Cruise Value Center, Cruises Of Distinction out of business with many cruises not paid in full E BrunswickE.Brunswick, NJ 08816E Brunswick New Jersey
On Monday, Nov. 10th 2008 Cruise Value Center and Cruises of Distinction ceased operations. Closed their doors, sent their agents home, and left home based agents in the dark. Commissions and salaries owed will not be paid and those that should have been paid are not going to be paid in the future.
The concern is for those clients that have paid for their trips with checks and money orders made out to either of these company's. There is a good chance that this money was never sent in to the cruise lines. If you have received documents or paid by credit card there should be no concern. If you saw the cruise line name on your credit card statements it means the money went to the cruise line. If your credit card statement says anything but the cruise line name, call the cruise line first and immediately after that your credit card company and advise what happened and how to proceed. When you call the cruise line have your cruise line reservation number handy, or ship and sail date.
If Cruise Value Center gave you free insurance you might want to make sure that this insurance is intact. Any promise of onboard amenities for booking with them might not appear when you arrive onboard, whether you paid with cc or personal check. CVC would have had to make the payments to the cruise lines and these amenitie might not appear as promised, but if that is the biggest loss consider yourself lucky.
Travel insurance can be purchased on line at many different websites put the search word in "travel insurance" and I am sure there will be many options there.
Many people have been affected by the selfishness of these 2 companies.
I do not know if the DA of the state of NJ can cease bank accounts or assets, provided there are any, or prosecute for embezzlement. If anyone has a clue about this perhaps a class action suit could be filed.
For obvious reasons, I must remain anonymous, but if you start calling the cruise lines they will have protocol of how to proceed.
There are many agencies out there that value the business of the public and their good reputations should not be sullied by the outrageous behavior of Cruise Value Center and Cruises of Distinction.
Anonymous
Brooklyn, New York
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Teresa
Lancaster,CA,
USA
Don't be the victim of a Travel Rip Off
#3Consumer Suggestion
Sun, November 29, 2009
I am a travel agent and have family and friends in Law Enforcement I see this type of Rip Off all the time. I have owned my own company for 12 years and have independent agents working under me. I will tell you what I tell them and maybe this will help someone in the future.
When someone comes to me for a vacation. cruise, etc. the first thing I do is let them know that before I take their credit card info I want them to be happy with what their getting. For a cruise I take their names and BD's I book what they want and send them a Cruise line confirmation by email. Once they have it and go over it and they are happy with what they see then we take a credit card give it to the cruise line and now we get the new confirmation showing either the deposit or paid in full if it's within final payment. We then call them to let them know we are sending out a new confirmation that shows the payment made.
For trips that require immediate payment like air, hotel, etc. I stay on the phone give them all the info and if they are fine with everything we take the credit card and book it and immediately send them out the confirmation.
It only take a few steps with a legitimate agency to secure your trips. As for the travel agents who were burned by these companies I am truly sorry for what your going thru I went through something similar early in my career so I know what your are going through.
Don't give up on the travel agent just follow these steps and always check up on all payments made within 24hrs by requesting a confirmation. It only takes 5 minutes to 24hrs to get confirmations sent from any one company to the travel agency.
Any questions can be sent to my private email (((Redacted)))
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.
Cryingtime
Auburn Hills,Michigan,
U.S.A.
Cryin and Mad in Bloomfield Hills, Mi
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, November 21, 2008
It was so sad to see clients lose their cruises and money. Yes next time you book a cruise make sure that it is the cruise line on your charge statement!!!!
Dont give up on Travel Agencies they are not all like CRUISES OF DISTINCTION & CRUISE VALUE CENTER!!!!!
Its a shame that the employees did not get paid either but those owners are sure driving around in a new car, I wonder what clients money paid for that?
I really hope these owners get whats coming to them!!!!!!