Tripcentral.ca lacks accountability and takes zero responsibility for any issues that may arise after booking through them. They like to side-step the issues and play the blame game. Once they have your money, they feel no obligation to ensure customer satisfaction. This is true even in cases when something occurs that is not the fault of the traveler whatsoever. My friend and I were overbooked and tripcentral did nothing to fight for us against the tour operator to get us options that were fair and reasonable. Instead, they hid behind the general message of, "we are just the middleman", and proceeded to actually yell at us, speak condescendingly towards us, and even place us on hold mid-sentence when all we were trying to do was resolve an issue that was caused as a result of the incompetence of both tripcentral and the tour operator. The options they presented to us after overbooking us and not notifying us until weeks later were:
1) relocate to a resort of their choosing (and receive a complimentary stay at the original resort in the future minus flight costs) *** but the resort of their choosing was nonnegotiable, which made no sense since the free accommodation was offered to us by the original resort we had booked as compensation for inconveniencing us. So we should have been able to book another resort of OUR choosing (and pay the difference in costs) AND get the 7 nights stay, but trip central and the tour operator refused to budge and insisted that if we want the 7 nights stay offered by the resort, we had to go to the other resort they had chosen for us. Complete BS! We researched the other resort and realized it was isolated, newly opened (meaning lots of operational issues are to be expected), the beach has TONS of seaweed, and it is filled with seniors. Not our scene at all!
2) rebook another trip at today's rates (not rates backdated to original booking date - which resulted in costs of more than $150 per person for resorts we wanted)
3) full refund
They screwed up and we had to pay the price. Neither tripcentral nor the tour operator lost a single thing. We lost our money for a few weeks, we lost ample time which resulted in other resorts getting booked up, and we lost more time trying to get them to amend option 1 to be fair and reasonable. But to no avail.
Thieves. Con artists.
I'm not sure why they even exist since everyone can book directly through tour operators and pay the same, if not less. Tripcentral appears to be nothing more than an added step through which they gain a commission and offer you - the patron - absolutely nothing.
Never again. No accountability, no respect, no follow-up, and no fight to protect their customer's loyalty.
I asked 3 different individuals to call me by today, and no one has. What a surprise!
This post is just the beginning, tripcentral. The media world is going to be hearing about this nonsense until someone publishes the story and gives you the attention you truly deserve.
Do yourselves a favor: do not book with tripcentral. Terrible, terrible service. read more