TA Never added OBC

[Doc2725]

During my Sept. 23 cruise on Anthem, my TA was supposed to give us a $200 OBC. We have it all in writing, it is on our travel company invoice, etc. However, he never added it to our account. Throughout the cruise I was trying to reach him, but had no luck. Royal told me that the TA had to contact their central office, add the OBC, at which point it would be added to our account. I trad repeatedly to get ahold of him with not luck. It never was added. Once we got back, I got an e-mail from him saying he would take care of this, but he has not yet. The only thing that would be satisfactory is if he gave me a $200 refund back on my cc, like the cruise line does if you do not use the OBC. Have any of you had this happen to them before? Does the TA have any legal obligation to honor this, etc? I in no way blame Royal for this.

Edited October 4, 2017 by Doc2725

[geomancer]

Hasn't happened to me, but yes they need to honor it. Since you have it all in writing, it's not like a he said/she said thing.

 

If they come back with some excuse and refuse to honor it ... unfortunately you'd have to pursue it through small claims.

[Clarea]

Has not happened to us, but this is between you and the TA. The cruise line won't get involved with this. I'd expect that if the agency's offer is in writing, then you would have legal recourse. Whether that would be worth your time and effort is another story. You might first try speaking to a supervisor and/or owner of the agency, then escalate to something like the Better Business Bureau if speaking to management does not work.

[retiredgram]

Happened to us. We contacted our TA and they were able to get it straightened out before the end of our cruise.

 

Keep after your TA. . Save your final bill from cruise so you will have proof that it was not credited.

[jr8934]

This happened to me recently. We were supposed to get prepaid tips. When we got off the ship and checked, we had been charged for the tips. Called my TA and the company sent me a check. That's why I continue to use this company.

[Doc2725]

This happened to me recently. We were supposed to get prepaid tips. When we got off the ship and checked, we had been charged for the tips. Called my TA and the company sent me a check. That's why I continue to use this company.

 

That is what I would like, a check. If not, I won't use them again. It is a shame, we have used them a bunch, and I have referred a fair amount of people to them. It feels weird this time, little communication, not returning calls/ repeated e-mails.

[Sascol]

Our TA did not provide our OBC once - was supposed to be $200. She was out of the office while we were on our cruise. She sent us $300 worth of Visa gift cards in the mail upon her return. She's great.

[Doc2725]

Our TA did not provide our OBC once - was supposed to be $200. She was out of the office while we were on our cruise. She sent us $300 worth of Visa gift cards in the mail upon her return. She's great.

 

I may be asking you who you use. Might be looking for a new one.

[southnam]

This happened to me recently. We were supposed to get prepaid tips. When we got off the ship and checked, we had been charged for the tips. Called my TA and the company sent me a check. That's why I continue to use this company.

That's the value of a great TA. My last cruise I realized when I got on board that I was missing $100 of OBC from RC due to a problem with our first cruise. I emailed my TA while still in Port and she promised to deal with it. By next morning it appeared in my account. That's why I keep using her. She even answers on her Vacation and is always reachable via her personal cell phone.

 

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[njkruzer]

We were on the Adventure last January on b2b and our obc were not there for the first cruise. Royal GC called our TA for me and let me speak with them and the TA office checked and realized it had been put on cruise 2, which was fine. They did say it would send us a check if it wasn't. Good luck getting this worked out.

[Doc2725]

We were on the Adventure last January on b2b and our obc were not there for the first cruise. Royal GC called our TA for me and let me speak with them and the TA office checked and realized it had been put on cruise 2, which was fine. They did say it would send us a check if it wasn't. Good luck getting this worked out.

 

Seems like everyone's travel agent did a great job except for mine. Maybe they are going out of business?

[mafig]

It's happened to me twice.

The first time Guest Relations (Celebrity) contacted my TA for me. They were super nice, saying you don't need to take time away from your vacation to do this, this is why we're here. Next day it was on our account.

 

The second time it was a small amount $25. I just had this funny feeling that it wouldn't be there. Asked the TA to make sure and he said "I would never cheat you." So, of course, I felt bad. But guess what, it wasn't there. I didn't bother pursuing it when I got back.....just don't use that TA anymore, so they lost more than $25.

[Nanarrow]

Seems like everyone's travel agent did a great job except for mine. Maybe they are going out of business?

 

I wonder if we are using the same company as my communication with them(and I say them because they are large and well known) has been less than stellar lately!

[dcourt]

During my Sept. 23 cruise on Anthem, my TA was supposed to give us a $200 OBC. We have it all in writing, it is on our travel company invoice, etc. However, he never added it to our account. Throughout the cruise I was trying to reach him, but had no luck. Royal told me that the TA had to contact their central office, add the OBC, at which point it would be added to our account. I trad repeatedly to get ahold of him with not luck. It never was added. Once we got back, I got an e-mail from him saying he would take care of this, but he has not yet. The only thing that would be satisfactory is if he gave me a $200 refund back on my cc, like the cruise line does if you do not use the OBC. Have any of you had this happen to them before? Does the TA have any legal obligation to honor this, etc? I in no way blame Royal for this.

 

This exact same thing happened to us. When we got back home I contacted the travel agent and she did send me a check for the amount of the OBC. I don't know if they are legally bound but I know that I have since stopped using that travel agent.

[southnam]

I think most TA are good but we often only talk about them when someone is complaining so it seems like good ones are hard to find.

Sometimes the customer is as much to blame as the TA. I referred someone from another forum to my TA because they asked. This week TA thinking that I knew this person personally cc'd me on a discussion with him. Wow this other guy was pretty offline in what he was expecting. He had a budget and expected that she could get him the world for his budget. Because he in turn was referring others, she discounted his stuff from her own pocket but then when the ones he referred could not get the deal because they booked later, he started accusing her of lying and changing prices on him etc... needless to say a newbie to cruising who didn't understand that prices go up and down just like car rentals, hotels, flights etc...

Anyhow, find a good agent and stick with them I say.

 

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[LookingForward2]

We had a similar situation. We were able to contact the TA during the cruise and she promised she'd take care of it. Contacted her close to the end and again she promised... Nothing, so we contacted one more time when we returned home. She apologized and offered visa gift card for that amount. Guess what... never got it either. One last follow up email couple weeks later to let her know we had not received anything and we're disappointed. No response.

This was the first (and last) time using a TA.

 

 

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[Sunkissed Mommy]

As an agent I always send my clients with a copy of my receipt/invoice for the OBC before sailing.

 

A few years ago I placed a high value $$ OBC on a Celebrity sailing. It was not on the onboard account when they boarded. I had to send copies of my credit card statement and emailed receipt to Celebrity to “prove” I had added it. Thankfully it was my husbands aunt. Had it been a client of mine that wasn’t family, it would have been embarrassing.

 

So sometimes the cruise lines screw it up too!

 

 

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[Doc2725]

I wonder if we are using the same company as my communication with them(and I say them because they are large and well known) has been less than stellar lately!

 

Who are you using?

[seadays4me]

Could be that since we all got a 50% reduction in the cruise price because the cruise went to Maine and Canada instead of Bermuda. The TA will most likely get a reduced commission, but they still should of given you at least half of the onboard credit promised.

[Big_G]

We had an instance where our TA gave us a specialty dining voucher for Brilliance. After the meal, the mâtre d' asked us for the voucher which I did not bring to the restaurant. After dropping it off, we received a message in our cabin to stop by GS about the voucher. At GS, they asked for the TA's email address and we never heard anything after that. We were waiting for the dreaded buzz when we disembarked but sailed right through.

[Hey Tina]

Who are you using?

 

You can't ask for the name of someones TA here. You also can't offer or ask them to email you about it. It's against the ~community guidelines~