Terrible service. Does not respond to emails or calls after you have sent money. No receipts, not itinerary and small claims court to get money back
I could not believe when I got online an I saw this on another review site, posted only a few months ago “In planning our trip to Alaska, Stephanie Porter was fantastic! But as time went on, and we had to ask for receipts, she sent these receipts on letter head from the cruise ship company.”
We also asked for receipts for well over 2 months. I emailed and called continually, but no reply. Finally I received an email that said, “Have you tried to reach me? This is the first I have heard from you. I just tried to call your number and received a busy tone. Please call me today, I will be in all day. If I do not answer, leave a message and I will return your call.” I find this VERY funny since I work IT for a living and my email was being sent through to everyone else fine, and no on else had an issue calling my number? Plus I have call waiting and voice mail, you would NEVER get a busy tone.
When I finally talked to her again, I was very nice and acted like it was no big deal. Once again asked for a receipt, she PROMISED it would be in my email in a few days. Once again I waited weeks and began to email and call again. Same deal, no reply, no call back, no answer. So I left a very to the point voice mail saying that I was sick of it and this was unacceptable. OH MY GOODNESS, a call back within 10 minutes telling me MY ACTIONS AND TONE were unacceptable…..
“Hi its Stephanie, I guess I can appreciate your frustration but I don’t appreciate your tone. And if you would like me to refund you money I would be happy to do that. It is just not the way that I operate, I get great deals and try to get stuff to people, especially … third world countries that can be difficult to get that stuff out. So I don’t think this is a good situation for me to be in… so why don’t you let me know how to get this money back to you and you guys can go from there.”
Not a good situation for HER to be in huh? How is needing to send a receipt not a good situation for a travel agent to be in? Aren’t they supposed to send you receipts, aren’t they supposed to work with you? I think we were the ones on the bad situation. ANYWAY, I ask for a refund and have been told it would be taken care of within a couple days, then one more reply that says, sorry didnt have time this week, will take care of it next week. Now it has been three weeks and once again, no replies or calls. I am now taking this to a lawyer and to small claims court to get my money back. DO NOT USE TRAVEL NEGOTIATORS
March 25th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
We have read your article and are wondering what the current status of your dealings with Stephanie Porter are? Have you received your money back yet? We would appreciate a reply as soon as possible because we are contemplating possibly using her for travel.
Thank you.
May 12th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
I was wondering what the outcome was with your bad experience with Stephanie Porter and Travel Negotiators. I too find myself in a bad situation with her where she owes me funds and I have not seen them. I am contemplating small claims court but didn’t know if anyone had any success with this route. I have read several situations of bad experiences but keep checking the reviews and haven’t seen any resolve. I even think that my credit card was used to buy the airfare for one of the bad reviews that I read about. It was to Alaska, maybe that was you…last name was Stein I think? Anyway, lots of sleepless nights over this incredibly crooked woman so I was looking to get resolve. Please keep me posted on what has happened with your case if you chose to take legal action or if Stephanie stepped up and did the right thing. The crazy thing to me is that her boyfriend is a lawyer. What is she thinking…ugh!
Andrea Flora
June 28th, 2010 at 7:16 am
My mom and dad are currently in Jamica on a trip that Stephanie Porter booked. My parents paid the trip in full last summer for this summer and when my parents went to check in at the airlines website 24 hrs prior to departure she had never paid or made the proper reservations. My parents had a bit of a difficulty reaching her that day to get the matters straightened out but it didn’t get worked. However, once in Jamica one of the two hotels that were suppose to be reserved and paid for stated they have never received payment for the hotel stay either. So they had to put out additional money to repay the hotel because still to this moment she has not responded to any calls or emails from myself, my parents, or my aunt on this matter since Thursday June 24. I feel that she has been very unprofessional and is not thorough in her work. This all should have been lined out and reconfirmed when she was made aware of the issue the day before travel with the airline. My parents are out an additional $1000+.
July 12th, 2010 at 4:59 am
Howdy. Great job. I didn’t assume this over a Wednesday. This is a great story. Many thanks!
July 24th, 2010 at 8:21 am
DO NOT EVER USE STEPHANIE PORTER OR TRAVEL NEGOTIATORS! Ms. Porter has obviously bitten off more than she can chew and has found herself running what some might call a “ponzi” scheme.
Long story short, we (our group of 25) have been reimbursed for all initially paid, however, we have not been reimbursed (as repeatedly promised) by Ms. Porter for additional monies paid to a different travel agency in order to realize our trip. She (Ms. Porter) did manage to book our air (approximately 10 days prior to our trip), (by that time she had had our monies for 6 months). When asked about our land accommodations, we received false information and booking ID numbers. After numerous calls to the resort, we were told that she had attempted to book us all as travel agents (obviously to obtain a lesser cost per person). Once they realized what had happened, the resort canceled those reservations, leaving us with no where to stay. Fortunately, we were able to contact a local travel agency in our town and rebook the land portion (obviously at an additional expense - approx $1100.00 more per person.
Oh of course there were excuses and explanations, none of which were legitimate. Bottom line, she most likely had used all our initial monies to fund some other poor person or persons trip and when it came to booking ours, had no more money.
We, too, have contacted the Attorney General of Missouri. Needless to say, her way of justifying this entire debacle is to say that “all money paid to me for the group spring break trip was refunded to the group”. While this is accurate, what she has neglected to add is that while this was all happening, she clearly stated that she had every intention of reimbursing us every penny that we had to pay in order to realize our vacation.
Lesson learned: Stephanie Porter/Travel Negotiators is UNPROFESSIONAL, UNRELIABLE, UNTRUSTWORTHY, and UNETHICAL!
July 27th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Thanks for sharing this helpful info!