Issues with a TA!

[cheeseheads4ever]

Don't know if anyone has had this problem but we booked our first cruise not thru Celebrity, but thru a highly recommended TA.

been a complete nightmare so far. Got to have 20 calls and 25 emails to her. Just to get us to final payment.we gave her our credit card for final payment never thinking what she would charge. $100 overcharge..after 3 more emails she says yes i noticed that to and because Celebrity overcharged they have to straighten out.. Really why did she catch it so we don't have to deal with it after all our emails and calls to

her already. She should be the one to contact them.

I have never been so unhappy with service, lack of concern, slow responses to anything. Incorrect info all the time. Im tempted to call the higher ups at her company to get it resolved.

we are not high maintenence people. Booked many cruises on our own so kinda know the ropes.how would you handle the overcharge?

any help would be appreciated.

[Luvcrusn]

29 minutes ago, cheeseheads4ever said:

Don't know if anyone has had this problem but we booked our first cruise not thru Celebrity, but thru a highly recommended TA.

been a complete nightmare so far. Got to have 20 calls and 25 emails to her. Just to get us to final payment.we gave her our credit card for final payment never thinking what she would charge. $100 overcharge..after 3 more emails she says yes i noticed that to and because Celebrity overcharged they have to straighten out.. Really why did she catch it so we don't have to deal with it after all our emails and calls to

her already. She should be the one to contact them.

I have never been so unhappy with service, lack of concern, slow responses to anything. Incorrect info all the time. Im tempted to call the higher ups at her company to get it resolved.

we are not high maintenence people. Booked many cruises on our own so kinda know the ropes.how would you handle the overcharge?

any help would be appreciated.

Unfortunately you'll have to handle it through the TA or her higher ups. X won't discuss with payment issues with customers using TA's, they'll only discuss that with the TA who did the booking. If there are higher ups in the TA, I'd go there.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

You could put your credit card in dispute but that might put your cruise in jeopardy. I would go to a higher up or call Celebrity and explain the situation.  They should at least be able to tell you what your final payment should have been. Do you have a copy of the Celebrity Booking Documents showing the cruise cost and balance payment due? That would help when taking either to a higher up or Celebrity.

For what it's worth, we had a bad experience with a large TA on our 1st cruise and have booked with Celebrity ever since, 22 cruises and counting.

[cheeseheads4ever]

The final payment was on her invoice we received from her which was the price we agreed upon. Called the TA and gave her our credit card number at final payment time thinking that she would only charge invoice cost from her minus the $500 we paid earlier in the year as a deposit. Our fault for not asking what she was going to charge us but thought it was simple math. Then got Celebrity's invoice after for $100 extra charge for cruise fair so numbers didn't match. 

My point is that shouldn't our TA  have caught this prior to us catching it?  Now we are supposed to have OBC and perks from her on our onboard account when we get on the ship. HMM?  Not feeling warm and fuzzy about that. I need to call Celebrity to make sure everything is showing up on their end. It will help.

I know one thing I will never ever convince my DW to book another cruise through a TA especially this one. Im sure there are great ones out their but this one came highly recommended. I question the recommendation now.

Crazy thing is we never changed anything, added anything or did anything that would create confusion. Its been like this from day one.Lack of communication, doesn't answer phone, lack of response time when we have a question, inaccuracies all over. Doesn't answer the question you ask.

Sorry to vent and thanks for listening.

 

[chemmo]

10 minutes ago, cheeseheads4ever said:

The final payment was on her invoice we received from her which was the price we agreed upon. Called the TA and gave her our credit card number at final payment time thinking that she would only charge invoice cost from her minus the $500 we paid earlier in the year as a deposit. Our fault for not asking what she was going to charge us but thought it was simple math. Then got Celebrity's invoice after for $100 extra charge for cruise fair so numbers didn't match. 

My point is that shouldn't our TA  have caught this prior to us catching it?  Now we are supposed to have OBC and perks from her on our onboard account when we get on the ship. HMM?  Not feeling warm and fuzzy about that. I need to call Celebrity to make sure everything is showing up on their end. It will help.

I know one thing I will never ever convince my DW to book another cruise through a TA especially this one. Im sure there are great ones out their but this one came highly recommended. I question the recommendation now.

Crazy thing is we never changed anything, added anything or did anything that would create confusion. Its been like this from day one.Lack of communication, doesn't answer phone, lack of response time when we have a question, inaccuracies all over. Doesn't answer the question you ask.

Sorry to vent and thanks for listening.

 

 

We booked our first Celebrity cruise through an agent.  Absolutely useless. No idea on anything and acted like I had asked her to fly to the moon and back when I insisted she phoned Celebrity to change our dining to what we had requested not what she had entered....If I wanted her to do anything I went to the office and sat opposite her until I had actually seen her make the phone call. Telephone calls to her resulted in a reassuring ‘I’ll sort it’ which never happened. Is this an option for you? Is the TA near enough for you to go in and refuse to move until she has resolved the issue? If not I would phone the agency and ask to speak to the manager.

 

 

Like Chezmarylou we do now tend to prefer to keep ownership of our own booking....We might be able to get a bit more off via an agency but on the whole we feel very looked after by our Celebrity personal agent.

 

Hope you get things sorted soon, don’t let it take the sparkle out of your pre cruise lead up...

[Turtles06]

7 hours ago, cheeseheads4ever said:

Im tempted to call the higher ups at her company to get it resolved.

 

Then why don’t you do so? 

 

And never give give someone your credit card information without knowing the amount that will be charged to it. 

 

[cheeseheads4ever]

Thanks to all of you for the great input. Like ordering anything they ask for a credit card you are expecting a charge of whats on the invoice. My error for not asking. What if it was $1000. Granted its only $100 but still not what she quoted and would get my wife from classic to premium drink pkg. Just a comparison and is now principal.

So disappointed with her and this was just a small part of issues. I actually thought of driving to Ft Lauderdale area to meet her face to face. Great idea...

we will book ourselves directly through Celebrity from here on out.

Thank you all for the input..

[WestLakeGirl]

We always use a travel agent and never have had an issue with his service.  Having someone who can arrange things for us and fight for us if anything goes wrong is more important than “owning” our reservation.  As the saying goes, YMMV

Edited August 25, 2019 by WestLakeGirl

[Solution]

Just to be fair, most TAs are very competent and know what they are doing. One may hit a few new ones who may not have the knowledge, or "very busy" ones who may not have the time for their customers.

 

Cruise fares are always sold at the price published by cruise lines. Agencies can sell pre-negotiated group fare. This is regulated in Canada. Any additional "discount", perks, come directly from the Agency / Agent. The more perks you get, the less commission they retain. This may translate into service. Of course, there are exceptions.

 

A good agent is your personal concierge without additional charge. So don't try to take commissions out of his or her wallet. 

[39august]

I believe if you call Celebrity and explain your poor TA service, they can put you on a 3 way call to your TA to straighten this out. Alternately, they might take the reservation away from the TA and handle things for you. At least their parent company, Royal Caribbean, will do this for their customers who have problems with a TA. 

[sippican]

Not sure why you are just “tempted” to contact the higher ups? 

The difficulty you are having in communication is enough of a reason alone to complain. No excuse whatsoever. Good  TAs would be bending over backwards to get and keep your business. Great communication is the cornerstone of happy and loyal customers. The management deserves to know and to be given the opportunity to make things right.

[mayleeman]

For any service company, lack of feedback = lack of opportunity to take corrective action = lack of improvement.

Edited August 25, 2019 by mayleeman

[jelayne]

6 hours ago, cheeseheads4ever said:

  Now we are supposed to have OBC and perks from her on our onboard account when we get on the ship. HMM?  Not feeling warm and fuzzy about that. I need to call Celebrity to make sure everything is showing up on their end. It will help.

 

 

Just a heads up.  Any OBC from a TA will not show on  Celebrity’s records until just before sailing & it will very likely be Day 2 when it will be reflected on your shipboard account.  If the other perks were beverage package or wi-fi Celebrity should be able to confirm if those are on your booking.  I’m not sure when pre-paid gratuities show on Celebrity’s record if they are being paid by the TA rather than a perk provided by X.

[bikerunner]

I usually book thru celebrity then look into transferring the res.  I usually end up with same ta since they give the best obc overall. I tried once going thru big box ones and communication was to hard.  

[ECCruise]

5 hours ago, cheeseheads4ever said:

we will book ourselves directly through Celebrity from here on out.

Don't let one bad experience cost you a whole lot of money.

[ORV]

The real lesson to be learned here is to never listen to whomever was "highly recommending" this TA or company to you. 

 

Our TA is worth her weight in gold. Sorry your situation didn't work out. 

[Orator]

There are many wonderful TAs out there and you shouldn't paint them all with the same brush because of your experience. Some large box TAs are simply "order takers" and some have many years of travel experience. You want the experienced. Some TAs are one person operations who "book for friends". You might find problems when you have a question or need to change a reservation. Some have been trained and have credentials, some do not. The key is to find the right person and develop a relationship with them. If you initially book while on a cruise you can receive more perks if you transfer to an agent. I know many experienced cruisers who don't really care about extra perks and keep a booking with the cruise line. As for me, I usually use an experienced agent.