Clients left stranded when cruise agency fails

One of the largest online cruise operators in the U.S. has taken money from cruise customers but never paid the cruise lines the money that was collected. Then, according to a number of customers, the Michigan-based company went bankrupt.

Company owner, Richard Smith, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, said to the Free Press, however, that the collapse of Cruise Value Center (also operating as Cruises of Distinction) was related to the state of the economy. He insisted that he had done nothing wrong.

When Smith was asked what has happened to the customers’ money, he replied: “We are working with all the cruise lines to get customers on the proper ships or their money back.”

Industry publications have estimated that as much as $2-3 million of customer funds collected by the company was never paid to the cruise operators, and that Cruise Value Center was projected to have revenues of $100 million this year.

Several of the customers that were affected by the bankruptcy contacted the Free Press, describing losses ranging from $1,500 to $60,000 for cruises that they had paid for but were never booked by the firm. Many are questioning if they will see any of the money they paid to the cruise company.

“They never even paid our travel insurance,” says Brooklyn, New York resident Jay Goodman, who learned about the company’s demise when his travel insurance company contacted him asking for payment – which he had already made to Cruise Value Center.

Thanks to www.freep.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.mycruisevalue.com