Thursday, November 5, 2009
Breathtakingly Beautiful
I was surfing the internet and found some awesome pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope that I thought I'd share:
Friday, October 30, 2009
Let's Try This Again.....Shall We??????
Ok, I've booked my 40th birthday vacation. We're booked at the Royal Decameron Complex in Bucerias, Mexico. Basically the same trip we had booked in May of this year only we're going to a different hotel at a different time and I've got my H1N1 vaccination.....TAKE THAT FLU SEASON!!!!!
We will be lying on the beach in February with 2 girls (mother & daughter) that work with Darren. They've never been to Mexico so they wanted to go with people who have travelled there before. I hope they enjoy this trip because I would really like it if they fell in love with Mexico as much as I have. I already have our next 2 vacations planned.....Huatulco in January 2011 and Manzanillo in January 2012.
At some point in time I'm gonna have to start saving up for our trip to Australia/New Zealand for Darren's 50th birthday (thankfully that's not till 2017) and I really want to hit Scotland and Bora Bora before I die. I guess this means I'll have to lay off the Mexican vacations for a while..........
We will be lying on the beach in February with 2 girls (mother & daughter) that work with Darren. They've never been to Mexico so they wanted to go with people who have travelled there before. I hope they enjoy this trip because I would really like it if they fell in love with Mexico as much as I have. I already have our next 2 vacations planned.....Huatulco in January 2011 and Manzanillo in January 2012.
At some point in time I'm gonna have to start saving up for our trip to Australia/New Zealand for Darren's 50th birthday (thankfully that's not till 2017) and I really want to hit Scotland and Bora Bora before I die. I guess this means I'll have to lay off the Mexican vacations for a while..........
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
I Take Back Everything Nice I've Ever Said.......And It Breaks My Heart To Have To Do It.
This is the police report I had to file because of an unfortunate turn of events with my travel agent. The thing that hurts the most is that I really thought she was a friend and not just my travel agent. I don't hold any ill-will towards her and I hope that she can come out of this a better person. That being said, this is a cautionary tale of what can happen...even when you think you can trust someone:
P.S......as I'm not sure about the legal ramifications of this so I will be excluding the name of said travel agent.
On or about the 1st of February, 2009 we contacted our travel agent ____________ of _____________ (780-???-????) to book a 2 week vacation from May 2, 2009 to May 16, 2009 at the Riu Jalisco in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico with Sunquest Vacations. On or about the 4th of February, 2009 our Line of Credit Master Card was billed $1,896.00 to Thomas Cook Canada Inc. Toronto and $2,264.00 to WestJet AB(see attached) for said vacation, total cost being $4,160.00. On or about April 23, 2009 we received our confirmation/edocument via email from ____________for our vacation (see attached). On or about the 28th of April, 2009 we received a phone call from ______ informing us that Sunquest Vacations had cancelled all flights to Mexico due to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. She told us that she had negotiated with Sunquest a credit for our vacation which would be honored for up to one year from the date of our original vacation and that if the vacation costed more Sunquest would cover the cost and if the vacation costed less we would receive a refund for the difference. Sunquest's website had posted that they were honoring all bookings but they had to be rebooked and taken by November 2009. On or About the 19th of June, 2009 after several unsuccessful attempts to contact __________with regards to a different matter we decided to contact Sunquest Vacations (1-877-485-6060) to confirm our credit on file with them for our untaken vacation. Upon speaking with a Sunquest representative and giving them our booking number as well as our confirmation number that appeared on our emailed edocument, we were informed that they were unable to locate any bookings under those numbers or our names with ___________. We were finally able to reach ________on or about the 24th of June 2009 at which time she informed us that the reason Sunquest couldn't find our booking was because it was bundled with a few other couples and the booking had been made under Newwest Travel, the travel agency that ___________'s private travel agency was affiliated with. She then informed us that she was going to try to sell our credit with Sunquest Vacations to someone who was taking a vacation immediately and use the money that she received from that booking to fund a vacation for us in February with Westjet Vacations as we had decided we wanted to travel in February and _____ had said she feared Sunquest might suffering the same fate as Conquest Vacations and we would lose our money if they closed their doors or went bankrupt. On or about the 1st of September we tried to contact _____ to check on the progress of our booking but her voicemail at her office indicated that she was out for the week of July 27th and her voicemail was full, so we sent an email instead. Within this week we also spoke to a mutal friend who had informed us that someone had tried to reach ______ to make a booking and they were informed by a colleague that _____ was sick and was getting out of the travel business and they should find a new agent. Upon hearing this we decided to contact Newwest Travel to see if we could get additional information and possibly book our vacation with them since we were told the original booking was connected to this travel agency. On or about the 10th of September, 2009 we spoke to a representative at Newwest Travel by the name of Debbie (780-432-7446 ext 234) to see if she could help us with any information regarding _____'s whereabouts or help us with rebooking our credit. Debbie informed us that _____ was in the hospital and she could try to help us if the booking was registered with Newwest Travel. We gave her our confirmation number and booking numbers that we had received on our emailed edocument back in April but Debbie said those numbers did not exist in any of her records and she couldn't find any bookings under either of our names in the system. We explained that we had proof of paying for the vacation on our Line of Credit Master Card statement as well as this edocument. Debbie requested that we send her a copy of the information and she would investigate further to see if she could find our booking. On or about the 24th of September, 2009 we spoke to Debbie at Newwest Travel and she informed us that after speaking to Sunquest Vacations and Westjet she discovered that the money we paid for our vacation was used to pay for another couple's vacation in February 2009. Additionally there was never any booking for us in May on record anywhere and there was no credit for this booking either. Debbie informed me that she could not tell me the name of the couple that received our money because of the Privacy Act, but she did speak to Sunquest Vacations and they confirmed that our card was used for a partial payment in the amount of $1,896.00 for a vacation in February for this couple under booking number 30993776. Debbie also said she spoke to a Lisa Brown at Westjet Security (1-877-223-0117) who informed her that our card was used to pay for airfare in the amount of $2,264.00 for the same couple's vacation in February. Upon receiving this information we contacted Lisa to confirm what Debbie had told us and find out what our next course of action should be. Lisa again informed us of the false booking and said that she could not give us the name of the people who received their vacation with our money. She said our only course of action would be to dispute the claim with our bank and try to recover our money that way. She also encouraged us to go to the police and file a report as there are many other victims and this needs to be dealt with in a legal way as well. On or about the 25th of September we went to our branch of the Bank of Montreal to discuss how to dispute the claims on our card. At this time we were informed by Adrienne Papirnik (780-408-0233) that we needed to contact Master Card directly (1-800-223-2236) to dispute the charges and we could use her as a contact if necessary. We called Mastercard to dispute the charges and it was at this point that they informed us that they were unable to help us as it was past the 100 day time limit from the date of original travel. Since we did not have proof that we had a credit for November that wasn't going to be honored, the only way to recover our money at this point was to go to our local police station and file a report.
P.S......as I'm not sure about the legal ramifications of this so I will be excluding the name of said travel agent.
On or about the 1st of February, 2009 we contacted our travel agent ____________ of _____________ (780-???-????) to book a 2 week vacation from May 2, 2009 to May 16, 2009 at the Riu Jalisco in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico with Sunquest Vacations. On or about the 4th of February, 2009 our Line of Credit Master Card was billed $1,896.00 to Thomas Cook Canada Inc. Toronto and $2,264.00 to WestJet AB(see attached) for said vacation, total cost being $4,160.00. On or about April 23, 2009 we received our confirmation/edocument via email from ____________for our vacation (see attached). On or about the 28th of April, 2009 we received a phone call from ______ informing us that Sunquest Vacations had cancelled all flights to Mexico due to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. She told us that she had negotiated with Sunquest a credit for our vacation which would be honored for up to one year from the date of our original vacation and that if the vacation costed more Sunquest would cover the cost and if the vacation costed less we would receive a refund for the difference. Sunquest's website had posted that they were honoring all bookings but they had to be rebooked and taken by November 2009. On or About the 19th of June, 2009 after several unsuccessful attempts to contact __________with regards to a different matter we decided to contact Sunquest Vacations (1-877-485-6060) to confirm our credit on file with them for our untaken vacation. Upon speaking with a Sunquest representative and giving them our booking number as well as our confirmation number that appeared on our emailed edocument, we were informed that they were unable to locate any bookings under those numbers or our names with ___________. We were finally able to reach ________on or about the 24th of June 2009 at which time she informed us that the reason Sunquest couldn't find our booking was because it was bundled with a few other couples and the booking had been made under Newwest Travel, the travel agency that ___________'s private travel agency was affiliated with. She then informed us that she was going to try to sell our credit with Sunquest Vacations to someone who was taking a vacation immediately and use the money that she received from that booking to fund a vacation for us in February with Westjet Vacations as we had decided we wanted to travel in February and _____ had said she feared Sunquest might suffering the same fate as Conquest Vacations and we would lose our money if they closed their doors or went bankrupt. On or about the 1st of September we tried to contact _____ to check on the progress of our booking but her voicemail at her office indicated that she was out for the week of July 27th and her voicemail was full, so we sent an email instead. Within this week we also spoke to a mutal friend who had informed us that someone had tried to reach ______ to make a booking and they were informed by a colleague that _____ was sick and was getting out of the travel business and they should find a new agent. Upon hearing this we decided to contact Newwest Travel to see if we could get additional information and possibly book our vacation with them since we were told the original booking was connected to this travel agency. On or about the 10th of September, 2009 we spoke to a representative at Newwest Travel by the name of Debbie (780-432-7446 ext 234) to see if she could help us with any information regarding _____'s whereabouts or help us with rebooking our credit. Debbie informed us that _____ was in the hospital and she could try to help us if the booking was registered with Newwest Travel. We gave her our confirmation number and booking numbers that we had received on our emailed edocument back in April but Debbie said those numbers did not exist in any of her records and she couldn't find any bookings under either of our names in the system. We explained that we had proof of paying for the vacation on our Line of Credit Master Card statement as well as this edocument. Debbie requested that we send her a copy of the information and she would investigate further to see if she could find our booking. On or about the 24th of September, 2009 we spoke to Debbie at Newwest Travel and she informed us that after speaking to Sunquest Vacations and Westjet she discovered that the money we paid for our vacation was used to pay for another couple's vacation in February 2009. Additionally there was never any booking for us in May on record anywhere and there was no credit for this booking either. Debbie informed me that she could not tell me the name of the couple that received our money because of the Privacy Act, but she did speak to Sunquest Vacations and they confirmed that our card was used for a partial payment in the amount of $1,896.00 for a vacation in February for this couple under booking number 30993776. Debbie also said she spoke to a Lisa Brown at Westjet Security (1-877-223-0117) who informed her that our card was used to pay for airfare in the amount of $2,264.00 for the same couple's vacation in February. Upon receiving this information we contacted Lisa to confirm what Debbie had told us and find out what our next course of action should be. Lisa again informed us of the false booking and said that she could not give us the name of the people who received their vacation with our money. She said our only course of action would be to dispute the claim with our bank and try to recover our money that way. She also encouraged us to go to the police and file a report as there are many other victims and this needs to be dealt with in a legal way as well. On or about the 25th of September we went to our branch of the Bank of Montreal to discuss how to dispute the claims on our card. At this time we were informed by Adrienne Papirnik (780-408-0233) that we needed to contact Master Card directly (1-800-223-2236) to dispute the charges and we could use her as a contact if necessary. We called Mastercard to dispute the charges and it was at this point that they informed us that they were unable to help us as it was past the 100 day time limit from the date of original travel. Since we did not have proof that we had a credit for November that wasn't going to be honored, the only way to recover our money at this point was to go to our local police station and file a report.
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