sun4u direct rip off!!!

Psychofly

We lost our holiday to Turkey when GoldTrail went bust which was annoying because we didn't book through GoldTrail, we booked through a travel agent who then used GoldTrail. We were due to fly on 18th July. So now we're filling in forms to claim back our holiday money and we need to get the travel agent to fill in some sections..... who was the travel agent ? Sun4uDirect ! Now gone bust !! Lol.
Just in case anyone else is in a similar situation, I phoned ATOL and explained the problem and they told me to leave the travel agent sections on the claim form blank and to send it with a covering letter explaining why I've left those bits blank. Hope this helps someone in a similar situation.

delwynshd

The problem today is that there are loads of small agents setting up, They tend to go bust maybe after a years trading

Research the company your are booking through, try and find out how long they have been up and running

Whats happening now is bigger agents are offering franchise options, they end up seting up business and cant cope with a downturn or collapse of a tour operator

I see lots of people booking through companys I aint heard of ever just be carefull

I aint got that many years behind me but ten years is enough to know who is new and who isnt, if unsure just give me a shout

Del

BillTrac

Why do I bother?.............:mad:

karenmay33

Ripata wrote: »

Hi,just wanted to let people know this company is a joke! We are looking for alast minute holiday for next week,i phoned them after id seen 3 holidays cheap,well it turns out that these dont exsist!try to offer you other holidays double the price!!!! thought id found a bargain.Does anyone know of any decent holiday sites?:mad:

this company went into liquidation on the 11th August

duggie1982

Well they are bust now!!

SeekingSomething

I worked for this pathetically-run company. Worst place I have ever worked in. The office was a crap-hole.. I've seen squats with better facilities. I was made redundant by this company after they spent almost a year treating me like a pair if unwashed pants. Glad they've gone bust, one less rip-off company for people to stumble upon. I should have seen the signs that it was a shoddy cowboy company when their job interviews were held in a hotel meeting area miles away from the office. If the interviews were held in the "office" then there'd have been no one working there. The office where I worked was like a very small studio flat above a vets.. about 10 workstations with computers which were buggy and full of viruses.. some of the workstations weren't even on proper desks, just a plank of wood bolted to the wall. It took weeks of me complaining that the plank of wood was bolted too high which resulted in me getting very severe back-ache. After months of me working like that they finally forked out a little for a couple of extra desks. The kitchen wasn't even a kitchen. It was an even smaller room in the back with a fridge and a table. No seating so any of the staff could enjoy a break away from the workstations. Again, a lot of my complaining about needing to have a break from the computers meant that months from then a table and chairs were set up in the "kitchen" area. The one toilet in the office was in a very very small room, not even big enough to swing a mouse in.. situated right next to the office room. Males and females had to share this one toilet, it was never cleaned by anyone other than staff, and I'm sorry but it said no where in my job description that I had to clean the toilet if I didn't want my health to suffer. There was rarely any toilet paper or hand-soap. The conditions were appalling. During the winter, the only heating that we had was sourced by portable electric heaters. There were one or two of them in the office.. the wires and cables caused a serious health hazard. Something else I complained about. During the summer, the ventilation was poor so we had one or two fans and again, wiring was poor and posed a risk. The wiring from the computers were a problem too. I recall tripping a few times only narrowly escaping a fall which could have injured my unborn baby. Yes, I forgot to mention, I was pregnant. And as the winter months came, we were also expected to work up to 14-hour shifts in this dirty little office where the workstations were uncomfortable to work at and there was no other seating area available. I suffered from lower back pain and sciatica as a result of working there. My doctor told me I should not be working so many hours in such poor conditions and signed me off work until my maternity started. I had to have weekly physio on instruction by my GP as a result of having to sit in the same place for 14 hours a day over a period of 3 or 4 days at a time. Within the time I was signed off, the office was closed down and I was made redundant.

I hope my old employers have learnt a very strong lesson in how to run a company and if they haven't, they should never set up company again. I know that customers of Sun4U got treated poorly, but this is how staff were trained to deal with them. Staff were treated much worse.

Glad I've got all that off my chest now. Be wary though as they may try setting up company again under a different name. Don't buy into anything you're not 100% sure of.

HXDave

Seekingsomething,

Sorry to hear about your problems with the company - no one deserves that.

However you quote:

I hope my old employers have learnt a very strong lesson in how to run a company and if they haven't, they should never set up company again. I know that customers of Sun4U got treated poorly, but this is how staff were trained to deal with them. Staff were treated much worse.

Unfortunately, with the current laws as they are at the moment, it wouldn't suprise me if they were already operating another company doing exactly the same, just under a different name and in a different place.

I guess there is little you can do against the company now they have gone bust, but your insight of how this company operated may make others think about just why their holidays are so cheap, and the consequences that arise.

I wish you well with your health and that of your baby's, and hope that this incident will not put you off the travel industry as a career in the future.

HXDave
(who has been in travel ever since leaving school............ 23 years ago!)