£20 to book in Thomson shop.

stephb34

It does depend on the manager whether the £10pp booking charge is added, but on a £1810 booking where they would make at least £217 commission you'd waive the fee and try and sell the customer airport parking, insurance and currency. Luckily Thomas Cook/ Harriet Green has more sense and we have price parity across the board, High street stores, website and call centres all charge the same price, although you do get the odd customer who wants you to undercut the website because they're doing you a favour by giving you their business.

814man

Slightly off thread I know but I don't understand the concept of "support the High Street". As someone said these are all commercial companies trying to make as much money from you as they can. Why would you pay more to support them?
My local High Street is just full of hairdressers, pound shops and charity outlets, if I never have to go there again it will be too soon.

ferf1223

814man wrote: »

Why would you pay more to support them?

In this respect, to keep the shops open and available and people in jobs, I suppose. we don't use TAs but I can understand for those who do having a local shop to go into is a benefit and since they do have costs to cover (over and above the running of the website) it would make some sense that they were slightly more expensive.

In general support the high street would be (to me) more along the lines of supporting local retailers, the small shop owners - not the chains.

814man

But if you take an example of a service or goods (whatever they may be) then assuming that the customer is going to buy/use them then the location of where and how they make the purchase is irrelevant. I get cheaper prices generally on line and better customer service and choice at larger retail outlets (in general). On line traders also employ staff just in different roles and locations, see the increase in delivery jobs and web technology expertise to offset sales staff and cashiers in shops. The change in the way we shop and consume products and services cannot mean things stay the same, and it certainly should not mean consumers have to pay a surcharge just to exercise their choice to shop in a certain location.
As has been noted I think that having a higher price for the same item in one location compared to another will simply hasten the end of that outlet.

savercol

We are off topic slightly but it is all about supporting the high street. In my town the Co-Op closed their travel shop with the loss of 5 jobs. Nearby Thomson closed one shop and merged it with the First Choice shop (a fairly obvious thing to do).

814man

And my point is that the Co Op will have employed additional staff in web development, IT Support and Call centers to replace the 5 lost in the high street shop.
So I ask again why should I pay more to support the High Street?

globetraveller

I price up a holiday online and then go in to a TA. If they come within about £50 of the online price, I book them. When things go wrong with an online booking you can spend a long time trying to sort things out so to me, paying a BIT extra is worth it.

ferf1223

814man wrote: »

And my point is that the Co Op will have employed additional staff in web development, IT Support and Call centers to replace the 5 lost in the high street shop.
So I ask again why should I pay more to support the High Street?

It's highly unlikely that the company would employ the same number of people for the online side of the business as it lost in the high street shops...you do not really believe that the closure of one high street shop and loss of 5 jobs = 5 more jobs for the online side of the business (scaled up of course for all the local staff let go when numbers of high street shops shut), do you?

And that's ignoring that the jobs supporting company websites, etc. may well not be in the UK...and probably cost the company a lot less in all respects.