Paid balance to TA, Credit Card statement says name of TA?

[lord of the seas]

Rob,

 

Have to pay our balances in a couple of weeks, but our agent charges 2.5% for using a credit card. Are you saying that if we put only £100 on our cc, we are protected, paying the balance on a debit card. Or should I suck up the 2.5% and pay it all on a cc. First time we've had this problem, as all other agents we have used do not make a charge for using the cc. Sue

 

Sue,

Why are you switching from other agents who do not charge a CC fee to an agent that does.:confused:

[southwestie]

Rob,

 

Have to pay our balances in a couple of weeks, but our agent charges 2.5% for using a credit card. Are you saying that if we put only £100 on our cc, we are protected, paying the balance on a debit card. Or should I suck up the 2.5% and pay it all on a cc. First time we've had this problem, as all other agents we have used do not make a charge for using the cc. Sue

 

 

I would just pay by debit card now sue, you will be fine with cunard, I like to use amex for the bonus points etc, always ask your TA if they will waive the CC charge though,

[Timtammi]

Dear Jonmar

 

My stomach is in a knot just reading through this thread. I fear that this agent is the one we booked through and got burnt by for our QV cruise in Jan this year.

 

It went like this - booked and paid deposit, deposit showed on CC statement as Cunard. Then the offers started coming from the TA, pay balance by this date get 5% off, said thanks but no thanks, later on it became 10% and extra OBC. We didnt accept the 2nd offeroffer, in fact we didnt reply at all, next thing we know they have charged our card in full. Shows on CC statement as the TA not Cunard. When I contact them in outrage they say they can refund it but I will lose the discount and the OBC. I decide its too much hassle and let it stand (BIG mistake).

 

Months go past, we think we have paid everything. 90 days out suddenly we are charged again for the balance, this time direct from Cunard! So now we have paid twice!! Contact Cunard, they never got the balancefrom the agency. Contact the agency, told it an "administrative error" and they will refund and give us more OBC for the inconvenience.

 

Final outcome - no refund from the agency, no OBC once we get onboard, and we spend ages and much heartachse disputing the original charge with the CC company which is now about 6 months old because we cant dispute the later transaction with Cunard otherwise no cruise. In fact I dont think the CC refund came through until after our cruise and this was a very expensive cruise - we were out that double payment all that time! Not to mention interest charges etc.

 

NEVER AGAIN.

 

I hope your experience is better than ours but it sounds so much like ours I would be very worried if I was you and be doing all I could to protect myself.

 

Good luck.

[lord of the seas]

Can anyone hear alarm bells?

[jonmar]

Dear Jonmar

 

My stomach is in a knot just reading through this thread. I fear that this agent is the one we booked through and got burnt by for our QV cruise in Jan this year.

 

It went like this - booked and paid deposit, deposit showed on CC statement as Cunard. Then the offers started coming from the TA, pay balance by this date get 5% off, said thanks but no thanks, later on it became 10% and extra OBC. We didnt accept the 2nd offeroffer, in fact we didnt reply at all, next thing we know they have charged our card in full. Shows on CC statement as the TA not Cunard. When I contact them in outrage they say they can refund it but I will lose the discount and the OBC. I decide its too much hassle and let it stand (BIG mistake).

 

Months go past, we think we have paid everything. 90 days out suddenly we are charged again for the balance, this time direct from Cunard! So now we have paid twice!! Contact Cunard, they never got the balancefrom the agency. Contact the agency, told it an "administrative error" and they will refund and give us more OBC for the inconvenience.

 

Final outcome - no refund from the agency, no OBC once we get onboard, and we spend ages and much heartachse disputing the original charge with the CC company which is now about 6 months old because we cant dispute the later transaction with Cunard otherwise no cruise. In fact I dont think the CC refund came through until after our cruise and this was a very expensive cruise - we were out that double payment all that time! Not to mention interest charges etc.

 

NEVER AGAIN.

 

I hope your experience is better than ours but it sounds so much like ours I would be very worried if I was you and be doing all I could to protect myself.

 

Good luck.

 

Please email me at: biscayne55@yahoo.ca

I'd love to know if it's the same company. I don't understand though how Cunard went ahead and charged your card. I thought they would just cancel for non payment at the deadline. Babette, do you know?

[ocngypz]

Please email me at: biscayne55@yahoo.ca

I'd love to know if it's the same company. I don't understand though how Cunard went ahead and charged your card. I thought they would just cancel for non payment at the deadline. Babette, do you know?

 

 

The agency used the client's credit card and put the payment through the cruiseline.

In the meantime, they had the use of the client's money from the original final they ran through their own merchant account.

[Timtammi]

I'd love to know if it's the same company. I don't understand though how Cunard went ahead and charged your card. I thought they would just cancel for non payment at the deadline. Babette, do you know?

 

Actually I always wondered about that myself but we were so busy trying to get our money back that I stopped trying to work out how things happened and just focussed on getting it fixed!

 

The agency used the client's credit card and put the payment through the cruiseline.

In the meantime, they had the use of the client's money from the original final they ran through their own merchant account.

 

This makes sense. Actually they had the use of our money right up until the credit card company did the reversal I would assume as until then we had paid twice, once to them and then again direct to Cunard! Lets see, we are talking about approx $10,000 USD over about 9 months.. now if they are doing that to multiple people that could be a nice little earner! As a business owner myself I always suspected this was a company with serious cash flow issues that was "robbing Peter to pay Paul". Highly unethical and probably illegal (it would be in Australia where I am located anyway). Would be interesting to know if the agency only does it to overseas customers, maybe they figure its harder for the customer to come after them if they are overseas!

 

Jonmar, I have sent you an email as requested.

 

Cheers

[SISer]

have any of you seen this thread on the HAL forum, the circumstances are the same, the situation the op is in is horrible:-

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1025166

[southwestie]

have any of you seen this thread on the HAL forum, the circumstances are the same, the situation the op is in is horrible:-

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1025166

 

I hope the Op can deal with this,

[catl331]

Check out Kween Karen on HAL posts. She paid full in advance for a World Cruise and now after final payment is due, the agent has not paid HAL. This is thousands of dollars.

[operafan]

Check out Kween Karen on HAL posts. She paid full in advance for a World Cruise and now after final payment is due, the agent has not paid HAL. This is thousands of dollars.

 

We've been following this since Friday. It's a horrible situation. TA still owes $8000 on Karen's cruise and I think there's someone else on her roll-call that this is happening to.

[SueOverend]

Sue,

Why are you switching from other agents who do not charge a CC fee to an agent that does.:confused:

 

Because they undercut all my other quotes by a great deal. They are also one of the biggest UK Cruise agents. It seems to be quite the norm for these charges nowadays with a lot of companies - most annoying!

[Hamburg Avon Lady]

:mad: We also dealt with this same agency for our RCCL - Mariner of the Seas - Around the Horn - Jan. 4, 2009 cruise. I paid with my cc's also --- they

didn't pay RCCL for my cruise until 2 days BEFORE sailing --- and then when we returned a month later --- discovered another $ 900 had been

charged to my cards without prior permission or knowledge. I had even

started a "dispute process" prior to leaving as they were taking so long

to pay RCCL. When I contacted the cc company in Feb -- they started the process and after about 6 weeks --- was told "that there was nothing

they could do as I had 6 months to dispute the charges from the time of

ORIGINAL payment --- Not the actual delivery of goods."

 

Personally, I would cancel all travel with this agency NOW -- have the cc companies start the dispute process so you can get most of your money back --- and contact the cruise line directly about keeping your cabin and

paying them directly. I am sure Cunard would accommodate this --- after

all they want to have the cabin filled !! I was fortunate that RCCL did not

release my reservation --- but was told that I may have to pay for the

cruise a second time if the agency did NOT come through.

 

I found them on a very reputable cruise search site --- and

checked out whether they were members of the BBB of Florida (which they are not --- but many businesses do not join but are still very reputable merchants).

 

Unfortunately, for me, I had never learned about the TripAdvisor site until it was too late.

 

Expensive lesson learned. :(:(

[jonmar]

Sounds like the HAL problem is the same agency. Thanks to those that have emailed. The problem with canceling is that this particular voyage is basically sold out. I have no idea how to cancel the booking and rebook keeping those cabins. I defer to Babette on this. The other thing is they said there would be no cancellation fees, but the credit card autho. form indicates 10%.

[southwestie]

Because they undercut all my other quotes by a great deal. They are also one of the biggest UK Cruise agents. It seems to be quite the norm for these charges nowadays with a lot of companies - most annoying!

 

 

I can understand that you went for the best deal, dont forget that the TA charges you a percentage to cover there charge to the credit card company, often they dont pay the card company anywhere near that amount, often the bigger the company the less they pay, so why not ask, they can only say, "yes", "no" "maybe".

 

We all want the best deal we can get dont we

[Raihi]

Booked a voyage this week. The deposit amount appears on my credit card statement as Cunard. TA advises if full payment made by July 13, 2009, I would get 5% off and $200 OBC. So, I make the full payment. Charges on my credit card don't show up in the name of Cunard, but rather the TA. Should I be concerned?

 

I am a bit afraid I may be using the same agency. Would you please send me their name in email? dneebrroobay

@hotmail.com, thanks

[sw18]

I can understand that you went for the best deal, dont forget that the TA charges you a percentage to cover there charge to the credit card company, often they dont pay the card company anywhere near that amount, often the bigger the company the less they pay, so why not ask, they can only say, "yes", "no" "maybe".

 

We all want the best deal we can get dont we

 

If you want a real laugh then look on Teletext in the UK & see what some agents charge for CC transactions here....some of the big High St names charge 4%!!

 

CC charges are a fact of life in the UK & my agent (part of a Norwegian group that owns a very British cruise line) charge 1.5% for CC's, 0% for Debit Cards (unlike some!) - plus the CC charge is usually waived on the deposit with the agent explaining the charge free ways to pay final balance. The only 2.5% charge is on AmEx, which from experience as a retailer, is far more expensive to process than other cards.

 

Mine are also one of the few cruise specialists/cruise only TA's that have their own ATOL licence, rather than "acting as an agent for an ATOL holder" i.e. Cunard - this means they can construct their own fly-cruise package, sourcing each add on element to the cruise i.e. flights/transfers/hotels, quite often significantly cheaper than Cunard - recently they were offering the same flights as Cunard, transfers, & same hotel - the difference being that my agent was offering 3 nights in NYC rather than 1 from Cunard, B&B rather than room only & an airport lounge pass for £160 less (A2 Balcony)...

[abb4k]

I, too, am interested in the TA's identity. Would be much obliged if someone would e-mail that to me: adambergman at ymail dot com

 

Thanks!

[ajmsta]

I, too, am interested in the TA's identity. Would be much obliged if someone would e-mail that to me: ajmsta at yahoo dot com

[ocngypz]

Sounds like the HAL problem is the same agency. Thanks to those that have emailed. The problem with canceling is that this particular voyage is basically sold out. I have no idea how to cancel the booking and rebook keeping those cabins. I defer to Babette on this. The other thing is they said there would be no cancellation fees, but the credit card autho. form indicates 10%.

 

 

 

The tough part is that the cabins were part of the agency's group allotment. I suppose you could call Cunard, beg, plead........... to take the booking back , but you are just in the worst of situations with this sailing. Try citing all the things we've seen online..........send them over to tripadvisor............

 

If you can succeed.........then it's the matter of trying to collect monies due from the agency.. through your credit card company.

[southwestie]

If you want a real laugh then look on Teletext in the UK & see what some agents charge for CC transactions here....some of the big High St names charge 4%!!

 

CC charges are a fact of life in the UK & my agent (part of a Norwegian group that owns a very British cruise line) charge 1.5% for CC's, 0% for Debit Cards (unlike some!) - plus the CC charge is usually waived on the deposit with the agent explaining the charge free ways to pay final balance. The only 2.5% charge is on AmEx, which from experience as a retailer, is far more expensive to process than other cards.

 

Mine are also one of the few cruise specialists/cruise only TA's that have their own ATOL licence, rather than "acting as an agent for an ATOL holder" i.e. Cunard - this means they can construct their own fly-cruise package, sourcing each add on element to the cruise i.e. flights/transfers/hotels, quite often significantly cheaper than Cunard - recently they were offering the same flights as Cunard, transfers, & same hotel - the difference being that my agent was offering 3 nights in NYC rather than 1 from Cunard, B&B rather than room only & an airport lounge pass for £160 less (A2 Balcony)...

 

 

The whole thing really is a minefield, I have always asked, sometimes got, so everyone should ask the TA for a CC charge reduction, as I said mine has been very good, I would never change

[jonmar]

Babette, if I get them to reverse their charge, and then they pay the balance to Cunard directly with my CC, are there any other potential problems that could arise? Basically, once Cunard has the voyage paid in full, can the TA affect the booking in any other way?

[operafan]

Good news on the HAL board- TA FINALLY paid up. Karen's going on her cruise!!

[ocngypz]

Babette, if I get them to reverse their charge, and then they pay the balance to Cunard directly with my CC, are there any other potential problems that could arise? Basically, once Cunard has the voyage paid in full, can the TA affect the booking in any other way?

 

Yeah, they could cancel the booking when it's in penalty.. if they wanted to be *^&**( about it. Oh oops. Do you REALLY think they are going to reverse the first charge and then use your cc to pay the final.

 

No, is the answer........they've been using YOUR money to pay off other bookings.

[jonmar]

Yeah, they could cancel the booking when it's in penalty.. if they wanted to be *^&**( about it. Oh oops. Do you REALLY think they are going to reverse the first charge and then use your cc to pay the final.

 

No, is the answer........they've been using YOUR money to pay off other bookings.

 

Received this in an email earlier this week:

We send in payment 90 days prior but we do not close out the group space until around 75 days before sailing which is when everything is finalized and disbursed. We have been doing this for 15 years now, however, if you are uncomfortable with this we can reverse your charge and have Cunard charge your card upon final date however you would loose the early payment discount. Let us know.

 

I have asked them how long it takes to process the reversal. If they screw around, I think I will call my credit card company tomorrow and dispute it.