In Reply to: I'm not blaming anyone posted by gung_victa on Saturday, 7. January 2006 at 10:55 Bali Time:
circumstances there should be protection offered to retailers who act in good faith on behalf of the client and are let down.
The bigger picture here should be for all this emotion to develop into something positive like some letters to the appropriate Ministers in this country. New legislation is urgently required.
If everybody was to book their own fares and organise their own accom this would be great in a perfect world. How ever we get calls day and night from people who are living proof that it does go wrong. Most people want to know that if it all goes to custard while they are away for what ever reason that someone will go through hell and high water to fix it. That's the expectataion I percieve and the service I offer.
So many do part of the trip with us and then own arrangments and more often than not it's the own arrnagements where we have to come in and fix it up. It's a huge planet with language barriers as just one small hurdle. Agents deal with wholesalers who have ground operators on location with the language skills required to get things done.
Can an independeant traveller booking themselves have this network to fall back on. Obviously this is not foolproof because of the human element and the huge unforseen we are currently involved in.
No wonder so many agents go under. At the end of the day nobody has our back...... The insureres these days seem to have a clause to get out of everything.
Some positive comments from you would be well appreciated. We are not the enemy but fairly and squarely in the same boat.
Nicno