Great Travel Agents

[Dragonbones]

I've always gotten good service from Billie, formerly at Ctlink and now at Deluxe Travel Service Co., Ltd. 豪豐旅行社
telephone no. : (02 ) 2517-8018
7F No. 160 Nanjing East Road Sec. 2 Taipei , Taiwan
台北市南京東路二段 160號 7 樓
ctlink (at) ms43.hinet.net [unchanged]

[Mucha Man]

Contact Dale at Whose Travel.
http://www.whosetravel.com/

Also maybe tell us who you have contacted so we don't suggest people you have rejected.

[housecat]

Contact Dale at Whose Travel.
http://www.whosetravel.com/

Also maybe tell us who you have contacted so we don't suggest people you have rejected.

Well, Dale at Whose Travel, for one. haha.

Yeah, we had a great chat on the phone, but he never got back to my email.

[housecat]

Contact Dale at Whose Travel.
http://www.whosetravel.com/

Also maybe tell us who you have contacted so we don't suggest people you have rejected.

Well, Dale at Whose Travel, for one. haha.

Yeah, we had a great chat on the phone, but he never got back to my email.

Hey, I called them back and it seems that, for whatever reason, their email didn't go through. They DID get back to me right away, though. They've given me what I needed and are being friendly about working out the kinks!

[yuli]

for whatever reason, their email didn't go through

This is somewhat OT here but worth mentioning in any case, I think: at the beginning of the internet era, e-mail communiction was reliable. How/why? Messages that did not get through to the intended recipients would cause the mail system to send a notice of non-delivery to the sender, and people using e-mail knew what to do with those non-delivery notices.

But things have changed. MOST e-mail messages being sent noawadays are spam: as I've learned from various related technical reports over the years, related estimates commonly lie well over 90% (spam, that is), and a rather large percentage of e-mail - mostly spam but also a certain amount of legitimate mail - remains undelivered as a result of spam countermeasures. Next, many contempodary mail systems do no even generate non-delivery notices any more (there are reasons for this) and some systems send them only selectively, based on the origin or type of the messages that turned out undelivered. And then, of those mail messages that ARE delivered (reach the intended recipients' computers) many are discarded there by automatic filters that the users have set up or that their software uses automatically.

That's the technical end of it. Add to that the human element: even though there are still some non-delivery notices being sent, and even though some of those make it through to the intended recipients, most people have no idea what to do about those messages and don't follow up on them. There are other potential problems with users, but I think we can disregard those in this context.

What is the upshot of all of this? As you have just found out yourself, relying on e-mail to communicate with people with whom you don't have an established connection already (that is a connection that has proven to work) can be a hit-or-miss affair with more misses than hits.

Is there anything that can be done about this? My own solution (of which I don't know to what extent it might apply to others) is this: if i send a message/attachment to someone and want to be sure that it reaches its destination i call the recipients and confirm whether or not they have received what i sent them and whether they are able to process it (on the odd occasion a message/attachment may have been received but cannot be opened). If I am expecting someone else's important email i call them after a few minutes/hours/days (depending on the urgency and other circumstances) to confirm whether they have sent what they were going to send. In cases where things don't work out to my satisfaction i repeat the abovementioned process, switch to a different communication method, or replace my communication partner - whichever serves my purpose...

And you've apparently solved the problem you experienced by posting to Forumosa - i won't argue with success.

[housecat]

for whatever reason, their email didn't go through

This is somewhat OT here but worth mentioning in any case, I think: at the beginning of the internet era, e-mail communiction was reliable. How/why? Messages that did not get through to the intended recipients would cause the mail system to send a notice of non-delivery to the sender, and people using e-mail knew what to do with those non-delivery notices.

But things have changed. MOST e-mail messages being sent noawadays are spam: as I've learned from various related technical reports over the years, related estimates commonly lie well over 90% (spam, that is), and a rather large percentage of e-mail - mostly spam but also a certain amount of legitimate mail - remains undelivered as a result of spam countermeasures. Next, many contempodary mail systems do no even generate non-delivery notices any more (there are reasons for this) and some systems send them only selectively, based on the origin or type of the messages that turned out undelivered. And then, of those mail messages that ARE delivered (reach the intended recipients' computers) many are discarded there by automatic filters that the users have set up or that their software uses automatically.

That's the technical end of it. Add to that the human element: even though there are still some non-delivery notices being sent, and even though some of those make it through to the intended recipients, most people have no idea what to do about those messages and don't follow up on them. There are other potential problems with users, but I think we can disregard those in this context.

What is the upshot of all of this? As you have just found out yourself, relying on e-mail to communicate with people with whom you don't have an established connection already (that is a connection that has proven to work) can be a hit-or-miss affair with more misses than hits.

Is there anything that can be done about this? My own solution (of which I don't know to what extent it might apply to others) is this: if i send a message/attachment to someone and want to be sure that it reaches its destination i call the recipients and confirm whether or not they have received what i sent them and whether they are able to process it (on the odd occasion a message/attachment may have been received but cannot be opened). If I am expecting someone else's important email i call them after a few minutes/hours/days (depending on the urgency and other circumstances) to confirm whether they have sent what they were going to send. In cases where things don't work out to my satisfaction i repeat the abovementioned process, switch to a different communication method, or replace my communication partner - whichever serves my purpose...

And you've apparently solved the problem you experienced by posting to Forumosa - i won't argue with success.

UmHEmmm! I did call. I emailed first, then called. Then I emailed again. I'm emailing more than calling, because that's what the website asks for, and what they said they prefer to the phone--as the need details of information anyway. I posted here looking for another option, but then thought to call Whose again after they were recommended my MM, who's opinions on these things I have some respect for, and becaue they'd been recommended several times before, anyway.

And it isn't exactly as if no one else on these boards will ever use a good travel agent.

[CraigTPE]

What is the upshot of all of this? As you have just found out yourself, relying on e-mail to communicate with people with whom you don't have an established connection already (that is a connection that has proven to work) can be a hit-or-miss affair with more misses than hits.

While you may be right, this has not been my experience at all. The extremely few times my e-mail did not get through was when it was to a very large corporation with a very tight spam filter, or I was sending an attachment larger than allowed by their policy.

My guess is that these small travel agencies do not have such aggressive spam filters, and are possibly even using free e-mail services, as I've noticed many small businesses here do. (Very unprofessional, IMO, especially given how cheap it is to register a domain and have a basic e-mail service, but the local market doesn't seem to care.)

From my own personal observations, people here prefer to do business over the phone or face-to-face, and don't pay as much attention to e-mails as do people in the West. A small, local business person, like a travel agent, might not even check their e-mail much, unless they have a large clientele of foreigners.

housecat, if you're still looking for a good travel agent, a friend of mine uses Teresa Kuo and has been very pleased with her service. She's been very responsive when I've sought information. I would need to find her information, if you're interested.

[CraigTPE]

housecat, here is the contact information for Teresa Kuo:

kuoocc@yahoo.com.tw

專業旅遊經紀人 郭嘉琪 Travel Consultant (Teresa Kuo)
華通旅行社有限公司 EGO Travel Service Agency, Co., Ltd
電話：2521-2050 傳真：8192-6640
手機：0939-453-529
地址：台北市中山區南京東路二段56號 6樓
2F., No.56, Sec. 2, Nanjing E. Rd., Zhongshan District, Taipei City 104, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

[yuli]

UmHEmmm! I did call. I emailed first, then called. Then I emailed again.

Well, then you are more thorough than many whose complaints about e-mail not getting answered I have heard over the years.

I posted here looking for another option, but then thought to call Whose again after they were recommended my MM, who's opinions on these things I have some respect for, and becaue they'd been recommended several times before, anyway.

Makes perfect sense - Forumosa is a great resource in that way...

(Last edited: 2011-07-15)

[blackbean88]

Recently had experience with both Interlink and Dale at Whose Travel. Contacted both looking for help to find a ticket back to the States.

Interlink was brief, expensive and so far out of my range I had to ask if the quote was for two people or for one. They used cool emoticons however.

Dale on the other hand was brilliant. While I ended up not booking with him he was fair, informed, professional and great to work with even after my 15th alteration to the itinerary. His correspondence was spot on as well with him routinely getting back to me by e-mail within an hour (maybe that will help clear up some of the previous hesitations about his electronic etiquette?) The guy was solid through and through.