First Choice holidays customer services - very poor BEWARE

fsdss

i have had a nightmare with first choice customer services,so a thread to warn you

FC have ruined our plans to have a nice OTT holiday on our 10th anniversary year with the kids. we planned and booked last year (june) to go to the aqua beach club in Kos and had every upgrade possible. The holiday cost us around £3k. anyway a few weeks ago i contacted CS asking for a refund of difference as the star rating had been dropped and also that there were a number of activities no longer available (which we paid extra for). also on a holiday review website there was speculation that the hotel was a buiding site. but Fc refused to acknowledge this or refund part of my bill so i contacted ABTA who will investigate.

anyway the hotel was featured on bbc last thurs and all holidays have been cancelled (upto 1st July) including ours. it has taken me 17 hours to contact their helpline, as it kept ringing. FC has refunded us the full amount of the holiday but will take 5-7 days as they cannot offer us an alternative on the dates i require. they will not take into consideration the fact that i have booked car parking for holiday dates nor will they refund me my £15 pp booking fee. because of late cancellation we have £10 compensation!!! (-joke considering they've had 11 months interest off me)

what the joke is that we have now paid £90 ish for parking at birmingham in june and we cant find much in way of holidays that can accomodate us all on or around this date, so it looks like shaking the tent out and off we go.

i will never book with FC again

Becles

We had a recent nightmare with them, where I've ran up a bill trying to contact them to sort things out.

They moved us to another accomodation without telling us first, and just sent us an invoice for the difference! This was miles away from the original hotel. I complained and insited they put us back in the original accomodation as we'd booked a private airport transfer and trips leaving from that property. In the mean time, all the rooms of the type we had booked were sold, so we were placed in a downgraded room. After complaining again, they sent me a screen shot to prove I was now booked in the right room. On arrival at the accomodation, we were placed in the wrong room and had to ask the the hotel to move us.

We were mis-sold an excursion. A "night of family entertainment with pirates" turned out to be a booze cruze full of adults playing drinking games and dancing to R&B music. There was about 15 minutes of pirates fighting each other, and our children were bored stupid for the rest. Hardly family entertainment IMO. We were also verbally abused by some horrendous drunk Americans who shared the mini-bus back to the resort, simply because we polietly asked them not to swear in front of the children.

On the way back we were missed off the pre-booked group seating list, and were told we'd be split up on the plane on the way home. After complaining to check in and the First Choice rep, the agreed to move some people who had not paid the supplement. At the gate, we were told the people refused to move seats, so we had to wait until the plane was full and the stewardess asked for volunteers to move, so we could sit together as a family as we'd paid to do.

They also changed the time of the return flight just before the holiday so we arrived back at Gatwick hours before we were supposed to. As our connecting BA flights were not changeable, we had to hang around Gatwick from 10.30am-5.30pm. Not fun with two tired children, and tired parents due to a night flight back.

Never, ever again :mad:

Fleago

On the parking side, have you looked into cancelling it? I had parking booked at Manchester but am not now flying from there. I contacted them and got a full refund with no problem whatsoever.

Fleago

TRAVELMAN_2

Hi,

Sorry-must be a nightmare! This is one of the problems of booking so far in advance-often the room does not 'exist' until a certain level of bookings are acheived (ahem!....but you'll never prove it).

You'll get no more back from 1st choice as they have acted completely within their terms & conditions & as the car park was not booked with them it's not uner their contract.

I'd concentrate very much on FINDING a new holiday 1st-THEN try with the car parking. The good folks on here will help if you post ALL your requirements (see the 'want a quote') thread. If the car parking company has parks at other airports they'll probably swop for you. Don't waste any more time writing/calling 1st chioce-it'll make no difference.

Concentrate on getting a new holiday!You never know....it may be cheaper!

fsdss

apparantly FC have abided by thier terms and conditions so theres not much i can do about that HOWEVER...ABTA and trading standards are involved now because i am out of pocket (telephone bills / £15pp booking fee) and they are also going to look into the 'significant changes to advertised bookings' side of things.

failing this i am going to consider Small claims court, as sugested by trading standards, to recoup my expenses i have already forked out on this as i am not the one who'se broken the contract so therefore shouldn't be the one in financial loss over this.

WiseInvestor_2

To be fair to First Choice I'm not sure they've broken the contract either. They're relying on the hotel to provide the goods and services who're the ones to blame in this instance. Travelman is correct that your car park costs will not be refunded by FC as your [separate] contract is with the car park operator. The booking fee is also valid as your transaction still incurred administrative costs and it isn't FC's fault you're not travelling. Refunding the costs of your telephone calls would be a sensible goodwill gesture.

holidayqueen

Got to agree with fsdss and Becles re First Choice I will never book with them again either.

We have booked a holiday with them, and 2wks after booking they changed our outbound flight to a different airport. So instead of being half an hour away from the airport we now had a 3hr journey to get to our hotel.

Despite complaining to First Choice they never sorted this problem out, I had to do it myself directly with the company providing the holiday. I have contacted the travel agnts shop I booked the holiday with several times to confirm the change back to my original flight in writing and several weeks later I am still waiting.

I go away in 3wks and it will be intersting to see what happens.

TRAVELMAN_2

Hi,

I know it MUST be frustrating but honestly just concentrate on getting another holiday before your options dwindle. Is it REALLY worth all the stress, time emotion & hassle......& probably NO result? Take this from someone in the Industry!

Is it really worth the hassle of a small claims court (?!) for phone call charges?

Take it as a bad job & post what you need on here & the good folk of MSE will help you. Look forward to the holiday you're going to have not the one you've just lost!

Chris

fsdss

QUOTE "The booking fee is also valid as your transaction still incurred administrative costs and it isn't FC's fault you're not travelling. Refunding the costs of your telephone calls would be a sensible goodwill gesture."

so is it my fault that £60 of my money has gone on administration charges because i asked an ABTA registered agent (FC) to arrange a holiday for me and they cant even offer me an alternative? its not my fault im not travelling

not forgetting the approx 17 hours onthe phone to an 0870 number which does not offer an alternative on saynoto0870, i'm sure that too has mounted up to a pretty sum, when i get down to downloading my phonebill, i'll soon know.

TRAVELMAN_2

Again,

I know you're upset. You agreed to the booking fee when you gave your credit card as payment. FOR HEAVENS SAKE get a grip. Please listen to someone in the industry-1st choice are big & cover themselves completely. Again-you've not got a prayer against them-but you have got a chance of re-booking your holiday-maybe even cheaper! Let it go & find something else.