distraught, and disaster! help!

Joanna_1969

I have just sat and posted a message for over hslf an hour to find it didnt get posted by some reason!
I cant write it all again so can anyone help me with advise about a claim that ive had against a travel company i booked my holiday with last march, its still on going and i cant get any response, im going mad and im so angry.
Thanks

Joanna

TBeckett100

give a brief outline - why you are claiming etc and whether it is within their T&Cs , also who they are etc

Joanna_1969

Ok, i booked a 2 week holiday to sidari, corfu, for 6th august 2007 last march. They didnt inform me until 4 days before we left that we were over booked, they sent an email. They are travelrepublic. Travel...were told on 26th july by med hotels that we had to go to different accomodation or cancel, travel...knew for a full 7 days before telling us and then it was only by chance that we found the email, we had no calls or letters etc to tell us this. By this time it was too late to cancel, the 7 day cancellation period was over. Travel....were very unhelpful, not understanding at all that we were going to sidari to see our daughter who lives there who we hadnt seen for 6 months. When asked they said there was no where in sidari to put us so we had to go to kavos, of all places! I spent from 2nd-6th on the phone trying to get help, i just kept getting fobbed off with excuses, no one would help. The guy dealing with us at travel..was quite nasty at times when i said kavos wasnt the place for us to go with kids etc, he said that it wasnt his problem and that also we werent told immediately off the change because we were not priority! he said we were lucky we found out at all, some people werent told until they landed at corfu!.
Anyway tio cut a long story short, we got to kavos and after being dumped with our cases with no one to greet us we eventually found reception, at 2am. The manager was horrified to see us.....they were no rooms for us!! only a room allocated to another family the next day! by 4.30am they let us stay in that room to try and sleep but we had to be out by 8am. There were no beds, we had no water etc and our youngest son slept in the bottom of a wardrobe(it was his 13th birthday).
We went back to reception to find no one knew about us, so it started all over again. We soon found out that travel..had taken £2,666.00 off us for accomodation but med hotels only receieved 1800 euros. Travel...had split the 1 booking under our name into two seperate ones and were meant to send my brother his family and our son to sidari and leave us in kavos!
Hours later with the help of the lady working there, she managed to get us back into sidari village hotel, where we were meant to be staying anyway! We were made to pay for our transfer 165.00 euros and told to claim it back.
The next4 days of our holiday were ruined by having to wait and sit with the rep and fill in forms etc and go through what happened, i was a wreck and my family were not much better. The rep suggest we claim for what happened to us, and we were not the only ones!
I have battled to get an answer, even an apology from travel.. since last august, ive had nothing but letters and emails saying we will reply in 28 days, we havnt even had our transfer money refunded yet. They are a total disgrace and ruined the run up to our holiday and the beginning, it was horrible. Their customer service is poop, im ebven considering a solicitor and tabliods to see if i get a response.

Thanks
Joanna

sloppychops

Have a look at the complaints section of www.holidaytruths.co.uk
I would phone Ros Fernihough on 01922 621114 asap. Ros is a travel law solicitor who often assists Holiday Truths members and is well known to the tour operators etc.

Reggie_Rebel

Have you tried the CAB and/or the small claims court?

Joanna_1969

Hi sloppychops, thanks very much for that number, i will definately give it a try and ill have a look at holidaytruths too!

Reggie Rebel, small claims court is what i was thinking, but really....should i need to go that far just to get a reply from them...its sad really, because i book so many holidays for friends and family through travelrepublic.....i wont anymore...never.

Joanna

Joanna_1969

I have just found out the founder of this company, a Mr. Paul Furner. I have asked for a number to call so i can speak to him but they wont do that, they gave me the address i already have to write a letter to him instead. What are the chances of him actually recieving the letter if i write it????

Jo x