eCruisestore.com should definitely be avoided!

Earlier this year I booked a cruise for Nov 2010 through eCruisestore.com, some 18 months in advance. I was referred to them via cruisecompete.com, to which they enjoy positive customer feedback. The cruise deposit was correcty charged by the cruise line. However one week later, I received an email from their accounting department (not the Agent who sold me the cruise) offering a sizeable discount and additional shipboard credits if I pay in full now (yes, 18 months in advance).

The first red flag was when I totalled the discount and shipboard credits they were offering. These combined perks amounted to 30% of the cruise fare. I figured not many agencies (if any at all) are paid 30% commission from any cruise line.

The next red flag had to do with the fact the cruise line I'm booked with offers a 3.5% discount if full payment is made 6 months in advance. I emailed eCruisestore.com and asked if the cruise line's 3.5% discount for early payment would be "over and above" what the agency was offereing. The answer back was "no". I knew that if the the agency called in my final payment to the cruise line 18 months in advance, the cruise line would automatically reduce the cruise fare owed by 3.5%. So this was my "heads up" the agency had NO plans to call my credit card into the cruise line, but rather run it through their own company.

At this point I googled the agency and discovered a long tale of woes from clients at TripAdvisor. I emailed the CEO of CruiseCompete.com with my suspicions. He quickly replied back that I had a good idea what's going on with this agency. He went on to say he's been working with this agency asking them not to play these "cash flow" games with clients referred to them through CruiseCompete. Unfortunately, the games continue according to the latest posts on the TripAdvisor thread.

Luckily, I was able to transfer my booking to a reputable agency and am through with eCruisestore.com.

The sad thing is that when this agency finds a sucker to pay off their cruise fare far in advance, they often miss the final payment date due by the cruise line. If the agency runs your credit card through their own company rather than the cruise line, you have to HOPE the agency pays the cruise line come final payment time. Clients have reported on the various sites (TripAdvisor, Cruise Critic, etc) the final payment time comes and goes with the agency not paying the cruise line. In the end, the agency some how comes up with the money at the midnight hour to pay the cruise line, but not without causing considerable stress to the client.

Those double & triple billings are not accidental, they are completely intentional to create cash flow. I'm surprised they're still in business, but won't be a bit surprised if/when we see they've closed their doors.