Thomas Cook lied during sale, then messed up booking.

phil2580

LilElvis,

Yes, we probably could have, but surely the whole point of having in-store reps is to provide effective and honest advice? Otherwise, what's the point in having them. I know that I will never book instore (or with Thomas Cook) again though.

I wouldn't have expected anything from Thomas Cook if their brochure didn't advertise it...but it did (and still does), and again, the rep instore told us that the in-resort rep would 'do something special for us'. So it wasn't just an assumption that something nice would be done, we'd been told it would be done. I'm not sure what you consider to be a 'very significant amount of money', but to me £3,000 is a 'very significant amount of money', and it's not unreasonable to expect a high level of service for that amount.

If it had been one or two minor things, I probably wouldn't have complained, but everything Thomas Cook were involved in had a problem. So no, they probably didn't 'ruin' the holiday, but the problems meant that we couldn't enjoy it as much as we should have been able to.

phil2580

With an average speed limit of 80kph, it would take ~35 minutes. However, if you have been there, you will know that the main trunk road is covered with speed bumps which have to be taken at very slow speeds, police check points, suicidal collectivo and taxi drivers and plenty of other things that slow down progress. It's only 7 miles from where I work to home, but that takes me 45 minutes on trunk roads, so your argument is moot.

How were we not forced? Surely you don't think it would have been appropriate for me to leave my wife in a distressed state for 8 hours because of Thomas Cook's incompetence?

Actually, we didn't know where we wanted to go, that's why we went to the store, to get advice on where best. When Mexico came up, that's when we specified we wanted to be close to Cancun/Playa.

We got the 'Honeymoon extras', but so did everyone else, so they're not really extras are they?

Bantex_2

phil2580 wrote: »

With an average speed limit of 80kph, it would take ~35 minutes. However, if you have been there, you will know that the main trunk road is covered with speed bumps which have to be taken at very slow speeds, police check points, suicidal collectivo and taxi drivers and plenty of other things that slow down progress. It's only 7 miles from where I work to home, but that takes me 45 minutes on trunk roads, so your argument is moot.

How were we not forced? Surely you don't think it would have been appropriate for me to leave my wife in a distressed state for 8 hours because of Thomas Cook's incompetence?

Actually, we didn't know where we wanted to go, that's why we went to the store, to get advice on where best. When Mexico came up, that's when we specified we wanted to be close to Cancun/Playa.

We got the 'Honeymoon extras', but so did everyone else, so they're not really extras are they?

What are these "honeymoon extras"?
Are they a bit kinky or something?

phil2580

It's listed in the brochure as a bottle of tequila and a bowl of fruit. Nothing major, but if it's advertised as a 'honeymoon extra', it should only be in rooms occupied by honeymooning couples. Instead it was in every room (as far as we could tell).

LilElvis

phil2580 wrote: »

LilElvis,

Yes, we probably could have, but surely the whole point of having in-store reps is to provide effective and honest advice? Otherwise, what's the point in having them. I know that I will never book instore (or with Thomas Cook) again though.

I wouldn't have expected anything from Thomas Cook if their brochure didn't advertise it...but it did (and still does), and again, the rep instore told us that the in-resort rep would 'do something special for us'. So it wasn't just an assumption that something nice would be done, we'd been told it would be done. I'm not sure what you consider to be a 'very significant amount of money', but to me £3,000 is a 'very significant amount of money', and it's not unreasonable to expect a high level of service for that amount.

If it had been one or two minor things, I probably wouldn't have complained, but everything Thomas Cook were involved in had a problem. So no, they probably didn't 'ruin' the holiday, but the problems meant that we couldn't enjoy it as much as we should have been able to.

I wouldn't expect a high-street travel agent to know much at all about specific resorts or countries as the brochures they sell from must have literally thousands of hotels between them. So no, I would not expect them to give effective advice.

Did you speak to the rep at the resort re the 'something special' you had been promised? What did they say?

And yes £3000 for a long haul flight, accommodation and food for 2 people for a week is cheap. My flights alone to South Africa for 2 adults and a 3 year old has come to £1900 - this is by booking in the sale, plus using some airmiles to discount it further, or it would have been £2500. And this is flying economy class without paying for the extra legroom seats which would have been another £180. My parents have been given 'birthday surprises' on some of their holidays, but their trips cost £8,000 to £10,000 for 2 1/2 weeks (not including food and drink).

Yes, ask Thomas Cook to refund you the seat premium you paid and tell them about your poor experience with their agent. But the rest is fairly inconsequential or would have been avoided by you doing some very basic research yourself.

phil2580

I'm happy for you that you think £3,000 is cheap. This was the most expensive holiday I have ever booked, and probably the worst service I've ever received.

Ich_2

I think that you will find that all airlines define sitting together as side by side, either side of an aisle but in the same row and one in front of the other

ThumbRemote

LilElvis wrote: »

But you still could have gone away and done some more research before returning to complete the booking. This wasn't a last minute holiday, this must have been months in advance.

That really is a ridiculous point. By this logic it would be quite acceptable for any salesperson to say anything they want, because the customer could have found out information from somewhere else.

ThumbRemote

phil2580 wrote: »

It's listed in the brochure as a bottle of tequila and a bowl of fruit. Nothing major, but if it's advertised as a 'honeymoon extra', it should only be in rooms occupied by honeymooning couples. Instead it was in every room (as far as we could tell).

From a legal perspective, you got what you paid for. Other people got more than they paid for. That's their good luck, not your bad luck, and there is nothing you can do about it. You can't complain because a hotel does more than expected for some customers!


Other than the flight back and the location you got what you wanted - a honeymoon. The flight back didn't affect the holiday while you were there. Some aspects weren't up to scratch, true, but these were surely minor points compared to the holiday as a whole.

LilElvis

ThumbRemote wrote: »

That really is a ridiculous point. By this logic it would be quite acceptable for any salesperson to say anything they want, because the customer could have found out information from somewhere else.

Not ridiculuous at all in my opinion. Yes, I would expect a salesman selling, say, electrical goods to have a pretty good knowledge of the products he stocks. A travel agent is selling something which they have never physically seen and has only the limited information they themselves are given to pass on to the potential customer. For example, how would the agent have known that the road from the resort was particularly slow? They might only have seen the distance from the other resort and, fairly reasonably, assumed that it would be a journey time within the parameters given to them by the OP. So yes, I would have left the agents and had a look at guide books, Trip Advisor etc before making a final decision on the particular hotel.