Thomsons/XL

hayley11

Hi

I was due to go to Crete on the 19th Sept, booked the holiday through Thomsons but we were flying with XL. They couldn't offer us a suitable alternative so we asked for a refund.

We were told by the manager of the branch that Thomson would refund us the money and then they would claim it back from ATOL. We were originally told we'd get the refund back w/c 15th September but the forms weren't sent off til the 16th Sept so they then said we'd get it back w/c 22nd Sept.

It turns out all this was a pack of lies, the people who work in the branch have now said they are claiming from ATOL so we have to wait for that and they've no idea how long this will take. So we sent a letter of complaint off because of the fact that they lied to us.

I have spoken to Thomsons today and their head office has returned our form because a signature was missed off :mad: Needless to say I went mad at them. How can they be so incompetent when there is so much money involved?

I'm going to write to them to complain again. How can it take 6 weeks to realise a signature was missed off?

I understand that in the grand scheme of things, we were not affected too badly compared to other people. If Thomson had told us straight away that they were going to claim from ATOL, I would have expected it to take a while so wouldn't be so annoyed, it's the fact that they lied to us several times.

Anyway rant over

Moonchild

Maybe you weren't lied to? Who out of interest has benefitted from lying to you?

Maybe they were so over-whelmed initially by the sheer volume of people affected by the collapse that they had to be flexible.

Maybe the 67,000 people stranded overseas took precedence.

Maybe they didn't notice your signature was missing for so long because they have been processing up to 200,000 forms with no additional staff and it's taken this long to reach your form.

Maybe if you had signed on the line where it said 'Signature' you'd have your refund by now. Are you going to have a rant at yourself as well?

Considering the sheer scale of events everything has gone relatively smoothly.

Ultimately many people will not be getting their money back, remember that.

hayley11

Moonchild wrote: »

Maybe you weren't lied to? Who out of interest has benefitted from lying to you? How did they not lie to me? I'm confused, they told me something which was clearly untrue, if that's not a lie I don't know what is. Travel Agents remind me of Estate Agents/Recruitment Agencies, they'll say anything to keep you happy.

Maybe they were so over-whelmed initially by the sheer volume of people affected by the collapse that they had to be flexible.

Maybe the 67,000 people stranded overseas took precedence.

Maybe they didn't notice your signature was missing for so long because they have been processing up to 200,000 forms with no additional staff and it's taken this long to reach your form.

Maybe if you had signed on the line where it said 'Signature' you'd have your refund by now. Are you going to have a rant at yourself as well? My partner did sign the form thank you very much, how was he to know there was another form that needed signing?

Considering the sheer scale of events everything has gone relatively smoothly. What exactly has gone smoothly? 6 weeks down the line the only thing they have done is notice a signature missing. Yep that's smooth.

Ultimately many people will not be getting their money back, remember that. And I feel very bad for those people but that's nothing to do with my situation and don't really see how it's how it's relevant? Because people aren't getting that money back that means I should just shut up and let Thomsons mess me about?

Like I said, if Thomsons had been up front about the timescale and how it was going to be happen, there wouldn't be a problem. I can totally appreciate the sheer volume of claims they must be dealing with but still doesn't seem like it should take 6 weeks for them to even look at it.

Moonchild

XL went into receivership September 12th.(?)

XL are independent of Thomsons. Never has a travel company of this scale failed. Thomsons priority would have been it's many thousands of clients overseas at the time, thus once you'd decided to cancel and take a refund you could not have been prioritised.

Thomson's are getting the refund from the CAA's ATOL scheme, a government run scheme who have similarly been overwhelmed. Thomsons are reliant on them to process the claims, they are the middle man so to speak. They are only passing on money and information from the government.

There was simply no precedence for a situation like this, no preparation possible, no guidelines, no rules, you were probably told what they believed to be correct at the time.

It doesn't sound like you have been lied to. To me it sounds like you have been given information they believed to be correct at the time they gave it, as it would have been advised to them c/o the Civil Aviation Scheme.

It sounds like you would have lost the plot if they had you it would have taken a month or two to process anyway, so I don't think it would have made much difference anyway.

hayley11

Thank you very much for explaining what happened, honestly I really didn't have a clue because obviously i'm a moron who sits in a dark room waiting for people like you to explain things to me. !!!!!! I know the situation, I know how many people have been affected and that is not my issue.

Okay the information at the time might have been what she believed to be correct, we went into the shop on the day after the collapse of XL so they might not have understood fully what was going to happen. And that's exactly what they should have told us. I would have been happy with that, I know Thomsons aren't to blame for my holiday being cancelled! But when I chased it the week after, then they should have told me what was happening but they didn't, they continued to lie to me, they even gave me a date as to when they would pay me back! They said they would keep me updated with the progess of it. Pack of lies.

As soon as I found out about XL, I found out what happened and was fully prepared to wait months for a refund, just like everybody else. And if I had not been misled by Thomsons I would still be waiting and wouldn't have a problem with it.