I recently sent in a Quote to Cruise Compete. One agency took it upon themselves to make a booking with the Cruise Line without my permission. Does anyone beside me think this is a poor business practice. I was thinking of booking with them but because of their actions I booked elsewhere.
I recently sent in a Quote to Cruise Compete. One agency took it upon themselves to make a booking with the Cruise Line without my permission. Does anyone beside me think this is a poor business practice. I was thinking of booking with them but because of their actions I booked elsewhere.
Something doesn't make sense. Perhaps I'm not understanding the sequence of events in your message. If you only sent a quote request to Cruise Compete, it should not have been possible for you to have been booked by an agency.
When you send a quote request to Cruise Compete, there isn't supposed to be any personal information sent to the agencies who are bidding on your business. Any contact with an agency is supposed to require a specific effort on your part. I've not heard that Cruise Compete has ever sent information directly to an agency either intentionally or by accident.
When you set up an account on Cruise Compete, you don't provide any financial information. In order to book a cruise, an agent would necessarily have to have a deposit within a couple of days. How did they do this without account information from you?
Would it be correct to assume that what you meant to tell us was that you'd made contact with one or more agents yourself based upon quotes that were returned from Cruise Compete, and one of the agencies went ahead and booked you with financial information that you provided to them?
I'm guessing that they made the booking with just your name, thereby putting a complimentary hold on a cabin, but not actually putting a deposit on the cabin. Some agencies will do that in order to secure the rate they quoted you, since the rate could go up and they hate to quote you one rate and then have to tell you the rate changed when you go to book - doesn't look good, looks like a 'bait and switch' tactic. Or it's possible that there were only a couple of cabins available and they wanted to insure they held one for you in case you decided to book.
Obviously, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt because I don't see where they would have gotten your financial information without your providing it somehow.
As for Cruise Compete, several cruise lines require everyone to advertise the same rate, but only a couple (RCCL & Celebrity) require everyone to sell them at the same price. Unless they have group space, anyone offering lower prices on RCCL or Celebrity is someone to be avoided. Agents selling other cruises for less are simply cutting their commission to get your business. Personally, I'd much rather do business with someone who is completely honest and up front with everything than just trying to make a sale by lowering the price. They're more interested in quantity than quality.
I agree that it was probably a hold they put on a cabin.
They sould not have enough info to make a booking.
In the case of RCL and X, quotes should be for the same amount unless they have group space that was held before a price increase. Where they compete in in extra perks they may offer, like OBC's, free insurance, wine, etc.
I agee that it would not be right for them to book without permission.
I would say they just used your names to put the cabin on hold, that way the rate would be the same, if you had decided to book with them. As long as they didn't have your credit card information and booked it without your permission, it was just on hold with names, it isn't that bad. I haven't ever done this, unless it is a regular client and I told them I would do it first, just name, no deposit.
When giving quotes, I inform potential clients that the price isn't guaranteed until deposited.
It is common pratice for TA's to put holds on cabins.
I think you might be misunderstanding what the TA did.
Cruise Compete does not need your name, address, phone. Your email address is protected through Cruise Compete. The TA's do not even get your email address. All the bids are processed through Cruise Compete.
I agree with the others. There is no way the TA can book a cabin without your name and credit card number. The only way they can get any information about you is if you give it to them.
Well the booking is still on the My Princess site. I Have a booking #. Maybe the info about is supposed to be private, but last year I had an agent from a Cruise Compete agency call me at my Home phone #. They did have my Past Passenger Number possibly yhe way they found the booking.
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Cruise Compete is this ethical??
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