Flight delay and cancellation compensation, Thomas Cook ONLY

JPears

Much as I admire the work of Botts over the years, from what you have told us they would appear have made a gross error in management of your case. You would have to ask what have they actually done on your behalf? I would profer very little. I would contact TC as you have suggested and also contact Botts pointing out their errors and omissions. Perhaps a solution maybe to pay the £25 fee but otherwise keep all the compensation? Botts are aware this is a widely read and powerful forum and would not wish their mistakes to be broadcast....

Tyzap

DIYBaldyman wrote: »

:j:j:jGREAT NEWS FOLKS:j:j:j

Just looking for opinions really - what would you do?


Thanks in advance again.

I would give Botts a call and discus it with them.

I have always found them to be very fair, so I'm sure it would be an amicable discussion.

Good luck.

richardw

btw http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3526186/Thomas-Cook-told-bailiffs-IMPOUND-multi-million-pound-plane-unless-600-compensation-woman-s-22-hour-flight-delay-four-years-ago-paid.html

batman44

richardw wrote: »

btw http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3526186/Thomas-Cook-told-bailiffs-IMPOUND-multi-million-pound-plane-unless-600-compensation-woman-s-22-hour-flight-delay-four-years-ago-paid.html

Seen that, funny.
Seriously I cannot believe airlines are still trying to avoid it.

DIYBaldyman

JPears wrote: »

Much as I admire the work of Botts over the years, from what you have told us they would appear have made a gross error in management of your case. You would have to ask what have they actually done on your behalf? I would profer very little. I would contact TC as you have suggested and also contact Botts pointing out their errors and omissions. Perhaps a solution maybe to pay the £25 fee but otherwise keep all the compensation? Botts are aware this is a widely read and powerful forum and would not wish their mistakes to be broadcast....

JP, I did as you & Tyzap both suggested, called Botts first, but no senior staff willing to speak with me to discuss issues, had to put it in writing. Whilst doing so I offered to re-instruct for 10% fee (£114.50 based on my expected claim). Botts did apologise & take full responsibility, but declined my offer & asked for 15% (£172). I then offered to meet them half way @ 12.5% (£143), but they wouldn't budge from 15%, after sending me 2 lengthy emails explaining how they had already lost money & didn't want to compound it, explaining their cost structure in detail, they turned me down for the sake of £29, despite now also having at least one related case to revisit. I'll now be chasing TC direct for the full £1145 (EU 1600).

Can't thank everyone enough on here, the support keeps up your confidence to continue, is very well appreciated & will be repaid back into the forum by me doing the same for others.

DIYBaldyman

http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/office/people/495959/thomas-cook-uk-ltd-legal-department?Solicitors=True

Discovered this today whilst rooting around for information - might be of use to a few on here.

JPears

DIYBaldyman wrote: »

JP, I did as you & Tyzap both suggested, called Botts first, but no senior staff willing to speak with me to discuss issues, had to put it in writing. Whilst doing so I offered to re-instruct for 10% fee (£114.50 based on my expected claim). Botts did apologise & take full responsibility, but declined my offer & asked for 15% (£172). I then offered to meet them half way @ 12.5% (£143), but they wouldn't budge from 15%, after sending me 2 lengthy emails explaining how they had already lost money & didn't want to compound it, explaining their cost structure in detail, they turned me down for the sake of £29, despite now also having at least one related case to revisit. I'll now be chasing TC direct for the full £1145 (EU 1600).

Can't thank everyone enough on here, the support keeps up your confidence to continue, is very well appreciated & will be repaid back into the forum by me doing the same for others.

I'm struggling to understand what costs/losses Botts incurred other than a letter to TC? Had they issued court papers?

legal_magpie

DIYBaldyman wrote: »

http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/office/people/495959/thomas-cook-uk-ltd-legal-department?Solicitors=True

Discovered this today whilst rooting around for information - might be of use to a few on here.

Why do you think it is useful to know that Thomas Cook employ solicitors in their in house legal team? Would you expect them not to do do? And why publish their names?

DIYBaldyman

JPears wrote: »

I'm struggling to understand what costs/losses Botts incurred other than a letter to TC? Had they issued court papers?

You & I both JP. All they had done was issue a LBA (on top of all the standard forms issued to myself for signing). I asked them pretty much the same question myself & also pointed out that they now had the opportunity to follow up at least one other case relating to my flight, possibly more. Their reply;

"Afternoon Mr Ward,
Unfortunately it’s not that straightforward for us. The margins are incredibly tight on these cases which makes it very difficult for us to do so.

To put it in context, the three lawyers in the team who review these cases have an hourly rate of £217, £184 and £144 – so that’s how much an hour of our time would typically cost. Now obviously we don’t charge at that rate because it would exceed the client’s compensation amount, hence us capping it at 27% plus £25, but even then our typical charges per client are in the tens of pounds. On that basis we have to ensure we make the right decisions on cases very quickly, and there are also additional charges on the back of that too – particularly around banking transactions.

I appreciate again this is none of your concern, I merely flag this up to you to explain the position we are in at the moment. I do hope that assists.

I will provide you with copies of the correspondence we send to the airline confirming we are no longer instructed as soon as ever possible."

However TC had already contacted them to advise they had agreed to settle, so no further legal work was needed, just administrative tasks. I would have thought £143 would have more than covered what they had left to do, but apparently not.

DIYBaldyman

legal_magpie wrote: »

Why do you think it is useful to know that Thomas Cook employ solicitors in their in house legal team? Would you expect them not to do do? And why publish their names?

Legal Magpie, was that question for real or are you just pulling my chain?

It is the address of the legal department I thought would be useful, it took me around half an hour to track it down after being point-blank refused said information by TC's Customer Relations team.

I'm not even going to entertain answering whether or not I would expect an international airline's in-house legal team to employ solicitors.

As for why have I published their names, really?

I'm here to help, not hinder or cause problems. I've merely posted a link to a publicly accessible page on The Law Society's web site.

Would you like me to bring you a step-ladder so you can climb down safely off your high-horse?

:(:(