I booked a destination wedding in Nov 2009 for Punta Cana for October 30th, 2010 with Robert Phillips. I had sent several emails and phone calls to him about getting my wedding planned, since he never returned calls or emails, I contacted the resort directly. The resort informed me I could not get legally married at any resort in Punta Cana that day, I could only have a symoblic wedding. They said they pastor was booked for the entire day. I then made a phone call to Travel by Jen and had robert call me from his vacation in Jamaica as I was pretty livid. We then changed resorts and countries so we could get legally married. We booked for Cancun. All of my guests called and complained to me saying they could never get ahold of Robert to put a deposit down, everyone in their office said they couldn't help either we had to deal directly with him. I emailed Robert saying I wanted someone else to help do the bookings, he said Danielle could help, same thing still happened she told my guests she couldn't help. I then was trying to get my wedding set up with the wedding planner, and I was given different prices from Robert and the wedding planner. Robert kept telling me I had a $400 credit and no one at the resort or the wedding planner knew about it, they still dont know about it to this day.
I recently just called my wedding off and have had even more problems trying to get my money back from TravelbyJen. I was told when I booked my wedding that it was a $50 cancellation fee for any guests, now he is saying its $100(the same as the deposit) He is trying to charge me $500 for canceling and won't send me any proof/documentation of what Im being charged for. He said he is charging me for canceling Punta Cana and Cancun. He is charging me for his mistake of not booking my wedding the day I paid him in December 09. He said he is being charged from the resorts and I asked him to show me documentation and he still hasn't. I have no problem paying if you show me you are actually being charged. I tried to meet him half way and said I will pay $200 for cancellation and that is still not good enough for him.
I have filed complaints with the BBB and if I don't hear from him in the next week I will be taking them to small claims court. This is the worst traveling agency I have ever had to deal with. They are rude and unprofessional. DO NOT EVER USE TRAVEL BY JEN!!!

Having also dealt with Robert, I would like to express my frustration.

1. Robert, who do you think you are putting this client's FULL NAME on the internet? She did not reveal her identity, but you did. That is an extremely unprofessional violation of her privacy. Yes, she used your name because you are a travel agent and she is identifying you as someone she had a bad experience with. It is entirely inappropriate for you to "out" her in defending yourself.

2. 100 hours? Really? I find that hard to believe, Rob. I've dealt with you before and it's hard enough getting you to spend 10 minutes on a client.

3. Yes, there are some people who are difficult to please. And being a travel agent is a difficult job; you're going to deal with a lot of people who don't understand the industry at all and are unhappy with the way things go -- often when it's not your fault at all. But that doesn't excuse your flagrant exaggerations and snotty attitude. So what if you were out of the country? Your company is NOTORIOUS for "locking" clients into a specific agent. Over two years later, I had a similar problem as Candi. I booked with you, and you were impossible to reach. Other agents in your office said they were POWERLESS to help me. They wouldn't even provide INFORMATION.

I want to introduce myself and explain why I am sending you this message. My name is Chad Bruce I am a Protection Agent with The Travel Defender. I help people who have had issues with travel vendors get their issue resolved and put in to the lap of the right person, generally this would be the President/CEO of the travel vendor or the Guest Services Manager. Please feel free to visit our website at www.thetraveldefender.com or call us 24 hours a day for free at 1-855-4-HELP-70 . I look forward to helping you get this issue resolved.

We are also travel agents and find this to be very inconsiderate from the agents reply. This is very unprofessional and unethical.