CruiseCompete.com

I received this PM from a member and they have graciously agreed to allow me to repost it for them sans name. It is their recent experience with CruiseCompete.com and they would like everyone to be forewarned. While I know that many people have had success with booking through agencies affliated with this website and I say more power to them, unfortunately many end up like our poor member! Please do be very viligant if booking through them to insure that everything is indeed as agreed upon!

Nina, because of a series of unbelievable mishaps, blunders and unprecedented stupidity, I never did get QM2 booked. Just for the record and so you know I will NEVER use anyone from CruiseCompete.com again. The agent that gave me the best rate or so I thought was a liar. When I called to book, the pricing went up - seems he "forgot" to add on taxes, port charges, and fuel charges.

So, I went to the second best price, I'm still boiling over this one. I called to confirm the price, the woman told me this is the price, this is the taxes and, all the blah, blah. The price was what she quoted me online. I get the confirmation and, she booked me in the wrong category, at the wrong price FOR THE WRONG SAILING!

What a nightmare that was to get cleaned up and my credit card rebated which is still in progress. EEESSSH!!!!

I don't care if you charge FULL PRICE, I'm sticking with you! Geez Louise! I can't believe how these people earn a living!!

With that said, I'd like to offer a sincere apology for not booking with you in the first place. I should have known better but, that Scottish blood of mine rears it's ugly head from time to time and, I always think I can get a better bargin, a better price, a better deal somewhere else. And for this I do sincerely and humbly apologize to you.

Now my booking information - all I ask is that you hold off to charging my card until next Wednesday that's the 27th, I'd appreciate it by then I should have my other money back.
I'll fax that to you separately.

-Cruise Freek Member

Nina:

Thanks for agreeing to allow me to post a response. My name is Bob Levinstein, and I am the CEO of CruiseCompete LLC.

For those of you who aren't familiar with us, CruiseCompete.com is a competitive marketplace that allows consumers to research and select a specific cruise, then receive competing offers from the more than 300 independent travel agencies that are our members. (Typical requests get 4-8 responses). Consumers can then compare the offers, read reviews and BBB reports on the agencies and contact the agents directly for more information or to book. Customers remain anonymous unless or until they choose to contact a particular agency.

It's difficult for me to respond to an anonymous posting, as I can't speak directly to the individual's experience. However, as we have hundreds of travel agents offering 20,000-30,000 quotes through our system each month, some mistakes are made. Clearly our members did not provide good service to this individual, and I apologize for that.

If this customer had brought his or her concerns to our attention, we would have worked with the agency in question to get the problems resolved. On average, we only see about 1-3 issues like this per month, and I handle them personally. Considering that upwards of 50,000 people find cruises through CruiseCompete each year, this is a very small number of problems.

The issues we see are almost always simple mis-communications and in are usually resolved vary quickly just by getting the top management of the agency in question involved. The reviews of individual agencies that accompany each quote will attest to the very high customer satisfaction with our service, as does the fact that we've never had a year where our growth was below 25%. As we don't have a large advertising budget, this growth is largely based on repeat business and word-of-mouth.

Finally, I would like to say that CruiseCompete is NOT the best option for all cruisers. If you need an agent to commit time to help you research and select your cruise, then by all means you should book with the agent that does the work for you. CruiseCompete is designed for experienced cruisers who can do their own research and make their own cruise choices, and simply want a fast and convenient way to shop around for the best deal.

If anyone would like to contact me directly, you can do so via our web site at:

http://www.cruisecompete.com/contactmail.php/?desc=cruisers

(These messages come straight to me.)

Thanks again for allowing me the opportunity to have my say. Have a great day, and happy cruising.

Cheers!

Bob Levinstein
CEO
CruiseCompete, LLC.