I am Livid - Thompson Holiday Booking

Saint_Chris

I'm sorry that you feel that everyone has ganged up on you.

But what i do have to say is that if it had been me, which it was on wed night, i booked wrong flights, i would have been on the phone the next day, which i was 1st thing thur morning.

And mine was to Ryanair.

They wanted £82 to change a flight, after a bit of sob storying i got it changed for £7.

But no way would i have left it for that long. You could try and contact them again, but is it worth it.

I bet that it is doing your head in, and your fella says it's just 50 quid.

i would either forget it and put it down to experince, or go to saynoto 0870 and find a freephone number and ring them to sort it out.

Oh and on another note, today i got a letter from xl telling me that my 8 flights that i booked 9 months ago had been cancelled. So i've had to re-book at a extra cost of £35 per person. So i've had to ring my friends today and tell them. So i've had a poo day

vicki_1981

Please understand that I'm not making excuses! I've had to take afternoons off before simply to make phone calls at home. My office is in the sticks and there are no phone boxes, no mobile signal either. I could have used a colleagues phone, but I know there is a long wait for an answer, and I can't hold up the phone line for that long. It's such a small office and incoming calls are very important.

I wish I were making excuses...I love my job but from the view of trying to make calls, it's a nightmare. Anyway, they wouldn't speak to me. My partner has an active job where he is on the road and in people's houses all day, he is permitted to take a lunch break, but I've never known him to have the time to stop and have one. As I said before, he phoned them, went away from the mobile to see to a job, came back and then waited a few minutes for an answer!

When I have to make important calls such as mortgage companies etc, I always have to book to come home early from work or take an afternoon off.

Not ideal huh!

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I've used Thomson's website before, and I've checked it twice tonight - before I posted last time, and just now. There is no "auto fill" feature on Thomson's website and no way that it would automatically get one party's surname wrong. It doesn't fill in the second surname by default to equal the first one. I think someone's confused here!

It's illegal for an employer not to give you breaks during a 9-5 working day. You could have phoned at lunchtime from a callbox or mobile. You are just making excuses now.

We're not ganging up on you. You came here to ask us what to do, and to moan about being charged. We've said what we think - that's how the forums work.

People on here don't have any axe to grind. If 9/10 people reckon you should pay the charge and get over it, that's probably what you should do.

Thomson haven't done anything wrong here. It was your mistake - sorry.

vicki_1981

Just thought I'd check the site again, for my own sanity rather than anything else. Glad I did.

MarkyMarkD

How weird! I've done it twice on thomson's site and it doesn't have that check box.

Having tried to book your holiday, it becomes clear why - it's this strange "BYO" thing Thomson are introducing. Your choice of holiday is a "BYO" but mine was not. The new check box only appears on BYO holidays.

You still checked it though - why would you check "auto complete surnames" unless all the surnames are the same??? What else would "auto complete surnames" possibly mean? It's not checked by default either.

Keeping_Positive

I would let the £50 go an count it up as experience. I know it will eat at you but you must let it go. I have a car insurance claim against me that I know was 1) too high a payout and 2) probably wasnt my fault (faulty vectra handbrake) that really annoys me when I think about it. I have to just try and forget, swallow the extra premium on the renewal and try to save in other ways lol!

One last attempt may be to put it in writing to get it off you chest without having to deal with the phone and leave it at that.

bagand96

vicki, I'm sorry to hear your experience, and am also sorry to hear you feel you are being ganged up on in this thread.

However, unfortunately the facts are not in your favour, you pressed the auto fill thing, which does state surnames. When booking on the internet it is your responsibility to check everything is correct before you hit the confirm button.

I appreciate your situation is not ideal, but is it really worth worrying about so much. Yes £50 is £50 and none of us can afford to be throwing that amount away, but you already stated you did well through promotion codes and quidco. This surely softens the blow alittle bit.

You don't mention when the holiday is, but if the tickets have been sent I imagine its soon. Just look forward to the holiday and don't let this matter build up and ruin your enjoyment of the holiday.

I hope you don't feel me or anyone else on the thread is ganging up on you, they are trying to help. People here have a vast amount of experience working in, or dealing with travel companies, and their advice is usually spot on. Its unfortunate they don't agree with you, but dealing with travel companies is very time consuming and draining, and if the end result is not going to be satisfactory then its not worth it. If you had a stone cast case against thomson people here would go out of their way to help you, but unfortunately it just doesn't seem they have anything to answer for (apart from hanging up on you, which i agree is terrible).

vicki_1981

Yeah I know I chose to tick that box. I had already completed both names and thought that meant that our names throughout the booking process from then on would be completed - it made sense if it was going to be a long form!

Anyway, I am letting it go! I just wanted to make sure I hadn't imagined things and there was a box there. I completed both names, then ticked it and it changed passenger 2 to the name of passenger 1.

Hey ho.

MarkyMark, what is BYO?

vicki_1981

Ps. Sorry if I've been grumpy.

MarkyMarkD

Thanks, vicki. I think you have been great, given the circumstances!

BYO is build-your-own. On other threads people have complained that certain Thomson packages are normal packages whilst others are build-your-own which have different terms & conditions - for example, don't include transfers unless you specify them in some cases.

Thomson don't make it very clear at all that your holiday is a BYO.

Your holiday seems to have coach transfers for free in any case, so I hope that what you've bought includes everything you want. But I'd have a look at your booking confirmation, and the BYO Ts & Cs on Thomson's site, just to make sure.

Enjoy your holiday!

alant1000

Thompson seem to be one of these very uncoporative companies, i imagine that they are feeling the squeeze as they are being hit hard by online holiday prices so are very tight these days.

I went into a branch about 2 years ago, and got a quote for 2 to Tunisia, which they printed as a quote for me. Me and my mate just wanted a bargain basement last minute holiday = £280 each, no problems. I booked it for an irregular time slot of 5 days as i had run out of holiday allowance at work.

I rang my mate, he said go ahead and book it, so rang the agent, gave them the quote reference number and they confirmed the booking over the phone.

I had to go in and sign the paperwork which i did. A week later i got a call asking me to confirm the dates... i dug out the paperwork...and they had booked me for 7 days not 5. I told them to change the dates, they said it was MY fault for signing, and to change the flights back to what i asked for originally would cost £200 each. I had no option as i couldnt take the extra time off work.

They blantantly only called me to confirm as they had realised thier mistake - but were very unapologetic and shrugged their shoulders saying i should have checked closer.

So £480 each for a :mad: holiday to Tunisia, when that could have got us to Miami.

Really annoying, would NEVER use them again, and Vicki i can see why you are annoyed, even though it may be your oversight, Thompsons shocking customer service and lack of flexibility means we loose out. :mad: