Poor service from Viking Travel Inc: I called Viking Travel and spent a half hour describing what I would like in a tour of Alaska's Inside Passage. I didn't hear back from Viking Travel for a week. I sent an email to follow up and the agent responded that she'd "lost her notes" and asked me to tell her again what we wanted to do. I did so in a lengthy email. I received a suggested itinerary from the agent but her email was addressed to "Dear (blank)". The itinerary was bare bones and didn't identify any lodging or tour providers. For the first time I was asked for a $50 deposit per person for "further customization". Given the carelessness of the agency I decided to explore options on my own. My traveling companion did send the $50 to Viking. The agent sent an email to my travel buddy at the wrong email address and by copy to me demanded $50 from me before proceeding. By this point I had no trust in the agency's reliability and we asked for a refund before any "customization" was done. The agency flatly refused. So we are out $50 and received no value for it. The good news is I did the work myself and for $1,804 per person for a fifteen-day trip I booked airfare from the east coast (Boston and Raleigh are our departure points) to Ketchikan, the Alaska Ferry to Juneau with an outside cabin, airfare to Gustavus/Glacier Bay, a day cruise on Glacier Bay, airfare to Sitka from Gustavus/Glacier Bay, airfare home from Sitka, and all of our accommodations in Ketchikan, Juneau, Glacier Bay, and Sitka.

IMO, you should have done the "by myself" routine after you wrote a letter to the company pointing out the carelessness of the agent.

I once had a travel agent tell me that Vancouver and Seattle were in different time zones and I was immediately out the door.

Well the only way travel agents make money is to charge the customers. Some have a small up front charge as earnest money - in case the person is one who cancels or changes plans only.

Obviously this agent was incompetent and as soon as she said she lost the notes I would have found another if you really wanted an agent. But the agent was also remiss in not explaining their fees up front.

IMHO I wold dispute the $50 charge with your friend's CC company - but really it's a very small amount to find out this agent is useless - rather than the experience of some here who have agents screw up their entire trip.

Why are you surprised someone wants to get paid to do work for you? You act like it's unusual to ask for money to do something for someone. Why should they work for free? You clearly state that they gave you a bare bones itinerary and asked for a $50 deposit to do more. What's wrong with that? That is barely one hour of work by my standards (many professionals charge much more than $50 an hour, heck, my handyman charges $75).

sure, the agent is incompetent in details re emails, etc. but yiou are confusing two things. Travel agents have a right to ask for money to do something for you.

You aren't out any money at all as you never paid anything, I don't think your friend can dispute anything if the travel agent did something for her (it isn't clear). But if you are traveling together and the agent didn't want to proceed with an itinerary for two people without both paying their deposits, then she should cancel and try to get a refund.

<Why are you surprised someone wants to get paid to do work for you? You act like it's unusual to ask for money to do something for someone. Why should they work for free? >

This.

OP won't see your responses -- registered and is now hopping around the interweb looking for more sites to post/rant . . . .