Hi Guys,

Im just wondering if one of you could give us some advice regarding a complaint with Thomsons Holidays. In case you dont know myself and my girlfriend have both worked for Thomsons in the pas as Holiday Reps and ive worked for other companied aswell and i feel like because of this we are being fobbed off. But anyway i better tell you the problem first so i can see what you would all advise.

We recently went on a holiday to The Gran Ventana Beach Resort in Playa Dorada, The Dominican Republic. It was the 5th time we had been on holiday to the Dominican and we both worked there for 6 months aswell. Normally we go to the ruis but due to the bad reviews recently and the bug we decided to try somewere different and booked this hotel paying a little bit more than the Ruis.

The Outbound flight was great even though there was a slight delay due to people being late to board the flight and only joining when their luggage was in the process of being offloaded. We arrived and fell lucky getting a coach full of people going to the same hotel so no other dropoffs and were quickly allocated the room and checked in. We had no major problems with the hotel or holiday apart from the entertainment team which ill get to later, oh and it resembling the set of shameless in the sun but thats a personal opinion and Thomsons cant do anything about who books the hotel. The main problem came when we were leaving and involved the inbound flight. The reason ive put this in is though that people can see that we had a good holiday and its not that we are being melodramatic or petty.

On boarding the outbound flight back to manchester we took our seats and taxied and took off. Imediatly as the plane was in the air we were informed that the in flight seatback entertainment system was not working in some seats and that the toilet in the middle of the cabin was not working and the only one available to people on ab was at the rear in row 48 unless you were sat in the premium cabin. We were sat in 7 a and b 1 row behind the premium cabin and low and behold our seatback system was not working.

We spoke to a male steward asap and he said he would reboot our screens but this did not happen. After twenty minutes the Drinks service was coming around so we spoke to them and the Stewardess said that she would reboot or bring some magazines for my gf to read as she had a load from the previous flight. She reset the screen in front of us by accident so we pressed the call button. 4hours later the cabin supervisor came along and asked if wed called and we pointed out we tried to call 4 hours previously and no one came and at this point she had a little strop and pointed out that lots of people have been calling. That was the last we saw of any of the crew. Halfway through the flight the lights were turned off just as i began to read and the reading light would not work as its connected to the system and i couldnt sleep as behind me 2 kids were using the games and beating the screen for want of a better word.

The flight from the Dominican is 9 hours and with nothing to do it feels longer. Addto that the customer service of the crew and i felt we had a reasonable reason to complain. Add to that the fact that i felt concerned about the entertainment teams attitude around the teenage girls on complex. See the reviews for what other people say.

Today i recieved our 3rd letter after making a complaint the day after we returned, both previous letters stated that they were investigating the claims made in our letter but today we recieved there answers.

Basicly they have sent us a cut and paste letter. Each of the concerns are adresssed with out any clear actions. Every concern ends with Your comments have been passed to ( inserted posistion ie. cabin crew managment, maitenence, in resort team ) for any necessary onward actions.

The letter ends with a thanks for giving feed back as it is invaluable comment.

The letter is not even signed and i cant help but feel that we have been fobbed off as we are ex employees. From working for them i know that this would be a loss of facilities with a minimum £25 pounds each compensation but we havent even had a offer of a £10 voucher.

I would like to say that this is not about the compensation though and i wouldnt care if we got nothing as log as i know we have not been fobbed off.

So what would you all do or reccomend or whats your opinions????

Sorry for boring you and thanks in advance.

Shaun and Lianne