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Thomas Cook - Complaint - Compensation
edwardburgess
Posts: 2 Newbie
I wondered whether someone was able to advise me on what to do next? I sent a letter to Thomas Cook about my all inclusive trip to Cuba booked through them. After not hearing back from anyone in 2 months I sent an email to their customer service team, investor relations and press office asking for a response.
Today I have finally received a call from a member of the customer service team and they apologised about the problems with the holiday, offering me £150 vouchers to spend on my next Thomas Cook holiday - which I find shocking after an initial outlay of nearly £3000!
What should my next step be?
The letter initially sent about my holiday:
"Customer Service Manager
Thomas Cook Group Plc
3rd Floor, South Building
200 Aldergate
LONDON
EC1A 4HD
Dear Customer Services Manager,
RE: Cuban Holiday 5th - 19th June 2015
Firstly, I would like to mention that we had a fantastic holiday in Havana and Varadero, Cuba. Shirley and I loved Cuba and would very much entertain a return to the county in the future. Steeped in history and culture and with beaches some of the best I have ever been to, even when I lived in the British Virgin Islands.
Both the Hotel de Nacional and Royal Hicacos Resort and Spa where a pleasure to stay in and we couldn’t have chosen better. So I thank the very helpful staff in fully explaining the places to us and making it easy for us to tailor our holiday to our requirements.
Thank you also for the initial organisation of the holiday and keeping us informed. This allowed for perfect simplification in proceedings and for us to really enjoy the run up to our annual leave with minimal fuss and most of all stress.
However, although all the sales and aftersales care was good quality and informative, what we sadly experienced was not as we were expecting and left us very disappointed. Thomas Cook was recommended by a family member and we’d read reviews so thought that we would be in safe hands for an expensive holiday and a treat for us both.
Outbound Flight and Transfer
We had not long settled in the lounge at Manchester Airport when we noticed a sudden delay to our scheduled flight of 2 hours without any reason or explanation. This delay meant that the time we’d planned on needing the lounge, which is not cheap, was way too little. We had to vacate the lounge after our allotted time and spend a further hour outside in departures, which I can say at this airport is neither a relaxing experience nor what we’d planned. The delay was apparently caused by an electrical sign off issue in Cuba, but I am a little sceptical as to whether this would be the truth.
Once on the plane we had another small delay, this was never reasoned nor did we receive an apology for the initial two and a half hour delay from Cuba, anything that was said was impossible to determine as we couldn’t hear the pilot at all.
Belted in and ready for our long haul flight to Cuba the next shock from the airline came soon after taking off. It was the first time ever for us on a long haul flight that we were expected to purchase everything other than the celebrity chef meals (which were pretty good). It is, we believe, astonishing after the expensive cost of this holiday for us to then have to pay extortionate prices for drinks and nibbles and £12 to watch TV, because (and there’s no surprises here really) all the free TV programs were utter rubbish. The prices or the fact that we had not been told that there was costs involved with flying with your airline had left us feeling indignant. Why this was not explained as we handed nearly three thousand pounds over and told everything was all inclusive (apart from Hotel De Nacional, Havana)?
Once in Varadero, 3 hours later than scheduled, we collected our bags and went to find the coach which will transfer us to Havana. Once on board we were told that this journey would take about one hour and fifty minutes to the Hotel De Nacional. However, the coach driver decided he had a more important stop on route to make. The coach driver decided that he would stop to have a cigarette and pick up a bottle of alcohol before continuing on with the journey. This coach journey was to be a total of just over two and a half hours long.
Inbound Flight
This was to be the worse of the two flights. Once on board the return flight we sat for a total of two and a half hours having once been told that the reason for the delay is ‘there seems to be a language barrier for the sign off of electrics’. Which seems to be a reoccurring issue with your flights, as this was the same excuse given to our delay on the outbound journey.
Later and during this horrendous on board wait, we were offered just a simple glass of water in this nearly 3 hour delay back to the UK and still without information. Then an announcement was delivered by the pilot, to say that it was actually caused by a passenger illness. This passenger had been removed from the plane and they are now in the process of finding her luggage, which was explained as a ‘nightmare’ as the Cuban’s do not have a formal and logical packing system, so it’s a ‘needle in a haystack’ situation.
This then meant that the start and end of our holiday tainted the enjoyment between. What a shame to have to start the holiday feeling let down with a lack of information, stressed due to delay and disappointment to have missed a whole evening in Havana (we had enough time to squeeze in one beer at the hotel before bed, not the evening in Havana we wanted or was scheduled). Then to only have a worse experience on the return, being delayed and lied to by a reputable company and professional member of staff on board and on the night flight where tiredness was not needed for the 3 hour drive home after landing. This alone forced us to miss out on an important public engagement previously organised before the holiday.
Royal Hicacos, Varadero
This resort was lovely; clearly the best one in the area and trip advisor’s ranked no.1. This was not without its faults or issues.
Whilst at the resort we encountered a number of issues:
• Firstly, checking in to our room the resort kept asking for a voucher - which we were not given by Thomas Cook, needed at check in and delayed the process.
• Illness due to bad contaminated food - later told by the management that they were to ‘properly clean’ the kitchen and cooking equipment at the resort.
• Over booking of the restaurants, this meant that we were unable to enjoy the facilities.
• The resort was undertaking very noisy and unsightly repair works to the buffet building next to the pool area.
• Strong and revolting smell of rotten eggs as the water channels that surrounded the resorts main areas were emptied and refilled during our stay.
• Two items of mine were stolen from the pool side at the resort and little help received from the butler or staff at the resort, who seem not to be able to listen to detail and just smile and say ‘sorry’ to which resolved nothing.
This was my first experience of booking an all-inclusive trip through a travel agent on the high street and I can say that the experience was not all as I expected. It is disappointing to have paid so much money for our annual trip away to be reassured that all will be organised so we can have a great holiday.
We did have a lovely holiday in Cuba and the weather was absolutely perfect. We sadly were let down by Thomas Cook who delivered a poor flight service and flight delays totalling 5+ hours, levels of customer service and information passing which I am sure you would not condone. We both felt let down and indignant as customers paying a large sum of money for a holiday which wasn’t delivered as promised.
I enclose information of our holiday for your reference. I look forward to hearing from you in due course.
Regards
Edward"
Today I have finally received a call from a member of the customer service team and they apologised about the problems with the holiday, offering me £150 vouchers to spend on my next Thomas Cook holiday - which I find shocking after an initial outlay of nearly £3000!
What should my next step be?
The letter initially sent about my holiday:
"Customer Service Manager
Thomas Cook Group Plc
3rd Floor, South Building
200 Aldergate
LONDON
EC1A 4HD
Dear Customer Services Manager,
RE: Cuban Holiday 5th - 19th June 2015
Firstly, I would like to mention that we had a fantastic holiday in Havana and Varadero, Cuba. Shirley and I loved Cuba and would very much entertain a return to the county in the future. Steeped in history and culture and with beaches some of the best I have ever been to, even when I lived in the British Virgin Islands.
Both the Hotel de Nacional and Royal Hicacos Resort and Spa where a pleasure to stay in and we couldn’t have chosen better. So I thank the very helpful staff in fully explaining the places to us and making it easy for us to tailor our holiday to our requirements.
Thank you also for the initial organisation of the holiday and keeping us informed. This allowed for perfect simplification in proceedings and for us to really enjoy the run up to our annual leave with minimal fuss and most of all stress.
However, although all the sales and aftersales care was good quality and informative, what we sadly experienced was not as we were expecting and left us very disappointed. Thomas Cook was recommended by a family member and we’d read reviews so thought that we would be in safe hands for an expensive holiday and a treat for us both.
Outbound Flight and Transfer
We had not long settled in the lounge at Manchester Airport when we noticed a sudden delay to our scheduled flight of 2 hours without any reason or explanation. This delay meant that the time we’d planned on needing the lounge, which is not cheap, was way too little. We had to vacate the lounge after our allotted time and spend a further hour outside in departures, which I can say at this airport is neither a relaxing experience nor what we’d planned. The delay was apparently caused by an electrical sign off issue in Cuba, but I am a little sceptical as to whether this would be the truth.
Once on the plane we had another small delay, this was never reasoned nor did we receive an apology for the initial two and a half hour delay from Cuba, anything that was said was impossible to determine as we couldn’t hear the pilot at all.
Belted in and ready for our long haul flight to Cuba the next shock from the airline came soon after taking off. It was the first time ever for us on a long haul flight that we were expected to purchase everything other than the celebrity chef meals (which were pretty good). It is, we believe, astonishing after the expensive cost of this holiday for us to then have to pay extortionate prices for drinks and nibbles and £12 to watch TV, because (and there’s no surprises here really) all the free TV programs were utter rubbish. The prices or the fact that we had not been told that there was costs involved with flying with your airline had left us feeling indignant. Why this was not explained as we handed nearly three thousand pounds over and told everything was all inclusive (apart from Hotel De Nacional, Havana)?
Once in Varadero, 3 hours later than scheduled, we collected our bags and went to find the coach which will transfer us to Havana. Once on board we were told that this journey would take about one hour and fifty minutes to the Hotel De Nacional. However, the coach driver decided he had a more important stop on route to make. The coach driver decided that he would stop to have a cigarette and pick up a bottle of alcohol before continuing on with the journey. This coach journey was to be a total of just over two and a half hours long.
Inbound Flight
This was to be the worse of the two flights. Once on board the return flight we sat for a total of two and a half hours having once been told that the reason for the delay is ‘there seems to be a language barrier for the sign off of electrics’. Which seems to be a reoccurring issue with your flights, as this was the same excuse given to our delay on the outbound journey.
Later and during this horrendous on board wait, we were offered just a simple glass of water in this nearly 3 hour delay back to the UK and still without information. Then an announcement was delivered by the pilot, to say that it was actually caused by a passenger illness. This passenger had been removed from the plane and they are now in the process of finding her luggage, which was explained as a ‘nightmare’ as the Cuban’s do not have a formal and logical packing system, so it’s a ‘needle in a haystack’ situation.
This then meant that the start and end of our holiday tainted the enjoyment between. What a shame to have to start the holiday feeling let down with a lack of information, stressed due to delay and disappointment to have missed a whole evening in Havana (we had enough time to squeeze in one beer at the hotel before bed, not the evening in Havana we wanted or was scheduled). Then to only have a worse experience on the return, being delayed and lied to by a reputable company and professional member of staff on board and on the night flight where tiredness was not needed for the 3 hour drive home after landing. This alone forced us to miss out on an important public engagement previously organised before the holiday.
Royal Hicacos, Varadero
This resort was lovely; clearly the best one in the area and trip advisor’s ranked no.1. This was not without its faults or issues.
Whilst at the resort we encountered a number of issues:
• Firstly, checking in to our room the resort kept asking for a voucher - which we were not given by Thomas Cook, needed at check in and delayed the process.
• Illness due to bad contaminated food - later told by the management that they were to ‘properly clean’ the kitchen and cooking equipment at the resort.
• Over booking of the restaurants, this meant that we were unable to enjoy the facilities.
• The resort was undertaking very noisy and unsightly repair works to the buffet building next to the pool area.
• Strong and revolting smell of rotten eggs as the water channels that surrounded the resorts main areas were emptied and refilled during our stay.
• Two items of mine were stolen from the pool side at the resort and little help received from the butler or staff at the resort, who seem not to be able to listen to detail and just smile and say ‘sorry’ to which resolved nothing.
This was my first experience of booking an all-inclusive trip through a travel agent on the high street and I can say that the experience was not all as I expected. It is disappointing to have paid so much money for our annual trip away to be reassured that all will be organised so we can have a great holiday.
We did have a lovely holiday in Cuba and the weather was absolutely perfect. We sadly were let down by Thomas Cook who delivered a poor flight service and flight delays totalling 5+ hours, levels of customer service and information passing which I am sure you would not condone. We both felt let down and indignant as customers paying a large sum of money for a holiday which wasn’t delivered as promised.
I enclose information of our holiday for your reference. I look forward to hearing from you in due course.
Regards
Edward"
0
Comments
-
What compensation did you ask for?0
-
If your flights were delayed more than 3 hours (you can check exactly on Flightstats.com) then you can claim compensation for each flight (have a look at the thread on here for Flight delays and compensation)
For the other issues, what compensation do you think is acceptable?0 -
edwardburgess wrote: »Once in Varadero, 3 hours later than scheduled
this nearly 3 hour delay back to the UK
looks like both flights made up time
outbound flight arrived 125 minutes late and return 101 minutes so neither would qualify for delay compensation0 -
I lost the will to live half way through your complaint but I will pick out some points. Firstly the airport lounge it says in the t+cs maximum 3 hours in there so yes you would have to leave.
If you couldn't hear what the pilot was saying how do you know he wasn't explaining what the fault was, if you were that concerned why didn't you ask a TC staff member on the flight.
Only premium seating on long haul flights on a TC charter flight include free drinks, did you ask the question are drinks free? its not usually info that's offered when booking, more important things like Cuban tourist cards, departure tax, 6 months required on your passport etc, your high street travel agent you booked with was it a Tcook shop or another brand.
Most people would prefer to be delayed than take off with problems and if someone did take sick on the return flight again this is not TCs fault.
Why would you have an important engagement to go to so soon after returning from your holiday again not TCs fault.
Stolen items at the pool is unfortunate but some people will steal anywhere.
Requiring a voucher to check in at the hotel is baffling me as if it was a true TC package you wouldn't need a voucher, was it a Flexible trips package?
If you are unhappy with the compensation offered then you need to pursue it further but keep it more precise and complain about the things that are relevant ie the standards and facilities at the hotel in Varadero, which is probably why you have been offered what you have.0 -
I think if I received this letter I'd file it under b for bin after offering a small token as it is far to drawn out and not to the point as it should be, Any Company you choose to complain to does not want your life story and the way to address these issues is to be clear, concise and list the fault/issue only.0
-
Thank you to you all for your replies - I agree that it is too long - I wanted to show what I had written and I will know next time to shorten it by a mile (sorry to those of you who lost the will to live).
I hadn't asked for an amount, so I may then just accept their offer requesting sterling instead. I was expecting a little more than £150 TC vouchers - as we are not going to be using them again.
Cheers again.0 -
edwardburgess wrote: »Thank you to you all for your replies - I agree that it is too long - I wanted to show what I had written and I will know next time to shorten it by a mile (sorry to those of you who lost the will to live).
I hadn't asked for an amount, so I may then just accept their offer requesting sterling instead. I was expecting a little more than £150 TC vouchers - as we are not going to be using them again.
Cheers again.
It does seem to be standard practice for the tour operators to offer vouchers in the first instance as sending these to maybe 100 complaints I would imagine a good percentage of around 30% plus would accept them and make use of the voucher, Stand your ground go back and shorten it as you have said.0 -
If you aren't going to use them again what's in it for them to compensate you in cash ?
Would you have preferred to depart on time with a sick passenger potentially resulting in an emergency diversion if they got worse on the flight ?
I made it through your letter and don't really see any point that's honestly worthy of genuine complaint.Legal team on standby0 -
Oh dear.
Complaints should be brief, to-the-point, unemotional and free of sarcasm/irony.
Your complaint fails on all levels.
It is also confusing as you initially appear to praise the hotel
but then you go on to list complaints about it - including contaminated food, oversubscribed restaurants, theft.edwardburgess wrote: »Both the Hotel de Nacional and Royal Hicacos Resort and Spa where a pleasure to stay in and we couldn’t have chosen better. So I thank the very helpful staff in fully explaining the places to us and making it easy for us to tailor our holiday to our requirements.
Was it a Thomas Cook travel agent you booked with?edwardburgess wrote: »Belted in and ready for our long haul flight to Cuba the next shock from the airline came soon after taking off. It was the first time ever for us on a long haul flight that we were expected to purchase everything other than the celebrity chef meals (which were pretty good). It is, we believe, astonishing after the expensive cost of this holiday for us to then have to pay extortionate prices for drinks and nibbles and £12 to watch TV, because (and there’s no surprises here really) all the free TV programs were utter rubbish. The prices or the fact that we had not been told that there was costs involved with flying with your airline had left us feeling indignant. Why this was not explained as we handed nearly three thousand pounds over and told everything was all inclusive (apart from Hotel De Nacional, Havana)?
That is where the explanation that you would have to pay for drinks should have been made.
As for 'extortionate', TC on-board prices are very similar to all other charter airlines.
If it were me, I would contact TC and ask for a cash equivalent - but don't hold your breath.0
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