Scammed by a travel agent

[equitax]

So a very close friend of mine paid a travel agent for a cruise booking in Amex, fully refundable supposedly. Anyways he had charge from agency and a separate charge from cruise line in his plastic. Called agent to cancel, agent said full refund was coming that never did. He pushed the agent who sent him cruise confirmation which was actually partially doctored, he called line and they told him he booked direct with them which was not true, at any rate line refunded in full what they charged to Amex, and after about a month when travel agent stopped responding, he charged back and a bout a month later Amex called him and said merchant submitted contract proving that he purchased non refundable items thus charge would stand. Amex sent him the paperwork and contract e-signed was clearly not genuine. Good thing is that the Docusign’s and pandadox of the world have authenticity departments which confirmed inside of 2 days that the locations were not correct and document was fraudulent. Needless to say Amex has now reversed the charge.

So kind of a PSA here that if you’re a victim with electronic signatures, reach out to the e-sign service as they are quite helpful and rapid in dealing with these types of inquiries.

 

[davidvel]

So a very close friend of mine paid a travel agent for a cruise booking in Amex, fully refundable supposedly. Anyways he had charge from agency and a separate charge from cruise line in his plastic. Called agent to cancel, agent said full refund was coming that never did. He pushed the agent who sent him cruise confirmation which was actually partially doctored, he called line and they told him he booked direct with them which was not true, at any rate line refunded in full what they charged to Amex, and after about a month when travel agent stopped responding, he charged back and a bout a month later Amex called him and said merchant submitted contract proving that he purchased non refundable items thus charge would stand. Amex sent him the paperwork and contract e-signed was clearly not genuine. Good thing is that the Docusign’s and pandadox of the world have authenticity departments which confirmed inside of 2 days that the locations were not correct and document was fraudulent. Needless to say Amex has now reversed the charge.

So kind of a PSA here that if you’re a victim with electronic signatures, reach out to the e-sign service as they are quite helpful and rapid in dealing with these types of inquiries.

Surprising AMEX denied initially. They are one of the best at protecting consumers, and why many merchants don't like them.

 

[dioxide45]

Except in very limited situations, a travel agent booking a cruise should never be run a credit card through their own personal company. All charges should go through the cruise line. The travel agent simply obtains your credit card information and takes that to pay the cruise line directly.

Most travel agents aren't really travel agents at all. They are booking agents. They book cruises and other packages. They have a host travel agent. There are quite a few of them out there. The host is the one that actually runs a licensed travel agency and provides CRM and other tools for booking agents. The host agent keeps a percentage of the commission and then passes the rest through to the booking agent. The original cruise confirmation should actually show the name of the host travel agency and this booking agent should be reported to that host.

 

[TUGBrian]

Surprising AMEX denied initially. They are one of the best at protecting consumers, and why many merchants don't like them.

agree, every dispute ive ever had with them had them crediting the charge back immediately upon opening the investigation.

 

[equitax]

agree, every dispute ive ever had with them had them crediting the charge back immediately upon opening the investigation.

They did accept chargeback initially but allowed the charge to stand in the basis of documentation they received from merchant. Passed it to the client when denying. Reinstated the chargeback after he presented the evidence that dox were fraudulent