Comments on: Travel agent takes a 100 percent commission — is that too much?

By: Courtney hansen

Courtney hansen — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:12:00 +0000

wow! you paid double! that’s horrible. Sorry that happened to you, i guess I’ll make sure never to use a travel agent when booking trips.

Courtney H.
Commission Agent

By: chauffeurdrive

chauffeurdrive — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 07:46:59 +0000

If a customer of any business doesn’t like a price, they have two options; make the purchase or take their business elsewhere…!!!

By: Istok

Istok — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:03:05 +0000

See that is why travel agents are a dying breed.
Get rich quick agents give the honest ones a bad name and people will just turn to the internet for all their travel services. There you can shop every aspect of the trip from the shuttle to the airport to the seat class on your return flight. Then you go over to the bigbox services (Expedia, Travelocity, etc) and compare the price for the same thing.
No the “oldtimers” will not be able to do this. They are not that internet savvy but gen-xers and beyond will one day wonder why people ever went to someone who can rip them a new one and then HAVE THE AUDACITY TO POST ON A BLOG HOW IT IS OK TO MAKE A 100% MARKUP. I wouldn’t even have asked for the money back. Just do not patronize them anymore.
You will not get your money back but you will not use them in the future. You probably will not use a travel agent again, period!

By: Ronda

Ronda — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:50:06 +0000

whether these commissions are legal or not, or whether this agent is in the legal right or not isnt the issue, the fact is people choose to use an agent when they are looking to have a seemless and good trip. personally i think the commission is outragous, and i think that in any other business the costomer would be responsible for doing the homework, but for alot of poeple where travel is somewhat i new language to them, they hire these agents to do the homework for them because they dont know what is involved in making a seemless trip. i think that morally and ethically this travel agent was in the wrong. Fortunatly for us however, many travel agents do not opperate this way and prefere a good name to a good profit.

By: barbie45

barbie45 — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:33:30 +0000

i had a almost similat incident with a travel agent at unique travel in delray beach florida ; i wanted to go on globus tour to turkey; shhhhhhhe charged me a 35.00 fee for making transportation accomadations which were horrible:miami to paris to amsterdam to istanbul; luckily the flights were smooth and arrived on time; however had globus cancelled the trip i was out of luck ; they were non refundable; she told me to bring 87.00 for the visa ; it was 35.00 ; she also informed to only bring about 100.00 dollars in cash; well in turkey very few establisments even the bazzar in istabul honor them. i spent a fortune in cab fees trying to find a atm machine . very misinformed agent . the agency is a rather exclusive one dealing in a believe vista luxury toures; also when i went into the agency, a sign read no booking fee if purchased on a tour ; fter several call the president of the agency did refund my money; so much for uninformed travel agents even from a so called prestige one.

By: Russian flights

Russian flights — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:40:55 +0000

as long as a travel agent arranges your trip and makes it cheaper than you would get it if you organized it yourself, any commission is ok. imho

By: Noah

Noah — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:12:14 +0000

Prior posters have suggested that this commission is legal, but maybe not–at least it might be a basis for a civil lawsuit. If the contract between the travel agent and consumer stated that the commission was a certain percentage and the agent charged a higher percentage, that could be a breach of contract. The civil discovery process would allow the wronged customer to see how much the Russian agent charged the American agent, and determine the actual commission. Obviously, the value here isn’t enough to justify a lawsuit, but it’s not at all clear that this commission was “legal.”

By: Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:50:27 +0000

I fully support the free exchange of ideas on this blog, but allow me to appeal for a civil discourse. Name-calling is not productive. Please consider toning down your rhetoric a little.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:31:07 +0000

Andrew said, “…there are not that many Russian/English bilingual travel agents around.”

There’s the reason your tickets cost you what they cost you. Since you paid for them, they were worth at least that much to you.

By: John

John — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:11:47 +0000

NO YOU”RE MISSING THE POINT

As someone else said … You paid a stupid tax for not shopping your trip around. You didn’t like the service they provided.

Fine. Get over it.

You haven’t filed a claim because the court would laugh at you. You have filed a complaint because they’d through it out (at least in most states CA is about a inane and stupid as it comes so they might look at it)

You agreed to a price for an item. The item was delivered.

I haven’t seen you provide a single argument that your ticket wasn’t provided so you got what you paid for at the rate you agreed to pay for it.

Let me guess the last time you bought a car you got mad because you found out that you could have bought it cheaper somewhere else after the fact.

You lack of homework is not the agents fault.
And to answer your question, I neither work on commision nor am I a travel agent. I just realize that you agreed to a bad business deal.

Get over it and move on with your life

By: Andrew Solow

Andrew Solow — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:36:59 +0000

MISSING THE POINT
The point here is that when Russart Travel Service told me that the reason the train tickets cost more than double the price I paid three years ago because prices had gone up, they were intentionally concealing the real reason for the price increase — the 100% markup//commission that they added to the ticket price.

As I previously posted, short of making a personal visit to a Russian Train Station, it is impossible to determine the price of Russian Train Tickets. I relied on a dishonest travel agent who is licensed and bonded. The only reason I haven’t already filed a small claims court action or a complaint with the CA Dept. of Justice is that confronting Russart with the truth in public is a more fitting punishment.
THE TRAVEL AGENT IS:
Russart Travel Service
Aka: Russart Art & C. S., Inc.
CA Seller of Travel #: 1018019
License Holder: Izabella Gribanowski
291 Geary St., Ste. 511 San Francisco 94102
Tel: 415-781-6655 Email: russart@pacbell.net
Anna Rayak, Agent

By: John F

John F — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:36:58 +0000

What does everyone feel is a “FAIR” markup for a travel business in terms of a percentage? 10%, 20%, 50% 100%, 0%?

Taking into account all expenses must be paid from that markup–overhead..salary…currency conversion…bank fees..postage..benefits..etc.

By: bodega

bodega — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:24:03 +0000

Andrew, you have stated that a surcharge is added to a ticket purchase in Russia. Your agent obtained the ticket through proper channels and each time a fee was added. Your agent did not get a 100% commission.

You also stated that you could have had a family member in Russia obtain the ticket for you, but you didn’t. You paid a service fee for having the ticket in hand ahead of time.

We can change the oil in our car, but most of us don’t and we pay someone a hefty fee to do it for us. Ever price a oil change. The cost is all over the board! Many of us don’t paint our own home and hire professionals to do the job. They add on a fee for purchasing the paint that you can go get yourself for less, but don’t. Contractors always add a fee to supplies they purchase, which usually start at 15%.

You have given out the agent’s name in anger and from all you have written here, it appears to be sour grapes on your part. You owe her an apology.

By: Jess K.

Jess K. — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:40:38 +0000

While I think that bait-and-switch should never be rewarded, I do agree, Andrew, that you paid for the tickets, and ostensibly read the fine print (or maybe you signed your name to it -without- reading it, in which case, it’s still your fault.) Every single last one of us have paid a stupid tax in our lives because we didn’t read the fine print, shop around, or otherwise pay attention. Consider it lesson learned.

Oh, also: TITLING SECTIONS OF YOUR POSTS LIKE THIS (especially things like “MISSING THE POINT”) every time you post doesn’t exactly make you seem levelheaded – actually, it makes you seem a touch snarky, and therefore, it’s a bit harder to be sympathetic…

By: Richard Whewell

Richard Whewell — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:31:59 +0000

Yes, with my vast experience of one visit to Russia, I encountered exactly this problem. Enquiry and research established that even if I went in person to the railway station I would probably end up buying a ticket from an agent with a large surcharge – the simple idea of “buying a ticket” hasn’t arrived there yet.

One good aspect though. The agent sold me entry to Russia – the arrangements for entry are only slightly harder than the arrangements for entry to America (and that reflects very badly on America). Since the airline lost my luggage, she was extraordinarily helpful in sorting that out, obtaining a result which frankly I could not have achieved. I guess that was worth her huge commission.

Ultimately I think that both Russia and America need to sort themselves out before the British will return to regular travel.