A cautionary tale of using an in-house TA for a group cruise.

[MarkBearSF]

About 8 months ago, a couple of friends decided to do a group cruise for about 50-100 "bears." (gay guys with beards) He's an event producer who has worked with one or two TAs in the past to organize groups within full charters (RSVP) besides many other events around the country for over 15 years. Being a fan of Princess, he looked at their schedule of cruises out of SF and decided on a 2 day repo of the Star Princess to Vancouver.

 

He contacted Princess and they sold him on the idea of using an in-house agent, which would give them a full 10% commission rather than splitting it with a professional. They assigned an in-house agent who we'll call "Charles."

 

For almost 2 weeks after the kickoff, all calls to "Charles" went into a dark hole. It then came to light that he had been on vacation. He was the only agent we could use for bookings and he went on vacation without arranging for a replacement, monitoring his messages, or notifying his clients in advance.

 

Furthermore, he only accepted phone calls for bookings (no email - although he did have it). At the time, we had just started a 3 week vacation in South America, so voice was out of the question. I got his email address and sent him full information. (Being experienced cruisers, of course I knew the info he'd need to book it.) There was no answer. I emailed the organizers who told him to contact me. Over about 10 days, this continued. After about 3-4 attempts (with escalating excuses and misrepresentations from the agent about what I had said - I have all my correspondence and could prove that he was flat out lying) my friend said that I could book with an outside TA, but they'd include us in the events. Since I was not the organizer and I didn't want to cause any problems for my friends, I didn't send the email I was composing in my head to Princess management. Given this man’s boldface lies, I cautioned my friend to be sure to get everything in writing because the agent had proven himself to be untrustworthy.

 

Flash forward to a week ago. (I just found out about this last night at a post-cruise dinner with my friends) Just days before sailing, long after all final payments were due and cabins assigned (and some upgraded) - "Charles" contacted them and apologized saying that he had been unaware that Princess would not provide for the discount on 2 day cruises. ...as was our organizer's initial contact with Princess who sold him on the whole in-house process in the first place. I must say that my initial suspicions about using voice rather than self-documenting email look justified.

 

Truly unprofessional and possibly fraudulent behavior by Princess and the agent.

Edited May 18, 2015 by MarkBearSF

[Loonbeam]

Not speaking to the specifics, but I almost always look at it this way... Princess In House agents work for Princess. Private agents work for the passenger.

[RickEk]

It does sound like a letter to Princess management is warranted...

[MarkBearSF]

It does sound like a letter to Princess management is warranted...

 

If I were an organizer, yeah, Princess management would've been made aware by now. However, as a passenger, my only direct beef was with the rep - but I wound up going with a trusted TA. (and got an upgrade from the bottom balcony category to the top minisuite cat). So, I have no direct damages - and importantly was not part of the agreement.

 

However, my friend threatened lawsuit before departure, and I'm hopeful things will ultimately be resolved.

Edited May 18, 2015 by MarkBearSF

[xeroxme]

Was the price for a 2 day repo exceptionally cheap with 50 plus people?

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Sorry this turned out to be such a mess. I didn't realize that a group-within-a-group on a charter could arrange for their own TA.

 

One thing I do know is that short cruises have very little commissionable fare, and many TAs don't discount them at all. So even if your group had received a 10% discount, it most likely would have been on a small % of your all-in price. In other words, your friend probably isn't out as much as he may have initially thought, if that helps at all :).

Edited May 18, 2015 by SoCal Cruiser78

[MarkBearSF]

Sorry this turned out to be such a mess. I didn't realize that a group-within-a-group on a charter could arrange for their own TA.

 

One thing I do know is that short cruises have very little commissionable fare, so many TAs don't discount them at all. So even if your group had received a 10% discount, it most likely would have been on a small % of your all-in price. In other words, you probably aren't out as much as you may have initially thought, if that helps at all :).

 

I was not involved with the financial calculations. All I know is that I had repeated problems with a dubious rep with my booking. And friends I've known for 15 years are furious about promises made and not kept.

 

As for groups within groups.... This was simply a group on a standard repo cruise. Referring to his previous experience, he produced the specialty groups within the chartered sailing (promotion, schwag, marketing and booking assistance). From my experience, RSVP and Atlantis cruises are bookable by TAs and his group used a chosen TA. What the agreements were between RSVP, the TA and my producer friend, I have no idea. Nor do I care.

Edited May 18, 2015 by MarkBearSF

[SoCal Cruiser78]

I was not involved with the financial calculations. All I know is that I had repeated problems with a dubious rep with my booking. And friends I've known for 15 years are furious about promises made and not kept.

 

As for groups within groups.... This was simply a group on a standard repo cruise. Referring to his previous experience, he produced the specialty groups within the chartered sailing (promotion, schwag, marketing and booking assistance). From my experience, RSVP and Atlantis cruises are bookable by TAs and his group used a chosen TA. What the agreements were between RSVP, the TA and my producer friend, I have no idea. Nor do I care.

 

Sorry, I misread your initial post. I had thought this was an RSVP-chartered cruise to begin with.

 

I am also suspicious of anyone not wanting to put financial dealings in writing. I have dealt directly with Princess by phone for my personal bookings, and have always had a confirming email arrive shortly after hanging up the phone. I hope your friend does follow up with Princess on this. This rep may be a "loose cannon" that they need to weed out :(.

[DrivesLikeMario]

You are so right about getting things in writing. It is SO important to get pricing and promotions via email. I have clients who prefer to talk via phone and I always tell them that I will send all details via email (whether they like it or not) because it covers me AND them in case there's ever a question as to what we negotiated.

 

Thanks for warning, or educating, others on the board about this.