I want proof that my room is booked on Royal Caribbean through travel agent.

[cruisemainiac]

Thanks for the follow-up.

[TMLAalum]

We were scammed by an online TA found via cruise compete. Luckily, all ended well thanks to our credit card refunding our payment-in-full naively made to the TA which went bankrupt. We were able to maintain our booking because the deposit was made to the cruiseline via a legitimate TA which the online one used to broker bookings.

 

I am glad all worked out for you thanks to your instincts telling you "BEWARE".

[Keith1010]

If your agent works for someone I would escalate this to them.

 

Keith

[Clarea]

We were scammed by an online TA found via cruise compete. Luckily, all ended well thanks to our credit card refunding our payment-in-full naively made to the TA which went bankrupt. We were able to maintain our booking because the deposit was made to the cruiseline via a legitimate TA which the online one used to broker bookings.

 

I am glad all worked out for you thanks to your instincts telling you "BEWARE".

Glad this worked out for you.

[Shawninrye]

Well yes I am glad she did pay RCCL.

I did find out the owners name and spoke with her but it was useless.

The TA agent is the daughter in law.

I explained about the booking fee not disclosed and she said "It's not a booking fee it's a dock fee."

I didn't get anywhere with her except I am glad to say I have my $80.00 back.

Just waiting on RCCL to respond. They did acknowledge that they received my email and would take care of it in the order in which it was received.

So in the end if I am not released I will be happy that I have my cabin and just move forward.

I do think she wants to get rid of me as she must feel I am not worth the trouble and there are 4 other cabins that paid that fake fee. She does not want to lose that.

In every business there are great people and incompetent people. I have the latter on this round!

Thanks everyone for the guidance.

[ansoninc]

Who pays the TA anyway? I use one all the time for the past year. Do they get paid by the cruise line?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MCC retired]

I would show my resentment for the TA by telling the other cruisers that she returned the ridiculous $80 Documents fee for your booking. :rolleyes:

That should stir up the pot a bit and would make me feel Im getting even for all this hassle.:)

You print your own RCI Doc's in less than 2 minutes.

[myjillian]

Who pays the TA anyway? I use one all the time for the past year. Do they get paid by the cruise line?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

The cruise agency pays the Travel Agency. The Travel Agency pays their agent. The passenger pays GROSS payment. Anything after the NET payment is sent to the Travel Agency. Some agencies will give their agent a 50/50 or whatever arrangement they make. Some agents, when they travel only have to pay NET for their own cruise and sometimes that's cheaper than Travel Agent rate. It all depends on whatever deal is made when the agent is hired. Some agencies collect all of the monies and only pay the Net when the Cruise Line Bills them. Some agencies give the payments direct to the Cruise Line when they receive them. The thing you have to be aware of are the pts that a group will get from the Cruise Line.

 

A man in town here used to run 2 groups a year. Everyone paid him with checks or cash. He put everything on his credit card and received the pts. The groups never were aware of the "freebies" that their group earned. The man used the free cruise for himself and his family members. He would pass around bottles of wine (one to each table to share) when every cabin would have had one. With his credit card pts he received free airfare. He worked with a Fla Travel Agency. I imagine that everything was done on the "up and Up" but his group members were not aware of what he was doing. The group should be aware of how many pts they are earning and they should have a say so in how the pts are used. The cost of a berth or 2 can be deducted from the overall group price...or the room can be auctioned off for a charity or passengers can have more OBC...There are many ways the group aminities (sp) can be used.

 

Does your group fall into any of this?? Find out from the agency if your group has any pts to be used onboard....How many...how are they being used. Sometimes the agent won't tell the group and one of the choices is extra bonus cash for the selling agent :rolleyes: You want to open a can of worms at that park??? Ask the right questions and I would tell the others about your $80 return...how would you feel if they left you out of the information:confused:

[Shawninrye]

You ask a lot of great questions myjillian. Many I had asked the TA.

 

One of the main ones is what is the perk when we get 8 cabins in our group. We had 5 with the likelihood of getting the eight.

She stated there is no way to know what the perks are until everyone has paid.

 

Apparently I just discovered yesterday that they were offered last year some perks because they 8 plus cabins and they got nothing.

They were promised on this cruise something .....it doesn't include me. But they don't know what it is. Geez that group needs a leader.

 

Anyway, it hopefully is a mute point as RCCL emailed me today and requested that I ask the TA to send a letter with letter head and signature releasing me.

 

I forwarded that info to TA and she responded that she will gladly write the letter but please do not call her again. Ha Ha ( I may call her on her Birthday!)

 

I requested from her that she keep our reservation linked with the other 4. (Originally TA wouldn't link us until everyone had paid. I had to explain to her how ridiculous that was. Now we are linked.

 

I explained that I could link the group but I would have to call each one and get the reservation number.

 

She does not want me to do that because 1) she still has not given them a reservation number 2) she does not want me to talk to them about the $80.00 faux docking fee.

 

I think she will keep me linked.

I don't trust her.

So things are moving quickly.

Now waiting to hear from RCCL. The other TA is waiting in the wings.

I am very pleased. My roommate is too. I will give the total saved when it is over and she can't shoot me in the back so to speak.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Shawn in Rye - Have you thought about becoming a travel agent? I bet you would make a very good, and HONEST ta:)

[myjillian]

You ask a lot of great questions myjillian. Many I had asked the TA.

 

One of the main ones is what is the perk when we get 8 cabins in our group. We had 5 with the likelihood of getting the eight.

She stated there is no way to know what the perks are until everyone has paid.

 

Apparently I just discovered yesterday that they were offered last year some perks because they 8 plus cabins and they got nothing.

They were promised on this cruise something .....it doesn't include me. But they don't know what it is. Geez that group needs a leader.

 

Anyway, it hopefully is a mute point as RCCL emailed me today and requested that I ask the TA to send a letter with letter head and signature releasing me.

 

I forwarded that info to TA and she responded that she will gladly write the letter but please do not call her again. Ha Ha ( I may call her on her Birthday!)

 

I requested from her that she keep our reservation linked with the other 4. (Originally TA wouldn't link us until everyone had paid. I had to explain to her how ridiculous that was. Now we are linked.

 

I explained that I could link the group but I would have to call each one and get the reservation number.

 

She does not want me to do that because 1) she still has not given them a reservation number 2) she does not want me to talk to them about the $80.00 faux docking fee.

 

I think she will keep me linked.

I don't trust her.

So things are moving quickly.

Now waiting to hear from RCCL. The other TA is waiting in the wings.

I am very pleased. My roommate is too. I will give the total saved when it is over and she can't shoot me in the back so to speak.

 

Well, now you know that when the TA reserves a group space the list of "freebies" are available for her. Reservations can be made individually and then put into a group after. When friends book the reservations can be linked for dining. This is a no brainer. It seems that the owner of the Travel Agency just bought a franchise ???:confused: Her agents or in this case Daughter-in-law may just work for her without and training or certification. It seems as if no one in that agency knows what they are doing. If you want to be a TA go to your local established agency and talk to them about being an outside TA. If you can just get your fellow park people to trust you...fun can be had.:D

[njmomof2]

 

A man in town here used to run 2 groups a year. Everyone paid him with checks or cash. He put everything on his credit card and received the pts. The groups never were aware of the "freebies" that their group earned. The man used the free cruise for himself and his family members. He would pass around bottles of wine (one to each table to share) when every cabin would have had one. With his credit card pts he received free airfare. He worked with a Fla Travel Agency. I imagine that everything was done on the "up and Up" but his group members were not aware of what he was doing. The group should be aware of how many pts they are earning and they should have a say so in how the pts are used. The cost of a berth or 2 can be deducted from the overall group price...or the room can be auctioned off for a charity or passengers can have more OBC...There are many ways the group aminities (sp) can be used.

 

Does your group fall into any of this?? Find out from the agency if your group has any pts to be used onboard....How many...how are they being used. Sometimes the agent won't tell the group and one of the choices is extra bonus cash for the selling agent :rolleyes: You want to open a can of worms at that park??? Ask the right questions and I would tell the others about your $80 return...how would you feel if they left you out of the information:confused:

 

I work as an outside agent and I am not allowed to pay for client cruises on my own credit card. It's simply not allowed. I don't take cash or checks. I take credit card information and pay directly to the cruise line. Our agency does not hold funds or have any capacity to handle charges of that sort.

 

At first I thought that this man might just have been organizing it for others. To hear that he was an agent and working for a cruise agency I was shocked that he did this.

 

I do know that there are agents out there that sometimes don't pass the perk from the group points on to the passengers. I knew someone years ago that worked out of CA. She took large groups several times a year on cruises. She always had more than enough for group perks. However, she would not give back to the individual cruisers. She used the points to reduce her own fare (she travelled with them), or took a family member with her, she often gave out wine to the dinner tables, that sort of thing. It wasn't until I started doing this that I realized what she was doing, but most of the people going with her were reluctant to speak up about it.

 

I always forward the cruise line invoice directly to my clients. I will follow up with my agency invoice, along with the cruise line invoice and any insurance documents at a later date, but my clients get their invoices almost immediately. Anyone who waits a week or more for one from the cruise line (unless it is a group invoice...those do NOT show individual payments made and it's hard to explain that to people) should immediately speak up to their agent and request it be sent ASAP.

 

ETA: I also think that the agent agreeing to give you back an $80 document fee (and what the heck is that for anyway? With Royal, you can print out your own documents online, including luggage tags), but making you promise not to tell the others, is just shifty business. Not someone I'd want to use, or want anyone I knew to use. If she wants to charge a cancellation fee, that needs to be disclosed up front. If she's charging a document fee, then that too needs to be told upfront as part of the booking process, and not charged to your card without your knowledge or consent when she made your deposit.

 

You didn't sign a non disclosure so if you want to tell the other people what's going on, maybe you should. I know that if I was being charged for something that I wasn't aware of and didn't know what unnecessary (is this agent going to actually get you hard copy documents?), I'd want to know.

Edited April 21, 2016 by njmomof2

[Shawninrye]

Update.

This morning I checked RCCL with the reservation number she gave me on Monday I Think

The Orginal TA's name was there.

 

I just checked now at 5:45 and it's GONE!

Wow amazing how this is moving forward.

 

Still holding my breath as our reservation has not been transferred to new TA.

Everything is the same including my cabin!

Just to be clear.

This TA had not taken the faux docking/reservation fee from anything as far as my credit card yet.

We paid the deposit of $500.00 then we were sent a balance to be paid by October.

She deducted the $80.00 fee from the balance when I fretted.

She was shifty because we would have noticed if she said I need a payment of $580.00.

I'm starting to get excited.

I did send one email to a women in that group citing my refund and something that Jilian said about group bookings and discounts.

I offered my help.

[marco]

I don't know how all other cruise lines work, (like RCI) but we booked a Princess cruise yesterday, for Jan '17 through the TA we always use, who is several states away, so we've gotten nothing yet as far as confirmation from the TA, but just 5 minutes ago I got an e-mail from Princess: "Let the countdown begin" with all the pertinent info about our cruise and the booking in the e-mail, and it referenced the TA we booked with.

Edited April 22, 2016 by marco

[Shawninrye]

Update.

Friday 22nd I emailed the new TA as I was not sure what the next step was or if I needed to do anything more as their name was not on the reservation.

He stated to contact RCCL.

I went to the form to transfer to TA and if would not let me proceed giving me an error. It informed me to call number for assistance.

Phoned RCCL and took them a few minutes but they stated that the transfer to the new TA was in process and would take a week or so to complete.

So the original email I sent requesting to fire TA and hire new was complete enough for RCCL to move forward. I included address, phone numbers and complete names in my email.

So when this is finished I will recap with dates in one post for future cruisers in my situation.

I could have never done this without the support of the community and cruise critic.

Thank you to everyone.

[myjillian]

I work as an outside agent and I am not allowed to pay for client cruises on my own credit card. It's simply not allowed. I don't take cash or checks. I take credit card information and pay directly to the cruise line. Our agency does not hold funds or have any capacity to handle charges of that sort.

 

At first I thought that this man might just have been organizing it for others. To hear that he was an agent and working for a cruise agency I was shocked that he did this.

 

I do know that there are agents out there that sometimes don't pass the perk from the group points on to the passengers. I knew someone years ago that worked out of CA. She took large groups several times a year on cruises. She always had more than enough for group perks. However, she would not give back to the individual cruisers. She used the points to reduce her own fare (she travelled with them), or took a family member with her, she often gave out wine to the dinner tables, that sort of thing. It wasn't until I started doing this that I realized what she was doing, but most of the people going with her were reluctant to speak up about it.

 

I always forward the cruise line invoice directly to my clients. I will follow up with my agency invoice, along with the cruise line invoice and any insurance documents at a later date, but my clients get their invoices almost immediately. Anyone who waits a week or more for one from the cruise line (unless it is a group invoice...those do NOT show individual payments made and it's hard to explain that to people) should immediately speak up to their agent and request it be sent ASAP.

 

ETA: I also think that the agent agreeing to give you back an $80 document fee (and what the heck is that for anyway? With Royal, you can print out your own documents online, including luggage tags), but making you promise not to tell the others, is just shifty business. Not someone I'd want to use, or want anyone I knew to use. If she wants to charge a cancellation fee, that needs to be disclosed up front. If she's charging a document fee, then that too needs to be told upfront as part of the booking process, and not charged to your card without your knowledge or consent when she made your deposit.

 

You didn't sign a non disclosure so if you want to tell the other people what's going on, maybe you should. I know that if I was being charged for something that I wasn't aware of and didn't know what unnecessary (is this agent going to actually get you hard copy documents?), I'd want to know.

 

I must have written the senerio wrong. The guy who took the cash for flights was not an outside agent...he booked everything thru a Fll agent. :p My nex tdoor neighbor was his sister-in-law. I explained the real goods to her and she confronted him. He used to book 2 groups of at lest 50 people each sailing a year !!! After I told her what he was doing she let the cat out of the bag and passed the word around. It put an end to his "group get togethers" He owned a t-shirt shop and would also print out t-shirts of the cruise itinery etc and sell them to his "passengers" that were going on the cruise. I guess he had a good thing going for awhile. If he been a little more upfront about everything he could proberly still be doing it. He had one of those electronic signs in front of his shop and people would just pull in and book with him. That was about 12 yrs ago. I didn't think people could be bilked now because of the internet...but I guess they can:rolleyes.

 

If she paid a $500 deposit how could $80 be taken out...depending on the cruise length a $500 deposit is normal for RCCL if you minus $80 that only leaves a $420 deposit which isn't enough for a deposit... unless there was a special going on... I'm sure I missed something in the telling LOL

Edited April 23, 2016 by myjillian

[Shawninrye]

Sometimes too may details make things confusing.

On the day I booked........the cost of the cruise was $2800.00 (to make thing easy)

My girlfriend did not want to pay extra for a Jr suite.

I wanted that suite so I offered to pay her extra share above the cost of an outside cabin with a window.

So our balances were (approximately) 2/3 & 1/3 split.

 

Point being that they were not 50/50 which have been easy to figure out $1400/$1400.

So over the phone the TA quoted $2800.00 That matched RCCL.

Perfect.

Took $250.00 deposit from each of us over the phone. Min required.

So after a week of bugging TA she sent each of us a receipt with the balance.

 

My girlfriend sent me her receipt and I added the balances up.

The balance between the two of us should have been

$2800.00- $500.00=$2300.

But it wasn't it was $2380.00. Nothing itemized.

Called TA and she stated that was the booking fee. First I heard of that fee.

And then you know,the rest of the story.

[Shawninrye]

Ok......!

Received an email from Royal Caribbean and they reported that the reservation had been transferred. I went online and checked and indeed the name of the new travel agent was there.

So in total it took one week to the day to fire my TA and transfer my reservation to the new travel agent!

And everything stayed in place!

I just want to thank everyone, Jillian, Marco, njmomof2 and the middle aged mom, Ricky, and mccretired all your help.

The end!!!!!!!!!

Now I can focus on planning.

Ms Shawn

[MerlinsMum]

We booked ours , got a confirm email the next day, also got ATOL certificate. My daughter was the main passenger so all docs go to her, and she forwards them to me.

 

Your TA should at least give one of you a reciept for the deposit you paid, as well as full confirmation of cruise dates, itinary, and total price to be paid.

you should get this within 7 days of the original booking (as far as I am aware anyway).

 

The 80$ May be a suppliment as you have been added to a room? Presuming if the booking changes a fee can be charged.

 

but yes, your TA should have, if you are the one who rebooked the room, at least sent you some sort of reciept

Edited April 25, 2016 by MerlinsMum
deleted Travel agents name

[Shawninrye]

The 80$ May be a suppliment as you have been added to a room? Presuming if the booking changes a fee can be charged.

 

but yes, your TA should have, if you are the one who rebooked the room, at least sent you some sort of reciept

 

You have confused me lol

It was an original reservation. She told me it was a docking/booking fee that she hid from me.

I didn't rebook anything? Just made a reservation two weeks or so ago.

Anyway it is all water under the ship now!

[MerlinsMum]

i obviosly misunderstood the OP, apologies,glad its all sorted out now, and hope you have a fab holiday.

[ger_77]

Did I read this correctly that they charged you an $80 "docking" or "dock" fee, the owners of the agency refunded it to you, but told you not to tell the others? Heck, I'd be yelling it from the rooftops - get your money back and head over to another TA, or do it yourself, it's just as easy.

 

Smooth Sailing ! :) :) :)

[Shawninrye]

Yes that is true. What's more bizarre to me is that I did tell one of the girls and no one seems to care. That group who I really don't know have 4 cabins. It's my best girlfriend of 40 plus years sister's friends.

So I have moved on and am very happy with my new travel agent!

I am making plans for each port as I like to travel on my own

Ahead of the cruise ship as much as I can!