Help!! Travel agent increased bill by $1010.52 (UPDATE)

[my3kids]

Fax DCL a request that the reservation be transferred BACK to DCL because this AAA agency trying to scam you out of over $1000. Find out the name of the President of AAA and fax him a copy of it also. Then on o the Ombudsman at Conde Nast Traveller and alert him.

Oh boy, by the time my fax machine cooled off, AAA would be sorry they'd ever heard my name.

 

[jova]

You go my3kids! I would be the same way.
Cindy,
Obviously this agent doesn't know you read the dis boards. The only explanation is that this agent is responsible, or she is scamming you, that is why she is so reluctant to get it straightened out for you. If it was a legitimate increase she would have noticed it up front and alerted you to it. In almost every business the original quoted price is always honored unless it is something that cannot be avoided. (Ex: DCL increased some packages by a few dollars because port taxes increased, which was beyond their control) You are totally in the right about everything, and have the paperwork to prove it so you don't have to worry about this all weekend. My only advice is do not deal with this agent anymore. When you call next week, ask to speak to whoever is in charge of the office, explain the situation to them, and make clear to them that you were not happy with the way that their agent handled the situation. To make you happy again they may even throw in some extra cruise credit so make sure you do not keep giving the agent the benefit of the doubt....she did you wrong! Make sure you express how extremely upset you were and all the phone calls you made to try to rectify the situation.
Have a happy 4th of July weekend, and let us know how things work out for you.

 

[thiscloud]

cindy21494, don't underestimate the power of a three-way call. insist that your ta conference call (or if your phone can do it, you make the conference) you with disney, so you're all on the line at the same time. that way there's a witness for everyone.

 

[MamaGriz]

cindy21494
I am also a very trusting person and can be emotional. Hang in there sister, you are not a doormat! You should send some faxes as suggested before, then maybe you can enjoy your weekend!



Many hugs and a dump truck full of pixie dust!!

 

[kcashner]

Ok, maybe I'm missing something, but....whenever I book a DCL cruise (and I've done 10 of them, 2 more booked), my TA sends me a copy of the confirmation that she receives from DCL. Since DCL faxes it to her, I get it within a couple of days. She checks it first to be sure that it reflects her understanding of what I wanted, and sends me a copy. That clearly states the total price and the deposit paid. Obviously, the deposit also shows up on my credit card statement.

So....I have in my hand a hard copy from DCL of what the trip will cost.

DCL will normally allow the TA to "book" a cabin on a "courtesy hold" for 48 hours. This allows her time to get me on the phone and confirm everything before she applies the deposit. Obviously, this is before I get the confirmation slip....sorry for the poor order of the post.

So....did you get a copy of your confirmation? Or did you get anything in writing confirming your reservation and cost? If not, there's something wrong with your TA, and I'd get DCL on the phone and by mail right away. IF the TA is being crooked, DCL will certainly want to know about it.

Once the trip is booked and the deposit paid, the price is locked in. DCL can't change it, and neither can the TA. The only exception is if the amount of port tax changes...and when that happens, it is only a couple dollars.

DCL normally has a policy of not talking with you if you booked thru a TA, but I'd call them and ask for a supervisor. Then see if they will even listen to you. Despite their policy of not talking to the guest directly if you booked thru a TA, they were very understanding and reasonable when I called them with a need to re-book very quickly (like 48 hours before the new sailing date.) I had called my TA (who was out, and I left a message). Then in a tizzy, I called DCL and basically said, "I know you can't do anything and you're going to tell me to call my TA, but I've already called the TA and left a message for them to call me and here's my situation and can you please tell me whether I can do this and how it would work." The DCL person was wonderful and told me what their policy was...and that indeed it would have to be handled thru my TA, but they would hold the space for me for 24 hours to give the TA time to call.

Sorry for the long explanation...my point is that DCL didn't hold tight to their policy of not talking to me, and they were very helpful. Call them....ASAP!

 

[TnRobin]

I am reading this thread with an aweful feeling of Deja Vu. I had similar fights with my AAA office on my first Disney Cruise. Mine was over a shipboard credit and gift I was promised and never received. I have never booked another thing with them since. (Use the discounts but not the agents)

I agree with others that you demand to speak with this woman's supervisor first thing Tuesday. You are the customer and do not deserve this treatment. You have every right to an immediate response to why your confirmed reservation was increased by 25%.

I would call DCL now and complain about this TA. They do take note of complaints about TA that book with them. Let them know that they insist that DCL has increased your package by $1000. I would also request that your reservation be transferred back to DCL and that they be removed as your travel agent.

Third, I would send a copy of all correspondence to the Regional AAA office in your area.

Finally, if you do find out this was not an innocent mistake or a computer error. Send a letter to your State Division of Consumer Affairs. This is what your tax dollar are for in this division - to look for people who are intentionally trying to scam people.

 

["Ginger"]

Cindy sounds like nothing is getting done with your phone calls. You may see more action by going to the office in person and confronting this TA and her supervisor.
Stand your grounds, you know that DCL has not upped the cost of your trip.
Also tell her supervisor that you do not care to have this TA handle your reservation any longer, yes FIRE HER and the company. Take control over your reservations, tell them that you no longer trust AAA and wish to transfer your reservations directly to DCL. Be prepared to back this up in writing.

 

[dletz]

Have you made sure that DCL has your payment. Could someone have screwed up either DCL or TA and accidently credited the amount to a different passenger, and that's why there is a larger dollar amount?

 

[TammyC]

Cindy - I also send best wishes for you in getting this resolved. I would definitely try to have the reservation transferred.

I want to mention something for the sake of others. PLEASE know that I do not think it applies to your situation. Some people have posted that when a person has an original quote, that it must be honored. It seems like I read a post by an attorney a while back on the resort board that said something along the lines of "if an honest mistake was made" they could change the quote. I believe the example in question was on a package where the TA forgot to include park passes for a child travelling with the family. So I guess the important thing here is if comparing quotes and one is much lower, check all details. I am just passing along something I read and do not know the legal position on such matters.

 

[Regina]

The only increases that DCL passes along after you've booked are the port tax increases. They have to charge what's in effect on the date that you arrive at that port.

I can assure you it's only a few dollars, not the $$$$ that you've been hit with.

If a mistake was made, that's just too darned bad. You have every right to insist that they honor the quote that was offered and accepted by you. Stand your ground.

 

[KELLIE JONES]

OMG. i cant believe this!!

on monday morning call the BETTER BUISNESS BUREAU ( you can find the number for your local chapter in the phone book ) and ask them about how and if you can file a formal complaint. or go to http://www.bbb.com for more information. they keep up with buisness who have unsavery buisness practices. trust me, your TA does not want them investgating the matter!!


"BBB Neutrality

The BBB does not take sides in a dispute. The BBB works to facilitate communication between the company and the consumer, to help both sides come to a satisfactory resolution to the complaint.

In many cases, dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration, may be available to help resolve the dispute. "


good luck,
Kellie

 

[pamlet]

As a former travel agent - and as one who was the "problem solver" at the agency I'd like to give you a few words of encouragement.

Most all the advice given here is right on target. One of the best things you can do is stay calm if at all possible. You'll be able to think more clearly - and those at the other end will be able to think more clearly as well!!

It really sounds as though the travel agent made some sort of mistake - if DCL is saying that the charge isn't there - and the balance is what you feel it is - then chances are the travel agent misinterpreted something. If the balance IS that 1000.00+ than the travel agent did not apply the deposit in a timely manner.

Remember - you are going in October - you'll have time to get this resolved next week! That's the wonderful part!

When you call the travel agency back - INSIST on speaking with the branch manager. If you are dealing with the branch manager - call another AAA in your area and get the name and number of the area or regional manager. Do NOT deal directly with the TA - sounds as though they are trying to cover something.

It may very well be some honestly simple explanation - if it is - and it is resolved then settle on that - but ALWAYS make sure that you immediately get any more correspondance they get from DCL faxed to you. If you don't have a fax at home ( I don't ) see if your husband can receive faxes at work. If that doesn't work - offer to go in a pick up copies - if that's too difficult - see if you can somehow get faxes SOMEWHERE - even local copy shops will accept faxes for you for a dollar or so a sheet - that would be worth the easing my mind.

If it is NOT a simple explanation - if you are getting ANY grief from AAA I would definately call DCL - see what it would take to get the reservation changed over to DCL so that the agency does not receive any commission. I would also file complaints all the way up the ladder with AAA.

Best of Luck - have a BLAST on your cruise - I've been wanting to take one FOREVER!!!!

 

[vossjemi]

I'm so sorry to hear about your experience w/AAA. I too had bad experience w/them on a hawaii trip! I thought my TA was just great until....I showed up day before our trip to get some traveler's checks. I just happened to see her and she said "have a great trip, and oh, by the way, I just called and confirmed all your flight reservations for you so you don't need to do anything. You're all set."

I shouldn't have been so trusting. I would normally call and confirm that myself but in last minute rush and all, I relied upon her statements. Bad idea. Our flight was set to leave around 8:30 am so we showed up around 6ish or so. When we got to the airport, we found out AA had cancelled our flight (this was during a time they were decreasing flights due to under capacity i guess). We had been reassigned to a 6am flight, and we had just missed it! The counter people told me this cancellation had occured days before, so something was amiss.

We were able to rebook our flights, but had to add an extra connection and got real crappy seats. We lost our good window seats we had booked 4 months earlier and got middle aisle. We also had reserved good tv seats. Short flights don't matter as much but we had 12 hours of flying to do and we'd never been to hawaii and wanted window seats! I guess when you don't show up for a flight, they kick out your whole reservation, and you have no choice but to rebook with whatever's left.

When we were waiting at the dallas airport, i left my TA a msg on her voicemail to let her know what had happened. I thought maybe we'd have a msg from her at our hotel or an I'm sorry gift when we got to our hotel in Maui. No such luck. We stayed in Maui for 7 days. Never heard from her.

Then we were off to Oahu for 4 days. I thought, you know I'd better dbl ck that when the airport lady reentered my data that this island hop got put back in too. On that one, I actually had the real tickets, not etickets, so I thought it'd be no problem. Wrong! That too was cancelled. I called TA again. She finally returned call and said that she confirmed I had a flight but failed to confirm flight time and wasn't aware our flight time had changed. She said she was sorry. But it was too late for me.

I won't use AAA again. I'd even heard on these boards how cheap they could get on Disney cruises. But, my past experience w/them prevented me from even getting a quote. I did learn my lesson. Even if your TA says they confirmed something for you....ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS confirm it directly yourself too.

Well, I hope it works out for you!

 

[my3kids]

Do your credit card receipts show the charge as from DCL in October? DCL should have been the one to draw the money. If the credit card info shows a charge in the deposit amount by AAA, then it is clear she really is at fault.

I wondered if I was wrong to keep my Holland America booking directly with the company instead of transferring it to an agent for the discount. You know what....I think I'm finally convinced the chance something would get messed up isn't worth a few hundred dollars. You have made me glad I didn't have AAA take over mine.

AAA tried to sell me WDW when I was going to DL last year. Insisted those were what I needed. When I explained that getting to FL from Anaheim wouldn't be so easy with all the morning commute traffic, they insisted they didn't sell tickets to Disneyland.

Please let us know how this all works out for you. AAA does have an 800 travel number that connects with AAA travel agents where ever one is available. You might be able to get one today. Our local office does even have Saturday morning hours.

 

[traycie2201]

Cindy, i'm sure this will get sorted, can you now transfer the ressie to DCL or pay them directly with the balance, at least the price has NOT gone up and there will be resolve, to this, however as for your AAA agent this is a despicable way to treat her customers and i can guarantee i'd never book with them , the customer is always right even when they're wrong and even if it is the customers fault the golden rule is to placate the customer , reassure them you will get it sorted out and follow up calls when you say you will, also as any good marketeer / customer service advisor will know if one person is unhappy with the service around 200people hear about it resulting in bad publicity for the company in this case 3500 fellow disers have read about this and i'm sure it will put alot off dealing with this company in the future.
Good luck with your booking, we'll see you on october 9th , and ps if she has stuffed up i'd be asking for an upgrade / portional refund for the week she's put you through, as prev posters do not deal with this woman any longer speak to head office and ask for a director/ chairman etc, fax your complaint to the head of their company with ta details and copy DCL in on your correspondence when you go straight to the top things tend to get resolved a little quicker.
prayers and pixie dust
Traycie

 

[cindy21494]

Thanks for the advice everyone. When I told DH what happened he wanted to call himself and talk to someone but they were closed. I will be on it first thing Monday morning. We're not sure what we are going to do about whether we are dropping them completely or working with a new TA in the office. Depends on what kind of answers we get. Because at this point, I have no idea what happened. I only talked to the TA about a total of two minutes.

This is what I definately know so far: Our TA did book the cruise in October 2003 according to DCL (when I talked to them), so there should be no reason why the reservation was increased. The TA said she has two confirmations from DCL after I made my $2300.00 payment this Tuesday, one with the increase on it and one without the increase on it. I am no longer worried about it, I do think it was a mistake by DCL (I heard on another thread that they were having computer problems).

Now this is just my opinion, but I think DCL , because of the computer problems, sent a confirmation with the increase, saw the mistake and sent a new one to my TA with the problem fixed. This just seems to be the logical explanation.

Now my problem comes in that my TA just added it to the reservation and didn't even care to check into it until I called her. Even after I called her she lied and told me she had a call in to DCL (which I confirmed with DCL that a call was never placed). I think she lied because she was too busy and would check into later. Still no excuse. IMO, I should never have even gotten the confirmation until she resolved the problem. As for her being angry at me for calling several times trying to find out what was going on, that was totally unprofessional. At no time did I get angry at her, or even raise my voice. All I wanted to know was when and if she was taking care of it. To avoid this whole mess, all she had to do was call me and tell me there was a problem with the confirmation and that she was checking into it. Not send the confirmation without any kind of explanation. After all, I still have 3 months to go, plenty of time to fix it.

After a good night's sleep, logic has know won over my emotions, and I know this will be taken care of. Thank you all for your pixie dust and prayers. As I told my DH, these boards are what kept me from going crazy yesterday.

I will keep you updated.

Cindy

 

[traycie2201]

I'm sure you're right Cindy, everything will work out fine but even if it's a legitimate error how dare your TA be mad with you - she works on comission ! i'd switch to another TA or ask to be dealt with by the Manager from here on in.
Have a wonderful weekend.

 

[glindamood]

Cindy - a good night's sleep can do wonders. I agree that it was problably DCL's system problems that caused the original confusion. It would have been nice if on the second confirmation without the increase on it that they had said there was a problem and it was revised or to ignore the previous one.

As for your TA - there are no excuses. I do customer service and even on 'those days' that we all have would NEVER tell a customer what she said to you. Totally uncalled for. She needs to reread the Golden Rule! That is just basic oommon courtesy.

Can't wait to hear the final resolution. Pixie Dust that it is resolved to your satisfaction quickly.

 

[floridaminnie]

Also if she was an informed TA she would have known that DCL wouldn't just increase the price. She should have caught it the first time. Sounds like she's more worried about making a quick buck aka her commision versus doing her job to keep her customers.

 

[tevagirl]

I don't watch movies or read books unless there is a happy ending....I can't wait to hear the end of this one! Good luck on Monday.....I'll be "staying tuned!"