Thomas Cook shop vs Thomas Cook online £

rancid-a

Hi guys.
God I hate to grumble. This has been my first ever experience booking a trip. I just feel a little ripped off...maybe more than once. I'm so annoyed with myself for going through with it too! I deserve all I get! :embarasse

I did some rough price checking online (inc Thomas Cook) before going into their shop and buying all my bits together - flight, 4 night guest house stay & travel insurance.

I thought the 4 nights at the Jaipur Inn cost was my silly mistake, but it's not. Thomas Cook online= £70. £90 when booked inshop. Is this normal pricing? I know £20 might not seem a lot, but it's one extra night.

It got worse. My Flight with all the 'bits' added came to £475, not £450.

The £70 'Ecomony' travel insurance option DIDN'T work when I said 'all okay' to the health check questions, so the assistant had to choose the next upgrade which cost £120. That worked. At least the nice assistant didn't force me to take anything, but then didn't seem to want to help anyway.

And not forgetting the £17 surcharge

So should I have expected to pay a bit more using the Thomas Cook shop rather than Thomas Cook online? If so, sorry for my grumblings.

ferf1223

shop prices are regularly more expensive for quite a lot of things...if you think about it...they have to pay rent, salaries, utilities, business rates, etc. for those shops...you had someone personally help you with your bookings.

why did you buy travel insurance through a TC shop though - with all the options to buy online? I could understand if you wanted to speak to a person to get your holiday sorted out, but that sounds like an awful lot for one trip.

stephb34

Had you printed the quote out and taken it in with you to the shop?
Did u ask for a discount or a price match, if you don't ask you don't get.
Which company is it booked with sounds a bit like a city break to me so im guessing Cresta or flexitrips, if so are your flights with a low cost airline, if they are those flights fluctuate all the time, it could be someone somewhere had booked some seats whilst you went from home to the shop therefore putting the price up.
The insurance you can do something about because you have a 14day cooling off period, so have a look around find some cheaper and decent cover, purchase that and cancel the other. As for the insurance usually the economy is for flight only, and its normally the traveller or traveller plus for hols that include hotels so that could be the difference in price.
How many of you are going on this trip if its more than 1 person is it not worth the extra to have it all done for you and know that if theres any problems you can actually speak to someone to help you sort it out instead of being at the end of a phone on an expensive number or on the internet trying to sort it.
And lastly if you didnt like the price why didnt you go home and book it.

rancid-a

Hello ferf1223 & stephb34

The reason I took the travel insurance out at Thomas Cook was just to keep the visa payment down to one spend, rather than do 2-3 seperate buys (wouldn't interest be a little lower this way?).

I forgot about this 14 day cooling thing, must read my travel pack to see how to cancel it... maybe go with the Post Office or my bank (HSBC)..need to read up on insurance here at MSE.
I might also email TC customer services to ask if it's normal to pay more in store than online. If so, then no matter.

Thanks for helping me

ferf1223

rancid-a wrote: »

The reason I took the travel insurance out at Thomas Cook was just to keep the visa payment down to one spend, rather than do 2-3 seperate buys (wouldn't interest be a little lower this way?).

Not sure I understand...interest is normally calculated based on amount spent (and unpaid before the due date), not based on number of transactions?

stephb34

rancid-a wrote: »

Hello ferf1223 & stephb34

The reason I took the travel insurance out at Thomas Cook was just to keep the visa payment down to one spend, rather than do 2-3 seperate buys (wouldn't interest be a little lower this way?).

I forgot about this 14 day cooling thing, must read my travel pack to see how to cancel it... maybe go with the Post Office or my bank (HSBC)..need to read up on insurance here at MSE.
I might also email TC customer services to ask if it's normal to pay more in store than online. If so, then no matter.

Thanks for helping me

Not sure i understand either and would have liked you to answer my questions then we could have helped you better. Some of the banks free insurance isnt up to much so do check it properly, i think the post office insurance is about the same price as Thomas cook so it wouldnt be worth swapping. Waste of time emailing customer services cause as ferf says shops have overheads etc to pay for and you are paying for the services of someone doing it for you, unlike on the internet you are diy. Shops arent always dearer than the net but it sounds like what you had wasnt a standard package holiday.

rancid-a

ferf1223
I always thought buying bits and pieces everywhere with a credit card would cause more interest than buying everything in one place at the same time (if not paying off fully with next statement). I take it, this this wrong then?

Sorry Stephb34, I didn't mean to skip parts of your reply. I didn't have access to a printer so I couldn't quote to the travel agent and didn't know I could possibly get a price match. I only seen what she was looking at on her screen. I thought I'd added things up wrong. I've just been and looked at their middle of the range travel insurance again online, it's only £84 compared to the £120 I paid them. Maybe the economy insurance wouldn't work on her system because of the added Jaipur Inn stay? I really want to cancel this. I can do this in writing can't I? (Will be 7 days on Monday).
You are right, it wasn't a standard holiday package I wanted. Flight to Delhi, 4 days B&B in Jaipur & travel insurance, just me. The rest of the holiday hasn't been planned yet, I did plan on doing a little DIY to see if I could save a little.

Clearly all my fault thinking go to TC instead of going straight to Kingfisher for flight, Jaipur Inn to book 4 nights and Post Office or similar for basic insurance. Dear me :embarasse

Do you know if this is the correct address to send a canellation request for my TC insurance?
Customer Services Manager
White Horse Administration Services LTD
PO Box 5633
Walsall
WS8 9BB

Thanks for taking time to help

stephb34

rancid-a wrote: »

ferf1223
I always thought buying bits and pieces everywhere with a credit card would cause more interest than buying everything in one place at the same time (if not paying off fully with next statement). I take it, this this wrong then?

Sorry Stephb34, I didn't mean to skip parts of your reply. I didn't have access to a printer so I couldn't quote to the travel agent and didn't know I could possibly get a price match. I only seen what she was looking at on her screen. I thought I'd added things up wrong. I've just been and looked at their middle of the range travel insurance again online, it's only £84 compared to the £120 I paid them. Maybe the economy insurance wouldn't work on her system because of the added Jaipur Inn stay? I really want to cancel this. I can do this in writing can't I? (Will be 7 days on Monday).
You are right, it wasn't a standard holiday package I wanted. Flight to Delhi, 4 days B&B in Jaipur & travel insurance, just me. The rest of the holiday hasn't been planned yet, I did plan on doing a little DIY to see if I could save a little.

Clearly all my fault thinking go to TC instead of going straight to Kingfisher for flight, Jaipur Inn to book 4 nights and Post Office or similar for basic insurance. Dear me :embarasse

Do you know if this is the correct address to send a canellation request for my TC insurance?
Customer Services Manager
White Horse Administration Services LTD
PO Box 5633
Walsall
WS8 9BB

Thanks for taking time to help

Thanks for the reply,
Not sure about the credit card, i would have thought it wouldnt matter how many transactions you have as far as interest goes i think it depends on the transaction ie a purchase or cash advance.
The insurance you need to cancel at the shop you bought it from, ring them and ask them the procedure if you can't get in to do it, bit dodgy putting it in the post as you don't want to go over your 14 days, a minute over and you can't get a refund.
As far as the flights are concerned i presume she used netflights which are very competitive and if you can get your insurance money back you've only paid a bit more than the internet which you maybe grateful of the travel agents help if something occurs ie volcanic ash, strikes etc. Have a good trip and put it down to experience.

System

I booked flights through Thomas Cook online last year...and will never do it again. If you have any concerns, or want to add anything on, you can only do it by calling them, there is limited things you can do to an existing purchase online, and the phone number to do it on constantly rings engaged...basically its a queuing system, but the queue has a limit to how many callers can be added...so you need to constantly call them to even get put in the queue! Honestly, I'm not gonna get into it, but no end of hassle last year. I wrote to them and complained at one point, because I was wanting to upgrade and they couldn't have made it any harder for me if they tried...which is madness because I was wanting to spend money!! Anyway, I did actually end up getting the call charges back...because they were just over £50...but I've learnt my lesson with that one...will either book in-store in future....or just never use TC again!!

ferf1223

rancid-a wrote: »

ferf1223
I always thought buying bits and pieces everywhere with a credit card would cause more interest than buying everything in one place at the same time (if not paying off fully with next statement). I take it, this this wrong then?

Yes, it's wrong I think...maybe you are getting confused with taking cash withdrawals overseas, where there may be a fee applied to each withdrawal (on top of any load % and interest charges)...in those cases it can make sense to make one larger withdrawal rather than several smaller ones.

luci

It doesn't matter if you make 10 transactions of £10 or one transaction of £100, you still pay interest on £100. However you won't pay any interest if you pay it off in full by the due date.