Frustrated with our TA

[Jmccart]

We booked our first cruise through a travel agent a friend suggested. She found us a great rate and we put the deposit down, but since then it has been harder to get ahold of her or for her answer our questions. We have 2 seperate things we are paying on I guess because our airfare is under funjet and our cruise is under royal caribbean. My fiance called her to pay $500 on the royal caribbean. He asked her to email a receipt and our current balance so we could do budgeting and see what we needed to plan out to pay off. No receipt. I emailed her later on in the day and she emailed back saying she would get it to me. again..no receipt. Late last night i emailed her again asking for a receipt. She emailed back saying she didn't  get one from royal caribbean yet? But said what our balance was. My fiance and looked today to see he was charged that twice for a total of $1000. 

Anytime we have had to pay we have to call and give her the card number, we would rather have to pay through a secured website or something, my fiance had pointed out it just seems sketchy to do things this way. Anyone else have experiences like this or are we just being too paranoid? 

I know i've read that some people have switched to different travel agents, anyone have any experience with that? And if they do, suggestions? 
We are so new to this so we really are in the dark on all of it. 

[Travelicious]

How long have you been waiting for the receipt?  Does she generally respond to email within a day?

[davekathy]

51 minutes ago, Jmccart said:

/We booked our first cruise through a travel agent a friend suggested. She found us a great rate and we put the deposit down, but since then it has been harder to get ahold of her or for her answer our questions. We have 2 seperate things we are paying on I guess because our airfare is under funjet and our cruise is under royal caribbean. My fiance called her to pay $500 on the royal caribbean. He asked her to email a receipt and our current balance so we could do budgeting and see what we needed to plan out to pay off. No receipt. I emailed her later on in the day and she emailed back saying she would get it to me. again..no receipt. Late last night i emailed her again asking for a receipt. She emailed back saying she didn't  get one from royal caribbean yet? But said what our balance was. My fiance and looked today to see he was charged that twice for a total of $1000. 

Anytime we have had to pay we have to call and give her the card number, we would rather have to pay through a secured website or something, my fiance had pointed out it just seems sketchy to do things this way. Anyone else have experiences like this or are we just being too paranoid? 

I know i've read that some people have switched to different travel agents, anyone have any experience with that? And if they do, suggestions? 
We are so new to this so we really are in the dark on all of it. 

Welcome to CC. No bad experiences with TAs I've used. Unfortunately it's against CC guidelines to suggest/recommend/even mention TAs on CC. Some TAs won't relinquish cruise bookings back to the owner (you) or to another TA. Hope it all works out for you and your first cruise is a great one. 

Edited January 11, 2020 by davekathy

[mom says]

This doesn't sound good. Does this agent belong to a multi agent agency or does she work on her own? If part of a larger agency, go over her head and ask for a different agent. If she's on her own, work with he cruise line to take back the reservation and then work directly with the cruise line. Next time, use a different agency. Best of luck.

[RocketMan275]

2 hours ago, Jmccart said:

Anytime we have had to pay we have to call and give her the card number, we would rather have to pay through a secured website or something, my fiance had pointed out it just seems sketchy to do things this way. Anyone else have experiences like this or are we just being too paranoid? 

One of the more popular travel agents, used by many CC, does not have a secured website.  You call.  Give the CC number.  All is good.

[Hlitner]

If the TA works for an agency, give the agency a call, ask to speak with the owner/manager and discuss your issues.   With a little luck that should solve the problem.  In the future you should book with a different agency.  Giving your credit card info over the phone is a pretty common practice when you book with an agent.  If you had done your booking online (many agencies have this capability) then most agencies do have a secure server.

 

As to taking a booking away from an agency (or getting it assigned directly to the cruise line)….this can be very difficult and is usually not worth the trouble.  Cruise line's will rarely intervene because there are various contractual issues.  

 

Hank

[taglovestocruise]

Might be worth a call to Royal to see if they will take back your reservation because of problems with the TA, and to make sure you have a reservation.  Even if Royal takes back the reservation you may be stuck with the air reservations.  Funjet uses discount airlines like Ryan Air, Mexicana, ATA and the like.  Might try to cancel the whole thing and start over.  Book direct with the cruise line and then transfer to a TA to pick up perks. Call your cc company to dispute the double charge. Just as a note, the reviews of Funjet vacations are page after page of 1 star. Hope all works out, happy cruising

[Roz]

What does your credit card acct. say?  Is there a charge or pending charge to RC?  If not, I would be afraid the TA is running it through their own acct. instead of sending payment directly to RC.  The cruise line should be able to supply a new confirmation as soon as a payment is made.

[TNcruising02]

I have never had any experience with a bad travel agent, but I would see if I could get a complete refund and then use another agency or book it yourself.  We always book our own cruises and travel.  There is no excuse for not receiving a receipt.  Whenever I have made changes to my booking with a cruise line, I have received a receipt that same day through email.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Roz said:

What does your credit card acct. say?  Is there a charge or pending charge to RC?  If not, I would be afraid the TA is running it through their own acct. instead of sending payment directly to RC.  The cruise line should be able to supply a new confirmation as soon as a payment is made.

Right, if the pending or posted charge is to the TA instead of Royal, you have a problem. If it is, maybe you should dispute it with the credit card company and let them do your fighting. You should do this anyway if you were double charged.

[crazyank]

10 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Might be worth a call to Royal to see if they will take back your reservation because of problems with the TA, and to make sure you have a reservation

We did exactly this.  The TA was not responding to emails, never available by phone etc.  One call to Royal and they were very willing to take back the reservation. 

[sanger727]

Just to play devil’s advocate and because I don’t know the answer. If the OP got a better rate than the cruise line offered because the TA had a group rate; would they lose that rate if Royal took the booking back? 

[davekathy]

5 hours ago, sanger727 said:

Just to play devil’s advocate and because I don’t know the answer. If the OP got a better rate than the cruise line offered because the TA had a group rate; would they lose that rate if Royal took the booking back? 

Yes they would lose the TAs price.  RC wouldn't match the TA price.  However the OP booked directly with the TA. RC never had the booking to begin with.