My travel agent made a serious error!!!

[98Charlie]

Karen

 

It sounds like you are working through the situation;) I feel confidant that you will have a great time in spite of the problem.

 

Looking forward to hearing how fantastic this cruise is.

 

Please stop back here afterward and let us know.

 

Charlie

[SheilaNC]

Karen,

You sound like a wise lady who has worked through some of your original reactions (good for you). I can assure you from firsthand experience that you will have a wonderful trip that will resonate in your memories forever. Just this morning I was reading the CC trip review for this cruise (I wholeheartedly recommend it to you) and reliving ever step of this wonderful report. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

So...go, enjoy yourselves immensely and, as you've indicated, chalk this up to a learning experience. We're all rooting for you and waiting to hear YOUR report when you return!

[rjg41]

What happened here is terribly unfortunate, especially since nothing can be done to rectify it except some compensation. I understand the bitterness toward the agent and as an agent if I had made this kind of mistake I would not sleep well for many many nights. Our agency has a number of checks and balances to prevent such things from happening as the agency in this matter very well may have but it happened.

 

If your agent has been a good agent for many years I am sure she feels terrible about what happened. While I understand you might want to "punish" her and her agency, finding a truly good agent can be difficult and you might remember that no one is perfect. I suspect she will never make this mistake again to you or anyone else and you have some skin invested in her education. If you stick with her she will be trying to make this up to you for years and will watch over your bookings to excess. To a new agent you may likely be just another client.

 

Now, go have a great cruise on a very unique ship and itinerary.

[BigDogMom]

As another foot note to this mess, the cruise lines in general are all asking us to pre-register online. I usually take a look about 90 -120 days before cruising just to get a look at the excursions. Celebrity will have your itinerary, cabin number and final payment due date online. I always take a look at that to see if it's all correct before I give them any money for final payment. You can look at this info regardless of how the booking was made. It avoids a possible disaster like this.

I hope this all works out for you and the cruise will be fabulous!

[JLC@SD]

A salutory lesson for us all. Don't assume you can miss the final payment deadline.

 

Possibly on a larger ship, 2000 passengers, there will be perhaps 20 who miss paying (assuming you were the only ones out of 96). Some of these may be insurance cancellations and others oversights but it is unlikely that all 20 will be sold that close to the deadline.

 

However I shall make a note in my diary of the 90 day deadlines.

 

.....another lesson....:)

 

Check on the date final payment is required.......it is easy to find out from the cruise line.......and we like to make it a week early......just in case there is a glitch........the penalty for not getting it in time......as OP has learned.......is terminal.....;)

[Dontom]

Sorry for the loss of your suite. Sandi and I are in 408 and can hardly contain ourselves until departure on Nov. 30. We look forward to meeting you and the other cc members in Quito:D . Keep us posted.

 

Don

[Kay and Hal]

Yet ANOTHER lesson to be learned here:

 

Never have blind faith that others will do the job you are paying them to do. I'm wondering *why* that didn't occur to me? After all, I work in a business and live in an area where NO ONE follows through on what is expected of them. :eek:

 

Next cruise, I will be checking things out every single step of the way. Our very first cruise was through this agency, and we've continued to use them for subsequent cruises. But, as I mentioned previously, another gal handled our account, and we were very satisfied with her - even had some upgrades in earlier cruises.

 

This one seems to have dropped the ball, and unfortunately, we should have listened to our own gut feelings months ago, when we first had the thought that she wasn't really on top of things. BUT - since we'd done business with them a number of times in the past, we (incorrectly) assumed things would be OK.

 

So..............live and learn.............a very disappointing lesson, but a lesson learned nonetheless.........

 

Karen

[Kay and Hal]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh - and another thought is this: Ignorance is not an excuse - mine or theirs. So, while I am in NO way letting them off the hook for what I consider to be a huge, inexcusable error, I see that *I* should have been more *educated* about the due date. I can assure you, it will never happen again! ;)

 

'Nuff said........as my co-worker says, *Stick a fork in me, I'm done.* LOL

 

Thanks again for the responses. :)

 

Karen

[Pontius Navigator]

We made our own flight reservations, as we found we saved enough money in doing so to warrant it. Onboard credit absolutely doesn't benefit us on this particular cruise

 

There is still wriggle room here. Give you our example. Package was rubbish and we were offered about £150 compensation off next holiday with the company. We said no way. They responded and said perhaps we should chose a caravan holiday instead.

 

I responded and said that is exactly what we were doing but perhaps they would care to pay our ferry fare. They leapt at the chance. We got £500 worth of ferry fare and they didn't pay a penny. Win-win. Actually double win to us as they ceased trading before we would have got that £150 value.

 

In your case I presume you have already paid for your flights. How about your TA paying for the upgrade?

 

How about the transport to/from the airport and your home.

[geoherb]

It's a great lesson to others here that we need to find out for ourselves what the final payment date is for our cruises and not trust our TAs to be looking out for us. Perhaps the roll call threads would be a good way for us to remind others. After all, who doesn't look forward to paying off the balance.

 

Since we have been taking Christmas cruises the past few years, I am aware that the final payment date is 90 days ahead. It's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to next week--since we haven't booked a cruise for this Christmas yet.

[Bruton Branch]

Kay and Hal,

To Southern friends at the bottom of the Mississippi River

Read your post earlier this date (0600 hrs) and just could not believe that your TA screwed up so badly. Got to thinking as I do not do that very much due to retirement, but had to check our cruise document for upcomming TA on X. Everyone on this post has talked about final payment 90 day in advance. Well our final payment is due soon on the 23rd. just nine weeks before the cruise ? We hope everything works out and enjoy your cruise-besure to wear a shirt when snorking the sunshine is a burner!

Bruton Branch:)

[ginagirl]

The One Thing That Seems To Baffle Me Is That When I Book A Cruise, I Must Immediately Pay A Substantial Deposit On The Booking. In View Of This Amount Of Money On Deposit, Why Would A Cruise Line, Systematically Ignore That Hefty Deposit On The Booking And Cancel The Booking Without Some Type Of Communication To Agent And/or Passenger. Yes, It Is The Responsibility Of The Agent And Passenger To Pay On Time; But I Wonder If The Passenger Had Booked Directly With The Cruise Line, Would They Have Acted So Rashly Without Attempting To Make Contact And Verify That Perhaps The Check Hasn't Been Lost In The Mail. Just Wondering............

[Fontaid]

Karen, Wow... sorry to hear about the mix up on your reservations. I'm not posting because I have anything to add to what compensation you might get from your TA. I'm posting because my wife and I were in 401 in November 2005. The other interesting part is we live 7 miles west of New Orleans airport.... neighbors!!!

 

We originally wanted to book a suite, but there are very few and they were fully booked when we booked (only a year in advance!!!). Ugggh.... But, we got 401 instead. It is in a GREAT location... not that any are bad... certainly not on a small ship like the Xpedition. But, you will be right next to the lounge... kinda like having your own bar just 15 feet away. Grab your drink, take it back to your cabin (did this right after coming back from an excursion and with a nightcap), or sit in the lounge, or go right out the back door to the open deck and grab a chair... never a crowd. You're also right next to the stairs... one flight down to the dining room... In addition Customer Relations is not more than about 10 ft away. Oh... in case you're interested... don't worry about any noise due to location... there isn't any. Great cabin... not a suite, but great location. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

As others have mentioned and you have determined, don't take a shipboard credit... at least not on the Xpedition. You would be hard pressed to spend it. You'd have to spend it on expensive champagne or something similar to use it all.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!!

Dave :)

[Aussie Cruisers]

I am so sorry that you have gone through this - and I am sure we would all send a hug over the net for you.

 

IMHO this is how I would proceed...

 

1) Don't talk too much, ask politely for eveything to be written down and faxed to you. You also do the same thing. This way there are clear lines of communication with little chance of misunderstandings. It seems as though your TA is immature and inexperienced in these things. This may be extreme, so if they can't do it, insist on using emails instead. I am sure you get the drift of what I mean! Put it on paper!

 

2) Politely ask to deal with the manager of the extablishment from now on. If you TA made this mistake - learn from it and deal with a different person in the establishment. Do you want more errors?

 

3) This last one may not work - but it just might if you think good thoughts... (as they say, and use as much charm as you can muster on the phone)....I would call X Sales dept and ask to speak to the sales rep for your area of town or your state. Do your research and get a name - it is much more successful that way. All companies have them and outline your story. He/she will not be happy about the TA and this may help give you leaverage with compensation. If the X sales rep is in the ear of the manager, it may be resolved faster as it reflects on the sales rep's 'turf.' Consider writing a letter outlining everything to the regional sales manager at X so that if you can't get through on the phone, he/she will be made aware of your situation and it may be resolved it faster.

 

Above all, think positively!;) That way they can't label you in the process:( , and in the end it will serve your purpose and may give you more favour in the longrun.:D

 

I hope it all works out for you. Enjoy your wonderful cruise!

 

Mark.

[Kay and Hal]

Hey Dave, where do you guys live? We are in Destrehan, been there for 23 years now. You must be close by! Talk about a small world.......

 

Karen

[psychboss]

Exactly! Also, changing the date is not an option, we planned this nearly 18 months ago, in part due to wanting a suite/balcony, in part due to arranging time off from both of our jobs, and in addition, we also have solid plans in Key West for several days following the cruise, already paid for in full.

 

Yes, a disappointment. I think I am just outraged that our T.A. was so casual about the fact that *she* messed up, and pretty much acted like it was no big deal.

 

I agree with you and I was not suggesting that you change your date unless it 'suited you'. I still recommend that you do what I said in my first post to you. I wish you well if this TA cannot fix this error to your satisfaction she has NO business being a TA - this kind of error would not even be made by a TA selling their very first cruise - it is totally inexcusable!

[Fontaid]

Karen, OMG... We live in Ormond :). You're probably right down the street (certainly within a mile or two). We've been here for 20 years, but we're getting ready to move (to Houston) before the end of the year. We're going to be opening a restaurant there.

 

If you want, write me at fontaid@aol.com and I'll send you my phone number. We can chat, etc. and I can give you some additional advice on the cruise. Also, I'm not sure what we're doing with our wetsuits or hoods, i.e. do we take them to Houston or not. I'll talk to my wife, you may want them if they fit... we bought them for the trip and they've only been used one week :D. I've also got some books on the Galapagos that you can borrow.

 

Talk about a small world!!!

Dave :)

[SheilaNC]

Folks,

Caution about providing so much personal info online. There are lots of lurkers out there who love to find out where you live AND when you'll be away from home. Just a precautionary warning...

[Jade13]

I am so outraged for you. I can't believe this happened.

 

If this makes you feel any better, we had the largest Suite when we went to the Galapagos (Santa Cruz, not on Celebrity), and was only one of two with a balcony. We took it because that was our option vs the basement.

 

In any event, we never used the balcony, except for wet clothes, and really spent little time in that stateroom. Celebrity may be diff, but on this cruise there was no TV, refrigerator, in room dining etc. Everything outside is spectacular.

 

That TA needs to do something for you. I just don't know how this happened. Even on a HAL ship there would have been some type of notification because the insurance (through them) would be non-refundable, ie HAL I think would have contacted the TA for final payment or return of the deposit.

 

Another thought - did you have any Ad on's here? Are you going to Lima Peru first etc.? If I was in your situation I would send a letter directly to Celebritys President and outline what happened. Perhaps they can do something for you including pre or post hotels and credit for another Celebrity cruise. They should be outraged for you too. I am unclear if this is a big company that sells a lot for Celebrity etc?

[Moeve]

Excuse me folks but humans make mistakes - and don't tell me none of you make mistakes!!

 

Now to the original poster I feel so sorry for you but things like this can happen. First try to solve it with th TA & his/ her boss. They won't be able to resolve it to 100% since they have no power to throw someone of of a booked cabin - but see what they offer you - you should not be loosing any money at all infact you should even get a refund of some sort for your troubles. You might even drop X a line and explain - however they might not want to talk to you since this is an Agency account - explain the mishandeling a see what they say.

 

By the way did you not get an original Invoice from X via TA??? It may be different in the US but we get them and they include ALL vital info like price and payment date. The Agency gets 2 versions one for passengers and their own version which has the commision breakdown on it. I'll never understand why some agencies fail to do paperwork this protects them as wellas the passenger.

[Pontius Navigator]

By the way did you not get an original Invoice from X via TA??? It may be different in the US but we get them and they include ALL vital info like price and payment date. The Agency gets 2 versions one for passengers and their own version which has the commision breakdown on it. I'll never understand why some agencies fail to do paperwork this protects them as wellas the passenger.

 

No, in UK we get the original from the TA and the one from the Company. It even includes the company POC with the TA.

 

On a previous cruise the pay by date from the TA was 90 days whereas the company date was 60 days. Although that meant 30 days interest for the TA it also gave adequate wriggle room and money transfer time.

 

Our present TAs invoices show clearly the lower TA price against the company invoice and a clear pay by date of 90 days.

 

A different company - fly/hotel - stated quite specifically a 60 day pay by date and equally specifically that no reminder would be sent. The slightly unnerving thing here is no receipt either and no tickets until 10-14 days :eek:

[Moeve]

I would suppose it may also have something to do with those agencies using other forms of booking other than the RCCL /X own booking engine (cruise match online)

 

Still giving the passenger something like an invoice with all the details IS also a safeguard for the agency. This becomes really important when details are changed somewhere during the course of the booking - then I would want to make double sure the client has the correct info.... (OK I am a carefull sucker)

[Kay and Hal]

Folks,

Caution about providing so much personal info online. There are lots of lurkers out there who love to find out where you live AND when you'll be away from home. Just a precautionary warning...

 

Sheila, of course you're right - I tell people that very often - I am the administrator for a website online. :D

 

Dave, feel free to delete your email and location - I've copied it, and thank you!!! I will be contacting you.

 

Karen

[Kay and Hal]

Check your email.

;)

Karen

[psychboss]

Please let us all know if you get any resolution to your problem. You were treated SO badly. And thru NO fault of your own.