Travel Agent Nightmare!!!

[gquest]

Hello,

 

My travel agent is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do. Here is the run down: I booked my cruise back in August or September using cruise compete. After, I filled out the forms authorizing payment of deposit I registed my booking number on Carnival's website. A couple weeks later my cruise was canceled due to Carnival not receiving the deposit for the cruise. I emailed my agent like crazy and about a week or so later she took care of it and blamed the whole thing on Carnival. My cruise departs on March 6, 2005 (Carnival Valor) and I have still have not made final payment and I have been trying to do so since Dec 28th, the due date, however it has been almost impossible to reach my travel agent. I finally received a call from her on on January 4, 2005 and she told me she would send an authoriztion form, but I have heard nothing back from since that conversation. I have emailed her and called her multiple times concerning final payment. I even called Carnival and they told me that it was imperative that I get in touch with her, or my cruise would be canceled. What should I do? I was paying $747 per person for an OV 6A gty but rates have gone up sine then. Do I have any restitution in this matter? She is a member of CLIA can I call them? Please help, I don't Know what to do.

 

Thanks,

 

George

[Nitemare]

Call the CLIA. I have no idea what they can do, but it couldn't hurt. Try to post here what they recommend, it will be very helpful to folks if you do!

 

As an aside, in the future when you see folks post here about the pluses and minuses of using the cheapest TA for a cruise, I hope you'll tell your story. And I hope it has a happy ending!

[madelinerose]

Escalate!

 

Call the agency and speak with the agent's supervisor. If the agent's supervisor is useless, speak with the supervisor's manager, etc. etc. ;)

[A J Theodore]

You should probably also try to contact the cruise line to see what they have on your booking, if anything (you will probably need to ask for a supervisor). See if there is a booking number, etc., and what they have received from and sent to your travel agent. Good luck.

[Orcrone]

I think I would call Carnival again and see if everything is in order. If not, then I would ask Carnival what to do. If they tell you that you have to go through your TA then reiterate that you've been trying to do that, to no avail. If they can't take it over, they may at least have more clout with the agency.

[setsail]

This just happened to us with a ta we have been using for over 5 years (not an ol agency). She did not make the payments ,we almost lost the cruise, but Rccl did let me over the phone make the payment on the spot plus they said they could prevent future business from this ta. We were 2 couples and one paid the ta in cash which we never do and she just took the cash and never paid and led everybody to beleive everything was done. After repaying to Rccl when I went to collect from the ta ,guess what the check bounced, but after a week of threats and so on we got our money back. So, if you are in danger of losing your cruise I would see if you could pay directly and then go after the ta.Hope you have documents proving you booked with this ta.

[gquest]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=123757

[sumer]

:( I too am having the same frustrations in getting ahold of my TA that I booked with using cruise compete. It took twice as long as quoted and numerous e-mails and phone messages just to get my invoice. I e-mailed him last week in regards to ins. and seating changes and still have not received an answer. Thanks to your thread I am going to call carnival to make sure they have my deposit! All I can say is he won't be getting any future business from me. I feel your frustration and i wish i could be of help,good-luck.