MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) – Imagine paying thousands of dollars for your dream vacation, only never to leave the couch. That’s the reality for three Grand Strand women who all booked through the same travel agent.
A five-day Disney cruise during Christmas sounds like the ultimate gift from Santa, and that’s what Tanaja Gattys wanted to gift her three kids.
Gattys said she found the perfect deal when she discovered travel agent Chantel Roberts and her company Triple A Travel Services advertising the vacation for $5,000.
“I initially started paying $290 a month because it was just me and my kids,” Gattys said. “Then I thought about it and researched more and said let me take my mother with me to help me with the kids, so the payments went to $315 a month.”
Gattys said a social media post from another woman, Shanequa Carr, tipped her off that she possibly wasn’t going to the happiest place on earth, even though receipts show she paid Roberts almost three grand.
“I Snapchatted it and put it on my story,” Carr said. “I was like, ‘Triple A Travels zero stars, would not recommend.’”
Carr and Gattys connected online, and Carr encouraged Gattys to ask Roberts for her cruise reservation number.
Gattys got the number and called Disney to confirm, only to find out the trip had never been booked.
“She looked under my name, Chantel’s name, the agent she used,” Gattys said. “Long story short, nonexistent. Doesn’t exist.”
Carr shared a similar story, which led her to make the Snapchat post. She wanted to take her daughter on a June 2024 graduation trip to Bali, Indonesia.
“I’m like, ‘This can be our little bonding time,’” Carr recalls. “‘You know, it’s your senior year, going off to college; we’ll do this together,’ so we were excited.”
Carr’s receipts show she finished paying off the $5,000 trip in April, but she decided to pull the plug ten days before her vacation when she said Roberts never provided her with an itinerary.
“I sent her the next morning and said, ‘Please, just cancel my trip; you don’t have anything together,’” Carr said. “I had no official confirmation of anything.”
Myrtle Beach mother Andelique West also saw Carr’s Snapchat post and realized she too had no details confirmed for her June 2024 trip to Jamaica.
“I still hadn’t had an itinerary, I still hadn’t had my flights or anything,” West said. “I started to get a little nervous.”
All three women said they paid Roberts more than $10,000 combined, but they have not been able to get a hold of Roberts or get help from their banks.
“I left her a voicemail, and she never returned my phone calls,” West said. “I guess she realized I knew at that point and haven’t heard from her since. …I believed her.”
The women filed reports with multiple agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI, the Horry County Police Department and both the Georgetown and Richland County sheriff’s offices.
They’re now hoping banding together will compel law enforcement to take action.
“I feel like it’s a force in numbers,” Carr said. “The more people that stick together, the better chances we are at getting justice.”
Their army quickly grew after Gattys made a Facebook post sharing her experience. Even more people came forward and said they made payments on a trip to Jamaica, and then some started paying on a Carnival cruise.
Tiffany Elder-Moore lives in Connecticut and said she also thought she found the perfect deal.
Elder-Moore said she had little hesitation in booking through Roberts, considering Roberts is her third cousin.
“I can book my own trips, but again, trying to support family and get her some business,” Elder-Moore said.
Elder-Moore said in June of last year, she convinced 14 girlfriends to book a July 2024 vacation to Jamaica. Their bank records show each began paying Roberts a little more than $100 a month for the 10-month payment plan.
Elder-Moore couldn’t believe the deal, so she booked a Carnival cruise trip to the Bahamas through Roberts for her husband’s birthday in April.
Elder-Moore invited 11 friends on that trip, including some who were already paying for the Jamaica trip.
She said the group made payments and believed everything to be on schedule until she called Carnival Cruise only to find nothing in their names.
“I’m scared now,” Elder-Moore recalled. “Now, I’m saying, ‘If Carnival’s not booked, is Jamaica booked?’”
Elder-Moore’s fears came true when they double-checked with their resort in Jamaica and found out they had no reservation there either.
Elder-Moore said she confronted Roberts, asking her to cancel the trips and get their money back.
She said some received a partial refund, but it’s been radio silence ever since.
“She stopped picking up the phone, responding to text messages; it’s like she vanished,” Elder-Moore said.
The Triple A Travel Services’ website, where the women made many of their payments, no longer exists.
Also, a search on the South Carolina Secretary of State’s website shows Triple A Travel Services is not a registered business.
WMBF News emailed Chantel Roberts for comment, and she quickly responded, claiming she’s a victim of identity theft and advised us to contact her lawyer.
However, she did not share her attorney’s information or explain her claims of identity theft.
Copyright 2024 WMBF. All rights reserved.
‘I believed her’: Grand Strand women among dozens who bought dream vacations to nowhere
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