Preferred RCI Travel Agency

[JanieKid82]

All,

 

I started a thread this morning, July 8, 2022, regarding my experience with a website cruise reservation.  CC has evidently taken that thread down, because it's no longer showing.  I'm new to posting, and realize I gave the name of a travel agency in that post.

 

I have corresponded with the travel agency about my concerns, and they informed me that they are a preferred travel agency with RCI and handle the RCI overflow when booking requests pile up.  I know I never called them...I only book online because I can see which cabins are still available, and select the exact cabin I want.

 

That's the end of this saga. 

[LeeW]

Have never heard of a cruise line farming out work from online booking on their website to other companies but interesting.  Doubt that once a booking is entered in their booking database from their website that it would ever need any action by another agency.

[Jimbo]

Times are a changing, anything is possible.

[rudeney]

The thread was deleted because it mentioned a TA.  That is a no-no on CC.  I think this incident is a fairly important one, though, and if I were in charge, I;d have at least just redacted the TA's name and let the thread stand - but I am not in charge, so we play be the rules we have. 

 

If you chose to book direct with RCCL by visiting their website or calling their phone number, you should NOT be handed off to a 3rd party unless they at least inform you of that.  Personally, I'd cancel and get my money back - and if they say it's a non-refundable deposit, I'd dispute with my credit card.  

[njkruzer]

Sounds fishy.  Would want Royal to confirm. 

[JanieKid82]

Rodney et. al,

 

Thank you for the suggestions.  Earlier to I did just that...after two emails from the "preferred RCI travel agency" begging me to keep the reservation, I firmly stated in writing I wanted to cancel and have my refundable deposit put back on my credit card.

 

I had a similar issue last year with a well known electronics company that sold computer support services for an annual fee.  When I called to renew, I was sent to a company in India that ended up NOT being the computer support company I had used for 6-7 years. They wanted a bank account number up front...they didn't want a credit card because they told me they were sure I would dispute the charges if I wasn't happy with their services.   I hung up the phone.

 

 

[miyanc]

I am by no means an expert, but sometimes play 1 online.  I am not saying this is the case, but with 2 examples of what sound like a scam or at least something getting redirected, I would consider your computer or method of locating online information.  

 

Again, not pointing fingers and for 100% of you I am suggesting things you all do correctly, but here are some thoughts. 

 

First never click on an email for locating the source of the email.  For example, and the most important 1, if you get an email from your bank and question its subject or any portion of the information, exit the mail app or website,  open a new browser and type the location in there.  

 

Also on a quick follow up to that, but never click on the first 3 links provided as they are paid advertisements that may be fine, but also may at the very least lead you portially away from your tartget. These are usually labeled with a small AD in the corner and are shadow boxed a slightly offset color.  

 

Second. use multiple forms of protection for your computer.  Firewalls, Virus protection, Malware protection and so on. Not all are created equal and cover everything.  Check plug in and extentions that are added to your browser.

 

I act at IT for the family and at 1 point my police station that I worked for and I have discovered a great many programs thought to be doing your biding only to be transforming your actions into those of its creator. 

Many emails and website are set to look or act like they are legitimate.  I do know many companies outsource certain aspects of there business like retention, sales, renewal and so on, but those are usually seamless or clearly articulated.  

 

Again I hope this all falls on deaf ears and is a waist of time for you.  But car warrantees, Microsoft tech support, a bridge for sale or a nigerian price all who need target gift cards to pay the irs back.   

[nelblu]

1 hour ago, njkruzer said:

Sounds fishy.  Would want Royal to confirm. 

Ditto!

[smokeybandit]

Yeah I don't believe that at all, unfortunately, especially since you booked online.

 

Can you see your reservation on your cruise planner?

Edited July 8, 2022 by smokeybandit

[cruisinghawg]

Yeaaaah ....no RC probably doesn't do that. DW is a TA and it takes her maybe 5 minutes to book a RC cruise via their booking site. Now getting an answer to a question might take a little longer!!!!!🤔

[JanieKid82]

I just received a very nice email from Mr. Bayley's office (I had emailed him) and one of his senior people will investigate my concern about third party invoicing for an online reservation.  I sent him all my invoices and Cruise Confirmations (it wasn't called a Cruise Vacation Receipt like my prior paperwork).

 

I also sent him a copy of a screen shot I saved from yesterday.  I'm attaching it here...not sure if you will be able to see the "issue"...but, hey, I want to rebook my 12 night Caribbean cruise in February 2023 "starting at $229."  The interior cabins start at $900 or so per person.  False advertising...you think?  Or is someone messing with the RCI websites, too.  If you can see the fine print, the correct RCI website was used.

 

My reservation did appear in the cruise planner earlier today.  I have cancelled (email to the "preferred RCI agency" as of 5 pm today, and it no longer appears.

[BND]

1 minute ago, JanieKid82 said:

I just received a very nice email from Mr. Bayley's office (I had emailed him) and one of his senior people will investigate my concern about third party invoicing for an online reservation.  I sent him all my invoices and Cruise Confirmations (it wasn't called a Cruise Vacation Receipt like my prior paperwork).

 

I also sent him a copy of a screen shot I saved from yesterday.  I'm attaching it here...not sure if you will be able to see the "issue"...but, hey, I want to rebook my 12 night Caribbean cruise in February 2023 "starting at $229."  The interior cabins start at $900 or so per person.  False advertising...you think?  Or is someone messing with the RCI websites, too.  If you can see the fine print, the correct RCI website was used.

 

My reservation did appear in the cruise planner earlier today.  I have cancelled (email to the "preferred RCI agency" as of 5 pm today, and it no longer appears.

The "starting at" prices are usually for certain dates and certain cabins.  If there's more than one date for a itinerary that is very common.  I have never heard of RCI using a third party to "overflow".  Royal uses contractors for most everything but they are not TA's for other agencies.

[Cruise Gopher]

5 hours ago, JanieKid82 said:

All,

 

I started a thread this morning, July 8, 2022, regarding my experience with a website cruise reservation.  CC has evidently taken that thread down, because it's no longer showing.  I'm new to posting, and realize I gave the name of a travel agency in that post.

 

I have corresponded with the travel agency about my concerns, and they informed me that they are a preferred travel agency with RCI and handle the RCI overflow when booking requests pile up.  I know I never called them...I only book online because I can see which cabins are still available, and select the exact cabin I want.

 

That's the end of this saga. 

Janie, with all due respect, there is no issue here, no funny business going on, you simply booked a cruise through a travel agency website and mistakenly thought it was Royal Caribbean. They don’t handle overflow, they were making stuff to avoid you canceling. 
 

Just to clarify for you and for everyone else reading this (since the original thread was deleted), Royal Caribbean does not go by the name RCI Cruises. Yes their official company name is Royal Caribbean International which is abbreviated as RCI in some places, so I can see how it could be confusing.

 

However, Royal Caribbean’s official website is www.royalcaribbean.com

 

That “other” website you accidentally booked on, sells more that just Royal Caribbean cruises so that should have been an indicator that this wasn’t the official website. They also don’t have the Royal Caribbean logo in the header of their website. 
 

 

 

[JanieKid82]

I went over this in the deleted email:  the RCI website I have bookmarked and used since cruising restarted months ago is www.royalcaribbean.com.  I have never had a problem with an RCI online booking until this week.  This is cruise #15.  My first sentence in the deleted email (because I named a specific agency) was "I'm so frustrated I could chew nails."   I have never been on RCIcruises or whatever.

 

My concern with my RCI online booking being "transferred" to a third party travel agency has been escalated to the Executive Offices of Royal Caribbean.  This type of hocus pocus means the third party travel agency would be eligible for the 10% agency commission.  Nice easy income if you have an inside "helper" in the RCI  I.T. department, booking unit or similar.

 

Their Cruise Confirmation document looked similar to a true RCI Cruise Vacation Receipt and some folks may have opened that and assumed all was well. But I'm an editor by profession, and I notice things on the printed page (and on websites).

 

If I had used a third party website by mistake, I would have never posted anything on this matter on Cruise Critic. I was trying to warn others. When I sent an email to this third party to cancel, they said they were the overflow RCI preferred vendor to help when booking volumes were high. They even provided an 800 number for me to call to verify their status.  I didn't call that number, but the investigating team at RCI corporate has a copy of that conversation, and I'm hoping they will call and see what's what.

[rudeney]

4 hours ago, miyanc said:

I am by no means an expert, but sometimes play 1 online.  I am not saying this is the case, but with 2 examples of what sound like a scam or at least something getting redirected, I would consider your computer or method of locating online information.  

 

I agree - we definitely have to be very careful these days, and even so, sometimes the bad guys still find ways into our computers!  But if you look at the screen shot Janie posted, it shows the secure "lock", so it's very unlikely she was hacked that way.  It's nearly impossible to fake an SSL connections since it uses a 3rd party to verify it.

 

3 hours ago, JanieKid82 said:

I just received a very nice email from Mr. Bayley's office (I had emailed him) and one of his senior people will investigate my concern about third party invoicing for an online reservation.  I sent him all my invoices and Cruise Confirmations (it wasn't called a Cruise Vacation Receipt like my prior paperwork).

 

I'll be interested to see what they find out.

 

39 minutes ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Janie, with all due respect, there is no issue here, no funny business going on, you simply booked a cruise through a travel agency website and mistakenly thought it was Royal Caribbean. They don’t handle overflow, they were making stuff to avoid you canceling. 
 

Just to clarify for you and for everyone else reading this (since the original thread was deleted), Royal Caribbean does not go by the name RCI Cruises. Yes their official company name is Royal Caribbean International which is abbreviated as RCI in some places, so I can see how it could be confusing.

 

However, Royal Caribbean’s official website is www.royalcaribbean.com

 

That “other” website you accidentally booked on, sells more that just Royal Caribbean cruises so that should have been an indicator that this wasn’t the official website. They also don’t have the Royal Caribbean logo in the header of their website. 
 

 

I tend to believe that there is some funny business going on here.  These days, few people actually type a URL into a browser address bar - most use bookmarks or search links. Janie said she used a bookmark to access royalcaribbean.com.  She also said the website looked EXACTLY like RCCL's usual website.  Had she types that other URL, it looks totally different.  Personally, I think that RCCL's IT system did something weird and crossed-up her booking with one through the TA.  

[cublet]

Hello,

 

I cannot speak for what you have in the US, but here we have a TA that is 100% owned by Royal even though it's not included in the TA's name.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[twangster]

In the US the Royal Caribbean cruise invoice lists the travel partner for that booking.  The invoice looks different when a travel partner is involved.

 

Using gray blocks to hide names and data...

 

A cruise invoice booked direct:

 

 

 

When booked through a travel agency:

 

 

 

[BND]

14 minutes ago, twangster said:

In the US the Royal Caribbean cruise invoice lists the travel partner for that booking.  The invoice looks different when a travel partner is involved.

 

Using gray blocks to hide names and data...

 

A cruise invoice booked direct:

 

 

 

When booked through a travel agency:

 

 

 

Yep. We use a TA that are friends of ours  Our invoices always look like the second one.  

Edited July 9, 2022 by BND

[Cruise Gopher]

That fact that the OP continues to refer to them as RCI cruises makes this sound so much more strange and I still think she somehow ended up on the “other” website and thought it was Royal Caribbean. 
 

Royal Caribbean is not RCI Cruises, period. 

 

 

[Bound4Bermuda]

12 hours ago, JanieKid82 said:

I just received a very nice email from Mr. Bayley's office (I had emailed him) and one of his senior people will investigate my concern about third party invoicing for an online reservation.  I sent him all my invoices and Cruise Confirmations (it wasn't called a Cruise Vacation Receipt like my prior paperwork).

 

I also sent him a copy of a screen shot I saved from yesterday.  I'm attaching it here...not sure if you will be able to see the "issue"...but, hey, I want to rebook my 12 night Caribbean cruise in February 2023 "starting at $229."  The interior cabins start at $900 or so per person.  False advertising...you think?  Or is someone messing with the RCI websites, too.  If you can see the fine print, the correct RCI website was used.

 

My reservation did appear in the cruise planner earlier today.  I have cancelled (email to the "preferred RCI agency" as of 5 pm today, and it no longer appears.

You took a screenshot before you knew you were “scammed” or you went back after the fact to ensure the site was accurate? That is the correct URL there, and is the Royal Caribbean site. But a travel agency does come up as the first ad when googling. And it would be easy to click the first thing that comes up—though I know you said you had it bookmarked. Yet, if you put in RCI, as you keep referring to it as instead of Royal Caribbean, you absolutely would have gotten to the agency’s site instead. If you typed in a wrong letter or something then for sure you could have accidentally went to a spoof site. The “starting at” price isn’t for YOUR cruise but rather the lowest out of ALL of their sailings, so you shouldn’t expect to get that price unless you happen to have selected the most undesirable sailing. It doesn’t seem to me that anything nefarious is going on here. I think you just went to the wrong site. Or, it’s possible that maybe they did bring some other agents in as consultants to help with the overflow. We know that right now cruise bookings are at an all-time high, and they likely downsized their support staff considerably over COVID. Many companies bring in outside services to assist in high-volume periods of whatever work they do. Yet, I understand that online scams are rampant so you want to be careful. This seems like a legitimate service. I’m curious to hear what the final response is once Royal completes their “investigation.” 

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, twangster said:

In the US the Royal Caribbean cruise invoice lists the travel partner for that booking.  The invoice looks different when a travel partner is involved.

 

Using gray blocks to hide names and data...

 

A cruise invoice booked direct:

 

 

 

When booked through a travel agency:

 

 

 

This is 100% accurate.  When we were on our last cruise in April, I booked a cruise with Next Cruise and the invoice looked like the first example. 
When I transferred it to a TA, it looks like the second example.

[JanieKid82]

I appreciate the time and effort some of you have put into showing the difference between a Royal Caribbean Cruise Vacation Receipt and one from a TA.  That's exactly why I started the thread...I immediately noticed the difference, saw the TA name and information in the left hand corner, yet knew I had not booked through the agency in the left hand corner.  I booked online on the Royal Caribbean website.  That's when I started communication by email with the TA "rep" who emailed me the Confirmation, the one who said in an email they were a preferred Royal Caribbean booking service and handled the overflow when demand was high (which is is now). Gave me a phone number to call to verify said statement.

 

Personally, I think we've got some TAs following this thread and they might be a little nervous.  I'll just sit back, wait for my deposit to be refunded to my credit card (will probably take half a lifetime), watch my credit card app for unusual or suspisous activity, and see what the folks at corporate Royal Caribbean say after they review the documentation I sent them.

 

As for the screenshot, the text reads:  Your cruise is waiting/12 night Southern Caribbean Cruise/ from $229 USD...then a button for Book Now.  If one clicks Book Now, the website takes you to low cost 3-4 days cruises.  I think this is deceptive advertising, but just my opinion.  My business ethics class was many moons ago, and with the internet, everything has changed (as several posters have correctly stated on this thread).

 

Everyone, hope you enjoy the weekend.

 

 

[deliver42]

I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but I just don't trust the on line TA's.

[Cruise Gopher]

25 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but I just don't trust the on line TA's.

The big huge online ones are terrible as you’re constantly dealing with someone different every time you need something and they can be really hard to get ahold of. I did it once and never again, learned my lesson. 

[Another_Critic]

4 hours ago, JanieKid82 said:

As for the screenshot, the text reads:  Your cruise is waiting/12 night Southern Caribbean Cruise/ from $229 USD...then a button for Book Now.  If one clicks Book Now, the website takes you to low cost 3-4 days cruises.  I think this is deceptive advertising, but just my opinion. 

That's a Royal IT "feature" (aka just another bug).