Problem with Travel Agent 5 days before trip!!!!

[julia & nicks mom]

Well Good morning everyone.

Let me first thank everyone for their support and suggestion. It really helped me out last night when I was feeling so stressed out over this situation.

I really do appreciate it.

When my husband came home last night we discussed all this and decided we would wait to hear what the travel agent had to say to us in the morning.

If it wasn't a good resolution we were prepared to come to a comprise of paying half of this after we returned from our trip. We did feel that we were expecting the trip to cost more so it wouldn't kill us to come to some sort of comprise. The only thing that really bothered us about this was the way the TA was speaking to me.

She was trying so hard to blame us for this mistake and not take any of the responsibility herself. That is what really urked me. As well as her waiting to notify me of this problem five days prior to our depature.

So I came into work this morning waiting to see if she had replied. I open my mail box and there is an e-mail from the travel agent waiting for me.

She was pretty rude once again and didn't take any of the blame but she did concede. She is going to take the loss!!!!!! She said she is very very disappointed after all the wonderful service she had provided me but is agreeing to count this as a loss. She said she could pursue this but she won't.

I wanted to laugh so hard. GREAT SERVICE????? I highly doubt that. She has made so many mistakes with this trip it is unbelievable. I have had to contact her numerous times to have her correct things. She left children off the packages, duplicated names, and never informed me of the discount that was being offered. I had to research that and notify her. To this day I still don't have DME tags. (I won't worry about these anymore because as everyone is saying I will be fine.)

I am so glad this is over. I am still a little nervous about what may happen when we get to Disney but I will try not to worry. Just hope she doesn't do anything spiteful.

Again, Thank you everyone for your suggestions and words of encouragement. I so appreciated them.

Have a wonderful day!!!!!

I am so glad this worked out for you - when you get home - I would send a letter to her supervisors - she obviously knows she doesn't have a leg to stand on or she wouldn't let it go!!

Although - you may just want to let it go now

 

[mistydoodles]

I am so glad this worked out for you - when you get home - I would send a letter to her supervisors - she obviously knows she doesn't have a leg to stand on or she wouldn't let it go!!

Although - you may just want to let it go now

I am so letting it go. I was going to reply to her e-mail but decided to just let it be. She is taking the loss and that is good for me.

 

[mistydoodles]

Don't be nervous at all about what 'might' happen. Just make sure you bring all of your paperwork, and I would include with it a copy of the e-mail where the TA says she is conceding the difference. Bring the TA's phone number as well, just in case there is an issue at check-in...but I honestly think you'll sail right through it without an issue.

Have a great trip!

I will be sure to do that. Thanks for the tip!!

 

[Laurabearz]

I am very happy to read things have worked out. I would also write a lovely letter detailing everything and send it to her supervisors... In fact, I would mail it from the MK on the last day. LOL

Have a great trip!

 

[princesstommi]

I am very happy to read things have worked out. I would also write a lovely letter detailing everything and send it to her supervisors... In fact, I would mail it from the MK on the last day. LOL

LOL. I was also going to suggest writing a letter documenting your disappointment with your experience after you got home, send it to her the location manager and the home office.

I'm glad things are resolved, have a fantastic trip!

 

[nowellsl]

Great that she backed down! I wouldn't complain too much if it were me. Think of it as getting a $1,300 bonus for your aggrevation!

 

[TinkerbellMama]

In her mind, she probably thinks since she spent so much time correcting her errors, she "gave you great service". Doesn't some people's level of delusion just boggle your mind?

You know what, my midwife (who provided my prenatal care) is the same way!!! She made so many errors with my insurance billing that the insurance company has had specialist after specialist helping me appeal it for more than a year now. She also screwed up somewhat just before the birth of my son, with bad advice and not really telling me what was going on when I needed to transfer to the hospital and have a c-section. In her mind, though, she was giving me great service just because she was doing so much work. If she was competent, she wouldn't have needed to do so much work!! I just hate that kind of thinking. Her communication was extremely poor about the insurance thing and that made me even madder. Last straw was, the insurance company sent her a check in October, and she called to tell me it had arrived and she would cash it and send us the money (we had paid her out of pocket more than a year ago!!!)...we waited...nothing...3 weeks later we had a check from the insurance company directly, and we thought maybe she asked them to send it straight to us. Then I get a nasty e-mail from her asking why we don't trust her and why did we have the check canceled, it bounced in her account, we should have waited for her to send us the money. First of all, we didn't cancel the check...the insurance company did, and they confirmed to me that I would have NO AUTHORITY to do so even if I wanted to. THEY issued the check, not me! Secondly, she had kept us waiting for almost a month...keeping money that did not belong to her--but apparently she thought we should keep waiting!!! Thirdly, how unprofessional to send me an e-mail like that, accusing me of not trusting her! It sounds mean, but I'm sorta glad the insurance company screwed up and canceled that check on her. Serves her right! To the OP: glad things seem to have worked out for you! Have a magical trip and don't let this meanie/incompetent TA get you down!!

 

[speakupjc]

I would suggest sending a letter to her supervisor so that she doesn't do something similar to other people. Her supervisor won't know about her past poor service if you don't inform her. I guarantee you she won't tell the supervisor. Have a great trip and I am glad that the problem was corrected in your favor.

 

[Mickeyistheman]

I do feel bad that you did have to go through this, not all travel agents are that way. Did you ever work with one before? I too must say that if you got your documents from Disney you were paid in full... NOW you should really double even triple check that you have everything that you THINK you have.
$1300 is a very large amount of money so it might be possible she did not book something that you had originally said you wanted. Especially if it is a certain type of dining plan.

I am not defending this agent but maybe she was new and since you had made a few changes that is how things got screwed up because she didn't know how to keep track of things.

I would send a letter to her supervisor though so that this does not happen again to another customer.

Have a great time in Disney

 

[dizplanner]

You know, this goes to show how you approach a problem is very important. I suspect that if she had called you and said "I am very sorry, but I made a mistake when I was calculating your final payment. It resulted in my undercharging your group by $1300 because .. (I substricted the airline tickets from the remaining balance not realizing they had already been subtracted or whatever the error was). I would be happy to send you a detailed accounting of the costs and payments for your review." At this point you would be shocked and say you don't have the money right now. She would say "I totally understand. I would be happy to work out a payment plan. Could you ... (pay half by end of December and the other half by end January or whatever)?"
You would have probably paid because 1. you had expected the bill to be higher and she would have proved you should have paid more 2. she was polite and never blamed you 3. she was flexible about getting paid. Even better if she reduced the amount you had to pay, probably having to give up some of her commissions.

However, she did not do that, got you mad and ended up having to eat all of the money. I know she felt embrassed at making the mistake and it is human nature to try and deflect, but doing so was definately the wrong thing to do and it cost her.

 

[3for Me]

I wanted to add that I would save that last e-mail she sent you - just in case! You never know if the agency may send you a little "love note" in the mail (aka - a bill) and you will need documentation IN WRITING that she is eating the mistake.

Glad it all worked out - now go enjoy your trip!

 

[ladysoleil]

I have to wonder if this is the same large travel chain in the Northeast that told me that I shouldn't cancel my WDW trip during Hurricane Charley, insisted that I wouldn't get my money back if the flights were cancelled due to weather, and finally told me that I should call Continental myself to try to change my ticket because it wasn't their problem?

(I really would not be surprised to find out it is, either).

 

[goofie4goofy]

Before you write a letter to her supervisor, there is a very important thing you need to know regarding how travel agents are paid.

A travel AGENCY (the company) will receive a check from WDW made out to the TRAVEL AGENCY company. The amount will be 10- 12% of commissioned bookings (air does not count). This check will be sent after the client has checked out of the hotel. So if your vacation cost say 4000.00 "ABC Travel" will receive a check in the amount of $400.00. Out of that $400.00 the booking agent gets a percentage of that...like 10%.

The supervisor is usually the owner/manager so the supervisor is behind this behavior as well. As the $1300.00 is mostly part of the agencies money not the booking agent's. Writing to the manager is moot. Also keep in mind that taxes are not taken out of the commission check, so at the end of the year, the owner/manager and agent has to pay taxes on commissions. So there is another chunk of change out of the comission pie.

Travel agents are all commission (with the exception a few hourly employees in some agencies...but that is rare). I would lay low, and yes them to death. A travel agency should have errors & omissions insurance which covers this kind of thing...it is not mandatory insurance, so if they don't have it they are out of luck. I think they know they don't have a case and they are trying to intimidate you int paying.

I do know for a fact, WDWTC will not ship docs until the package is paid in full. So who is actually saying you owe this money? Not WDW!

If I can give you any word of advice, it would be to not contact the supervisor, as it is mostly her money. Lay low and take your trip, yes them to death. They can't get blood from a stone...Oh yeah...DO NOT sign anything.

 

[MiknMinMouse]

I will never book through a travel agency again. I have had nothing but problems with this lady. I have had to call her numerous times about mistakes she has made. I feel that I have done most of the work on this and might as well do it myself next time. I know for sure when someone ask me about a good travel agency in our area I will be sure to tell them about the bad one!!!!!!Thanks for your support.

I think this is why when we book Disney trips we stick with our Disney Specialist agents. When I've booked a trip through Small World I've paid Disney Directly. I like that. I"m not sure if they do airfare though since we drive but I figure it's easy enough to do that on Expedia or Travelocity. I really hope all works out well for you.

 

[Mymatisse]

*deleted by mymatisse*

 

[MickeyP]

I'm so glad this was resolved BEFORE your trip. Now you can relax and enjoy it. In fact, knowing I had a $1300.00 additional discount, I would be enjoying it even more. Are you sure you don't want to tell us what agency? Better yet, what agent? I could use someone like her! Just Kidding everyone!

 

[mcorbo]

I'm not sure whether you ever got your ME tags or not but if you didn't, don't worry about it. Lots of people (like me) never received their tags and it was not a problem. Just go to the ME desk at the Orlando airport, show them your vouchers, and you'll be on your way. Anyone who stays at a WDW hotel is entitled to use the ME service, and you can easily prove that your are indeed a WDW guest.

Good luck with this, I can imagine it's adding a lot of stress that you really don't need to your pre-trip planning. But I'm sure if you follow all the excellent advice you're getting here, it will be resolved in your favour.

You do need to be registered with ME to use it. You can do this yourself at www.disneysmagicalexpress.com just to be sure.

 

[Steamboat Marti]

I am so letting it go. I was going to reply to her e-mail but decided to just let it be. She is taking the loss and that is good for me.

You can be sure I'd print that email that tells you that you are not responsible. After her previous behavior, I wouldn't trust her!!!

 

[Carrieberry]

I agree- save ALL her emails showing how rude and unprofessional she was. If they/the owner/supervisor etc decide they will not "eat the loss" and decide to come after you in the future, all you need for court is the email stating they will not hold you responsible for the mistake. That is your out. Also, all the other posters are correct, WDW will not issue docs unless it is paid for, so I am assuming the error was in fact an airline mistake in one way or another, or they just forgot to charge you for the dining even though they booked it with dining according to your docs.. No need to worry about that either since you spoke directly to the airline and verified all is well there, and your documents clearly state dining. $1300 split between 9 people (I'm sure a little more for adults and a little less for kids) is only about $144 per person so I can see how you missed it. Regardless, this was her mistake, and fixing her own mistakes does not constitute "great service". I would not bother with a letter to her supervisor, she said they would eat it, why roock the boat? For all you know SHE might be paying it out of her own pocket just so her supervisor does not find out about the whole thing. Don't sign anything, and definitely take that email with you to WDW just in case. If she changes anything without your permission I am sure there would be some sort of legal ramifications for that, whether or not she thinks you owe her money. Have a great trip and I will cross my fingers for nice weather for you (and everyone else that is going!).

 

[thelionqueen]

I would not worry at all about going. Have a great time, and eat like it's going out of style!! congrats!