TA Suspicious?

They are refusing to give us the tickets, if we don't send them a photocopy of our drivers license and BOTH sides of credit card, yup.

I'm not sure why they are doing this now as all the payments have been processed already? The tickets are all already paid for!

Sorry this is happening to you now as it must be so stressful for you!

It's horrible! I think at this stage, they've decided to ruin this for us, or at least that's what it feels like. No one at the tour operator groups will help us, and some people are not able to provide the info they want. I did just get an email from the privacy department at Sunquest, so I will see what they say as they look into it. I think it is unfair that we cannot opt to have our travel agent out of the equation.

so is it Sunquest and Apple saying you wont get your plane tickets if you dont hand this over or just your travel agent saying she/he wont give you the plane tickets??

The travel agent saying it.

There are a couple of scenarios that come to mind-

It may be that the TA did not process the paperwork correctly in the beginning - which may be why she also hasn't a clue about why that paperwork is required. That would possibly also explain why she isn't able to give you a satisfactory answer to why she needs the info now!

The travel agency may have had a recent issue with providing the tickets/vouchers and then having someone do a charge back. Many times unscrupulous people do the charge back after they took the trip !

If the travel agency does not have the required paperwork and their was a charge back, then the travel agency is responsible for the fees-yes they will take them out of future commissions or bill them to us. These fees can be $1000's of dollars - especially with groups, as there are many factors (beyond standard cancellation fees) that an agency can be monetarily liable for.

Add to that the current economy- people are trying to get out of vacations that they booked and paid for by saying that they never authorized it. By not having a swiped card or a written statement with the necessary copies we are screwed! The statement a client could say was forged- the copies of the F&B of the CC & DL back up the agency that the trip was indeed authorized.

All of my suppliers (including Apple) require that we have this information on hand in case of a charge back or a fraud situation - we've required it for years. I have had a few situations where someone was trying to give me a third party card but could not provide the necessary back up-I never heard from them again after I refused to process the card w/o the back up hmmmmm....

Keep in mind too that the rules for online agancies are different- the CC companies seem to protect them against charge backs better than they do us little service oriented agancies.

I don't see what damage providing the info can do at this point- they already have the numbers for the CC's and mailing address to go with it. The drivers license info is easy to get if someone really wanted to cause you harm.

If they planned on committing fraud they already have everything that they need.

My big deal is that, they have not been professional - other guests are refusing the information, as it is against the privacy act to ask for it here. They have threatened us several times with other guests that they will not issue our tickets. They have threatened to remove my mother, because someone else cancelled. I have already supplied them what they want, but they will not confirm that I can be issued my ticket.

I believe their threat is that they will not issue anyone's ticket, unless they have everyone's - including cancellations.

Thank you for the advice - it is what I am advising people to do for now.