Comments on: Legendary Journeys apologizes for selling Prime Travel Protection policies, plans lawsuit against Watson

By: Joann

Joann — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 23:29:49 +0000

I just sent an e mail to Mr. Carrier and hope that I can get some assistance in getting my $3000.00 claim paid. I have always enjoyed traveling with LJ and would like to book the same trip again…but I need my funds in order to do so..wish me luck…

By: Billie Keirstead

Billie Keirstead — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:35:35 +0000

I decided to take Mr. Ferguson’s advice and send an email to Stewart Carrier at Legendary Journeys outlining our claim. Mr. Carrier;s reply was that they did not know that PTP or any of its other names were out of business or ordered to stop selling insurance, which they were not licensed to sell, until after our trip in Dec. 2008 so they could not have switched us to a legitimate policy before the trip.
So much for LJ trying to assist its customers. I hope the state shuts them down.

By: Billie Keirstead

Billie Keirstead — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:00:12 +0000

Please provide my email address to Barry Resnick so that he can give me contact information for the attorneys pursuing a possible lawsuit. thank you for providing this forum.

By: Mr Bad Example

Mr Bad Example — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:25:07 +0000

I’m inclined to go with the legal concept of “False in one, False in all” when it comes to the Travel Agencies and Trip Assured.

The concept refers to jury deliberations. If you feel that one part of a witnesses testimony is false you may as a juror reject all of the testimony as false when rendering a verdict.

I’ve followed these threads since their inception and I find the words of the parties accused to be evasive and best and at worst outright lies, threats and attempts at intimidation. Ergo I REJECT every word they say.

Clearly they are liars of the first magnitude and need to feel the full weight of the FL criminal and civil court system upon them. and tomorrow would not be to soon.

By: Arthur

Arthur — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:25:44 +0000

Billie and previous posters.

If you scroll back on this blog and others on Elliott you will see there is help from a group of activist victims. The whole team has been responsible for closing PTP and bringing potential cease and desists against three Florida travel agents. More will follow and possible criminal indictments.

Read the blogs and join the force – shared knowledge, is something the perpetrators are perplexed about.

You can contact our help line at: king2j@aol.com

Be prepared for some vetting. The inner circle is 12 volunteers but the whole group totals hundreds who are putting in 200 hours of research per week.

By: Barry Resnick

Barry Resnick — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:23:30 +0000

Hello Billie – I have been reviewing the posts on this board the past few weeks. You may have read the interview Chris Elliott conducted with me. There was a class action lawsuit filed against Trip Assured – another company that sold unauthorized trip protection plans. Due to Trip Assured’s demise, there was little relief offered to the plaintiffs other than the fact the company no longer exists. In this current situation, it is my personal belief that a class action lawsuit would have a better chance at success. One reason, of course is the fact that many of these travel agents are repeat offenders. There is already one lawyer in Florida considering an action and two others on the west coast that have begun speaking to victims like yourself. Ask Chris Elliott to provide your contact information to me and I will see that you are in touch with the attorneys.

By: Billie Keirstead

Billie Keirstead — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 04:12:49 +0000

Forgot this little tidbit: When I notified LJ in Jan. that we had canceled due to a medical emergency and asked them to help me get the required info to file a claim, NO ONE MENTIONED THE ISSUE WITH THE TRAVEL PROTECTION POLICY. So much for Mr. Ferguson trying to satisfy his customers. Is anyone interested in a class action suit?

By: Billie Keirstead

Billie Keirstead — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:23:40 +0000

We booked a New Years Rose Bowl package with Legendary Journeys in May 2008. I purchased the travel protection policy because my father was a terminal cancer patient and I was concerned that he would pass away causing us to cancel our trip (he died Dec. 20). Even though our deposit with Legendary Journeys exceeded the amount of the trip, they forced us to pay for the insurance separately, which I thought strange. While in LA on the land portion of our trip, I got very sick. My husband and I canceled the cruise portion of the trip, had to stay in LA three more days, and had to have a physician visit me in the hotel. I filed the insurance in early Jan. In March we got the letter telling us that the company had ceased operations and we may get our claim some time in the next 3-5 years. Why didn’t LJ obtain different insurance for us after they were notified in Sept. instead of letting us keep this worthless policy? We are out more than $1200 and are furious. LJ was the worst agency we have ever worked with. All 10 of us who traveled together on this trip thought we were getting gyped. I don’t know what to do next to try to recover this money in these tight economic times.

By: Chloe

Chloe — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:18:15 +0000

Kim in Texas – the comments below were posted on another blog that appears on this site. Don’t let Mr. Ferguson make you believe that he only recently stopped selling illegal insurance. His company is an habitual seller of these fraudulent products. If your parents are not only owed their claim, but a refund for every policy they may have purchased if it is found to have been illegal:

“As far back as 2003 and continuing through 2007 the Legendary Journey’s website advertised “Travel Protection”, but it was labeled on the front page link as “insurance”. There was no disclosure provided regarding licensing information for the “travel protection” advertised. The state has strict regulations regarding appropriate disclosure even for legitimate insurance products. Some might consider such an omission deception, if not outright fraud.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070501041711/http://www.legendaryjourneys.com/

http://web.archive.org/web/20070510020435/www.legendaryjourneys.com/insurance.cfm

Your claim that you stopped selling the PTP product in September 2008 does not tell the full story of your track record selling unauthorized travel protection. You freely admit that you began selling Watson’s product beginning in January 2007. One would have thought after the highly publicized Florida cease and desist against Trip Assured, you would have been able to determine the difference between an unauthorized product and a legitimate one.

By: Harry Baxter

Harry Baxter — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:03:37 +0000

Here’s a link to Todd Ulrich’s report from last nite on Orlando’s Channel 9 WFTV.
Review it and make your own decision about Mr. Ferguson and his company, Legendary Journeys.

http://www.wftv.com/action9/18957201/detail.html

By: Al Ferguson

Al Ferguson — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:59:47 +0000

KIM: So much of what you have just said is absolutely incorrect and I will not call you names (as you do). I do not know what (or who) you are talking about and if you are really interested in resolving your mothers issue so please send me an email at al@legendaryjourneys.com

But, come on….some fairness:

1. You are putting words in someone’s mouth “don’t push to hard” and imply your mother was threatned. and we tried to keep it quiet. Please no one at Legendary Journeys would do that and everything we have done since VPS/Prime went bankrupt proves otherwise.

2. I respectfully disagree with you. We sold a commissionable insurance product like we sell hundreds of other products. We sold iTRAVEL in 2006 and were forced to move (like hundreds of travel agencies) to a new insurance product in January 2007 and stopped in September 2008. IF there is fraud it is committed by the insurance company. IF there is fraud it is committed against your mother AND Legendary Journeys. We have taken legal actiion against the insurance product. We have spent a HUGE sums of money and time to protect our clients and to provide accurate information. Your response is to call me a Fraud and Liar.

We have been an EXTREMELY responsible travel agency during this insurance situation. We will continue to be extremely responsible. The remaining question as it relates to your personal issue is how we try to satisfy your mother or do you just pursue the blood of my company and not accomplish anything for her. Mr. Elliott’s blog has allowed both sides of this complicated issue be aired. If we are able to satisfy your mother’s issue I hope you will be as quick to retrack and apologize your above comments.

Al Ferguson
Vice President
Legendary Journeys

By: Kim Zarder

Kim Zarder — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:05:42 +0000

I agree that information is power. My parents booked a European cruise with Mr. Ferguson’s travel agency in Florida – Legendary Journeys. They have always purchased the trip insurance and never had to use it, until last spring when my mom was diagnosed with a condition that would keep her from making that trip. Lo and behold…. the trip insurance your agent sold them declined to make good on the policy. When my mother called Legendary Journeys with the information she had dug up about Mr. Watson’s scams, the agent told her they were aware of some problems, but still they continued to sell the product. When my mother called the travel agent again and asked about the “profit” Legendary Journeys made from the bogus “insurance policies” she was told not “to push too hard on this subject”. That was all it took. My mother began a letter writing campaign over the last year that would lead to a Channel 9 news investigation and a glaring light was put on both Legendary Journeys and Mr. Watson’s insurance scams.

Legendary did not, as Mr. Ferguson said, call my parents and try to help them with this problem. In fact, they tried to get my parents to keep this quiet. Mr. Ferguson, you are a liar and a fraud and are just as responsible for this fraud as Mr. Watson. Shame on you for taking advantage of the elderly in Florida. By the way, the number of people who were defrauded by your company is much more than 25 and I hope all of them get their money back and you, sir, are never allowed to run a travel agency in any state.

Kim in Texas

By: Al Ferguson

Al Ferguson — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:11:04 +0000

TRIP ASSURED
Jerry Watson was Vice President of the largest Travel Agency consortium group in America and then became a sales person for McKinley Johnson at Trip Assured. A huge number of agencies that sold that insurance product were introduced to this product by Jerry Watson. As far as I know, he had no ownership in Trip Assured. We saw many problems with Trip Assured and discontinued selling their product long before the issues that occured with with that company. As far as I know, we had no clients ever effected by Trip Assured.
TIMELINE
For Legendary Journeys we were selling iTRAVEL insurance up until December 31, 2006. Again, this was an insurance product in many software reservation systems. Ironically, we stopped selling iTRAVEL (as all travel agencies in Florida did on January 1, 2007) because they had Florida state regulatory issues and advised us they would not continue selling in Florida (but would continue in all 49 other states) until they resolved their issues with Florida (which they have done and have provided the correct licensed insurance in Florida today). Because iTRAVEL would no longer be included in the software automation of travel agents automation systems we had to turn to a new insurance product and sold (through our automation system, Jerry Watson’s product, which was added in January 2007. We stopped selling this product in September 2008 and moved to Travelex and continue to do so today.)

I hope this provides some clarification.

Al Ferguson
Vice President
Legendary Journeys

By: Harry Baxter

Harry Baxter — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:53:00 +0000

Anything that Mr. Ferguson does regarding Jerry Watson is irrelevant. His lawsuit, if he really files it, is nothing but a diversion from the fact that Mr. Ferguson broke Florida law by selling an illegal insurance product. The laws are quite specific. He and his company have to compensate his his victims. “Sound and Fury” still signifies Nothing.

By: Pat Burk

Pat Burk — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:07:28 +0000

Mr. Ferguson:
On the surface, you’re doing your best to separate yourself from BPC and Palm Coast Travel. Just separating yourself from the “Attack the messenger” tactics of Mr. Russo, with his legal threats to Mr. Elliott, is commendable. However, there are a couple of questions that you haven’t answered, and they have been asked several times by several bloggers. Here they are again:

Did you ever sell Trip Assured products?

Since 2003, until September of 2008, did you ever sell an insurance product that Jerry Watson was not connected with? If so, please tell us the name of the product.

If you don’t answer these questions, we’ll have to draw our own conclusions.