Gills Cruise company

Middle_Sister

I just wrote the cheque for the balance of our cruise for £1,500 on Monday, posted it Tuesday (2nd class). Read in the paper today about Gills, rang P&O, advised to "stop" the cheque and send the outstanding balance direct to them. Phoned the bank and cancelled the cheque which hadnt been cashed yet. After that I opened my mail and it was a letter from P&O saying that if the price Gills gave me differed from what P&O reckoned they were due (which was a £275 difference) as long as I sent them a copy of the Gills invoice P&O would honour the price.
Talk about bad timing ......... my husband was panicking but if the worst comes to the worst I paid the deposit by CC and also ABTA/ATOL would cover the booking.
Just a shame.
And the others were right about the booking fee - that somehow managed to get under the wire with me till another cruise company pointed it out to me.

Living_proof

Gills was an accident waiting to happen. They were heavily reliant on sales of P & O, Cunard and Princess cruises (all part of the Complete Cruise Solution). When the commission levels were cut recently there was suddenly no room for Gills to compete on the basis of the best discounted price but it seems that what they have done is cut the pricing to suicidal rates but charge a booking fee which is payable at the time of booking. That gives them some cash flow whilst they wait for the miniscule profit due to them when the final balance is paid. Only they didn't last that long.

Anyone remember Cruise Control about seven years ago? The cruise companies got burnt big-style when they went under and the too-good-to be-true sales performance of Cruise Control turned out to be just that. Anyone in the business could sense it would happen but it gets to the stage where the customer gets so greedy for 'the best deal' that they will take risks on getting good customer service and will actually believe the tripe about the booking fee.

Moral - choose a travel agent with really good financial backing and be prepared to pay a fair price and know you will get excellent customer service. The cheapest price is not always the best.

Backbiter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-14169097

Thousands of people booked onto cruises have been told they will still be able to go on holiday after a Cardiff-based travel company stopped trading.

Let's hope so for everyone concerned.

More here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/100-lose-jobs-as-cruise-firm-reaches-end-of-the-line-2314560.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/gillrsquos-cruise-centre-goes-bust-what-are-the-consequences-2314478.html

bowlesbargain

Backbiter wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-14169097
Let's hope so for everyone concerned.

More here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/100-lose-jobs-as-cruise-firm-reaches-end-of-the-line-2314560.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/gillrsquos-cruise-centre-goes-bust-what-are-the-consequences-2314478.html

I suspect P&O are using the price on there invoice this is more than the price Gills quoted when they sold the Cruise. I have just sent copy of my Gills invoice I will keep you in touch of what P&O say.

bowlesbargain

I have just seen in the sunday mail that Gills has been bought by P&P Holdings that own and control ASDA Holidys. But they are changing names so Gills Cruise will not be used again

bowlesbargain

Still waiting for P&O to get back to me in relation to matching the price I was given by Gills. Have sent a E Mail to P&O following on from my letter sent two weeks ago. Had a very curt reply saying the site only dealt with documentation. They didn't want to know. Anyone else had feed-back from P&O in relation to problems with Gills.

Middle_Sister

I also had a price difference of nearly £200 between the Gills price and the P&O price. I sent a letter with copies of agreed price but like you have heard nothing.

bowlesbargain

Middle_Sister wrote: »

I also had a price difference of nearly £200 between the Gills price and the P&O price. I sent a letter with copies of agreed price but like you have heard nothing.

Contacted P&O today. They confirm they have my letter and are looking into it, but they did state they had a lot of mail. So we will have to wait. I did state I will not pay anymore money until they confirm they will honer Gills price.

Middle_Sister

The only thing I've received from P&O recently is notification of a different dock gate. No mention of any monies owed.

Middle_Sister

Have printed off my e-tickets so no mention of any extra monies to be paid - thankfully. Hope everyone else is sorted as well.