Travel by Jen

Below is the email I sent to Travel by Jen after my recent trip to the DR. I still have yet to hear back from them and this email was sent November [redacted],2015
Joshua,
Good morning,
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am emailing you in regards to my trip to the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately this was the worst trip I've been on and I was highly disappointed. I wanted to share my experience so Travel by Jen will know that the Casa Marina Beach and Reef resort is a fraud. I'll start off with our room; our "garden view" was a joke, the only thing we could see from the outside of our room was the building behind us and the dumpster where they put all of their trash. Our sheets were never changed! We had to deal with a weird smell and couldn't get very much sleep due to the fact that we felt so dirty in our bed. The sink in the bathroom was falling off the wall! We were told on arriving to our hotel that the bars would be open 24/7 and this was not the case. Everything was closed around 10:30pm. We had to wake up early to make a reservation at the "Italian Restaurant" only to find out that night that it was shut down and we were misdirected multiple times until we were finally told that the only restaurant open was El Jalapeno. The staff at the hotel was rude! I can understand Spanish and it is very disappointing and hurtful when everyday the staff would make a comment about the "white girl" and during the last hour of the buffet talk about how mad they were that people were still eating because this was now "their food". I wish I was told that during the weekends the hotel lets the locals come in at half price. The locals were horrible and I was grabbed inappropriately on multiple occasions. The safes that are located in the rooms HAVE NO LOCKS! Our phones did not have service so we shut them off, on our way out of the hotel they tried to charge us for using an hours worth of wifi! Our phones were not even turned on! We were unable to go into the ocean during our stay which was sad because that was what we wanted to spend our vacation doing. We were not able to put our feet in the water or try any of the "free water sports". We also missed the whole last day of our trip because the taxi service told us they would only pick us up go to the airport at 8:30am (our flight was not till 2:30pm) on arriving to the airport we had to wait an hour just for them to open up the United window to get our tickets. I spent many months working to save up for a trip and I would have had a better time staying at home. It makes me sick every time one of my friends comes up to me asking how my trip was and I have nothing nice to say about it at all. I would appreciate hearing back from you within 24 hours to discuss what can be done regarding this trip.

Review: My husband and I booked a trip with travels by Jen. We initially learned of the company through Groupon.. It seemed like a good deal. 5-nights in the Dominican Republic including airfare for under $1600. We were scheduled to leave on 5/*/2015. Our travel agent [redacted] had sent us numerous emails which included "updated" itinerary up to the day of the travel. Travels by Jen scheduled scheduled us to fly out of DCA on friday morning, and conncect in Newark, NJ before arriving at our final destination of Puerto Plata. We attempted to check in to our flight the night before we were set to leave but were unable to do so online.. We figured it may have been an error with the website and decided to just get to the airport 2 hours early the next morning. Upon arriving 2 hours early to check in to our flight, we were told that we could NOT depart since our conncting flight was leaving before we would arrive in Newark.. Well that was a HUGE shock to us considering the itinerary Travels by Jen sent us said the connecting flight was leaving an hour after we would arrive... After being told by the airline there was nothing they could do.. No other flights were connecting to the dominican republic that day. And Travels by Jen did not open for another 3 hours we decided to look at the flight number the travel agent had sent us... That flight ended up being a flight from Nebraska to Denver. We immediately felt like we had been taken advantage of. How can a travel agent send itinerary that is for lack of a better word, FAKE? Fortunuately for us, United Airlines refunded the price of our airfare, and were were able to find a flight on our own to the Dominican. That flight did not leave until the next day. So we missed out on an entire day and a half of our vacation.... Travels by Jen did not reimburse us for the night missed. They suggested we ask the hotel for reimbursement once we arrived in the dominican. Well we explained the situation to the hotel and they were unable to process the refund. We don't blame the hotel.. It wasnt their fault the travel agent booked the wrong flight. Travels by Jen has been nearly impossible to contact since then. It's unbelievable to me that a business can function in this country off of the basis of stealing people's money. I really wish we would have read the reviews because I can see that we are not the first ones who fell prey to Travels by Jen.Desired Settlement: At the very least we would like to be refunded for the price of the hotel for the day/night that we were unable to stay due to Travels by Jen booking us an incorrect flight.

Business

Response:

[redacted] called our office on January [redacted] 2015 to book a vacation with flights on United airlines. His agent notified him of a schedule change but he failed to respond to confirm the new times so when he went to check in the airline did not recognize his ticket. The airline refunded him in full for the original tickets and he purchased a new ticket on AA for less than he originally spent. We notified the transfer company and the hotel of the new times for this arrival and refunded in full for the missed night.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

I am in complete shock by the response from Travels by Jen. They sent the updated itinerary on April [redacted]. We were not notified of any changes of flights after that date. When we attempted to check in to the flight on the night of April [redacted] we were unable.. due to the fact that it was an incorrect flight. We did not learn that the flight travels by Jen booked for us was actually a flight from Nebraska to Denver (we were flying from DC to Newark) until we arrived at the airport on May [redacted]. I am attaching a copy of the last itinerary sent to us by [redacted] from Travels by Jen.. This itinerary shows us leaving from DC at 7:05 am on 5/* and arriving at Newark at 8:08am.. It then shows us departing from Newark on UA 1486 at 9:15 am and arriving at Puerto Plata at 1:10 PM. It wasnt until we were at the airport that we were told that UA 1486 was actually going from Nebraska to Colorado. Once we were finally able to contact Travels by Jen, [redacted] aknowledged that the flight changed 2 days prior to our departure, but she was not "aware." I am unsure of how a travel agent is unaware of a flight change, and even more unsure as to why we were not notified... Fortunately the airline DID refund us for ouor flight so we booked the next flight out by ourselves, but that didnt leave until the next day. Travels by Jen refunded us $79.. which is lower than the amount of a 1 night stay at the resort. I am unsure of how a busniess like travels by Jen can opperate in the United States. It seems like a scam to me. Needless to say our anniversary was not what we had planned or hoped or even paid for. It was a complete disaster and Travels by Jen takes no ownership. We chose a travel agency to plan a trip for us, and we ended up spending more time fixing their mistake than we would have if we planned the trip by ourselves.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Review: I saw a deal on Groupon and wanted to book a trip with Travel by Jen on Dec **, 2014. Everything was fine until I found the trip was too long for my two kids. I tried to cancel it after two hours. Then I was told I needed to pay a penalty 100 dollars/per person with total amount 400 dollars. The trip's departure day is on March **, 2015 with booking number [redacted]. Meanwhile I was told that Travel by Jen could arrange a private tour to minimize the time from airport to hotel. I was happy to get an upgrade. So I said I would keep the reservation. Next day another email came; I had to pay 200 dollars for upgrade! Adding this amount into the trip, it did not worth it any more. Finally I insisted to cancel my booking at 12/**/2014. I got nothing but 400 dollars penalty for my call! It is such a horrible experience, I booked lots of deal with travel agency and with Travel by Jen I am so disappointed. This is worst travel agency I have ever had. It didn't tell me the cancellation fee at the beginning and all of a sudden you need to pay for the cancellation. And it is so ridiculous to charge so much for their worst service in two hours.Desired Settlement: Refund-Credit Card Credit

Business

Response:

[redacted] called our office to book her non refundable vacation package that we were advertising that she was interested in. After the package was booked, paid for and ticketed, she realized that the drive to the hotel might be too far for her kids. The agent offered to upgrade her transfers to the hotel from the airport to private for the cost of shared, which would mean a shorter drive time since the transfer would be non stop, and would be about an hour and half. She agreed to this, but then refused to pay the cost of the shared transfer. The agent then offered to move them to another hotel of the same star value with private transfers for no additional cost. The new hotel being offered was also 30 min closer to the airport and would cut down her drive time. The client refused and decided she just wanted to cancel the reservation. The agent contacted the airline and the hotel and we were able to knock the penalty down to $100 per person, instead of completely non refundable. [redacted] then filled out the cancellation form agreeing to the penalties. She referenced the cancellation penalty on Groupon - but I will copy what they actually say:"Cancellation policy & fees: 46-day cancellation notice required or fee of 50% Groupon price applies; 31-day notice or fee up to Groupon price applies. Airfare nonrefundable after booking."As you can see the airfare should have been completely non refundable. We made several attempts to try to help her, by upgrading to private transfer at the cost of shared transfers, and by moving her hotel closer to the airport, none of which were acceptable to her. Since she still wanted to cancel completely we worked to reduce her penalty down to $100 per person. Please let me know if you need me to supply the cancellation form that she signed, or anything additional.

Do NOT use this travel agency! We booked through them for our honeymoon and it was a mistake! The travel agents didn't know where the nearest airports were to the resort and didn't even have the address to the resort. We were told that after arriving in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, it would be 1.5 hours to La Romana where the resort was....nope. The resort was actually in Samana... FOUR HOURS FURTHER and basically across the entire country. Also, they booked the flights so we arrived practically at sunset, so it was dark, the driver's didn't speak English, which is fine except it caused some issues with me piecing together the Spanish I know and trying to figure out where the heck we had to go, and there were times I really thought that it would be super easy to just rob us, or worse. Didn't arrive at the resort until 11:00pm, exhausted, since the first flight had left at 6:00am out of the midwest. Essentially, the first day/night was a waste. Not to mention that we basically got screwed on having to pay the driver's waaaaayyyy more than the fare was worth it just to get there because, let's face it, they had us between a rock and a hard place. So, there went our excursion money.
Whatever happens, just DON'T USE THIS TRAVEL AGENCY!!! They are the WORST!

They are very unprofessional and used their American Express credit card for our airline ticket shutout our permission and charged us separatetly therefore we could not use our free bag usage by our mileage credit card and charged for our ticket. Also they are not reimbursing us for all bagged charges we had to pay at airport.

The hotel reservation was disaster as well and they caused us so much problem and trouble in Jaco Beach Costa Rica.

We have to go to court I Gus's to resolve for our money because they want to give us voucher for future trip. We don't trusted anymore, specially the Travel Agent Theresa Santoro.