IMAGINE CRUISES - LET THE BUYER BEWARE

Hi Everyone - PLEASE BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH IMAGINE CRUISES. THEY ARE VERY GOOD IN DOING A SALE AND COLLECTING YOUR DEPOSIT BUT WHEN IT COMES TO AFTER SALES SERVICE - THEY ARE PATHETIC AND SHOW NO EMPATHY WHATSOEVER IN DEALING WITH QUERIES POST SALES AND ESPECIALLY DURING THE COVID19 PANDEMIC. OUR EXPERIENCE IS AS FOLLOWS:

Two of my elderly relatives (aged 75 and 69) made a booking to travel on a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines through Imagine Cruises in February 2020 for a trip in October 2020. IMAGINE CRUISES REF: ICS-18889 AND CRUISE LINE ***

These elderly people paid a deposit of R 40 000 which was R 8 000 more than the deposit requested. when they enquired about postponing the trip due to Covid19 they were told that they will loose their deposit if they cancelled or postponed the trip unless they paid for the trip in full and pay the balance of R 64 000.

Given that they had travelled twice before using Imagine Cruising, they were utterly taken aback and traumatised a result of this response and especially fearful that they were going to loose their hard earned pension money. In view of this response, they asked me to assist them is resolving this matter.

On 8 June 2020, I contacted Imagine cruising and spoke to a lady by the name of Mduduzi and she confirmed to me that the deposit will be lost if they cancel or postpone the trip unless the full outstanding balance of R64 000 is paid. She was also insistent that this is their terms and conditions and their terms and conditions mirror the terms and conditions of the primary provider i.e. Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Not being satisfied with this response, I insisted to speak to there manager Sandy who was not available and i was assured that a message will be given to her to call. I followed up Mduduzi, Tumi, Aboo, and Thobelo several times each day from 9 June to 12 June 2020 and each time I was assured that she will call me. In total I made over 20 calls to their office speaking to the people mentioned above and was assured each time that a message will be given to Sandy to call me.

I also contact Norwegian Cruise lines and was told that passengers can cancel or postpone their trip without penalty for trips booked between March and November 2020 as they introduced a special policy to allow for these cancellations or postponements due to Covid19. NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE POLICY IS VERY DIFFERENT TO THE POLICY OF IMAGINE CRUISES and Imagine Cruise claim that their policy mirrors those of the cruise company is false and Imagine Cruises are being disingenuous and callous. I can only conclude from this they they are more concerned about their commissions and do not give a continental about the impact of Covid19 on their clients.

Given the constant failure of Sandy from Imagine Cruises to contact me despite assurances from her staff that she will I decided to email her on 15 June 2020 and requested that she respond by close of business this morning.

I contacted Imagine Cruises, this morning requesting to speak to Sandy as she is the only person dealing with complaints and was told that she has gone on leave for a week.

In my email I went at lengths to inform her that both travellers have existing chronic medical conditions and were advised by their medical specialist not to travel for at least another year. It is common knowledge that elderly people, especially those with existing co-morbidities are extremely high risk of contracting Covid19 and that this virus will be around for another year or two. Do you think that IMAGINR CRUISES cares - certainly not my experience.

This morning I spoke to Thobelo and I am still waiting for their response. Thobelo told me that only Sandy can deal with this query and complaint. For a company that operates in South Africa and the UK - I shudder to thing how a company can only pivot around one person. The staff mentioned in this review has refused to give me the email address of Sandy's boss to take the complaint further.

In my research, I established that a traveller can book directly with Norwegian Cruise Lines or for that matter through Flight Centre, Pentravel and any other reputable travel agency without incurring the exorbitant and punitive cancellation fees that IMAGINE CRUISES have in their terms and conditions. My advise is to shop around and you can get better deals. YOU DEAL WITH INAGINE CRUISES AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

Given that these two elderly people have twice booked through IMAGINE CRUISES and that we are in difficult times with Covid19 going to last for another year or two, i would like to see if this company can show compassion and empathy to people who are high risk of contracting Covid19 if they take the cruise.

THESE ELDERLY PEOPLE ARE NOT ASKING FOR A REFUND BUT REQUEST THAT THEIR DEPOSIT BE HELD OVER FOR A FUTURE TRIP WHICH IMAGINE CRUISES REFUSES TO DO.

SHAME ON THEM FOR EXPLOITING ELDERLY PEOPLE UNDER THESE VERY DIFFICULT TIMES.

LETS SEE HOW IMAGINE CRUISES RESPOND AND THAT IS IF THEY EVER DO.