called Carnival and they told me "there is nothing they can do, the payment has to be made thru the TA. Since we already put down a deposit and have a booking number, we have a reserved room and we should be okay even if we pay the TA a few days late. " While that makes me feel a little better, I'm not foolish enough to believe that's necessarily true.

So here I am . .

Has anyone else been through this? Are there any TA's out there who could give me some advice??

Many, many thanks in advance.

[CrazyMums]

Does your TA work alone? I book through the same TA all the time, but if she is unavailable or going to be away, someone else in the office takes care of anything we may need. If there is anyone else in the office, they should be able to pull your file and take care of your final payment. Good luck!

[Morning glory]

You know, we took a recommendation on this TA and never thought to ask if he worked alone or what. But from the voice mail and "out of office" e-mail response I got, I'm afraid he might. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone might pick up his voice mail, but I just don't know, and feel like my hands are tied. Aargh!!

[SouthernCaribbean]

You know, we took a recommendation on this TA and never thought to ask if he worked alone or what. But from the voice mail and "out of office" e-mail response I got, I'm afraid he might. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone might pick up his voice mail, but I just don't know, and feel like my hands are tied. Aargh!!

 

You might try doing a google search of the agency's name. I cant imagine a reputable TA just leaving town without giving his clients a way to make payments or adjustments to their cruises.

 

Good Luck

[Morning glory]

You might try doing a google search of the agency's name. I cant imagine a reputable TA just leaving town without giving his clients a way to make payments or adjustments to their cruises.

 

Good Luck

 

Took your advice. I found the website on Google, with a description as follows...

Welcome to ********** is a 7 year old Direct Mail/Internet Based Cruise Discounter. ...

 

But when I tried to access the site, guess what :eek: , "cannot find website". Now I'm just driving myself crazy.

 

The guy seemed so nice and professional. He must know what he's doing. But you can bet I'm going to Better Business Bureau website now to see what I find.

[carolyn22]

Take a deep breath and relax. This exact same thing happened to me last fall for my Christmas Cruise. My travel agent normally calls me when it's time to pay the balance and just asks me if I want to use the same credit card that I put the deposit on. Well, I completely forgot about it thinking she would call me. By the time I realized it, it was about a week overdue. When I called my TA (essentially a one person shop), she was out for the rest of the week. I just about freaked out. I called Carnival and got the same answer you did. The Carnival rep told me that everything should be OK and just to get my TA to apply the final payment when she got back.

 

When my TA got back and returned what had amounted to several e-mails and phone calls from me, each more frantic than the last, she said that Carnival will hold your room for awhile after the the final payment due date if you have a deposit on the room.

 

Now having said all of that, I'm going to stay on top of it better next time, just in case Carnival changes the rules!

[GoinCruisin]

Alot of TA's will just process through your payment on the original credit card, not sure if this is the case, but you might want to contact Carnival Monday and ask them what to do... your TA may have arranged something. Typically they won't talk to you if you have a TA, but I would still call and express your concerns...

[Morning glory]

Nothing on BBB for this TA.

 

Carolyn - Thanks for sharing that with me. It's consistent with what Carnival told me, so I'll sleep a little better tonight.

GoinCruisin - I probably will call Carnival Monday for a follow-up. Hopefully, your right. If not, it would make me feel better if another rep tells me the same thing about being a few days late.

[Guest cruzr44]

Nothing on BBB for this TA.

 

Carolyn - Thanks for sharing that with me. It's consistent with what Carnival told me, so I'll sleep a little better tonight.

GoinCruisin - I probably will call Carnival Monday for a follow-up. Hopefully, your right. If not, it would make me feel better if another rep tells me the same thing about being a few days late.

 

Why wait until Monday to call Carnival. I think they are there 24/7.

[jleq]

Took your advice. I found the website on Google, with a description as follows...

Welcome to ********** is a 7 year old Direct Mail/Internet Based Cruise Discounter. ...

 

 

Why don't you go to Yahoo [or another on-line "phone book"]. See if there's an office telephone different from the one you have. The others are right....it shouldn't be a problem. But I'm thinking of your "peace of mind" here.

[con3]

I am a TA and the final payment we give the client is usually about 1 or 2 weeks before Carnival requires it, it is a buffer time to cover things like this, or clients mailing checks instead of using a credit card. Hopefully they did the same thing! I also have a customer service dept. that handles things if I am out. Hope it all works out for you!

[TxStacey]

You would think that a good TA would look at his/her clients with upcoming money due and inform them before he/she leaves town. Our TA is also going to be out of town when our final payment is due but she let us know ahead of time and we chose to go ahead and make it about a week early to avoid any problems. I have also heard that there is a usually a buffer so you should be okay!

[Morning glory]

Thanks for the continued responses. I haven't heard a thing from the TA and can just hope all goes well. We calculated that 4/10 is exactly 70 days from 6/19, our sail date. According to the Carnival brochure we have, that is when final payment is due.

Thanks for your experiences with your TA's and as a TA. Now I know that he should have been in touch with us for final payment. I agree - how can you leave the country with no backup and without looking through your client list to see what's coming up. It's incompetence like this that makes me crazy! :mad:

 

I thought maybe I messed up by not contacting him a few weeks before payment was due, but that doesn't seem right.

 

Well, thanks again!

[Ehpride]

I hope it all works out!

 

Did you try calling Carnival again?

[travelpals]

Being in the industry for a "reputable" agency consortium, it is my responsibility to make sure your final payment is made to the cruise line by the date not a few days or a week later. Carnival or any other cruise line is not to blame for your final payment being made late and they do not have to honor the booking if someone else comes along with full payment. Most TA's leave their offices with another TA in charge of files to ensure that final payment is in fact made. If this person knows his/her stuff, he/she would have made arrangements with the cruise line to process your credit card for the final payment amount on the date required, we have done this in the past if the final payment date falls on a weekend or holiday where our office is closed. Lastly, your TA should always make your final payment due date 3 to 5 days prior to when the cruise line wants final payment to ensure things like this don't happen.

 

Wouldn't you rather deal with a face and voice rather than an internet TA who I am assuming is not a real TA but someone who has decided to get in on something good.

 

Good luck, I hope you haven't lost your cruise booking.

 

travel pals

[ukbballfan]

Morning glory

 

If you used a credit card for the initial transaction....you might go to that cards website and check to see if another charge has been made to Carnival. Chances are it wasn't without your permission but you never know.

[tarps14]

Don't sweat it-we went on RCCL last summer and somehow our final payment got posted twice! Yikes, lots of $$ tied up on credit card!! However, when RCCL credited the payment back, they ended up crediting BOTH payments back. Didn't find out about this until two weeks before cruise when TA checked booking and it showed NO payment made. Needless to say, I was quite upset and very much feared we had lost our booking which would have been very bad as we were traveling with two other families (to Alaska no less with flights long since paid for). TA said fear not, booking was still intact and simply put the charge through. I don't know if this was just dumb luck that nothing had happened to our booking but everything worked out fine. One of the most memeorable trips we have ever had.

 

Travelpals-that comment at the end, "hope you haven't lost your booking", that's just cruel. I'm sure that's not quite how you meant that, right?

[Morning glory]

I appreciate you're support and encouragement (and final comment there :) )

 

I will double check with my credit card company and Carnival once more later today. If no luck with them, I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

 

I'll keep all you nice people updated for sure on Wednesday when my TA returns.

[travelpals]

Hello,

 

my intent was not to sound cruel! By booking with an internet based TA you are not always guaranteed - if you have booked with a travel agency that is registered, your booking is guaranteed should anything go awry and things do and have gone wrong so my meaning of hope you haven't lost your cruise booking is that I hope the booking is not cancelled by cruise line because TA is unavailable to make payment on file. There was no intent to be cruel.

[cruzn buckeye]

We had our final payment due on July 4th one year. We wanted to pay on the 5th. Our pvp at Carnival said that would be fine...that we would receive a letter reminding us of payment due about 5 days later . They would not automatically cancel. We did not take that chance though, we went ahead and paid it.

[Morning glory]

Hi all,

Well, we're okay. Another TA called us on Monday morning - she said she was just backing up our TA while he was gone. She told us we would probably be fine, since Carnival would send out an e-mail to our TA before they took any action against our booking, to confirm that we didn't make payment. So we could wait til he returned, or she would take payment for us. Duh!!:eek:

Why would we wait??

We asked if he was called away on an emergency or something, but no, he was on an Award Trip. :eek:

 

So, DH talked to him today. Didn't really seem very worried, like how could he review all his client files before he left (???), but he was just chatting it up. Said we should get our papers in about 3-4 weeks.

 

This has been some experience. At this point, I won't feel safe until I have the papers in hand and I'm on the ship. KWIM?? I don't think I'll use a TA again. I'll probably go through Carnival directly.

 

Thanks again for your help on this one. Your comments really helped calm my nerves.

Christine