thomas cook/direct holidays- am i wasting my time?

split_second

hi all, hoping for some advice.

booked a holiday on thomascook.com turns out it was through one of their other companies, direct holidays.

fair enough, booked it and off i went, 2 hours delay at manc airport, got there late at night, rep appeared on the coach, told us our welcome meeting was 8 hours later (this was late at night), and disappeared. when we got to the hotel i just dropped my bags, unpacked some stuff and crashed out. as i dont set the alarm when i go on holiday i missed the welcome meeting, oh well never mind.
looked round the room in the daylight, nothing like the brochure description, i'll make the best of it i thought.
couple of days in i started to notice cockroaches in the room, i was going to report it, but thought i'll have a lie down first- its 30-odd degrees in greece, when i got woken up with shouting in greek ''malaka, malaka, malaka'' (lets just say you dont want to know what that means in greek (not sure if i spelt it right btw) looked out the patio and saw it was the owner of the hotel to the cleaners :eek: then on a trip to the bathroom noticed the bin next to the toilet hadnt been emptied, again (this was emptied roughly twice in the week) and lets just say toilet paper goes in the bin in greece, not down the toilet.

so the room was tiny and rubbish, the room stunk and had cockroaches and the owner shouting at the staff woke you up if you slept in the afternoon.

i spoke to my greek friend that i was staying in the resort to see, he told me he had heard the same shouting while he was outside his bar, and knew why, the cleaners were stealing from the rooms :eek:

i just wanted to go home so a few days later when we got picked up, we saw a thomas cook rep :j:j:j:j:j we got to the airport and were told to stand outside, we had a 2 hour delay. half an hour later this turned to 8 hours :eek::eek::eek::eek:

people started asking questions, and no matter how nicely or politely they asked, the reps shouted (actually shouted at them in front of the other passengers)

so there we were stranded outside the airport for 9 hours (we werent allowed in the main part till 9 hours after we arrived), the reps had disappeared hours earlier and we came home eventually on a portugese emergencey plane (google luzair) with a crew that barely spoke english.

got home and sent the complaint form in on thomascook.com, nothing, phoned in, told it will be investigated and sorted out within 4 weeks, nothing, so phoned in after 4 and a half, told letter in the post and cant discuss content till it arrives. when this came, loads of excuses and half of the stuff i mentioned ignored, phoned again, and the guy was very apologetic, it'll be reinvestigated within 3 weeks and in the meantime i will write and confirm its been reopened. it'll be 3 weeks on monday, still not had the letter saying its been reopened.

should i keep on at them or give it up?

tbw

Well, if you feel strongly that you didn't get what you paid for, then certainly keep on at them. Many companies don't start to take notice until you write 2 or 3 times - at first they just send a bland, standard 'fobbing off' letter. I've had several run ins over problems on holiday and , although I've got what I wanted in the end, it has taken several letterrs and a fair bit of time to convince the company that I wasn't going to shut up and go away quietly.

However, I suspect that you may have rather shot yourself in the foot by not complaining enough , contacting the Rep and insisting the problems be sorted while you were there. They may well take the view that they weren't given the chance to put things right. Also, you probably should have filled in a complaint form onsite, got the rep to sign it and give you back a copy.

You may have done all these things though - it wasn't quite clear from your post.

split_second

tbw wrote: »

Well, if you feel strongly that you didn't get what you paid for, then certainly keep on at them. Many companies don't start to take notice until you write 2 or 3 times - at first they just send a bland, standard 'fobbing off' letter. I've had several run ins over problems on holiday and , although I've got what I wanted in the end, it has taken several letterrs and a fair bit of time to convince the company that I wasn't going to shut up and go away quietly.

However, I suspect that you may have rather shot yourself in the foot by not complaining enough , contacting the Rep and insisting the problems be sorted while you were there. They may well take the view that they weren't given the chance to put things right. Also, you probably should have filled in a complaint form onsite, got the rep to sign it and give you back a copy.

You may have done all these things though - it wasn't quite clear from your post.

loads of us at the airport asked for complaint forms and were denied them, hence the reps disappeared

tbw

split_second wrote: »

loads of us at the airport asked for complaint forms and were denied them, hence the reps disappeared

That adds weight to your complaint and I would certainly push the company concerned for a better response. You have nothing to lose bar a stamp and a bit of time - and you will feel better if you continue with the complaint rather than kicking yourself later for giving up too quickly. It will rankle for ages if you let it drop.

split_second

tbw wrote: »

That adds weight to your complaint and I would certainly push the company concerned for a better response. You have nothing to lose bar a stamp and a bit of time - and you will feel better if you continue with the complaint rather than kicking yourself later for giving up too quickly. It will rankle for ages if you let it drop.

main problem i get is that the t.c resort office denies everything i have said and t.c believes them

gdyr1945

I feel that lately TC don't really 'know' their holidays! Two I have booked have either had mistakes on the booking details or not up to standard when there. I ALWAYS write letters to them. The response can take 4-5 weeks but so far have had cheques for £175 and £190 and £145 off next years holiday. Keep all paper work, make a note of peoples/reps names, try to get things sorted whilst away but make notes for letter when you return also any photos/videos if appropriate