Jump to content

Has Anyone Ever Heard Of This


Recommended Posts

So I booked my cruise through a TA, (TA is my dad, he works occasionaly at a friend's office and my dad gets half the commision on business he brings in) received my final bill, TA (DAD) called and told me he would be putting the rest of the bill on my card, TA (DAD)calls back and the final price is almost $300 more then what the final bill stated. He is also on the cruise as well as my sister (3rooms) and all of our prices went up. I asked him about the increase and he said Carnival said the charges were for commision. He was confused by this, as he has booked a number of cruises for family and friends and this has never happened before. So as you can see he doesn't do it a lot. He said he would ask the owner/friend about why the price went up. Has anyone ever heard of this? My Dad is very annoyed at what is going on and said he would find out tomorrow, but I know you all know so much so I was wondering if you had any thoughts????? If my final bill says one thing how can Carnival just add on charges to each of our rooms and say it was for commision?:confused: :confused: :confused:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did your dad take the commission amount off your original bill ?

 

Normally if the client pays by CC the total amount goes on the card then the agent will get a cheque for their commission.

 

If they pay cash /cheque they deduct the commission before submitting to the cruiseline

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went with him to the office when we booked, the owner called got us our rates, Carnival sent confirmation, that included what our deposit was, and was itemized etc. There is no mention of commision, I figured the commision was already in the total that I owed and was surprised that Carnival changed the price when we paid the final bill. My dad was surprised as well, he was charged more too. He now wants to pay my sister and I the extra amount that we paid back to us. I don't want him to do this. He told Carnival he didn't want the commision but they said he had too. Like I said he is retired (not from the travel business) and does this to just entertain himself so he is not super knowledgeable in the industry. Does that answer your question?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is so very confusing...

 

If your dad is a TA, he should be able to answer your questions, right? Is this his first cruise booking :confused:

 

Perhaps you should do what a lot of us have done -- fire the TA and book directly with the cruise line :D

 

###

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i think if you have a finalized cruise summary or whatever with all the charges, saying amount due , and what you paid etc.. that they cant add anymore ..

it wasnt your fault that the comission wasnt on there in the 1st place,

they should have to honor that ...

I would fight that,,, with carnival, have you called them , i know they only like to talk to TA's but i would call and see what they say ..

and keep copies of everything ,

ive never heard of a final price getting raised...

thats nice of you to say that about your dad ,, that you dont want him to pay you and your sis...

melissa

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went with him to the office when we booked, the owner called got us our rates, Carnival sent confirmation, that included what our deposit was, and was itemized etc. There is no mention of commision, I figured the commision was already in the total that I owed and was surprised that Carnival changed the price when we paid the final bill.

Very confusing!

I agree if Carnival gave you a bottom line then that should be it!

 

The only other thing I can think of is they gave the TA the NET rate which would be without the commission.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It could be one of two things...

 

This is an example of a CCL confirmation:

Cruise Fare 658.00

non commissionable 318.00

Federal taxes/fees 165.56

 

Amount to Collect 1141.56

Commission 105.28

Balance due 1036.28

 

So, one, it could be your Dad quoted just the cruise fare without the non commissionables (which are port charges)

 

or

 

He quoted the balance due, which does not include the commission.

 

This is what can happen if someone tries to be a travel agent and does not have any experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It could be one of two things...

 

This is an example of a CCL confirmation:

Cruise Fare 658.00

non commissionable 318.00

Federal taxes/fees 165.56

 

Amount to Collect 1141.56

Commission 105.28

Balance due 1036.28

 

So, one, it could be your Dad quoted just the cruise fare without the non commissionables (which are port charges)

 

or

 

He quoted the balance due, which does not include the commission.

 

This is what can happen if someone tries to be a travel agent and does not have any experience.

 

You are right lvtotrvl1. I also think that Dad's agency that he is working for is responsible for giving Dad the agency paperwork instead of the consumer paperwork.

Dad did not know what he was looking at and he should be the one to pay up!

OR...his boss let him out on a very long chain without proper training.

At any rate, calicruiser101 did not state who the invoice came from. Did it have Carnival cruise lines on the top of the page or the agency logo on the top. If it was programmed invoice from the agency, then the agency did it wrong, not the cruise line.

Speaking from experience. I have been there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I know this is confusing so I will try and word it better. My dad and the owner of the Travel Agency used to work together (not in the travel business, they are both now retired) my dad knows a lot of people in our town and we have a huge family so the deal with owner was when he brought in business he would get half the commission. She has been teaching him and is usually there when he makes calls etc. However this time he paid the final bills for the 3 cabins from his home and she was not there to ask questions to. He has booked several cruises for other family members, including me 3 years ago and this has never happened. My parent's usuallly fly to Europe for the summer and finally convinced them to try a cruise. He also told me if the TA office couldn't beat the prices I had found on-line he wasn't about to make us pay more just so he can get commission. So when we went to the office to book the cruise he told the owner this, she then called Carnival, not my dad, we were listening and she was able to get the same price we found online. So we booked with her, we then got our confirmation that was faxed to the office from Carnival. The final payment was due May1, we paid April 30 all with credit cards. Then the Carnival tells him an amount that is about $300 more than what their (confirmation letter, Carnival logo) bill stated. He asked them about it and they said well you have to take commision so this is the new total. He wasn't worried about the increase and didn't want to argue about it and figured he would pay the difference back to my sister and I. Money for him is not a problem, hence the European trips each summer. However, I don't want him to have to pay us if the cruiseline is the one who messed up. As far as firing my TA, not gonna happen. He said he will go down to the office and ask the owner about what Carnival did. As stated this has never happened before on any other of his bookings. He likes going to the office because my parents travel so much and since he is retired it is something for him to do. I just want an explanation as to why Carnival gave me a final bill and then added several hundred $$ to each of our bills. I think my parent's bill went up the most, perhaps because they are in a Cat11? Not sure. Sorry this is so long and thanks for any suggestions you might have.:) :) :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to be a travel agent, and if your bill went up $300/pp that has to be something other than commission. Unless your cruise cost you over $2,000/pp (just for the cruise rate, not including taxes and fees) and the travel agency is getting a high commission rate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To add even more confusing information to this story, when I first got my Carnival confirmation it did not reflect our deposits. So I called from my parent's house and the Carnival people talked with me because I had my dad with me and his travel number. She said the computer showed our deposits and so I asked her for the total, which I wrote down on each of our confirmations. Ok, so I never really looked at the old number and for some reason she gave me the total without the commision, thus making each of our cruises almost $300 less. So when my dad went to pay off each of our cruises it appeared as if the price had gone up, when actually it had stayed the exact same as the original quote. I guess this is why I am a history teacher and not a math teacher. Had I just looked at the difference in numbers I would have been able to tell that the numer she gave me was less then I had been told it was. Hope this makes sense. My sister is still confused, but she said all she cares about is that we are paying the price we were orginally quoted and the answer to that is, YES. My dad is also quite pleased to be off the hook and that we don't think he screwed something up. All is good now and thank you for asking.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...

If you are already a Cruise Critic member, please log in with your existing account information or your email address and password.