Bad experience with Lori Cunningham/Skyscraper Tours

Wolfgang Petrusch wrote:


I wish Lori would respond here,

Look back 5 posts in this thread and you will see that Lori has already
responded. Her post was at 10:25am.

sue

"CupCaked" wrote

LOL! If you're referring to me, George, you're way off base and need
to reset your targets. I wouldn't even know how to use an anonymous
coste account.

Karen, you really should work on your overwhelming need to be the center of
attention. Not every post on r.t.c. is about you. If I have something to
say to you, I'll say it plain and clear so even you will understand it.


--
George in PA http://www.countryside-travel.com

Norwegian Dawn http://www.cruisemaster.com/dawn.htm
Sleazy 3 - Carnival Conquest http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy3.htm
The Mother of All Group Cruises http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

Lori,

Margaret already addressed well several of your points. I'll address
those points where I have something to add.

Lori Cunningham wrote:
Hi Margaret

Your post(s) and website are designed to hurt my business. You seem to have
left out a few important points.

Our web site is designed to help inform other consumers. It's no
different from other posts to this list or to a travel web site about
problems people have had, except in this case a web page makes it easier
to present the complex information and provide access to the supporting
materials so people can judge for themselves.


1. When you first contacted me about Alaska 2004, you asked specifically for
cruisetour 15. This is a VERY important note - you asked for a specific
cruisetour - number 15. Since the cruisetours had not been loaded in the system
with Royal Caribbean, I emailed you the cruisetour 15 itinerary for the 2003
season. Yes, in hindsight, I should have noted that the itinerary provided was
based on Royal Caribbean 2003 itinerary and was subject to change. What you
left out of this is that I strongly suggested that you wait until the brochures
arrived for the 2004 season so that you would be sure that you had the correct
cruisetour. But you did not want to do this - and provided information to book
Cruisetour 15 based on 2003 information. So, I did as you requested and booked
cruisetour 15.

You're right--that is an important note. So people can judge for
themselves, we added Margaret's original email to you to the web page
(http://www.mindspring.com/~mefine/skyscraper) in the first entry of the
timeline. Margaret has already quoted the relevant part. She asked for a
"similar" tour, not 2004's cruisetour 15 as you stated.

The key point, though, is that you sent Margaret email titled "Vision of
the Seas cruisetour 15 - no pricing - but here is the itinerary"
containing the following:

6/27/04 Anchorage
6/28/04 Anchorage to Denali
6/29/04 Denali
6/30/04 Denali
7/1/04 Denali/Talkeetna
7/2/04 is the start of the cruise
FRI Seward, Alaska 9:00 PM Docked
....

You said above "I emailed you the cruisetour 15 itinerary for the 2003
season." But note that the dates you provided are for 2004. When
Margaret contacted you to book that itinerary, you accepted the
reservation without informing us that the itinerary you offered did not
exist.


2. NOW, Francesca did make a mistake and booked you for 2003 - not 2004. This
was a human error and was corrected immediately to place you on cruisetour 15
for 2004. These mistakes can happen.

3. When the cruisetour 15 was confirmed by Royal Caribbean for 2004, I sent the
itinerary to you via mail - to have you verify that this is the cruisetour that
you wanted for 2004. Because the brochures were not available - I wanted you
to confirm that cruisetour 15 for 2004 was what you wanted.

4. You received the itinerary in the mail and immediately called Francesca to
cancel the cruisetour 15 - because it was not what you wanted. This was a
hastily made decision - and everything could have been corrected at this point -
if you had allowed me to mail the brochure to you - so that you could find the
cruise tour that you DID want. But you did not wait for me to suggest this -
you just cancelled the cruisetour w/out seeking advice.

5. As for me not cooperating with Travel Guard, that is a flat out lie. I
faxed Travel Guard repeatedly to have everything corrected for you. BUT Travel
Guard notified me that you were intervening in the process and because of this -
they were confused and were reviewing the situation. And Margaret, I informed
Steve of this - and asked him to let me handle the situation with Travel Guard -
but to no avail.

When I talked with you July 1 we wanted a full refund, which you said
you did not support. After I talked with you I talked with TravelGuard.
They told me the same thing they told Margaret: Francesca had verbally
requested a refund for the overpayment but she had never followed up in
writing as required.


6. Another situation that you left out, is that Steve asked me to help you find
the cruisetour that would fit your needs (through another cruise line - after
the Royal Caribbean cruise was cancelled). But because of the communication
between us, and your insistance to refuse my help, I advised him that it was
probably better if he found another travel agent. He did not seem happy that I
suggested this.

You're incorrect on a couple of points. When I called you requesting a
refund on the travel insurance premium, you said you would not support
that. But you offered to find us a cruise-tour that met our needs, and I
was willing to see what you found (Margaret never insisted that I refuse
your help). However, when I mentioned that I felt that your past actions
(selling us a package that did not exist) could be considered fraudulent
and would not tolerate any further problems, then you said that it would
be best if I found another travel agent. At the end of the call I was
unhappy that you were not willing to acknowledge or correct your mistake.

Just so there are no misunderstandings: On 6/21 I sent Francesca email
stating that we would like to cancel the cruisetour and receive a refund
of the insurance premium. Francesca said that we needed to talk with you
about the premium. I sent you email requesting a premium refund on 6/24.
(I'd be happy to post those emails too.) On July 1 talked with you and
asked for your support in receiving a refund from TravelGuard. You said
that you would not support that.


So, there are always 2 sides to a story. Your slanderous website and postings
are simply that and appropriate measures will be taken. You know that I did
everything that I could to try and help you out.

"Slander" only applies when the statements are false. Everything we have
said is true, and some of the supporting material is provided on the web
site. Many of the other statements are based on information provided by
neutral third-parties (RCI, TravelGuard). If there are verifiable
mistakes (e.g., TravelGuard confirms your statements), we'd be happy to
make corrections.

From: Lori Cunningham

The bottom line is that the last correspondence with you (or your husband)
was
in July.

I disagree ... I feel the bottom line is the discrepancy between your posting
this ...

"1. When you first contacted me about Alaska 2004, you asked specifically for
cruisetour 15. This is a VERY important note - you asked for a specific
cruisetour - number 15. "

and the poster Margaret posting this ...

"That is not correct. My note specifically said "My husband and I want
to take a alaskan cruise tour in July, 2004. We want to go on Royal
Caribbean, we want a cruisetour similar to the one they have in this
year's 2003 Alaska vacation planner: Package 15 on Legend of the Seas
which is a 1 night Anchorage, 3 nights Denali, 1 night Talkeetna
southbound cruise. We would want to make sure that the cruise was over
July 7th, a special day to us. I have a couple of questions that maybe
you can help me with. "

It appears she is quoting her note verbatim ... while you are misquoting one
part ...

one is correct ...

Personally, I have not gone through all that happened ... I don't really care
.... but your response ...where elsewhere you call her a liar ... whereas ... at
least on the surface there appears to be a misrepresentation on your part ...
is what bothers me ...

She seems to have her original memo to back things up ... do you have anything
to back your statement up ??


Be seeing you
In the Village
Number 6

From: (Wolfgang Petrusch)

Unfortunately, this gives us TA's another black eye, in addition to
the ones we have received lately in this group with all the recent TA
ethics threads.

IMO ... An honest ... "we made a mistake and tried fixing things ... but the
insurance reimbursement is up in the air ...but we are working on it ..."

My problem is not that mistakes happen ... they do all the time ... my problem
is people spinning to get out of it ... See my comment to Lori ... The problem
had no influence on my thinking towards TA's (or at least Lori) at all ... her
response to it however had a lot ...

The customer is always right ... doesn't seem to apply .. in fact "a customer
was wrong because we say so ..." seemed the order of the day ...
Your taking steps here to help ... boosts TA's (or at least you) ... in my eyes
....

Be seeing you
In the Village
Number 6

Oh... BTW - Tomorrow I am going on a two night cruise on the Serenade of
the Seas with Barb. In January

Hey you did not say my name! I am saddened!! hahaha
George do not even let these people get started! these are the reasons I had
stayed away from here seems like there is less and less CRUISE TALK! More talk
about who is not a good TA and who is unhappy with how the GCCs are run etc
etc...
Susette
Join us on our Annual Group Cruise 29Nov03 Navigator of the Seas
Check out our new website: www.cruiseoutlets.com

Hi Steve

I will restate what I have said befo

With the Travel Guard refund, I was in negotiations with Travel Guard, and had
faxed over several requests to them. They were going to refund the majority of
your premium (and I was going to cover the difference) UNTIL YOU intervened in
the process.

It seems to me that you have posed this attack over the $493 that you want back
from Travel Guard. You would have received this, if you had not intervened in
what I was trying to do for you.

Now, you have not contacted me (since hearing from Travel Guard) to see if I
could help you. You have not contacted me at all to try and work out
compensation. Instead, you post a website to hurt me and my business.

Lori Cunningham
http://www.skyscrapertours.com


In article . net, Steve Fine
says...

Lori,

Margaret already addressed well several of your points. I'll address
those points where I have something to add.

Lori Cunningham wrote:
Hi Margaret

Your post(s) and website are designed to hurt my business. You seem to have
left out a few important points.

Our web site is designed to help inform other consumers. It's no
different from other posts to this list or to a travel web site about
problems people have had, except in this case a web page makes it easier
to present the complex information and provide access to the supporting
materials so people can judge for themselves.


1. When you first contacted me about Alaska 2004, you asked specifically for
cruisetour 15. This is a VERY important note - you asked for a specific
cruisetour - number 15. Since the cruisetours had not been loaded in the system
with Royal Caribbean, I emailed you the cruisetour 15 itinerary for the 2003
season. Yes, in hindsight, I should have noted that the itinerary provided was
based on Royal Caribbean 2003 itinerary and was subject to change. What you
left out of this is that I strongly suggested that you wait until the brochures
arrived for the 2004 season so that you would be sure that you had the correct
cruisetour. But you did not want to do this - and provided information to book
Cruisetour 15 based on 2003 information. So, I did as you requested and booked
cruisetour 15.

You're right--that is an important note. So people can judge for
themselves, we added Margaret's original email to you to the web page
(http://www.mindspring.com/~mefine/skyscraper) in the first entry of the
timeline. Margaret has already quoted the relevant part. She asked for a
"similar" tour, not 2004's cruisetour 15 as you stated.

The key point, though, is that you sent Margaret email titled "Vision of
the Seas cruisetour 15 - no pricing - but here is the itinerary"
containing the following:

6/27/04 Anchorage
6/28/04 Anchorage to Denali
6/29/04 Denali
6/30/04 Denali
7/1/04 Denali/Talkeetna
7/2/04 is the start of the cruise
FRI Seward, Alaska 9:00 PM Docked
...

You said above "I emailed you the cruisetour 15 itinerary for the 2003
season." But note that the dates you provided are for 2004. When
Margaret contacted you to book that itinerary, you accepted the
reservation without informing us that the itinerary you offered did not
exist.


2. NOW, Francesca did make a mistake and booked you for 2003 - not 2004. This
was a human error and was corrected immediately to place you on cruisetour 15
for 2004. These mistakes can happen.

3. When the cruisetour 15 was confirmed by Royal Caribbean for 2004, I sent the
itinerary to you via mail - to have you verify that this is the cruisetour that
you wanted for 2004. Because the brochures were not available - I wanted you
to confirm that cruisetour 15 for 2004 was what you wanted.

4. You received the itinerary in the mail and immediately called Francesca to
cancel the cruisetour 15 - because it was not what you wanted. This was a
hastily made decision - and everything could have been corrected at this point -
if you had allowed me to mail the brochure to you - so that you could find the
cruise tour that you DID want. But you did not wait for me to suggest this -
you just cancelled the cruisetour w/out seeking advice.

5. As for me not cooperating with Travel Guard, that is a flat out lie. I
faxed Travel Guard repeatedly to have everything corrected for you. BUT Travel
Guard notified me that you were intervening in the process and because of this -
they were confused and were reviewing the situation. And Margaret, I informed
Steve of this - and asked him to let me handle the situation with Travel Guard -
but to no avail.

When I talked with you July 1 we wanted a full refund, which you said
you did not support. After I talked with you I talked with TravelGuard.
They told me the same thing they told Margaret: Francesca had verbally
requested a refund for the overpayment but she had never followed up in
writing as required.


6. Another situation that you left out, is that Steve asked me to help you find
the cruisetour that would fit your needs (through another cruise line - after
the Royal Caribbean cruise was cancelled). But because of the communication
between us, and your insistance to refuse my help, I advised him that it was
probably better if he found another travel agent. He did not seem happy that I
suggested this.

You're incorrect on a couple of points. When I called you requesting a
refund on the travel insurance premium, you said you would not support
that. But you offered to find us a cruise-tour that met our needs, and I
was willing to see what you found (Margaret never insisted that I refuse
your help). However, when I mentioned that I felt that your past actions
(selling us a package that did not exist) could be considered fraudulent
and would not tolerate any further problems, then you said that it would
be best if I found another travel agent. At the end of the call I was
unhappy that you were not willing to acknowledge or correct your mistake.

Just so there are no misunderstandings: On 6/21 I sent Francesca email
stating that we would like to cancel the cruisetour and receive a refund
of the insurance premium. Francesca said that we needed to talk with you
about the premium. I sent you email requesting a premium refund on 6/24.
(I'd be happy to post those emails too.) On July 1 talked with you and
asked for your support in receiving a refund from TravelGuard. You said
that you would not support that.


So, there are always 2 sides to a story. Your slanderous website and postings
are simply that and appropriate measures will be taken. You know that I did
everything that I could to try and help you out.

"Slander" only applies when the statements are false. Everything we have
said is true, and some of the supporting material is provided on the web
site. Many of the other statements are based on information provided by
neutral third-parties (RCI, TravelGuard). If there are verifiable
mistakes (e.g., TravelGuard confirms your statements), we'd be happy to
make corrections.

Lori:

With the recent threads on TA ethics in this forum, I have been
following this situation more closely than I normally would have.

After reading your reply, I cannot find Margaret's web page the least
slanderous, because she makes some valid points, which you did not
respond to in your reply.

a) Quoting travel insurance at $330.00 and charging $483.00, is, IMHO,
an unauthorized charge.
b) Stating in an e-mailing to client on May 29 that the deposit will
soon be charged, but client's credit card had actually been charged on
May 16, I simply do not know what to say to that.
c) RCCL is uasually extremely fast with refunds. Clients having to
call the cruise line themselves 4 months later to request the refund,
is not my idea of customer service.

Skyscraper Tours has obviously made several mistakes with this
booking, and apparently has not been working flat out to correct them
in the client's best interest. Again, I would be very careful calling
Margaret's web page slanderous, with the facts as they have been
established here so far.

Wolfgang Petrusch
www.deluxevoyages.com


snip
So, there are always 2 sides to a story. Your slanderous website and postings
are simply that and appropriate measures will be taken. You know that I did
everything that I could to try and help you out.

Lori Cunningham
snip

"Susette405" wrote

Oh... BTW - Tomorrow I am going on a two night cruise on the Serenade of
the Seas with Barb.

Hey you did not say my name! I am saddened!! hahaha

Woo-Hoo! Looks like another Unholy Trinity..... another match made in
cruise heaven.

Just think about all the carnage and damage we can do to the shrimp supply
in two days!

See you tomorrow....


--
George in PA http://www.countryside-travel.com

Norwegian Dawn http://www.cruisemaster.com/dawn.htm
Sleazy 3 - Carnival Conquest http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy3.htm
The Mother of All Group Cruises http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

Hi Wolfgang

Answers below:

In article , Wolfgang Petrusch
says...

Lori:

With the recent threads on TA ethics in this forum, I have been
following this situation more closely than I normally would have.

After reading your reply, I cannot find Margaret's web page the least
slanderous, because she makes some valid points, which you did not
respond to in your reply.

a) Quoting travel insurance at $330.00 and charging $483.00, is, IMHO,
an unauthorized charge.

This was a legitimate mistake. The trip cost was $2500 per person, but when
Francesca called in the insurance to Travel Guard, the rep (or Francesca who is
no longer with Skyscraper Tours, Inc),must have accidentally put $3500 and
charged the premium accordingly. $2500 vs $3500, surely you can see that this
was a mistake - and the mistake was going to be corrected BUT the Fine's
cancelled the booking before the request of refund was processed by Travel
Guard.

b) Stating in an e-mailing to client on May 29 that the deposit will
soon be charged, but client's credit card had actually been charged on
May 16, I simply do not know what to say to that.

Once again, mistakes can happen. We did have, once again, Francesca involved in
this portion - and that is my ultimate responsibility and I will take the heat -
but Francesca is no longer with Skyscraper Tours, Inc.

c) RCCL is uasually extremely fast with refunds. Clients having to
call the cruise line themselves 4 months later to request the refund,
is not my idea of customer service.

You are absolutely correct. This is just a further problem when the cruisetour
was accidentally booked for 2003 and not 2004. Royal Caribbean placed an
automatic $500 cancellation penalty because of this mistake. Thus, we had to
negotiate with Royal Caribbean to get them to waive the penalty. It is
something that hardly ever happens - and it was a first for me to have them do
this. RCI's philosophy was that the cruisetour was booked for 2003 and was
subject to cancellation penalties so, the correct 2004 booking would have the
same penalty. RCI did not fully believe that an honest mistake was made, and
what they were trying to avoid is someone cancellation a penalty booking, moving
it to a future cruise, and thus negating the penalty.


Skyscraper Tours has obviously made several mistakes with this
booking, and apparently has not been working flat out to correct them
in the client's best interest. Again, I would be very careful calling
Margaret's web page slanderous, with the facts as they have been
established here so far.

Mr Petrusch, I have admitted mistakes made on the booking. I also worked very
hard to obtain compensation for the client. The Client, on the otherhand, did
not want to work with me. Mr and Mrs Fine did not contact me to seek
compensation before making this post. Also remember, that the last time that I
heard from this client was in July!! They waited until late October to express
their dissatisfaction?? AND they did not express their dissatisfaction to me -
but to a board.

I know that an equitable agreement could have been made between the Fines and
me. I am disappointed, that they chose public humiliation instead of handling
it with me personally.


Wolfgang Petrusch
www.deluxevoyages.com


snip
So, there are always 2 sides to a story. Your slanderous website and postings
are simply that and appropriate measures will be taken. You know that I did
everything that I could to try and help you out.

Lori Cunningham
snip