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I booked a destination wedding in Nov 2009 for Punta Cana for October 30th, 2010 with Robert Phillips. I had sent several emails and phone calls to him about getting my wedding planned, since he never returned calls or emails, I contacted the resort directly. The resort informed me I could not get legally married at any resort in Punta Cana that day, I could only have a symoblic wedding. They said they pastor was booked for the entire day. I then made a phone call to Travel by Jen and had robert call me from his vacation in Jamaica as I was pretty livid. We then changed resorts and countries so we could get legally married. We booked for Cancun. All of my guests called and complained to me saying they could never get ahold of Robert to put a deposit down, everyone in their office said they couldn't help either we had to deal directly with him. I emailed Robert saying I wanted someone else to help do the bookings, he said Danielle could help, same thing still happened she told my guests she couldn't help. I then was trying to get my wedding set up with the wedding planner, and I was given different prices from Robert and the wedding planner. Robert kept telling me I had a $400 credit and no one at the resort or the wedding planner knew about it, they still dont know about it to this day.
I recently just called my wedding off and have had even more problems trying to get my money back from TravelbyJen. I was told when I booked my wedding that it was a $50 cancellation fee for any guests, now he is saying its $100(the same as the deposit) He is trying to charge me $500 for canceling and won't send me any proof/documentation of what Im being charged for. He said he is charging me for canceling Punta Cana and Cancun. He is charging me for his mistake of not booking my wedding the day I paid him in December 09. He said he is being charged from the resorts and I asked him to show me documentation and he still hasn't. I have no problem paying if you show me you are actually being charged. I tried to meet him half way and said I will pay $200 for cancellation and that is still not good enough for him.
I have filed complaints with the BBB and if I don't hear from him in the next week I will be taking them to small claims court. This is the worst traveling agency I have ever had to deal with. They are rude and unprofessional. DO NOT EVER USE TRAVEL BY JEN!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer's satisfaction.
Life is what you make it. If You are an indecisive person, you have to be flexible and make the best of it whatever comes out of it.
Having also dealt with Robert, I would like to express my frustration.
1. Robert, who do you think you are putting this client's FULL NAME on the internet? She did not reveal her identity, but you did. That is an extremely unprofessional violation of her privacy. Yes, she used your name because you are a travel agent and she is identifying you as someone she had a bad experience with. It is entirely inappropriate for you to "out" her in defending yourself.
2. 100 hours? Really? I find that hard to believe, Rob. I've dealt with you before and it's hard enough getting you to spend 10 minutes on a client.
3. Yes, there are some people who are difficult to please. And being a travel agent is a difficult job; you're going to deal with a lot of people who don't understand the industry at all and are unhappy with the way things go -- often when it's not your fault at all. But that doesn't excuse your flagrant exaggerations and snotty attitude. So what if you were out of the country? Your company is NOTORIOUS for "locking" clients into a specific agent. Over two years later, I had a similar problem as Candi. I booked with you, and you were impossible to reach. Other agents in your office said they were POWERLESS to help me. They wouldn't even provide INFORMATION.
I want to introduce myself and explain why I am sending you this message. My name is Chad Bruce I am a Protection Agent with The Travel Defender. I help people who have had issues with travel vendors get their issue resolved and put in to the lap of the right person, generally this would be the President/CEO of the travel vendor or the Guest Services Manager. Please feel free to visit our website at www.thetraveldefender.com or call us 24 hours a day for free at 1-855-4-HELP-70 . I look forward to helping you get this issue resolved.
We are also travel agents and find this to be very inconsiderate from the agents reply. This is very unprofessional and unethical.
Thanks Candi for your comments. We were going to use Travelbyjen but now would even consider it.
I left vm messages onver the week end called 8 x's yeterday, when it was time to go home, they disconnected me. now there saying I have to hold 30 mins or more. I really need to get away after having a heart attack, I expect better response time, maybe not, my time is important also!
I have left several messages onver the weekend on vm, called 7 times never got any, kept on hold 15 to 20 mins. called late yesterday put on hold disconnected when it was time for them to go home.
I need to talk with someone, their making stress level high
All this above is bs
Very true information. Booked a trip with them as well. To be fair, they have good prices but their customer service is terrible. We paid extra to have us pick us up at the airport and no one showed up. Tried to call to get refunded as well and got no reply.
I used Travel By Jen several times and was very pleased. However, I just tried to book an advertised special and what a run around I got. My husband and I were quoted a price and we were about to book, however we had a question about the buggy trip that was included. The Agent Joshua was to call us back with some information. No call back, so I called him. The Manager I think Matt, told me the advertised special was old and prices did not apply. This trip was and still is up on their website. So how could it be old? He kept saying they leave old prices up so people can look at them! What! But the prices don't apply? I wanted the package with direct airfare which I know costs more. But the flights, hotel everything was a different price. So we didn't book and are looking into another travel agent. Very sad when people try to deceive you and ruin how you are feeling about your anticipated vacation. Unfortunately I would no longer recommend Travel By Jen.
Just had a similar experience with Travel by Jen. The rep that assisted me was Brandon, I originally called from a special posted on Groupon. I booked an Oceanfront room in the Dominican Republic. Brandon informed me that the flight out of Newark would cost more but that did not bother me, however, the airport he chose in DR was 2 1/2 hours from the resort when there was another airport 15 minutes from there.
The resort was a nightmare, there were not physical locks, the location was in a bad area with little security to keep locals out, the rooms were disgusting and so was the food.
When I tried to get in contact with the representative on the resort they were unavailable for 2 days. Finally, when I spoke to them they did not assist me when I asked to get a flight back to the US immediately. Since my phone wouldn't work and neither the hotel or the rep would allow me to call the airline I had to purchase WiFi to book a $900 flight home.
Brandon, who was off the weekend, told me he would look into it. His solution was to refund me $360 of the $1750 I paid, not including the $900 last minute flight.
His manager, Danielle, told me it was not their responsibily that I didn't have a good vacation. I will never book with this agency again. I wish I read all these reviews prior to booking.