Booking with a BBB "F" Rated Cruise Dealer?

[HarryB1964]

Would you book your next Cruise or Cruisetour with a travel agency that is currently given an "F" grade by the Better Business Bureau? Concentrating on the quality of the Cruiseline and Itinerary is important, but it's easy to forget that the quality of the TA can ruin your cruise and seriously deplete your savings.

There is a very large cruise agency in Florida that currently has the dubious distinction of holding an "F" rating from the BBB. The awarding of such a grade is very rare. You'd recognize the company name. If you look at the Sunday Travel section, you've seen their ads, offering very long cruises with air included at very attractive prices. The company has never, as far as I can determined, chosen to offer real Travel Insurance to it's customers. Instead, they've dealt with a succession of sham pseudo-insurance companies starting with Trip Assured, which was closed by authorities in 2006, and most recently with Prime Travel Protection, which declared bankruptcy in January of 2009. After the latest debacle, the company contacted customers who had purchased PTP "Travel Protection", and informed them that they were switching to Travelex, one of the more respected Travel Insurance companies in the industry. If you look at their website today, you'll see that they're now selling "Custom Travel Protection"! Also, be sure to check the number of unresolved complaints related to every bad travel experience under the sun.

Apparently, the owner of this company figures that he can get away with anything. It's up to customers to show him that he can't. Before you book a cruise, go to the BBB website,

 

http://us.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=113&id=46a6a9cd-5402-454e-9476-e4df22e6f371

 

and plug in the name of the company that you were thinking of booking your cruise with, or even if you think that you know who this company is. If that company comes up with an "F" grade, run for your life, and be sure to tell your fellow cruisers.

[julieanne]

Who would do this? I always check out the companies I do business with, most of the time it's the cruise line directly!

[Sundagger]

Well, NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) also gets an F from the BBB. Thousands of people cruise on it every day without fear. Just sayin'

[RosieRoo]

I have no idea who you are talking about :confused: Care to give a hint?

[HarryB1964]

Well, NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) also gets an F from the BBB. Thousands of people cruise on it every day without fear. Just sayin'

 

With all due respect, your statement is incorrect. The only entry for this cruiseline on the BBB website is "NCL America", and the current rating is "Unsatisfactory". This rating is far superior to a rating of "F". To put the ratings in perspective, NCL had fewer than 25% of the unresolved complaints over a 36 month period that the company that I wrote about, and the Florida Cruise Agency probably books fewer customers in a one year period than NCL books for one ship, for a one week cruise!

Don't confuse BBB ratings with customer complaints. In the event that you don't like your NCL cruise because your soup was cold, the BBB won't accept your complaint. Valid complaints involve more serious issues, including sales practices, failure to deliver valid refunds, selling an invalid product and representing it as insurance, and so forth.

 

Do you understand now?

[Sundagger]

http://www.seflorida.bbb.org/BusinessReport.aspx?CompanyID=26000731

 

I understand what I see when I click on this link.

[smeyer418]

a rating of F also means they don't respond not that the BBB agrees with the complaint. Many cruise lines have an F. BBB while a good place to get some info, is not always right either.

[HarryB1964]

a rating of F also means they don't respond not that the BBB agrees with the complaint. Many cruise lines have an F. BBB while a good place to get some info, is not always right either.

 

How easily we can stray from a subject, which is a discussion about "F" rated Travel Agencies.

For what it's worth, Disney and Oceania have "F" ratings; HAL, Carnival, RCI, Carnival, Cunard, Princess, Costa and MSC do not.

 

To Sundagger: As far as the State of Florida is concerned, you're correct about NCL. The link that is in my first posting is the National Better Business Bureau Database.