Teletext Holidays Cheating

Kean

I know there are a few other threads on this subject but it appears Teletext Holidays are still up to their old tricks of advertising holidays at prices they are unable to provide which is against UK Office of Fair Trading guidelines. Their answer is always that when you call they provide "live pricing". However, strangely enough their website prices that have been updated both before and after the live telephone price are still lower! Their Indian based Sales and Customer Service Teams seem to be either out of control lying and using pressure sales tactics on customers or they have been trained to do this. I would guess this is the way they have been trained.
I have just booked a holiday through Teletext, stupidly I did not check up on them first or I would not have gone near them. I saw a holiday advertised for £131pp on their website, however upon calling and speaking to a sales agent named Dana the price went up to £165pp she said the reason for this was we had been given an upgraded room at the hotel as there were no "basic standard" rooms left available. Strangely enough, when I contacted the hotel later they stated the room we were booked into was their cheapest type of room!!! When I started to further query Dana on the difference in price between their website and actual, she gave me more waffle about live pricing and said if I did not book then she "guaranteed" that after 1 hour the price would have gone up to £500 pounds or more. Like a fool I went ahead and booked. However, I did call back after 1 hour and also 1 day, the price was still £165pp and the updated website price was still £131pp. So in a nutshell, it looks like I have fallen for a non existent £68 room upgrade in the same way as others on here.
I have tried emailing Customer Services several times and got the same "stock answer" replies that did not address most of the issues I raised. I tried their live chat and again got "stock answer" immediate copy and paste replies. When I persisted in trying to escalate my complaint I was disconnected. Now they will not even correspond with me.
I have since been shocked to notice that Teletext have been nominated for two BTA Awards!! How can this be with all the bad press about them all over the internet?
Whilst I realise that generally people with an axe to grind are the most vocal, I am sure many people are quite happy with Teletext whilst not realising they have been subjected to underhand cheating or pressure sales tactics! It is funny that I have not been able to find any instance quoted on the internet where Teletext's "live pricing" system has provided someone with a lower price than the website advertised price!!!!
The sad thing is that even after all the bad tactics and increases in cost, the prices Teletext offer are often not that bad, so why do they need to resort to such immoral methods of doing business?
Although I am not talking about much money, I hate feeling I have been cheated and am not willing to let the matter drop.
I am hoping someone from Teletext will pick up on this post as they have with others on other threads and resume communication with me.

theonlywayisup

I am sorry, it was too much text for me to read. I read the bottom line and the likelihood is no one from Teletext will read it. This isn't a platform for teletext to reply but for random people on the internet to offer help.

Perhaps try a little punctuation and make it easy for people to read if you want specific help.

Kean

Thanks for your reply, but if you look at most of the other threads complaining about Teletext on this forum, a rep from Teletext has come in asking for details ;) I have pretty much exhausted all other channels I know of to try and get Teletext to respond to me - unless someone has direct contact details for their UK based team?

theonlywayisup

I don't need to look at any other threads. I was trying to answer yours....

The Teletext rep may ask you for details, but you need to condense your complaint and make it easy to read.

If you don't want to, that's fine.

You could try PM'ing the rep.

Kean

Thanks again for your follow up reply. I could take exception to some of your comments, but I am not here to get into argument or debate over those sort of issues.
I have taken on board your final suggestion (which I had not thought of) and tried to PM the Teletext rep - unfortunately they have chosen not to receive PMs.

Heedtheadvice

Ok, maybe the first post was a tad long and could no doubt have better put and given a better layout/punctuation.

But I did read it and Kean has given enough detail to make it understandable. One cannot say that for all posts!

I appreciate Kean's concerns and agree there is a lot of sharp practice and what appears to be downright pushing or stepping over legal boundaries. Would be good if an organisation with teeth would get themselves involved so perhaps a poster could advise who to raise issues like this with? I'll ask that question on behalf of Kean, if so wished!

theonlywayisup

Kean wrote: »

Thanks again for your follow up reply. I could take exception to some of your comments, but I am not here to get into argument or debate over those sort of issues.
I have taken on board your final suggestion (which I had not thought of) and tried to PM the Teletext rep - unfortunately they have chosen not to receive PMs.

Ah well you tried. You might find that most "reps" here do nothing more than lip service. The others do less.

Teletext holidays aren't one of the better ones, I hope you are lucky in getting a response.

As for your other comments. Perhaps you might take exception, but that reflects more on you than me.

I am not the one asking for help.