momeagle36 Posted July 2 #1 Share Posted July 2 https://consumerrescue.org/cruise-fiascos/carnival-cruise-missed-greenland-excursion-refund/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mom says Posted July 2 #2 Share Posted July 2 How about a TLDR version? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ontheweb Posted July 2 #3 Share Posted July 2 My question would be does Canada have any consumer protection laws. If so, let the dishonest merchant fight it out with the government. Reading that, I was also disappointed with the credit card company. I have always found ours to be ready willing and able to be my advocate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare VMax1700 Posted July 2 #4 Share Posted July 2 2 hours ago, mom says said: How about a TLDR version? I had to goooogle what TLDR meant, but agree with you. It's not even the stretched out stories that appear on click bait websites, but paragraph after paragraph of verbiage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOB999 Posted July 2 #5 Share Posted July 2 (edited) I read the whole article. This is my TL:DR version. Many people on a Carnival Legend cruise to Greenland last September booked independent excursions via an outfit called Sandras Cruise Tours. When they booked, they believed the tour to be refundable (and have some evidence to prove it). The proprietor was also passenger on the cruise. The Greenland portion of the cruise got cancelled four days into the cruise and instead the cruise turned into a Canada/New England cruise. The proprietor left the cruise at the first stop and first promised refunds, then said she was working on refunds then changed the verbiage on her site to say that they were non-refundable. Some people filed credit card disputes and were denied because of this verbiage. The consumer advocate who runs the site (who used to be part of Chris Elliot's consumer advocate site) attempted to mediate between Sandra's Cruise Tours and the credit card companies but really got nowhere. The actual tour operators apparently refunded the money to Sandra's Cruise Tours but customers have apparently gotten nothing. ETA: Here is a prior thread in the Carnival forum talking about this: Edited July 2 by BOB999 Added thread. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mom says Posted July 2 #6 Share Posted July 2 Thanks BOB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike981 Posted July 2 #7 Share Posted July 2 Boy there is a lot of what I call, internet words, in this article. Websites need content and the longer the article and time spent on a page that is gold for the search bots. It is very common on MANY websites to do this. That said, wow. What a bunch of gobbly gook. I have seen much worse cases of fraud and I can't imagine how this website would handle that. Maybe an eight part series? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Mary229 Posted July 4 #8 Share Posted July 4 It is becoming more common practice for onshore tour companies not to have a policy of refunding. I recently canceled a tour when I came to realize that they would not refund if we didn’t dock. Some ports are notorious for bad weather conditions. In those cases I find it better to seek out those with a golden track record who will refund, use the ship, do independent or take my chances finding someone dockside 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi13 Posted July 4 #9 Share Posted July 4 On 7/2/2024 at 10:47 AM, ontheweb said: My question would be does Canada have any consumer protection laws. If so, let the dishonest merchant fight it out with the government. Reading that, I was also disappointed with the credit card company. I have always found ours to be ready willing and able to be my advocate. Affirmative, we do have reasonable consumer protection laws, but ones specific to travel agencies vary by Province. Unfortunately, in this case, I don't believe the vendor was a registered travel agent, so if consumer protection is available in that Province, it would not cover the bookings made with an unlicensed agent. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ontheweb Posted July 4 #10 Share Posted July 4 1 minute ago, Heidi13 said: Affirmative, we do have reasonable consumer protection laws, but ones specific to travel agencies vary by Province. Unfortunately, in this case, I don't believe the vendor was a registered travel agent, so if consumer protection is available in that Province, it would not cover the bookings made with an unlicensed agent. That would seem to make it important to find out if a travel agent is licensed. Could the consumer protection agency go after an unlicensed travel agent acting as if they were licensed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Mary229 Posted July 4 #11 Share Posted July 4 1 hour ago, ontheweb said: That would seem to make it important to find out if a travel agent is licensed. Could the consumer protection agency go after an unlicensed travel agent acting as if they were licensed? It is a tour company, why they call it a travel agency is beyond me. Many tour companies now will not refund for the cruise ship not docking, it is way down in tiny print. Sometimes, in my case, it was not mentioned. I thought about it then contacted them and they said maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. Since I was in the cancel window I canceled and found someone who had a better policy. The consumer protection guidelines of your credit card company would adhere to the contract you agreed to . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi13 Posted July 5 #12 Share Posted July 5 4 hours ago, ontheweb said: That would seem to make it important to find out if a travel agent is licensed. Could the consumer protection agency go after an unlicensed travel agent acting as if they were licensed? I know the TA's are licensed Provincially, which in BC is the Consumer Protection Branch. Unfortunately, I don't know enough of the process to know if they would take action against an unlicensed TA, or a person selling 3rd party tours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrgabriel Posted July 6 #13 Share Posted July 6 I read the article and then looked up the 'tour operator'. Still in business and no where does it indicate where she operates (although she has a Newfoundland and Labrador area code), what license she may hold, nor is there a business address. For payment, she uses Zelle which requires a U.S. bank account. Since payments are going into a US bank account, wouldn't this fall under US consumer protection? Regardless, I'm taking this as a good reminder to fully check out tour companies before I send them money. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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