Olympic holidays - is this letter too harsh?

lilrowan

Wig wrote:

It may be common but does that make it acceptable? and should the brochure not tell the customers to expect these things?

Sure. I havent read the T&C's in the back of the brochure but I expect it would say something there? If not then you have reason to complain of course.

lilrowan

Vacating your room early I am pretty sure will be in the T&Cs. I have never been on any holiday when you didn't have to do that.

Epiphone

Time spent filling the cistern: £0.74

** Comment is rude and unhelpful - Edited by Abuse Controller **

sooz

i'd just be thankful that you did not have a so called 'celebrity' as an olympic rep - anyone watching the channel 5 thing.

Smiley_Mum

I would say at the beginning of the letter how you were really looking forward to your holiday etc as friends had recommended Olympic to you as they'd had such a good time etc, reps were good etc etc etc, (a bit of bs, they don't know but they will be chuffed about that, get them on side before you hit them with everything).

Then gradually drop the bombshell, but don't do it a sarcastic agressive tone, try to be pleasant about it all, as much as it may pain you to do so. If you trash their company and slag them off etc you will get nowhere. Try and put yourself in their position, if you were head of the company etc and you received said letter as you had initially posted, I doubt you'd be pleased. As much as I can appreciate you had a s**t time on your holiday, if you want them to put their hand in their pocket then you have to be nice about it and write in an assertive pleasant manner, not an angry, sarcastic manner.

Don't give them a breakdown of costs, just put a general summary down and that you were very disappointed that you had all the excess expenditure on your holiday that you hadn't anticipated, the problems with the sanitation etc. It certainly wasn't what you expected and are extremely disappointed with the holiday that you had. Refer to the rep, as Miss or whatever, keep it formal like someone already stated, don't put it like you were buddies. Keep it formal.

Knock the letter down to at least one A4, any more than that and they are going to be bored to death and you'll be lucky if they give a penny. When I saw the length of the post I bypassed most of it and just scanned through it, I thought you were very rude and I could see that any bigwig from Olympic are not credit you much savvy if you send it. You wanted peoples' opinions and you have them, cut the Mr Angry right out and be pleasant if you want to give yourself any chance of compensation, don't mention figures, let them do that. You may be pleasantly surprised. I would also put that you would wish to hear from them within say 14 days of the date of the letter or you will be forced to seek further (legal) advice on the matter.

Quote from Abraham Lincoln
PERSUASION

" When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a 'drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.'"


See the following links on tips about writing a letter of complaint to a holiday company.

There is also a checklist on the first page of the article, keep copies of letter, all correspondence, calls to company, who you spoke with, times and dates etc. Any photographic evidence.


www.derbyshire.gov.uk/Images/ca20_tcm2-35763.pdf

RichyRich

It's sent anyway

Just wondering about thoughts. We did have an amazing time but that was due in no part to Olympic, who were rubbish. We spent most of our time out of the room away from the hotel

Only reason I put Lea was because that's what she called herself; tried to keep it chronological but also put related bits together (my English teacher always told me not to write like that).

Thanks for your feedback, especially Epiphone. Yours was particularly constructive.

Yes I have seen C5.

PS - no reception desk.

Rich

researcher

It's sent anyway

I don't understand the point of posting if you were going to totally ignore all the very good advice from a lot of people, who spent time and effort on your behalf and do the same thing anyhow?

Trow

Had I read this before it was sent I would have advised you to miss out completely the bit about flying right at the start.

Basically you know nothing about aviation and the 'complaint' appears petty and ill-informed to me as it will to a tour operator. It was there that I switched off thinking 'this is going to be a catalogue of petty complaints'.

You may have some real cause for complaint, but the pilot erring on the side of safety IMO is a cause for celebration.

I work in an airport and know that the appearance of weather conditions can be incredibly deceptive - just a change in visibility of 10 feet can make a huge difference to the viability of landing. 10ft in height is not something that you would be able to discern sitting on an aircraft.

Wig

No doubt they will throw your letter into the shredder, that's what I would do if I was them. I also thought epiphone's response was constructive, not only that, it hit the nail on the head.