Grand Circle Travel Warning
 

This is a warning for anyone thinking about booking with Grand Circle Travel. To make a loooong story short, I called GCT in the Fall & booked a river cruise with them. I had already checked with a couple of other river barge lines, but they were sold out for the week we could travel. The GCT agent I talked to said I had until Jan. 2006 to cancel. With that I decided I better book right then, because I had a few months to cancel if need be and the other cruise lines were already booked up. I also purchased the trip insurance.

A few weeks after I booked, medical issues came up with a couple of relatives. With that I figured since I didn't know what would happen in each case, I better cancel. I got in touch with GCT, but they would not refund all my money. They said their refund policy is on their website & in their brochure, and that is correct. However, the GCT agent I talked to didn't mention anything about their cancelation policy, just that I had until Jan. 2006 to cancel. At that point I had not checked their website (since I had just made the call)nor had I received their brochure (since I just made the reservation). I assumed as long as I cancelled by the given date I would get my money refunded. WRONG!

Also, another poster mentioned that GCT is no longer (I did not check that situation today, but I know it was true not too long ago) on the Boston BBB list of good businesses.

Would this be your first tour with GCT?

Not only GCT, but EVERY tour company requires a non-refundable deposit and have a schedule of refunds.

Did the agent tell you there wouldn't be any fees involved if you cancelled by Jan.? If so, I think you have a legitimate complaint.

Certainly the agent should have explained the cancellation policy but I have found if you don't ask for specifics they might not bother to tell you!

FainaAgain - Yes, this was my first booking (and last) with GCT. I know, now, about the non-refundable policy, however, the agent didn't mention it at the time of my booking. He just said I had until Jan. 26th (I think the date was), 2006 to cancel. Had he mentioned anything about the refund policy at the time of the booking, I would not have been so quick to book. I had actually just called for information on the GCT river barge cruises, but when he mentioned the cancellation date (only), I figured I should book the trip since the other companies I checked into had no space available for the week we could travel.

Katybird - No, the agent said nothing about any fees involved for a cancelation or else I wouldn't have booked at the time of my call. He just said I had until Jan. to cancel the reservation.

ehc: I have never heard of any travel tour companies that let you cancel months after you book without a penalty.

Is this the first tour you ever took?

By the time you wanted to cancel I am sure you had received travel information booklet that states the cancellation policy.

I don't beleive you have a valid case.

Mike

Agree with Mike. You have to find out the rules BEFORE you book. Ask the questions and get the answers. It might be worth mentioning that GTC does not use travel agents but only their own agents ... thus you have no ability to sit down with a local person that knows all the rules and can guide you. That is why you are often better off to use a live, local, good travel agent.

I hope your relatives have recovered - if they were immediate relatives and illness was serious enough, many trip cancellation policies would have covered this.

I think your warning might better be applied to any travel purchases. It is the nature of the industry - whether it be hotels, air, packages, tours - that there are a wide variety of cancellation policies out there. Everything from non-refundable airfares to auto rentals where they don't even take a credit card to reserve and charge you nothing to cancel.

Buyer beware. There was a poster here some months ago complaining about a refund (or not) policy at a B&B. It is the travelers responsibility to be fully aware of what the specifics of a cancellation policy is before booking.

I don't think it's reasonable to blame GCT. When I asked for information about a Christmas cruise the pamphlet I was sent made the cancellation policy very clear and also described GCT's own cancellation insurance. The company's web site also has a section on trip cancellation.

You said that GCT would not "refund all my money." How much did you get back? If you cancelled only a few weeks after you booked the trip and that was within a few months, the refund should have been substantial.

Mike - Yes, this was my first trip with a tour company. I had not yet received any travel brochures or information when I cancelled the trip since it was very shortly after I booked the reservations that I decided I had better cancel.

Curt - I didn't ask anymore questions regarding a cancellation policy because the GCT agent told me I had until Jan. to cancel. Come Jan., and the "deadline" to cancel I would have then received the travel brochures stating GCT's cancellation policy. At the point I booked, I naively thought I had until Jan. to make a final decision.

ehc: If you don't mind how much was the trip and how much did you lose? Also why did you wait so long to post this? Also I'm sorry you had to learn this the hard way.

I believe there are several companies that let you cancel, for any reason, and get a full refund. We always travel with Tauck and you can cancel at the last moment, with no problem.

Fron Tauck's website:

<i>Cancellations Fees – Regardless of reason, cancellations result in costly charges from our travel and hotel providers covering penalties and fees incurred by canceling confirmed bookings. Therefore, cancellation penalties and or fees will apply. Time of cancellation will be when notice is received in our Norwalk, CT office.

Guests choosing to purchase Tauck’s Guest Protection or Cancellation Fee Waiver will have cancellation penalties waived. Click here for more details.

Guests choosing not to purchase Tauck’s Guest Protection or Cancellation Fee Waiver will incur cancellation penalties per person as follows:

60 days or more before departure
$600 per person

59-8 days before departure
$950 per person

7-1 days before departure
$1500 per person</i>

ehc - how did you learn about GCT - I mean, get their phone number and know that they had the kind of tour you were interested in taking?

to make a long story short, we are now in the process of trying to get some satisfaction from GCT involving the non river cruise from hell we finished on May 14. We were given no information about possible deviations planned due to Danube river flooding, and, in fact, when we (many of us) called ahead to see what was going to happen, we were told that all was well, no changes in the ininery and no, we could not cancel due to weather. The trip they provided was terrible...many elderly people who could and did not tolerate the 12 hour bus trips (4 busses) all over Eastern Europe, with no rest stops, toilets (except an occasional 'benjo'), poor food, etc. One man developed a 'thrombosis' in his leg, and others just had to 'tough it out' with serious diarehha (meaning wearing diapers on the bus) as they wouldn't stop for anything. We called them long distance from Rormania to see what the heck was going on and were told they would 'get back to us'....never did, and we knew nothing day to day, as the plans changed, the hotels were changed, and we rode on and on in the backwaters of Eastern Europe. No, they won't even refund the 'port' charges, and 'fuel' surcharges we paid.
They haven't heard the last from us.!!!

Yes, this is the downside of the tours - once you paid, you are at the mercy of the LOCAL tour companies, not even the company you paid to.

And if you made reservations using a travel agent, they will ping-pong you: this is agent's fault, no, this is tour's fault.

And then the small print... not responsible for anything!

Although I haven't been in really awful situations, it can happen to everyone.

Right now there is a post on the European forum: somebody wants to take a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Italy, and the main sight of her dream is closed the day it's scheduled, and she can't change the flight reservations to go there a day early.

Yes, bad things do happen to good people and sorry it happened to you.

Did you just pay a deposit on the trip or for the entire trip?

ehc,

Did you buy trip insurance? It's worth its weight in gold! My husband had to visit the ship's infirmary on our cruise last month, &amp; they paid the entire bill. We buy insurance through Access America.

SueR.....Thats exactly what this month's Ombudsman is about...A couple had to go to the ships Doc and when the left the ship, they thought they had paid their bill in full.But the company(HA)sent them a bill of almost $1,500 for the Doc visit and infirmary stay.They had not taken out travel insurance and had to cough up the money.

If you need more convincing, go to this site to see some of the constant lack of customer service and mix ups, and possible intentional fraud that others have described.
www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/grand_circle.html

Anyone can post anything on the internet...there's no way of knowing what actually happened.

Quite a few of the unfortunate happenings would have been taken care of had people purchased good trip insurance.

I have never booked a cruise through GCT but am very used to booking cruises and in most cases (in all of my cases), one would have a full refund up until 75 days out or so. So, I don't think it is wrong for the original poster to believe what the booking agent said over the phone.

Several years ago - there was a lot of bad press about GCT tours. Many people booked a cruise of a lifetime with them (sorry, don't remember the destination) and when they went to make final payment, GCT raised the price of the cruise significantly and would not honor the price they were quoted when they booked the cruise. Then, people had a difficult time getting their deposit back. It was ugly and there were several people who were affected by this. The story left a bad taste in my mouth for the company.

Ehc - good luck on this. Maybe contact your credit card company and see if they will retract the charges. Not sure if they will but it may be worth a try.

please read the following quote from consumerreports re Grand Circle and you will see that their troubles and attitude are not new.
&quot;Best advice, try to learn something about the company you are about to do business with. I did recently and learned that Grand Circle had their membership in the Better Business Bureau of Massachusetts revoked on 10/27/05 because they did not “make diligent efforts to eliminate causes of customer complaints.” They have had over 100 complaints filed with the BBB. Furthermore, the Attorney General of Massachusetts recovered over $100,000.00 for Grand Circle Passengers for Sept. 11 post trip cancellations that Grand Circle had refused to refund. Let that be fair warning.&quot;

Booked a trip with OAT/GC to Thailand. The lady on the phone told me I had two weeks to decide whether to take their insurance or not. I called back a couple of days later, and said I wanted the insurance. I was told, No, that wasn`t possible, and she was quite nasty about it. Said you had to take the insurance at the time of booking, and the nice agent I had originally booked with, would be reprimmanded. I did get my insurance through insuremytrip.com at a much better price, and am now glad I didn`t take OAT/GC insurance.

Do you mean the magazine &quot;Consumer Reports&quot; or something else? I read the magazine from cover to cover and don't recall anything about GCT.

What issue of that mag? What month and yr.?

To clarify I meant that for Cindi.

I subscribe to Consumer Reports on line - www.consumerreports.org - I just looked at it and there was quite a bit of cruise info from 1/05; you may be able to access it without subscribing.

We have taken 6 trips with Grand Circle and have been totally satisfied. Grand Circle has an amazing number of repeat travellers. Let's hear from them.

Jack and Ann

My sister has traveled with GCT the past few summers and has LOVED her trips. She is taking a 17 day Eastern European trip with them this summer.
There are always going to be problems and complaints. As stated before, read all materials carefully and know what you're getting into.
By the way, if you have an American Express card, they sell travel insurance that is quite good.

My experience with GCT last December (Danube Christmas Markets) was outstanding. My three friends on the cruise were on their third and fifth trips with GCT and had only praise.

Suffice it to say that GCT has done some good trips...we have taken some of them, but there were no issues or problems. One thing, the &quot;excursions' are mostly optional now, and the cost of that raises the total. But our complaint is how they mishandle problems, and customer service. Also, they add charges after you have paid what you thought was the 'total' and their business practices have been seriously in question for a long time, not only with the Better Business Bureau but in courts of law. Search on 'consumeraffairs.com' and BBB under 'complaints against Grand Circle' before you judge. It is very enlightening and we wish we had this information before we embarked on the last trip which was very flawed. It pays to be informed...that has been our 'lesson learned'.

On 10/27/05 Grand Circle’s membership in the Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Massachusetts, Maine &amp; Vermont was revoked by the BBB due to violation of BBB Standard of Membership &quot;Make diligent efforts to eliminate the underlying cause(s) of any pattern(s) or trend(s) of customer complaints which the Bureau may call to the company's attention.&quot; Based on BBB files this company has a pattern of complaints concerning contract issues.

Consumers state that they purchase vacations advertised with specific amenities and itineraries. Consumers state that they are not kept informed of changes made to trips until days before departing or sometimes changes are made while on the trip. Consumers state that the amenities, activities and locations of the hotels are not what was advertised and that adequate substitutions are not made. Consumers state that they are unable to receive refunds or reimbursements from the company. Consumers state that they are dissatisfied with the level of customer service they have received trying to find resolution to these issues

I looked at the consumer affairs site you posted, and the home page states that the site is supported entirely by advertising. That's not what I'd consider a neutral consumer advocate.

Underhill...the posts therein are from real people with real problems and bad experiences....we can't all be wrong. Check out also frommers boards...and search on grand circle. Complaints go on for miles.

We love GCT and OAT trips with no complaints. We will be going on our 7th trip next summer. Many passengers on these various trips are repeaters. A loyal fan of GCT &amp; OAT.

See this thread about my problems with OAT:http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34546783

I'm not interested in checking out other boards, but I still want to know what's going on with your class-action lawsuit. You haven't mentioned it for a while.

wow~! There must be something radically wrong with this company to engender such strong emotions..both ways. The mark of a good tour company is how they handle difficulties, and I understand from what I read, that GCT doesn't do a very good job at that.

On the contrary--from what I can tell there are only a few people who consistently post bashes about GCT. Those of us who have had only good experiences keep asking what has happened with the threatened lawsuits, only to receive no response.

BTW, when you call GCT to inquire about cruises your call is recorded. It should be easy, therefore, to find out what a sales agent actually told someone.

How do you know that it is recorded? Do you have inside information? Do you work for them? Some folks on cruisecritic and frommers have complained rather loudly and have money returned to them from their credit card companies.