How Do I Complain???

Penny-Pincher!!

Hello

Well where do i start??

We booked a holiday at Butlins for the 25th-29th April 2005. This included half-board meals and a gold 2 bed apartment. We came home yesterday(28th)as it was so terrible!!

The accommadation was dirty, we was suppose to have house-keeping daily and only had once. The food was disgusting. Slop basically, veggies mushy, all meat was dry and turning up in corners, eggs under cooked, bacon under cooked-raw basically. The plates they served you with were boiling hot and one server passed my hubby plate and he burnt his hand. Daughter fell over where a drink had been spilt and not wiped up. The pool water was terrible and never went swimming. Staff were so rude too :eek:

Now I know it was a cheapie break(£150), but Im so disappointed as the standards we were offered in the brochure were not met.

How do I go about complaining?? Im quite upset & annoyed. Im disabled and dont get out often and feel gutted.

Please help me write a complaint letter and how to go about setting it out etc, as I dont have a clue My writing isnt up to much as I find it difficult using my hands, so please forgive my spelling and grammar.

Thanks in advance

Penny-Pincher!!
xxx

Mr_Warren_2

First of all Penny, find the name of the Manager of this Butlin resort. Then use this letter as a template. Feel free to add or remove details to suit. Good luck.

Dear Mr Butlin, Date:

My family and I had booked a well-deserved break in your Butlin resort ABC. This booking was for a two-bedroom apartment for the period 25th to 29th April (attach copy).

On arrival last Monday, we found the apartment very dirty (Penny, you will have to add if the staff were contacted and told about this problem). Our agreement was to have some form of housekeeping on a daily basis; being disabled, this help would have been appreciated had it happened as agreed. In fact the housekeeping was only done once during our stay.

The meals were very disappointing to say the least. Vegetables were regularly served overcooked and the meat presented itself with pretty curls on all sides, sign that he had most probably been cut a few hours prior.
Breakfast was another experience with undercooked eggs and bacon. May be meant to be served to customers the following day as per your meat and vegetables.

The attitude of your staff was deplorable and their customer care non-existent. One waiter handed a hot plate to my husband who burned his hand in the process as the said plate was too hot to be handled.

Your swimming pool was so dirty that we did not make use of it.

It is said that tourism in the UK is dying. With places such as yours, this is no surprise. Our experience with Butlin was so uninspiring that we left one day early.

I am not sure if you were present this week and aware of these problems. Due to my disability, we do not get out very often and this is an experience I am not prepared to repeat.

I look forward to receiving your comments

Penny.
Your address.

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi Mr Warren

Thanks so much for your advice!! My family & I apreciate it so much. I will send this off today/tommorrow at latest and will update when I hear back.

Penny-Pincher!!
xx

grownup1

This is a great letter to use as a template. Can I just suggest that you add some detail at the end about what action you would like from the manager. If you'd be happy with an apology - fine, but I would usually state what kind of refund or other compensation I would like and justify why (eg paid extra for high quality accommodation but quality actually low).

I haven't had to write this kind of letter too often, thank goodness, so there may be someone out there who can comment on whether this is a good tactic....

Best of luck. You're quite right to write a letter and this will actually do Butlins a favour in alerting them to a problem.

Mr_Warren_2

Thanks Grownup. The idea of requesting some form of compensation came to mind but it can sometime be seen as a "penny grabing" exercise. It's all down to negotiation. So at this stage, let's see what the Manager's reply is. Penny please keep us posted.
If the Manager comes back apologising etc..then we answer with a request for compensation via another nicely written letter.

If the Manager does not reply, Penny will have to let us know which Butlin place that was and post it on one of Martin's boards. Name and shame is what I say.

susieb

My slight concern is that the Haven brochure (both owned by bourn leisure) sayes it will only entertain complaints if you complete a form on site as well.
I had problems at a british holidays site (same owners) and had to complain 4 time while there before they even allowed me to complete a form, I wrote a similar letter to the above, and was given some compenstation (an amount equal to the days we had left -we left early as well)
Not happy at all.

dwarfer01

The watchdog website has a sample complaint letter for unhappy holidayers - it quotes the relevant legal stuff on misselling etc. Used it to compaint re honeymoon and 8 months later, we got a cheque so I would recommend trying it. Good luck!

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

Well, I received a letter from Butlins this morning :mad:

Basically, they have said we should have moaned more whilst we were there, they have thousands of happy customers each year and if we book another break with them-they will make sure that it runs smoothly :mad:

What do I do??? I am so upset.

Can someone please help me with this. I have no energy for this at the moment and my SLE & FMS is really causing me alot of pain.

Regards
Penny-Pincher!!
xxx

Mr_Warren_2

Write back to them and state that you had already complained on site (did you???) and that you are not talking about your next holiday with them but about your poor past experience. This will be a long process but stick to your guns and dont let them fob you off.

susieb

Penny-Pincher!! wrote:

Hi

Well, I received a letter from Butlins this morning :mad:

Basically, they have said we should have moaned more whilst we were there, they have thousands of happy customers each year and if we book another break with them-they will make sure that it runs smoothly :mad:

What do I do??? I am so upset.

Can someone please help me with this. I have no energy for this at the moment and my SLE & FMS is really causing me alot of pain.

Regards
Penny-Pincher!!
xxx

I got this reply to my haven complaint, however on the letter was a telephone number for the person, I rang them and spoke directly to them and found them more helpful after I had explained it verbally, maybe you could try that?

Penny-Pincher!!

Hey There

Well, I have received several correspondance letters back from Butlins over the past few weeks :mad: Trying to offer me anything from a 10-35% discount of our next holiday to Butlins....I DONT THINK SO!!

Anyway, received a letter yesterday offering a settlement figure of £80 (cost was £150). I am happy with this and will send a letter off today to accept their offer. They will send a cheque.

So please if you have any problems with a holiday company-stick with it and be consistent.

Thanks for all your replies.

Penny-Pincher!!
xxxx