Travel Republic - frustrating experience (apology now received!)

Puddings

Noooooooo....I just wrote the whole saga and my computer timed out!

In a nutshell: Booked a holiday (flight + transfers + AI accommodation) with Travel Republic. The next day no flights were available and they could not offer us an alternative. We agreed to 'cancel the whole thing' (their words) so far they have only refunded the flights and transfers so I still have £500 on my credit card and nothing to show for it except a rapidly mounting phone bill.

Their customer service is horrendous! The amount of times I have had to call them is quite obscene, the amount of different departments I've been passed to is ridiculous and the amount of times I've been cut off is astounding (at one point I was told the flights were not refundable - er, what flights?!) They do not call you back and do not update their systems so each time I've had to go through the whole thing again. The manager, Derek Saunders, doesn't even call you back and he sounded so genuine, they might tip me over the edge if I have to call again...

So what do I do? Can I do a charge back through Section 75? I'm not 100% clued up on that I'm afraid. Do I try ABTA? Should I send a recorded letter?

Puds x

Michtaylor09

I will never use Travel Republic again.

Last year I booked my 2 daughters and their families a holiday. The day before they were due to fly I got an e-mail telling me that the hotel was overbooked and that they were moving one of my daughters to another hotel. It was 5 miles away from the original one.
I kicked up a fuss about it and threatened legal action, so they phoned me later that day to tell me everything was sorted out and everyone was back in the original 4* hotel.

When daughters arrived (10pm, each with a tired toddler and hubby), guess what??? Yes, only one room available.

Travel Republic had lied to me! They knew that the following day when the !!!! hit the fan, it would be too late for me to speak to anyone in their office

My daughters were so upset, that the hotel manager intervened, and moved all of them to a 5* sister hotel a couple of miles away at no extra charge. He also paid for their taxis.

The new hotel was fantastic, much nicer than the original hotel and in a better area. Thanks to the hotel manager.

When I finally managed to speak to someone at travel republic 2 days later, they denied that they'd phoned me back to tell me that both daughters could stay at the original hotel ,and then they said that they would have to look into charging me extra for the hotel upgrade.

You can imagine my reaction to that?

I didn't hear from them again.

Puddings

Absoutely crazy, Mich, I'm so glad your daughters got a lovely helpful hotel manager and everything turned out well no thanks to TR!!

Well I was just writing down my timeline of names, conversations etc from the last 2 weeks to put in a recorded delivery letter but have just received an email showing a refund statement from Travel Republic - no apology, no explanation, pretty much just a screen shot of the charges and refund statement. I'll wait to make sure it does actually go back onto my card before I celebrate - I'm still going to work out my telephone bill to them and send them that, might as well!

I just cant believe how poor their customer service is. I've actually found quite a few negative comments online now - I'm kicking myself, I'm normally so good at checking out companies first. Lesson learned...will still check personal recommendations!

As a tip for others, I went retro after this fiasco and booked on the high street with a real person sitting in front of me - got an even better deal than online which really suprised me

Butlers1982

ive used them many times, no problems

blue_haddock

i too have used them many times and never had a problem. Even with the volcano eruption they still sorted me out promptly. I personally would not say a bad word about them

fozmcfc

Me too booked several times with them absolutely no problem whatsoever.

Even changed part of a booking for me with no extra charge once.

It's like most companies, they can't be 100% perfect all the time.

I understand the OP frustration and if I was them I wouldn't use them again after their experience, but with most companies, there are always going to be customers who don't get the service they deserve.

mcs2001

We've used them a few times now without problem. Sorry to hear the OP hasn't had such a good experience.

Puddings

They were recommended to me so I'm quite sure their service can be fine.

I just wish they had done what they said they would. If they had sorted out the problem quickly and efficiently I would have been more than happy to try them again. Being hung up on, passed around departments, broken promises to call me back and being kept on hold for up to 20 minutes was just not fun

Puddings

I have had a PM from a guy at Travel Republic - lets see if he can restore my faith or at least stop this happening to anyone else.

preable

Ive used them once no problems

Michtaylor09

mcs2001 wrote: »

We've used them a few times now without problem. Sorry to hear the OP hasn't had such a good experience.

I'd used them quite a few time in the past with no problems too. In fact in March 09, I spent 3 weeks travelling in USA and used them for 4 of the hotels and both the transatlantic and internal flights.

It shows that they can get it right, but when they get it wrong they refuse to take responsibility and sort it out.