Beware of thomas cook misinformation

sgt_pepper_3

I have taken many Thomas Cook package holidays and the one constant is the misinformation and downright lies you get if you are stupid enough to go to their welcome meetings.NEVER BOOK ONE OF THEIR TRIPS until you have had a quick check to see what you will pay by booking with a local booking agent nearby.In our experience you will pay about a third of the price Cooks will charge you.The Reps dont even seem to be aware of local transport times or prices,infact they dont seem to be knowledgable in anything you may want to know unless it involves you handing over large amounts of your cash to THOMAS COOKS.BUY a ROUGH GUIDE or LONELY PLANET GUIDE before you leave,take a wander round nearby trip booking agents and go to the bus and/or train station aswell.We have had excellent holidays,gone on daily trips to interesting places and sites and rarely spend more than an average of £20 to£30 a day for both of us.This means we can afford to have two fortnight long holidays a year instead of the one if we had been stupid enough to book day trips with cooks.

dmg24

What misinformation have they given you? All your post describes is you not doing your research.

Saturnalia

That's sensible advice whichever company you go with. The company makes extra money on the trips and the reps get commision for selling them so of course a) they will be overpriced and b) you'll get the hard sell. Plus the company's own trips are often sold in packages so by going it alone you can pick, and only pay for, what you really want to do.

mulled_wine

I don't listen at Welcome meetings - on the odd occasion that I go to one, it's because you usually have to collect your grocery package at it. Otherwise I don't bother with them. And they never come to find you to check had you maybe had a dire misfortune and couldn't leave your room...

Saying that the last few years we've booked our own flights, hotel and made our own transfers and saved over £200 on the brochure price. Each. And staying at the same hotel works as you know the area, know what you want to do (drink beer, in the sun!) and the staff remember you and "forget" to charge stuff to your room.

Dave_C_2

Couldn't agree more.

All the holiday firms do is sub-contract a local firm to do the trips, so you may as well just go direct and save lots of money.

Over the many years of travelling the welcome meetings have moved from being informative about the resort/people/customs etc. and is now just a selling exercise. Not worth bothering about.

Same can be said about the reps. The attitude has slowly changed from "I'll take care of this for you..." to "You will have to...".

Dave

hollydays

If they are so bad,why have you had many holidays with them?

Dave_C_2

You missed the point of the thread, which is that some of the reps in resort are not doing much customer service and concentrating too much on selling.

Sadly this is endemic in the industry and is a part of the package holiday that cannot be changed by going with another company.

Maybe a Holiday Company would actually sell more holidays if they concentrated more on Customer Service and less on the "Lets extract every penny possible from the punters" attitude that pervades the industry.

As if!

Dave

Pollycat

sgt_pepper wrote: »

I have taken many Thomas Cook package holidays and the one constant is the misinformation and downright lies you get if you are stupid enough to go to their welcome meetings.

I can't see where the lies or misinformation comes in.

And as Saturnalia says, Thomas Cook are no different to any other tour operator.

Reps get commission on trips booked so yes, they are going to push their trips.

We usually go along to the Welcome meeting, even if we've been to the place before, just to show our face and get any resort maps etc.

I do agree with the OP about some (not all) reps knowledge of resorts.
In our experience some reps have only been there a a short time, especially if you travel at the start of the season.

Some just can't be bothered to find out things that may be of interest to their customers, such as bus times.

sgt_pepper wrote: »

We have had excellent holidays,gone on daily trips to interesting places and sites and rarely spend more than an average of £20 to£30 a day for both of us.This means we can afford to have two fortnight long holidays a year instead of the one if we had been stupid enough to book day trips with cooks.

I find it hard to believe that the OP saves enough money by doing trips with local agents instead of his tour operator to fund a second 2 week holiday.