Was this cruise mis-sold?

[Wasthiscruisemissold]

We recently booked a family cruise which was described as 11 days long, calling at 8 ports (excluding the start and end ports). We booked on the basis of this description, which included notes on each port, a map, and the dates throughout showing that it was 11 days long.

Before the cruise has started, the travel agent (a specialist cruise re-seller, whom I shall not name) has very airily said 'Oh sorry, there was some confusion, the cruise is only 9 days long and X port won't be included'. X is of course one of the best stops. They have very kindly offered as a £25pp discount!

I understand (being a cruise veteran) that itineraries often change DURING cruises, owing to weather or malfunction. And in such cases, the cruise line will generally offer compensation: it has happened to us three times.

But this change has been made before the cruise has even commenced, and after we had booked and paid, and it is not stemming from the actual cruise line (I am fairly sure of this) but it seems from errors made by the travel agent, who rather than linking to the cruise line's own itinerary, have produced their own, with pretty pictures and prose - and got it wrong. Or perhaps they had not updated their website following a change made earlier by the cruise line? But we booked on the representation of the cruise offered in our quote and booking summary and itinerary from the travel agent. Never dreamed of checking it against the cruise line's website.

Luckily I had screen-shot all our booking info, including the underlying links to itinerary etc. My ds in fact archived that version.

Needless to say, all that info has changed overnight on the travel agent's web-site.

I should be grateful for any thoughts on how we should proceed. Luckily we had not yet booked flights - that was today's job. I'm sure they would offer us a no-penalty cancellation, but this would leave us without a holiday, and anything else we could book at short notice would be much more expensive I think.

(All the stuff I can find on-line relates to holidays that have actually started / been taken and didnt live up to expectations/selling info. This is different in that the change has been made post payment but before embarking)

Dear Mr selling agent,

we booked a cruise based on x nights and visiting these ports as specified in your advertising material (copies available for reference).

you are now informing us that you are unable to provide the cruise you sold us so we would like a refund of our money - paid to this card / bank account by this date.

we look forward to your actioning this as soon as possible

yours

etc.

if that doesn't work - then mis-selling / trades description act / consumer acts etc. can all be referenced.

If you paid on a credit card, then of course there is section 75 under which you can make a claim if they are not forthcoming...

You seem to be saying you reckon you can easily get a refund but you don't really want that?

I think you could still complain afterwards even if you take the trip. As long as you tell the agents you will do so due to having little choice, but will expect compensation for the difference in what was given and what was paid for and promised.

That doesn't mean to say you'll get it. So it's a risk you take by not just getting your money back.

Finding another holiday that gels with everyone's booked annual leave / other diary commitments would be really hard. And I'm sure at this stage would cost a LOT more. But we very much would be taking the trip under protest.

I would work on the basis of £100 pp per day refund. ie £200 per adult. You can only ask, see what they say.

I would start on the basis you were sold 11 nights and therefore any refund should be a minimum of 2/11th of the price.

So for example if you’ve paid 1100 (£100 pppn) I would expect a £200 refund pppn as a minimum.

I would argue this because the cost of the cruise is based on need for fuel, cleaning, food, port fees etc and therefore the cost reflects the cost of 11 days of this and 9 berthings. If you are only doing 8 berthings and 9 days these costs don’t exist and therefore £25pp is paltry.

They have mis sold the product but they don’t have to offer compensation they could refund fully so you need to be clear what your line is.

What outcome do you want, OP?

It does depend entirely on what you want.

If I still wanted to go on the trip, I would ask for a reduction in price of 2/11ths. I always calculate the pppn cost. I would also ask for some OBC for the inconvenience and the missing of the 'draw' port.

Have you compared the price to other agents / direct with the cruise line? Is it actually reasonable for 9 nights? The answer to this would determine how much I would push for the above request. If it was actually reasonable and I was happy to go ahead, I would probably settle for some OBC compo, after asking for more! They seem to find OBC an easier thing to give Vs price reduction.

If I didn't want to go after all, I think you would be completely within your rights to insist on a full refund.

What is the price of the 9 night cruise compared to the 11 night cruise according to the cruise company website.

Was it Iglu? They naffed up our itinerary as well (completely different country!) then went - oops someone uploaded that route wrong our side

Thanks all. We would prefer not to have to cancel, because it would be next to impossible to get anything else for the same dates. But we do want to see some sort of apology and compensation offer - it is still a good trip, but not nearly as good a deal as before. We have sent a 'firm' response and will wait and see ....

Funnily enough we just had an issue with them, they removed one if the stops off of the itinerary. It was only my chance I spotted it as we didn't have a sea day before and suddenly on had been added. When I asked them about it they said they would ask the cruiseline.
Then came back and said the cruisline said there was nothing they could do about it, and weren't giving us anything to compensate.
Now I think about it It was probably Iglu who made the mistake and pretended it was down to the cruiseline.

We did get a satisfactory offer, partly covered by the travel agent and partly covered by the cruise line. But we negotiated it up front.