Can I cancel?

dleafy

lea2012 wrote: »

I'm sure you know the terms and conditions of your holiday like the back of your hand by now, but if you are think of changing your booking and then changing it back again you may wish to read over section 11 of the 'your contract' part of the t&c's. It's the area where you obviously found out that the charges to change were £50 each, and the area where this little asterix is placed:

* please note there won’t be any reduction in the price you pay, even if your new travel arrangements are cheaper than the original booking.

http://www.thomson.co.uk/thomson/page/tandc/tandc.page?depDate=2009-05-01&accommInvSys=TPP&flightInvSys=TPP&lang=en

I think that means that if you amend it to something cheaper you won't get a refund on the price difference so you would in fact end up £200 out of pocket as you would pay £50pp for each change.

Yes, I was aware of that......Thanks!

dleafy

lea2012 wrote: »

Section 15 might also be handy:
15. Conduct While Travelling

We reserve the right to refuse to accept you as a customer or continue dealing with you if we, or another person in authority, believe your behaviour is disruptive, causes unnecessary inconvenience, is threatening or abusive, you damage property, you upset, annoy, disturb, or put any other traveller or our staff or agents in the UK or resort in any risk or danger, on the telephone, in writing or in person.

Not necessary....but thanks for playing!

stoneman

Must say I'm a bit torn on this one. Both sets of arguments have their merits. I guess it would boil down to whether there has actually been a physical change to what dleafy booked. Only then will we be able to make considered arguments. All this "nothing has changed" "how do you know nothing has changed" is getting a bit repetitive, (and boring).
May I suggest that the OP and others refrain from "keyboard warrior" stuff and lets get back to first finding out what Thompson have to say as to why they have moved the property to a different brochure.

Caz3121

From the looks of it both a la Carte and Platinum have the same descriptions with the exception of 2 items; seat selection and private taxis which are given with a la Carte and not Platinum.
I would expect some of the price difference (£600 cheaper) to come from that cost not being included in the brochure price

dleafy

Ok, so after some more email tennis with Thomson customer service, I was eventually left in no doubt that in their opinion there had been no change to my holiday whatsoever. Nothing I said could change their minds.
They were not prepared to deviate at all from their policy of charging for cancellation or changes to my booking.
However, as a “gesture of goodwill” they did agree to “meet me halfway” with regards to the £600 difference in the holiday price in the short period after I had booked.
They have reimbursed me £296. This is half the difference in price that I paid compared to the price some 4 weeks later. I had sent them a screenshot.
Whilst the outcome is not what I wanted, I did accept it, partly based on today’s other events. This was also without the need to bother with ABTA or a solicitor.

As a funny coincidence, I had been trying to book a multi centre holiday to LA and Vegas with British Airways, but was having problems selecting the low deposit option online.
I emailed them and they hadn’t replied after 9 days.
To be honest, I wasn’t that concerned as we aren’t going till next year.
I eventually emailed BA again and got a phone call today apologising and explaining that the reason I couldn’t book the low cost option on line was because it was for a single centre holiday with one hotel. When I selected multicentre it immediately took away that option.
They were happy to book it for me over the phone, then change it to add all the other hotels, flights, car hire etc....without charge.
The price I booked it for turned out to be £500 cheaper than 9 days ago, mainly due to a reduction in the price of two of the Hilton hotels.

The lord giveth and the lord taketh away!
I must admit, I did have a little chuckle.

Caz3121

dleafy wrote: »

They have reimbursed me £296. This is half the difference in price that I paid compared to the price some 4 weeks later. I had sent them a screenshot.

I fairness some of the difference would be taken up with the additional a la carte benefits they are still providing you will eg taxi transfers
In my mind, fair result and I hope you enjoy your holiday

dleafy

Caz3121 wrote: »

I fairness some of the difference would be taken up with the additional a la carte benefits they are still providing you will eg taxi transfers
In my mind, fair result and I hope you enjoy your holiday

Thanks.....I always do.

bagand96

A good result for you. In theory thomson could have hidden behind the fact that holiday prices change all the time based on a variety of factors so tough luck. It's very good of them to offer you any money back (if the holiday had increased by £600, would you have offered them £296 ?!?!)

I'm surprised though that given this experience you still want to book package holidays. And with British Airways of all people! They have abysmal customer service. Abysmal service that you still have to dial 0845 to receive as well! (Thomson offer landline 020 or 024 numbers!)

mgdavid

dleafy wrote: »

...... I was eventually left in no doubt that in their opinion there had been no change to my holiday whatsoever. ...........

Told you so. Your apology is graciously accepted.

dleafy

I had my best ever customer service experience with British Airways.
We were delayed 24 hours in Vegas last year...WooHoo!
They simply textedand emailed me to tell me
We rang down and booked another night in the hotel and rang the car hire company.
I kept every receipt from that day and claimed it all back. We got €600 compensation each plus a little extra for the disturbance. I think they've since closed the €600 loophole by claiming that any problem with the aircraft is not their fault providing they have carried out all maintenance servicing.......Anyway, that holiday pretty much cost us nothing.
Just remembered, we also got some flight vouchers which we're using next Easter.
I'm actually quite a fan of BA.
To be fair to Thomson, they also went to considerable lengths to explain their reasons for the knockback, but I think it was good customer service to offer half.
I'm still claiming a victory BTW, after all, plenty people on here told me to give up.
£300 is £300