How to complain to Thomson Holidays

oodles441

I wonder if anyone has any suggestions. Whilst on a Thomson holiday in Greece in May, I fell down a step, badly breaking one foot in four places and doing bad ligament damage to the other. This resulted in two months in a wheelchair, two months on crutches, and now I must wear special shoes for a further five weeks. In the meantime I was forced to go on a previously-booked family holiday in a wheelchair so was very limited in what I could do.

At the time of the accident I was only interested in dealing with my injury and the hotel staff were very good at looking after me. It was only at the end of the holiday (the accident happened on the fourth day of a week-long trip)that another holidaymaker told me that exactly the same thing had happened to her, in exactly the same place, four years ago. And when I thought about it after, the step (not a step as such, but a drop where a terrace drops down to the path below; a path that graduates from being level with the terrace to a drop of around 18 inches), was not marked and I would be very surprised if there hadn't been more accidents as a result.

Having had my whole summer ruined, I decided to write to Thomson's to suggest that, in view of this, they might like to consider offering some kind of holiday as compensation. Obviously, as I didn't create a fuss at the time (although I did report the incident to their rep), they probably feel they have no obligation to do so. However, I strongly feel, in view of the problems these injuries have caused over nearly five months, that there should be a moral obligation.

Anyway, I have written to their complaints department twice but have received no response. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

Sorry to be so long-winded.

oodles441

Sent the first letter about three weeks' ago, then a follow up (with a copy of the original attached) about ten days' ago. Rather stupidly I don't think I do have a close-up of the step, but I know exactly where it was and it can be seen in photographs of the pool and surrounding area. To be honest, despite my injuries, I was convinced it would only take about six weeks of recuperation. Five months later...

I haven't tried Facebook, so it's something to consider. Thanks.

lea2012

Do you have your complaints forms to show that you reported it to the rep at the time?
You haven't really given them much time to respond if you sent a letter three weeks ago so approx 21 days and then you chased it up 10 days ago. They should where possible respond within 28 days, but this could just be a standard 'we're looking into it' letter and a full response may take some time.
You can ask them to investigate it further, but the fault would lie with the hotel and not Thomson really. They will also look at how many customers stay in the hotel compared to the number of accidents and I'm sure they would have done something by now if it happened alot. If I was Thomson I would be wondering why it had taken you so long to get in touch about it. That's unlikely to work in your favour, after all if you were that bothered you would have been straight on the phone to them when you got home. Now it just looks as though you are after a free holiday or a bit of compo. Accidents do happen and sometimes we just have to accept that instead of trying to blame someone else. I presume you didn't have any alcohol in your system when you fell as you don't say what time you fell but if you do that would also go against you.

In terms of your second holiday, you could have cancelled that and claimed back from your travel insurance if you were unfit to travel and presuming you did have travel insurance in place for the second trip when you had the accident. Travelling in a wheelchair is no biggie, millions of people do it every year so I would consider yourself lucky that this was only a one off and not something that you have to do all the time.

christaitfife

In terms of where the blame lies - it is with Thomson. This is because you booked through them (ie. the 'package deal').

Thomson, like all travel companies, are very clear that any complaints should be made in resort and will use that to bamboozle you. I suppose the issue here is who is to blame. Were you careless, or was the hotel? It is in the intrest to the hotel and Thomson to convince you that it was you.

Suggesting that they offer you compensation was the wrong thing to do. You should have itemised your cost and losses and presented a figure plus intrest. There are pleanty websites that will help you with this - but it is likely to be too late now.

As another poster has suggested - it is too early to 'chase it up'. Leave it a month.

To continue with this, it would be good to find others that have been injured in the same way - do you have the contact details of the lady that had a similar incident? If so, you would be able to demonstrate a known hazzard existed and nothing was done about it. It would also be good to seek out images of the offending step.

oodles441

I wasn't drunk. The reason I didn't complain is that I'm not a complainer and was, as suggested, prepared to accept that accidents do happen (added to which I had one leg in plaster and the other bandaged to the knee, so it wasn't at the forefront of my mind).

I was also expecting to be up and running after six weeks. As I said, it has now been five months and is still ongoing (next hospital appointment at the end of October). I didn't cancel the second holiday because there were ten of us going, I was the organiser and it was my treat (a special birthday), so it would've ruined everybody's summer holiday plans.

As I explained, it wasn't until near the end of the holiday that I learned that another visitor had had the same accident in the same place. And to be honest, the Thomson rep wasn't really much in evidence.

I have not asked for compensation. I have suggested that they have a moral obligation at least to offer another holiday as mine (and that of my husband) was well and truly ruined. The only reason I didn't go home immediately was because I couldn't get a Fit to Fly certificate straightaway.

I take the point that I might not have given Thomson adequate time to respond. But I'm not hopeful!

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

oodles441

Just to follow up. I received a phone call from Thomson about four weeks after sending my original letter to explain that the matter was now with their legal department. I received a letter a week later to say that I should hear from them within 45 days. We'll see what happens.