Price Drop Refund - Travel Agent Refuses to Cooperate

[duke052]

This is why X and RCCL have a no discount/rebate policy. If this agent went by this he wouldn't be in this situation. Once he gives the lower price his commission goes down. My guess is he is now in position to lose money. He should of tried giving great service to win a customer. Now every TA and the cruise line look bad. Not a good situation for everyone involved.

[duke052]

I just read the last post. This TA is paying 3% to cruise compete as well. Best advice,stay away from cruise compete. Been there ,done that and never will again.

[RealDeal]

Cruiseknotter: But if you already made final payment, I don't think you can go to another agency at this point...

[vicgiz]

The latest reduction was $600. After giving us some runaround, the agent called Celebrity, received their confirmation of the price and sent us the revised invoice/receipt. The problem is that Celebrity has only refunded $300 of the $600 difference to our credit card. Thanks!

 

When I recently took advantage of a price reduction, the cruise price had dropped significantly, but the airfare had increased. Final payments were not yet due, but I had paid in full. My credit card was refunded for the amount of the cruise reduction less the airfare increase. Is there any chance that happened in your case, BrooklynCruiser? Good luck!

[BrooklynCruiser]

vicgiz,

 

Nope, I bought my own airfare. I think the issue has been straightened out. As per my travel agent, Celebrity simply "missed" half of the refund but they will adjust the amount.

[cruisingdelt]

vicgiz,

 

Nope, I bought my own airfare. I think the issue has been straightened out. As per my travel agent, Celebrity simply "missed" half of the refund but they will adjust the amount.

 

After reading the thread and some of the initial reactions of your TA I think you should get a new TA. My TA dosen't always pick up on all the price drops but does not put me off when I find one. Once I called her with a drop and she got back to me with the drop plus a "local" special. SHe usually throws in at least a $100 AMEX gift check with the docs.

[OnlyMe]

Hi,

I have been following this topic and I have a couple of questions if ye don't mind?

I 'think' I might have used the same agent on my last cruise, also found through Cruise Compete. I also had problems with him - he 'risked' losing my chosen cabin and I didn't get my, albeit very small perk, onboard. I had booked a D1 (RCCL) and had him waitlist a GS. After final payment the GS came available but without telling me or consulting me first he 'dropped' our 'specifically chosen' D1 and booked the GS - what would have happened if I had changed my mind about the GS or couldn't afford the price increase???? In the end I upgraded but I was less than pleased with him ..... Just to be sure, can anyone e-mail me with this guys name? e-mail im_civil at hotmail.com Please? If it's not him I definately don't want to end up with this guy either!

 

Also, duke52 - just to clarify, All agents pay a fee of 3% to Cruise Compete?????? I wasn't aware of this!

 

To the OP, I'm very sorry about your difficulties and I hope you get them resolved. You have definately done everyone a favour by posting here as now we know to avoid this TA at all costs.

[duke052]

ONLYME; Yes Cruise Compete gets 3%. So you can see if an agent pays CC its 3% and also gives a gift check here and something else there two things are going to happen. First there will be a lot of unhappy clients due to poor service. 2nd The TA will be out of business very soon.

Facts on this thread; There is a good chance [ 90%] that a TA can get a reduction before final.

2; Very difficult after final

3; We can't always catch every reduction [ although we try ] so an extra set of eyes helps us to help you

4; A good TA will return a call the same day. Always leave a detailed message so they can look into before they call you back.

5;A good TA will call you when you get home from your cruise to see if you had a great time. 90% do.

Bottom line ; Like everything you do in life, you get what you pay for.

Everyone enjoy your cruise.

[cruiseknotter]

My TA has changed his mind and now giving me a HUGE amount of discount on the onboard credit he initially offered. I do not care at all giving up the amount because it's a really TINY amount compared to what I paid for 7 cabins. I asked him to give me final invoices w/onboard credit over and over, and finally he emailed me back today. He says he sent me these (does he even keep paper doc? I doubt).

I asked for my final wish a while ago - my guests want to eat dinner at the same time and sit together. I'm not sure because online reservation indicates everyone has random dinner seating time.

I won't go over other several bigger issues again. I resolved by upgrading our cabins and paid more $. In return, he complained (really he did on the phone) because I upgraded and so he cut down the onboard credit then. And now his final onboard credit is ridiculously low and I can get a lot more from any online ecruise sites. I'm done with this person and told him to release my reservation back to Celebrity.

I'm curious if anyone has done this successfully, and I will never ever use *****.com. Ironically I gave him excellent review on the site (because he offered huge amount of credit then) and someone contacted me by email asking how could he get such great reviews. Well.. I blame myself.

[hermang]

Greetings,

 

Not sure if this is the right forum to post my question on, but...

 

We used a travel agent in Connecticut to book our Western Mediterranean cruise on the Millenium for this August. We booked the cruise in February and the price has dropped twice since then. I have been monitoring the prices myself - both times I had to call this travel agent to alert him to the reduction. The first time the price went down before we made the final payment, but the second time it went down 2 weeks ago, after we already paid in full. The latest reduction was $600. After giving us some runaround, the agent called Celebrity, received their confirmation of the price and sent us the revised invoice/receipt. The problem is that Celebrity has only refunded $300 of the $600 difference to our credit card. I contacted the travel agent and his response was that this could not have happened. When I e-mailed him the numbers, he said that he is very busy and will look into this when he has time. What are my options? I tried to call Celebrity myself, but was told that I have to go through the travel agent. Any advice? Thanks!

I'd call your credit card company and if youi can document what you stated they should be of assistance

[Karynanne]

My TA has changed his mind and now giving me a HUGE amount of discount on the onboard credit he initially offered. I do not care at all giving up the amount because it's a really TINY amount compared to what I paid for 7 cabins. I asked him to give me final invoices w/onboard credit over and over, and finally he emailed me back today. He says he sent me these (does he even keep paper doc? I doubt).

I asked for my final wish a while ago - my guests want to eat dinner at the same time and sit together. I'm not sure because online reservation indicates everyone has random dinner seating time.

I won't go over other several bigger issues again. I resolved by upgrading our cabins and paid more $. In return, he complained (really he did on the phone) because I upgraded and so he cut down the onboard credit then. And now his final onboard credit is ridiculously low and I can get a lot more from any online ecruise sites. I'm done with this person and told him to release my reservation back to Celebrity.

I'm curious if anyone has done this successfully, and I will never ever use *****.com. Ironically I gave him excellent review on the site (because he offered huge amount of credit then) and someone contacted me by email asking how could he get such great reviews. Well.. I blame myself.

 

I've never had tried to have a confirmation released back to Celebrity...we've been extremely happy with our TA...but I can give you some information about linking dinner seatings. If your TA booked your cabins as a group...then your online viewing, would not show the other passengers in your group. I just asked our TA this very question...and was told that group bookings will not show up as "linked", on Celebrity's online site. Hope this helps.

 

Karyn

[tikilite]

I was disgusted reading this thread on this particular TA's service skills.

If he is an independant agent with a host company they need to be made aware of his shoddy customer service. I am glad X finally came through and refunded the correct amount for you. I would of notified my cc company also as a last result. See who's names are on your docs as this agents host and notify them of his behavior. You sign a contact to join a host company and they need to be aware that a represenative is acting unprofessionally if not unethically.

We TA's in general work very hard to take care of our clients and to provide the very best deal we can get for your money! I send a bon voyage card with a little something in it and a on board gift and a welcome home letter with a future vacation voucher for my clients. If they book a hotel I call ahead and try to get them upgraded to a better room and also to have a bottle of wine or basket of fruit or something delivered to them from me showing I appreciate their business.

Please let everyone know this TA is not to be trusted.

We need a board to post who what where when topics to avoid. Sounds like this TA would be number one on the bad TA list!

[lucky white heather]

And I thought I had problems trying to get my price drop sorted!

 

wishing you good luck and a relaxing cruise...you certainly have earned it!

[giambotto]

After reading this thread about a refund before final payment, I checked with my TA to see if my cruise had been reduced. Because of your comments I just saved $140 on an inside cabin for 2. Maybe now I'll ride the zipline in Icy Strait with my extra money. Thank you.

[carenyllie]

I work as a travel agent and get some business from *****. I would suggest you email them and tell them who you are having difficulty with. The owner (Bob Levinstein) pays very close attention to his website and is a great guy. I know that he would want to know about an agent who is using his site is not being appropriate with his customers. I think you can email him directly from the site using "contact us".

[Spender Nui]

Regardless of what happens I think you should be looking for a new agent ... one that's not too busy to help you.