Hi guys well heres my horror story.
Girlfriend wanted to go away really bad so we went to Thomsons.
In store my girlfriend got talked into buying a holiday to Tenerife and it sounded good so we booked it.
When we returned home the hotel had bad reviews and people had said it was based on a huge hill that was unbearable to walk, especially if you had kids and we did have a 2 year old son. So I asked the travel agent if the hotel was far from the town centre and she said its not according to Thomsons website.
I have the call recorder app so I guessed that as the call was recorded and I had nothing to worry about, at the worst i could complain in resort if it was very far as per the numerous reviews.
So I took her word on it and we flew. When we arrived in Tenerife our son's pram didn't come through. I contacted a rep there who I recorded the conversation with and he said that Thomson's agent and not Thomsons had lost the baggage and I would have to call the airlines agent Iberia in the morning and in the meanwhile hire a pram and get reimbursed when I got to the Uk from Thomson.
I immediately questioned this and asked what Thomsons would do and the rep just said they couldn't do anything in resort/at the airport and it would have to be dealt with by Thomsons in England, which i have the whole conversation recorded.
Anyway the hotel did not have any prams to hire as the agent suggested and so we were left for the first 72 hours without a pram. The hotel also was on a very very long and steep hill which wasn't described and was so bad that whilst we could walk down it, walking back up it was extremely gruelling and tiring.
The room we got was damp and had condensation and when I did attempt to contact the resort rep they were never in resort and we were told messages would be left with them but none were.
We decided just to clean the room the best we could and I continually rang the agent on a day to day basis - Iberia, who 72 hours later found the baggage and said it was never put on the plane thus the delay. Iberia had the pram sent to our hotel reception. When it did arrive it was damaged and stained with mud and the wheels would not properly allocate and move.
I immediately took photographs and thought that I would complain when back to the UK.
When I returned back to the UK I wrote to the store I bought the holiday from outlining my complaint with photographs and also prove that on travel republic (another site) they mention different km distance from the same town centres that Thomsons did on their site and brochure. I never received any response from the store and so i complained directly to Thomsons through their website.
A few weeks later i got a response from 'Sky Tours' who as far as I knew were not even who I booked with..anyway they said they could only pass on my baggage claim to a department in Crawley who they would get to contact me. As for the loss and misdescription they put it down to 'opinion' and said they couldn't do anything more.
I then got a telephone call a few weeks later from Thomsons again who in the end told me they'd investigate only to tell me in the end that they again could do nothing as the mis description was 'opinion' ( i.e. it could be debated if a hill is 'steep' to one person to another's version of steep..etc') and saying that now as Thomsons could not pin point where the damage occurred they would not repair or issue a new pram or any compensation and as I did not take out travel insurance I breached their terms and conditions and am not protected. I have found this to now be the final draw to me and I am seriously considering taking the matter to ABTA and even the small claims court. In my opinion Thomsons breached their duty of care as they and their agents lost my bag and were negligent, They have failed to address my clear evidence of misleading distance in their brochures and information provided by evidence and photographs of the rooms which is different to that of the brochures which as this was a package holiday is covered by the Package Regulations Act from my understanding..
so what would you do next?