Abbey Travel Charging for Consultations/Advice

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kkelliher

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Went into abbey Travel recently to book a holiday to south africa, waited in their always pain in the ass cue to be asked by the agent for €35 each before she would work out a quote for us. It comes off the final booking but if you decide its too dear your left with €35 each for a quote. There are signs up all over the place which I hadnt noticed.

I said this was rediculus but she went mad (very professional) saying that I was waisting her time (we spent the first 5 minutes generally discussing africa before she mentioned the money and she had taken down some notes). She wripped up her notes in front of me and put it in the bin when I argued about the stupidity of the charge. I told her where to stick it and went around the corner and spend €7000 on the holiday with Cassidy Travel. Spent over an hour in cassidys and could have walked out the door having spent nothing.

Has anyone every heard anything as mental.

PS have no affiliation to anything in the travel agent industry in case anyone things I am having a gripe.

KKelliher
 
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Re: Abbey Travel Charging for Quotes

They are probably suffering from people comg in to plan an intinerary with them and then booking it cheaper on the internet. Paying for this advice seems to be a good model to move to. It's the same argument when paying for investment advice -- do you go to a fee based advisor, or do you want everything hidden in commission?


You will find the wording of the notice and an explanation of all the charges here
Brendan
 
Re: Abbey Travel Charging for Quotes

MugsGame said:
They are probably suffering from people comg in to plan an intinerary with them and then booking it cheaper on the internet. Paying for this advice seems to be a good model to move to. It's the same argument when paying for investment advice -- do you go to a fee based advisor, or do you want everything hidden in commission?
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this goes against every consumer centament that exists. How can you shop around if it costs you a few hundred euro just to get the information to compare.
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

kkelliher said:
Has anyone every heard anything as mental.
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Thery're charging for a service. Big deal. If you don't like it then go elsewhere.

Any chance you could spell check your posts to make them intelligible?
 
Re: Abbey Travel Charging for Quotes

kkelliher said:
this goes against every consumer centament that exists. How can you shop around if it costs you a few hundred euro just to get the information to compare.
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I fail to see the problem...presumably the €35 is credited against your purchase? This seems perfectly reasonable to me-if you're serious about booking a holiday with them it's irrelevant.
A perfectly reasonable and fair anti-spoofer device in my opinion...no doubt their hearts are broken with people whose intention is to book on the internet themselves.
Obviously you weren't a spoofer as you did book but I wouldn't have got so upset about it.
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

Kalel

I think your slightly missing the point. Is the idea behind a travel agents outlet not to give you information to allow you to make an informed decision. Otherwise why dont they all close and go internet based. I dont know of any other agent doing this. What if you go into the travel agents and after talking to them decide its not the place to go. They are trying to force you to buy a holiday directly from them otherwise lose the money.

Cant wait for the day the car garages start charging for their price lists and demos.......its the exact same thing.

Most people going in the door have no knowledge or idea about the place they are thinking about going to. Is that not why you go in?
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

kkelliher said:
Kalel

I think your slightly missing the point. Is the idea behind a travel agents outlet not to give you information to allow you to make an informed decision. Otherwise why dont they all close and go internet based. I dont know of any other agent doing this. What if you go into the travel agents and after talking to them decide its not the place to go. They are trying to force you to buy a holiday directly from them otherwise lose the money.

Cant wait for the day the car garages start charging for their price lists and demos.......its the exact same thing.

Most people going in the door have no knowledge or idea about the place they are thinking about going to. Is that not why you go in?
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No it's not actually...I wouldn't dream of going into a travel agent, sitting down, picking their brain for an hour and then just bailing. I think that's the height of ignorance. If you want information, go online. Equally, I find people test driving cars in garages when they've no intention of buying the car or buying it from that garage equally offensive.
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

I think it is the most stupid thing I have heard in ages. Why anyone would give them any business is beyond me. Go up to trailfinders and they will happily spend as long as you like going through your holiday with you. If they have that many people wasting their time going getting quotes and ideas from them and then booking elsewhere, then maybe they should look at their prices or something.
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

it would defo put me off booking with them.
do they charge 35e per person on the quotation eg 2*adults, 2*kids = 140e, or per quotation?
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

from what I was told €35 per person because she wanted €70 from the two of us
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

Again I fail to see how this causes anyone other than spoofers/timewasters a problem? We're talking about a system where people who go to Abbey Travel with the intention of pretending to book a holiday are charged a fee refundable on purchase of a holiday.
Fair enough
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

ubiquitous said:
What's the problem? Why not use the email inquiry facility on their website?

[broken link removed]
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It may be hard to believe but there are some people who do still like to use the old fashion methods of human communication when they are doing something. If we keep going down the path we are there will some be no actual branches for anything including banks, post offices, travel agents and anything remotely relating to service.

As a side note I have emailed travel agents in the past for quotes and got answers days if not weeks later. And the problem with this is that you need to know what you want.
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

KalEl said:
No it's not actually...I wouldn't dream of going into a travel agent, sitting down, picking their brain for an hour and then just bailing. I think that's the height of ignorance. If you want information, go online. Equally, I find people test driving cars in garages when they've no intention of buying the car or buying it from that garage equally offensive.
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Have you never heard of shopping around. Actually its what we are constantly being told to do in ripoff Ireland.

It is quite conceivable that someone would go to a number of outlets with the intention of buying in the most competitive one.
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

KalEl said:
Again I fail to see how this causes anyone other than spoofers/timewasters a problem? We're talking about a system where people who go to Abbey Travel with the intention of pretending to book a holiday are charged a fee refundable on purchase of a holiday.
Fair enough
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Not everyone is pretending to book a holiday. I would always get more than one quote from travel agents if booking long haul holidays
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

I have some degree of sympathy for their plight, in that many people do pick their brains & then buy online. I know people who've done it. (not me!)

But it's only a step away from clothes shops charging you to look around, ditto car showrooms,furniture shops, mobile phone shops......just about anywhere that you may not make an instant decision to buy.

I think it's an unwelcome scheme & hope it doesn't work for them, otherwise it'll spread like wildfire to the above, and others.
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

And the problem with this is that you need to know what you want.
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And to know what you want, you need advice, which it costs money to provide.
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

frankmac said:
Have you never heard of shopping around. Actually its what we are constantly being told to do in ripoff Ireland.

It is quite conceivable that someone would go to a number of outlets with the intention of buying in the most competitive one.
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I'm not talking about shopping around...I'm talking about knowingly wasting someone's time when you've absolutely no intention of purchasing from them. That is wrong and is what brings about charges like this €35.
Incidently the OP if the OP went into Abbey Travel to "book" a holiday as they claim then why would the €35 be a problem? It should only be an issue if the intention is not to book a holiday.
 
Re: Abbey Travel charging for quotes

Kalel

Just because you may not have a problem with it donst mean its right. I certainly didnt go into Abbey Travel with the idea of booking it on the internet. I went around the corner and booked it there and then. It was the fact that I couldnt even discuss the holiday with her and get a quote without paying €35 that drove me mental. you may have no problem throwing money away but I certainly didnt work for a couple of hours just to give it to someone for a quote.
 
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