Poor Service and Follow-thru
Written: Jan 06 '07
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Pros: Courteous on phone, but no action behind the words
Cons: Package not arranged properly, Issues not resolved, Calls/e-mails not returned. Poor overall service
The Bottom Line: I would avoid this company as they are not careful about setting up your vacations and do not follow thru on service or inquiries when you have issues.
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| hmmanning's Full Review: Worry Free MLT Vacations |
Below is the letter I wrote to MLT (also going as NWA World Vacations). They have yet to respond..
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We reserved and paid in full for air travel and a rental car for our trip to Hawaii. About a week after making our reservations (3 weeks prior to travel), I called National to get a confirmation number for the car rental. They indicated that they had nothing on record. I then called NWA (MLT Worry Free) Vacations and asked them for a National Confirmation Number, indicating that I had called National and they did not have one for me. The representative at that time told me that NWAVacations does not send the information to National until 24 hours prior to travel so they would not have a number until then. (When I asked the National Rep upon arrival at the Kona Airport, they said that this was not true). Further, the information from NWA Vacations states that I simply need to give National my name upon arrival and they'd be able to provide the car.
Upon arrival at Kona, National had no record of a reservation for us. I therefore had to rent a car using my personal credit card. I chose a car that was LESS EXPENSIVE than what I had reserved thru NWA Vacations. The agent indicated that the luxury cars (which is what we had reserved) were going out at about $200 per day due to the demand, and in any case, they did not have any available. The car I chose was $99 per day.
Upon arrival at the hotel, I called NWA Vacations and explained the situation. She said that she would work on it "all night" and take care of it. She also indicated that she would send me an e-mail upone resolution. She instructed me to keep the car that I had and upon it's return, I would not have to pay (since she'd have it resolved).
When we turned in the car prior to our flight back to the mainland, again, they had no indication that the issue had been resolved. In fact, they had no indication that they had been contacted in any way. I therefore had to pay for the car ($661.45).
I again called NWA Vacations the next morning (tried the night before at Kona but office hours were closed) and spoke to Maryanne. She indicated that the notes on the file showed that the prior agent had called and they had not been able to reach the person that they needed to talk to. There was no indication of any further followup. Maryanne apparently made some calls and left a message on our home phone indicating that that the problem was that NWAVacations computer sends the info to National indicating the departure flight time and that National responded saying that they were closed at that time and did not make the reservation (flight time was 11:50PM, however we'd be dropping well prior to that, and of course they were open at that time). Maryanne also said she'd be crediting the $376 rental part of our vacation back to our credit card.
Note that there were a number of issues that appear to be either NWAVacations fault, or at best, miscommunications between NWA Vacations and National.
1) NWAVacations never properly setup the rental in the first place back in late November. No follow thru in closing the loop. Seems like after I had called them to indicate that National had no record of a reservation in my name that the rep at NWA Vacations would have followed up to confirm that a car would be ready for us. Apparently this never happened and I was given false information that a car would be ready
2) The first NWA Vacations rep that I talked to after arrival in Hawaii did not follow thru to fix the issue prior to my returning the vehicle, though she had a full 5 days to do so. It appears that She made the single call while I was on hold on the 23rd and never did any more work on the file.
3) Maryanne indicated that their computer sends the info to National and that National responded that the time for drop-off was after the National office was closed, so National never made the resevation. It's very difficult for me to believe that I'm the first person to make arrangements thru NWAVacations to drop off a car with National to catch the 11:50 delta flight back to SLC. Also, the National manager on duty when I dropped off the car indicated that they've had numerous issues with cars rented thru NWAVacations.
4) Since Maryanne indicated that National actually reponded indicating that the reservation was never made, why didn't NWAVacations call back at that time to rectify the miscommunication?
5) At no time in ANY conversation with NWA Vacations did anyone indicate that I would be needing to pay for the entire non-discounted cost of the car. Had I had any clue prior to travel that this might happen, I would have arranged my own car at the reduced rates. I have 4 free days saved up with National and would have used them for this vacation, but the discount pricing thru the package was attractive so I decided to go with that. "Free days" are most effectively used when you expect to need an expensive car such as the one we were hoping for with our NWAVacations package.
In summary, there were many opportunities for NWA Vacations to fix this issue prior to my turning in this car. Because of this failure to do so, I had to pay the full price of the lesser rental and and now requesting that amount be refunded to my card. Since apparently NWA Vacations has already refunded $376 (please confirm), I am due now the difference of $285.45. It does not matter to me if this comes as a credit from National or NWA Vacations, but I expect NWA Vacations to resolve the issue since you were our vacation agent and representative for this trip. I will not be trying to contact National regarding this problem.
Up to this point, my conversations with your representatives have been pleasent and I have absolutely no issues at all with how they have dealt with us. I realize that mistakes happen in any business. When mistakes happen however, it's expected that those at fault rectify the situation, even if it means addional unexpected costs to the one at fault. The $376 credit is not sufficient. I am not asking for any additional compensation beyond my cost of the rental thru National (though some might consider costs of calls/airtime/roaming, having to accept a lesser car, and "inconveniences" as additional issues requiring added compensation).
I would like a response by Jan 5, 2007. If we have not had resolution by that time, I will initiate other measures.
Thankyou for your consideration.
Recommended:
No
Best Suited For: Families
Tour type: Individual
Tour format: Various
Tour length: Several Days
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Epinions.com ID:
hmmanning
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Reviews written: 1
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