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

[Grumbo]

Not going to flame you Doc but don't really agree.
I think that the OP got a bill that was a grand more than she had anticipated and tried to find out why the change in amounts.
Now her agent (who you point out is working for the OP) was busy with other things.
Things have to be prioritized in business but just because you have already got your commission doesn't make the OP any less important than possible new customers. She wouldn't return the calls to the OP.
I guess my concern, or complaint would be the attitude and lack of interest in this by the TA. If she had at least called back in a timely fashion much of this would have not occurred but she gets P.O.'d at the OP and tears a strip off of her.
If it was DCLs fault they bear some responsibility BUT seeing as the TA is the one making the commission then it now becomes HER fault. It is HER job to make it right and should have noticed and looked after it. Sure she may be busy but this imho wasn't a huge job to straighten it out. The OP couldn't as she was not allowed to get this info as AAA had her ressie.

I've experienced problems with DCL and know that they are not the most forthcoming when trying to straighten out their mistakes with the TA but imho the TA was the one that could have smoothed the waters immediately with a 5 minute phone call to the OP (or looked at the paperwork before she sent it out) but dropped the ball.
As for apologizing to the TA???
Not in this lifetime!! It is she that owes the OP an abject apology (and believe she has already) and she may have had a bad day but thats what she gets paid for. The OP did nothing wrong imho.

God long post. Anyway hopefully it will all be rectified and needless to say I'd never use that TA and be reticent about AAA from this story.

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[mmouse37]

Doc...some good points....

MJ

 

[wide awake]

Have to agree with Grumbo. The TA dropped the ball and did nothing to fix it. I am so tired of lousy customer service, and people whining that they don't know what to do, that it is someone else's job...when the TA accepted the commission she accepted the responsibility. In this TA's position I would be apologizing profusely to the OP, AND refunding my commission back to the client.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by Grumbo
As for apologizing to the TA???
Not in this lifetime!! It is she that owes the OP an abject apology (and believe she has already) and she may have had a bad day but thats what she gets paid for. The OP did nothing wrong imho.
Cheers,
Grumbo

I agree with Grumbo. The fact that the TA has a problem with attention to detail is not the OPs problem. Part of her job is attention to the detail of each customer's needs. She/He should be giving 100%, not 99%.

 

[gweeptrish]

Sorry, Doctor P, I really have to disagree with you.

The TA was in the wrong, plain and simple. Maybe not before she yelled at the customer, but certainly after yelling at the customer.

I have worked with TAs regularly. I would never consider doing business with one that I had to "plant myself in their office" in order to get reasonable service. In fact, I've never met any of my TAs in person. All transactions are handled by them, over the phone or email in a calm, professional manner, even the times that I've been frantic over mistakes.

 

[DMS_cruisers04]

Have to agree with Grumbo on this one. (did I just say that out load )
The pricing mistake was obviously DCL's, from what we've found out now, but this WHOLE problem is the TA's FAULT. If it's an unreasonable expectation that a person's TA reconcile their file with any confirmations that arise, then what exactly is their job? Didn't you say

Agent means that the person works on your behalf

And saying Cindy (the OP) was impatient because the TA was supposedly busy, or that she was being unreasonable because it was a holiday weekend is completely wrong. The TA should have known prior to any of this that the price of the cruise would never have increased by that type of amount, and had the TA made that lengthy two-minute call, as this was all it took from what we've found out, before she ever just charged an additional $1010.52, there would not have been a problem.

As Grumbo stated

As for apologizing to the TA??? Not in this lifetime!!

At this point explaining to someone how they ought to be doing their job is irrelevant. The TA should be happy with the fact that Cindy is willing to even keep her booking with her agency.

 

[invaderzim]

Apologize, Doc??? I don't think so. It's already all been said by Grumbo and others, but she dropped the ball big time and then to get mad at the OP is totally out of line.

BOTTOM LINE: If she were doing her job properly and paying attention, that invoice should have never gone out the OP with that extra $1,000!! A good TA would have caught that for her client and looked into it! PERIOD. She did not do her job, and that is what she gets paid for!

 

[Stepharoonie!]

Originally posted by CRSNDSNY
I agree with Grumbo. The fact that the TA has a problem with attention to detail is not the OPs problem. Part of her job is attention to the detail of each customer's needs. She/He should be giving 100%, not 99%.

 

[seaulater]

Doc....I have never "planted" myself in any TA's office. My time is worth alot more than wasting my time doing that!

Ditto to Grumbo....TA better start grovelling BIG TIME!

 

[jova]

Sorry Doc, I would tend to give the TA the benefit of the doubt if the wrong statement she sent Cindy (increased by $1000, with increase circled by TA to bring it to Cindy's attention) was the ONLY statement she received from DCL. But, the TA told Cindy she had received 2 statements via fax. Which one did she send to Cindy without explanation? Maybe you should reread the thread from the beginning to get a feeling of how unnecessarily frustrated Cindy was. If the TA only had the one statement and sent that, it would have been an honest mistake, but if you have two statements in your hand with different amounts due, why wouldn't you investigate it before sending it out to your client?? In this computer age where it is easy enough to do your own bookings for everything, the only reason to use a TA is to save extra money, if your TA is not watching your back, what is the purpose of using one? Just my opinion, not flaming you, Doc, for yours!

 

[floridaminnie]

The TA is paid through commission so I don't have to wastme my time fixing problems...And even if she was busy, that is one of the biggest NO NO's to say to a customer. Instead of yelling at the OP, the TA should have fixed the prob with a quick phone call.

 

[Amberle3]

Sorry Doc, gotta disagree with you.

I'm a TA, and I can tell you that if I got an invoice from a vendor that was more than the contracted price, I'd be on the phone with them faster than you can say "what the....?"

A cruise line just does not increase pricing like that once a deposit is paid. That should have been a huge red flag for the agent, and the fact that she didn't pick up on it reeks of incompetence.

Also, if for whatever reason the price really had increased so dramatically, DCL (or any vendor) would have allowed the client to cancel without penalty. Instead of simply sending a new invoice, the TA (after verifying the new pricing with DCL) should have called Cindy and explained the situation. She should not just have assumed that the new pricing was okay and sent an invoice.

The fact that she's busy just prior to a holiday weekend - well frankly most agencies were dead slow that week. It's always that way before a holiday. It could be that hers was an exception and she was remarkably busy - in which case she should be thankful that she has enough business to keep her busy and and she should be treating her clients with respect. Yelling at them is not acting professionally in any way whatsoever.

In addition to being a TA, I also own my agency. And if that TA worked for me I'd either be having a serious talk with her or she'd be looking for a new job.

So yes, the initial error was DCL's no doubt about that. And you're right, the agent is supposed to act as an intermediary between the client and the vendor. But this TA didn't do that - she didn't do anything a fax maching couldn't have been used for. The TA should have handled it before contacting Cindy at all - she should have questioned and verified the pricing BEFOREhand - and even then she should have phoned Cindy instead of sending the invoice.

And no, this isn't a complex inquiry. It consists of "Hi, this is <name> from <agency> calling - I just received an statement regarding booking # <whatever> showing a higher price than the client was booked at. I'm sure this is an error, can you look up the file and tell me what's going on? Thanks." That's all it would have taken to resolve it as soon as the error was discovered. Cindy shouldn't have been involved at all, she shouldn't have even known there was an error in the first place.

 

[Doctor P]

I think that we are all interpreting the facts a little differently, and perhaps I am wrong in my interpretation. As I understand it, the travel agent got a fax back from DCL that showed the payment and the remaining balance. The travel agent circled the remaining balance and sent it on to the client. As I understand it, there was no red flag that indicated that there was a price increase--that only came from the OP noticing that the remaining balance was off of what they had calculated (BTW, what is lost in this whole discussion is that there WAS an increase in the price of the cruise and there WAS a remaining balance that the OP DID owe, albeit a very small one). I would be extremely surprised if all, or even most, travel agents check the client's balance on every document they get from the travel provider against their firm's records. Maybe the agent should have done so, but it was certainly not a fatal (or terribly rash) mistake, IMHO. IMHO, as soon as you contact the travel agent, you must have patience to allow them to try to resolve the issue. IMHO, you have truly insulted the professional by not allowing them a reasonable chance to resolve the issue. For example, let's say that you are buying a house and there is some confusion over the purchase and sale agreement that may mean paying more money than you thought you were going to owe. You ask your lawyer to look into the issue. After three hours, the lawyer has not called you back and when you call the lawyer is either in court or in with another client. So, you decide to take things into your own hands and call the county and call the seller's attorney on your own. If I were your lawyer, I would give you a stern, but polite, talking to and ask why you even brought me into the issue if you weren't going to allow me to do my job. A couple days is certainly not unreasonable to give the TA, IMHO, as we are not even close to the 60 day penalty period yet on this cruise. I refuse to believe that there is anyone that has not been in a situation where you were asked to take care of something and were actually working on it when the person who asked you to do it just got impatient and went behind your back to do it themselves and you got upset because they asked you to do it and you were taking care of it but not with the immediacy they wanted. IMHO, that is PART of the situation here and I understand why the TA might be upset. The good news is that the OP's problem with respect to the additional money has been solved, and for that I am very happy!

 

[invaderzim]

Originally posted by Doctor P
As I understand it, there was no red flag that indicated that there was a price increase--that only came from the OP noticing that the remaining balance was off of what they had calculated

But, Doc, that's the point -- there WAS a red flag -- the TA admitted to Cindy that she had received TWO invoices from DCL that very day -- one correct and one incorrect -- and sent Cindy the incorrect one with the increase circled without bothering to question why there was a difference at all!!!!!

 

[nuke]

Doc,
While as a TA I appreciate you taking up the fight for us, the TA in this instance was wrong. Any fax confirmation that I get from a tour operator is checked over against the client file. If there are discrepencies they are handled with the tour operator before the client knows about it. The only time I would go to a client is after all avenues are exhausted with the tour operator. A client uses a TA to avoid the hassles of dealing with the tour operators.

I understand that agents are busy but there is no excuse for poor customer service.

 

[Amberle3]

Sorry again Doc, that's just not the way it goes. In fact is is the TA's responsibility to make sure that the documents are in order before sending anything to the client. That means that yes, she should have checked the balance against the previous statements from DCL.

It's standard proceedure. It gets done with every client, and every vendor. Not to do so is negligence, because if there's a discrepency then the best chance of correcting it is right then, not 3 months down the road.

Aside from that, the problem with response time from the TA is this: Cindy was able to call and get an answer from DCL in the same phone call. The TA should at least have able to get that information, even if she wasn't able to get an explanation for why it had ever shown an increase in the first place.

All Cindy did was phone the TA and tell her what she found out, and tell her that she expected the situation to be resolved that day. Not unreasonable.

Also, the TA did have a couple of days to look into the problem. She would have gotten the fax from DCL on Monday or Tuesday, she had until Friday when Cindy called to look into it. She should have called DCL as soon as she got the fax, not when the client called to question the discrepency.

Assuming for the moment that the TA had no responsibility to check the documents she sent out (which she does), then what should have happened is this:
- she calls DCL, is told there is no price increase and they'll look into why it was shown on the fax.
- she calls Cindy and says Don't worry, I'm on top of it. DCL is looking into it but has confirmed the price hasn't increased. Have yourself a good weekend.

And boom, Cindy's happy that her TA is looking after her, the TA is doing her job, and everyone's happy. Cindy might even have posted here saying "Hey, my TA is great". But that didn't happen.

The value of a TA isn't in if they can book an airline seat for you and then forget you. The value of a TA is if they'll stand up for you when something goes wrong. Well something went wrong, and the real problem is that the TA didn't notice.

If you book airfare through the TA and they forward information from the airline to you and you notice it's for the wrong days - wouldn't you expect that the TA should have caught that? If you're supposed to be going to Miami Florida and your hotel confirmation is for Miami, Manitoba, shouldn't your TA catch that too? THAT is why you hire a TA. And any TA that doesn't pay attention to detail is just simply not doing their job.

 

[izzinmac]

I think this horse has been pretty well flogged to death!

Thanks Cindy for sharing your plight and thanks Doc for taking the minority position. May have been brutal for you, but a very lively and enlightening exchange.

Just a few thoughts from a consumer perspective, not a TA. It seems to me the crux of Doc's argument was that the TA's actions were adequate. Unfortunately, "adequate" doesn't cut it in a highly competitive service oriented business these days. Don't know how competitive the TA business is, but my God we have one in every strip mall in town!!! I do have family members in food service management and you had better satisfy the customer or die! As soon as this TA, no matter what stage this thing had reached, realized her customer was stressed, it was time for extraordinary action!

I use DU for my cruises precisely because I get that kind of action. Great price, but let their sevice falter and "Adios, Amigo!" Until then, they are my first choice ... but I am also on All Seasons mailing list! I would never use AAA for a Disney vacation - not because of this thread, but because there are "specialists" like DU and All Seasons who really know their specialized area. Love AAA for their towing and maps...worth every dollar of dues. But I will leave the traveling arrangements to experts.

 

[cindy21494]

Amberle3, I couldn't have explained it better. Were you listening in on my phone calls?

I really don't want to explain what happened all over again or explain my actions. I'm just happy that it was a simple problem and that it is now fixed. I can now look forward to our vacation, and meeting some of the people on these boards.

Thanks everyone.

Cindy

 

[Grumbo]

izzinmac said...

Love AAA for their towing and maps

Hey have you tried D.U.'s 24 hour towing???
Their maps aren't bad either

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[vossjemi]

What is an OP?