I am Livid - Thompson Holiday Booking

bagand96

Its not just Thomson, its all the tour operators. I think their customer "service" is scandalous, and the supposed ABTA who are their to protect us are about as much use as a chocolate tea-pot. I speak from experience.

My trouble was on a Thomas Cook holiday booked at a Going Places travel agent. It gave the amazingly convinient situation that they were blaming each other for the c*ck up! Brilliant!

Last month I booked a late deal through Thomson's website (after vowing never to use a travel agent again). The holiday was fine and I can't fault them, in fact we had a small issue and the Thomson rep sorted it out in 10 minutes and then knocked our door that evening to check it had all been sorted. I couldn't fault her she was fantastic. Its all down to personal experience, some people will have problems others will have a very positive experience.

But generally, the customer service (especially at the UK end) sucks whichever company you use, First Choice, Thomas Cook, MyTravel etc... In what other industry would a company be able to get away with taking an order for one thing yet delivering something else?!

jimbo65_2

Thomson Holiday Customer Service

Concerns & Errors Manager
Customer Support Department
TUI UK
Columbus House
Westwood Way
Westwood Business Park
Coventry
CV4 8TJ

To Whom It May Concern:

Departure date 16/08/2007 Reference Number *******

Yesterday, I received a letter informing my family that my forthcoming holiday that was ordered online by my wife which is set as a 2 bedroom apartment in Salou, Spain for 10 days has now been turned into a 1 bedroom apartment at the Catalonia Gardens resort.

I am not from UK, I have never experienced this type of treatment from any travel company as a regular travel customer who has travelled across the globe. I am not pleased at all as a first time customer to Thomson. As a first time customer, I would think your company would want to bend over backwards to keep me happy due to your mistake, but I do not see or hear that at all from any representative.

After a few telephone conversations with your company, I know a little more of this incident to understand what happened.

My wife ordered this 2 bedroom (2R05B) apartment in Salou, Spain for 10 days beginning 16 August 2007 at Catalonia Gardens resort from your website. Paid for at the time of booking on or about 7 July 2007. We get a letter yesterday, now 2 weeks later, when car and plane reservations are now made and less than a month before travel to find out that we have to accept your mistake of advertising a two bedroom apartment when you don’t have any two bedroom apartments at all for this location.

With this we have the option of a complete refund when who knows we would receive the refund if accepted, or you will be so kind to remove any forthcoming admin charges to another holiday if we reschedule, or accept your kind re-allocation to the one bedroom apartment at the same location which sleeps up to 5, (1R05B).

If I wanted a one bedroom flat, I would have ordered it.

I don’t have the extra money to tell you stuff it and to give me a refund then I would go to another company and give them my money for what I truly wanted, a 2 bedroom apartment. I spent the entire evening looking online for available flats, and now that it is 2 weeks later and closer to the summer holiday for most UK people, I found only one 2 bedroom available building in the Salou area, let alone the entire country of Spain and this was not on your website.

Page Two
Reference Number *******

I am quite a calm person and very hard to upset, but this is absurd and has made me quite upset by your company informing me and my family by a letter in the post. This rare occurance is important issue to most, if not all, people.

I can’t believe you didn’t have a representative call me as soon as this was found out of your online mistake that a 2 bedroom property doesn’t exist at this location from Thomson and that there are no 2 bedroom properties within Spain now as I found out online on the Thomson website. This was after the first person I called from Thomson said I could probably exchange locations if I found another 2 bedroom apartment and got back to customer service after being informed by the letter from the post.

I am told by your representatives that this mistake of Thomson is covered under terms and conditions and I have to accept this. My wife who ordered this, still doesn’t believe that this is proper, and is filing a complaint with ABTA, as she is a UK citizen.

Most mistakes such as this usually come with some sort of regard to the customer, to keep them happy. Management with Thomson must feel the customer doesn’t matter.
IN most other companies with customers, they try to soften the burden of change due to company mistakes. I can’t believe that something as such has not been offered or even suggested by a Thomson employee. I can suggest a few for your company as listed:

• A major discount to a future travel experience or holiday.
• A majority or large refund of monies paid for the mistake on part of the company.
• An offer of the same type of room requested at another location, even if the said property is not in the company’s own properties.
• Gift of apology

These are just a few examples of what Thomson must do if they wish to keep customers. I, now am not convinced you care to keep me as a customer and don’t plan on using Thomson ever again. You got my money and I have no other option.
With regards,


JF

As for mistreatment by customer service reps, contact them immediately talking to their managers and let them have it. Make sure the management knows how mad you are about that mistreatment by their employee. In some instances, they have a tracking system of who takes your calls and can find the person with the bad behaviour directed at you at an instant. The management can offer and ask you for your thoughts on reprimand and punishment to their behaviour. If not offered, then make sure you give it.