Are we being scammed by Grand Circle Tours?
 

On Jan. 2, I persuaded 2 other couples to book a cruise-tour on the Paul Gaugin Tahiti cruise for June 2. We had seen the price for this date on the GCT website, and called on Jan. 2 and confirmed the booking at this price. Several days later, we received letters of confirmation for the cruise at the stated price. Several weeks ago, we received detailed travel books with the detailed pricing, which stated the confirmed price less the deposit. Today, we received invoices for the remaining amount, due March 4, again for the confirmed price.
When one of the couples called this afternoon to pay off the amount on their credit card, they were told they still owed an additional $1400! When they argued this was the confirmed price, they were told "it must have been a mistake" and now the price was an additional $1400! And this was the day the invoice was received. We have a printout of the webpage with the original price dated Jan. 1, and numerous letters from GCT stating the confirmed price. Now they're trying to ask for more.
Needless to say, we're all extremely upset, and will not be able to take the trip at this increased cost. Plus, we're all out travel insurance and a non-refundable fee of $125 per person if we can't afford this supposed new cost. Any advice out there? Unfortunately, this has really put a sour taste in our mouths for GCT, and we had already been looking at some other trips for the future. Talk about customer no-service!

Hagan, it does indeed sound like you're getting scammed or someone really screwed up. I'm not familiar with Grand Circle Tours or their reputation. The only thing I do know is that when it comes to booking luxury cruises such as Radisson, it really pays to ALWAYS go with a TA who deals exlusively with the luxury cruise lines and never go with a TA who deals with a large gambit of cruise lines. We learned this the hard way and now deal only with an agent who really knows her product and personally knows the higher-ups who can make things happen. I hope everything works out for you on the PG, it is an amazing experience. Good luck and let us know the outcome.

Talk to your attorney, with all of your paperwork in hand

NewYorkGolfer,
We booked directly with the company, GTC, which was offering the tour package. The price includes air from LA and 2 nights at a Radisson hotel pre-cruise, plus the cruise. GTC is now a part owner of the Paul Gaugin and gets a share of the cabins to do their own packages. We've never dealt with a tour company before, always have done our own independent travel, but Grand Circle has been around for years. And I really thought they had a good reputation. I'll keep you posted.

We have travelled four times with Grand Circle, and have two more trips booked and paid for. There have been occasional billing errors, but, in every case, they have been promptly corrected. As they rely heavily on repeat customers and word of mouth, I have a hard time believing that they would not correct this. From my experience, they keep a detailed log on all customer contacts. Call again and ask to talk to a supervisor to get this straighted out. Please let the participants of this forum know how you make out, one way or the other. If you get no satisfaction, you may want to try to get the Ombudsman in Cande Naste Traveller to intercede for you.

Hagan, as I said on the other board, this is unfortunate..try going direct to the leadership of GCT (alan and Harriet lewis) [email protected] (guess).
However, as you read some of the posts below, there appears to be a pattern.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/grand_circle.html

We've traveled with OAT a few times (GCT is their parent company) and the customer service is really--really bad. I paid our bill for our 2004 trip in full when I booked the trip (10 months prior to departure date). I was issued a refund because the price quoted over the phone was wrong, 5 months later was issued another refund, then one week after the 2nd refund they sent a bill. When I called to find out why a bill was sent I was told it was because there was a balance due. It made no difference that my invoices all said there was no balance due (There was not an increase in taxes etc. which can add to the amount due). I ended up suggesting that their accounting department be required to attend some continuing ed. so they could learn how to add and subtract.
I wish you luck.
P.S. We travel with OAT because their trips are wonderful. We've already booked our 2005 trip--so far no customer service problems!

Well.........are you ready for the end (probably) of the story?

This morning, the 2nd couple we're traveling with called GCT to verify the correct cost of the remaining balance, and were told the amount they have on their final invoice. They asked "Now this is the correct amount we owe?" They were told yes. So, they paid the balance off with their credit card. They called me and said everything's right, there's no increase in the cost, the first couple must have talked to someone who wasn't looking at the right invoice. Great. So I filled out the credit authorization form and prepared the envelope to go out in tomorrow's mail, as did the first couple.

Late this afternoon, I got a call from the Director of Public Relations at GCT, who said she'd been informed of this thread on the Cruisecritic website. And Yes, she was sorry to inform me that the invoice price WAS incorrect, that the corrected price was going to be $1400 more per couple. But, if we didn't want to take the new price, they were offering a full refund, including the $125 per person penalty normally charged. She was sorry but she couldn't do anything about the trip insurance we had taken privately, but had we taken it through them we would have gotten that back too.

I told her that our friends had just called in and charged the invoice amount this morning, so how could this be? She was surprised and said she'd check into it and call me back, which she did promptly. It seems it was STILL wrong in the computer today. I questioned why this didn't turn up earlier, and she said they just discovered the error Jan. 27. Then how did we receive an invoice dated Feb. 3 with the still-wrong amount on it? Apologies again, and she said this was "a very rare occurence". Apparently, the incorrect price was on the website and given to the agents, but the "correct" price was in the catalogues. She said letters would be sent out next week to those whose invoices were incorrect.
I questioned these business practices, as we used to own our own business, and if we made a mistake and undercharged a customer, we stood by the price and ate the loss for the goodwill of the business. But this is their policy, and it is in their fine print.
So, I guess the lesson learned is, read every word of the fine print, and consider the absolutely worst-case scenario that could happen. If you can't live with it, dont' even consider it.

I agree, if they make a mistake, they should eat it.

At most, they should let you cancel with out the penalty and pay you the cost of insurance.

What a pain!