children, cross-stitch and chocolate. Chickywiggles debt-free diary

chickywiggle

I have made the decision (following lots of recent experiences) that I should just have a complaint letter saved and send it onto everyone I buy from.

Todays............

Order a 50ml hugo boss night.....................have been delived a 100ml hugo man.

Good try cheapsmells but not good enough.


ETA: freepost address to return to and replacement of correct product immedatly dispatched.

chickywiggle

next on my hit-list................Travelodge.

doesn't seem to matter to travelodge if you book a room or not.
my dad booked a room for last night (they took the money out of his account the day he booked), he then got a phone call last night at 7pm to ask if he was going to be using the room. He told them he was and it would be about 10pm when they check in.
At 9pm when they had just set off he got another phone call to say the TL had sold his room to someone else and he had to go to an alternative.

This alternative ignored the phone when he rang for further directions as could not find it so he ended up at a completely different hotel chain at 11pm.

I am prepared for a fight with this one. He was fortunate he drives and could get to an alternative. I regulary use TL's for nights away - we travel by train with 2 small children to reach them. I'll not be booking again after this incident as I am concerned they would leave us stranded.
unfortunatly with the price of alternative hotel chains this means we will be going away a lot less often - such a shame.

ETA: 1 week later I eventually get a response (and refund)................but not without what I would deam a "suck it up" reply..... see what you think:

I am sorry to learn that your father's room was not available upon his arrival at the hote he hadn't arrived - you phoned him at 9pm .

In line with almost all operators in the hotel industry we operate a procedure that allows our reservation system to overbook certain hotels. This is so we can compensate for the expected level of late cancellations or non-arrivals. you had already confirmed only 2 hours earlier he was coming - are you now calling him a liar? .

Our overbooking levels are based on historical booking trends for each hotel. This allows us to be as accurate as possible, finding a balance between honouring the booking for customers who arrive and maximising our occupancy levels. you're policy is cancellation by mid-day or you keep the money regardless ........... so actually you would have lost no money had he not turned up .

Unfortunately, we had an unexpected take-up of arrivals for the hotel and we could not accommodate him. I do apologise for any inconvenience this caused. who would have expected people might stay at a hotel? and why does that become my problem?.

All of our hotels are trained in how to deal with these situations. yeah tell customers to go elsewhere on the phone because it's easier then telling someone else face to face .. We also have a Hotel Booking Support Team at our Head Office who can assist the hotel. We find alternative accommodation and cover the cost of any additional travel expenses. This, we hope, reduces the impact on the customer. sadly this customer service does not extend to the customer .

I appreciate your father did call the hotel before his arrival, and it is possible that the hotel still had spaces at that time. A copy of your contact has been sent to the Hotel Manager and our Hotel Booking Support Team. so the b0ll0cks you have given me about taking a week to reply becuase it needed to be followed up is just that - you have not actually followed it up .

I was also sorry to learn that he was unable to locate the hotel we offered. I have now arranged a refund for £31.00 to go back on the card used to make the booking. Funds may take up to five working days to appear in the account. but amazingly when he paid you it hit your account the same day.

Once again I am sorry for any inconvenience caused. We do appreciate the time you have taken to contact us and for your valued feedback.

The_Dragon

Blimey! Have they refunded the money 'cos if not even more :mad::mad::mad:

Flat_Eric

chickywiggle wrote: »

next on my hit-list................Travelodge.

doesn't seem to matter to travelodge if you book a room or not.
my dad booked a room for last night (they took the money out of his account the day he booked), he then got a phone call last night at 7pm to ask if he was going to be using the room. He told them he was and it would be about 10pm when they check in.
At 9pm when they had just set off he got another phone call to say the TL had sold his room to someone else and he had to go to an alternative.

This alternative ignored the phone when he rang for further directions as could not find it so he ended up at a completely different hotel chain at 11pm.

I am prepared for a fight with this one. He was fortunate he drives and could get to an alternative. I regulary use TL's for nights away - we travel by train with 2 small children to reach them. I'll not be booking again after this incident as I am concerned they would leave us stranded.
unfortunatly with the price of alternative hotel chains this means we will be going away a lot less often - such a shame.

oh :mad: this practice has been covered on Watchdog. See here

Flat_Eric

chickywiggle wrote: »

next on my hit-list................Travelodge.

doesn't seem to matter to travelodge if you book a room or not.
my dad booked a room for last night (they took the money out of his account the day he booked), he then got a phone call last night at 7pm to ask if he was going to be using the room. He told them he was and it would be about 10pm when they check in.
At 9pm when they had just set off he got another phone call to say the TL had sold his room to someone else and he had to go to an alternative.

This alternative ignored the phone when he rang for further directions as could not find it so he ended up at a completely different hotel chain at 11pm.

I am prepared for a fight with this one. He was fortunate he drives and could get to an alternative. I regulary use TL's for nights away - we travel by train with 2 small children to reach them. I'll not be booking again after this incident as I am concerned they would leave us stranded.
unfortunatly with the price of alternative hotel chains this means we will be going away a lot less often - such a shame.

see I don't get this? (see text I've highlighted above).
They called him and he confirmed he still required the room so why did they leave it a couple of hours and then sell it on? He told them what time he would be arriving. I can only imagine they got a premium price for selling the room on.... but is that money worth the bad feeling and very poor customer service?

chickywiggle

i KNOW - personally I think they re-sold it for a premium at 7pm when they rang him and it took then 2hours to find him an alternative!!

If I don't hear from them I'l be copying watchdog into any future correspondance. I remembered it being covered and reading other reports but you'd think they'd have learnt from it by now.

chickywiggle

well I eventually heard back from T/L - I have copied the reply (and my thoughts on it into the above post)

I have also found the CEO's e-mail address online so I shall be coping the above (tho maybe a bit of re-wording) along with how "helpful"his facebook support team were (not) in the next couple of days.

chickywiggle

March ............. must make it 10 NSD's at least.

Friday - 1st - shopping
2nd - shopping
3rd - NSD :j
4th - NSD :j


ooopppsss - forgot to finish

chickywiggle

13 projects in 2013 (ok so technically more then 13 as I thought of some extras which can be backups if I don't get all the big ones done)


UFO's
1) Mothers Day Bookmark (small free kit)
2) mouseloft cat and christmas tree (tiny - half done)
3) mouseloft - fatal error (tiny - half done)
4) poppy pincushion (quite small - kit)
5) Humphry's Corner - fishing (kit - a handful of stitches done) - April 2013



6) Dinosaur ABC - 1 and a bit pages of 4 completed.

NEW
7) Noahs Ark (16"x 20")
8) Cut-thru: Toy Shop
9) Dictionary of homesfinished 20/2

10) Christmas Angel
11) Margaret Sherry "Easy as ABC"
12) Lucie Heaton Snowglobes - 8 designs
13) Twas the Night Before Christmas


Extras

14) sandy hook square girl - in progress


15) sandy hook square boy 3/3/13


16) batman and robin capes


17) New home in words


18) Superhero lego men Afghan - in progress

chickywiggle

***RANT alert****

For personal reasons I cannot post what I want to shout on facebook (as I don't want my best friend/ sister to take offence - they are the difference to the rule)
But you know when someone pi55es you off SOOOO much you need to vent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my friends posted a status then she had 2 items of baby clothes if anyone wanted them free.

So one of her friends posted about how fantastic she was and how it's embarrassing that mothers sell their childrens old clothes and how more people should take a leaf out of her book.

I commented that this type of attitude makes me mad and why should I work hard - buy my kids clothes etc then give them to "scrounging !!!!!!!!!!s" who won't pay out for anything. (will add I have had an entire 1-2yr wardrobe of clothes that I have been trying to sell for the last 2 months and all I am getting are stupid offers at half the asking price "because times are hard").

don't get me wrong - if someone is IN NEED I have a completely different view to if they are workshy scroungers who insist on bring 10 kids into the world with no means to support them. BUT I still have mouths to feed, I have bodies to clothe - if I can make £50 from £300+ of clothes this would cover a weeks food shopping ................ am I wrong for wanting to make some cash??

YES ............. me and my husband CHOOSE to go to work.
We CHOOSE to take home little more then we would make on benefits because we have morals.
WE ARE fit and healthy. WE CAN work.

I would be embarrassed (and I am in no way having a go at people who CANNOT work - this is a completely different issue) to sit at home taking benefits and living on handouts.

BUT WHY should I be made to feel like a bad person because I won't give items I have worked hard to get to make a few quid back???

YES I would LOVE to be at home 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
However I actually think my kids have benefited from going to a childminder once a week - they are lovely (75% of the time ) outgoing polite little boys who (when I compare them to SOME children of SAH parents) is such a contrast.

I worked out the other day (because I thought we would be down to one wage) that if we gave up work and had to live purls on benefits that we would be no worse off. Perhaps we are the stupid ones????

Now I am pretty sure I'm going to get people who have no interest in my life and want to put their mindless 2pence in and you know what - go say it somewhere else.

This is NOT a rant about SAH parents.
This is NOT a rant about x being disabled and not being ABLE to work and having to live on handouts.

I am not finger pointing at anyone in particular in society and I am sure there are lots of people out there who take home far more then the minimum wage and yet still give away everything they have finished with and GOOD FOR YOU. I am not saying it is wrong - I am simply saying I can't afford to do that and I don't see why I should be made to feel like a second class citizen for this view.