Letter I sent to Thomson this week - says it all!!!
Wednesday 28th November 2012
Re holiday booking ref: *****
In the name of *****
I'm writing to you on behalf of my parents, named above. They're in Madeira right now, on the 2nd of 2 trips they saved up for this year to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
Upon booking the first trip - to Ibiza - they were assured by your in-branch rep that they'd get a fruit basket, champagne and an upgrade as a gesture for their special occasion.
Nothing doing. So they left it at that. They're nearly 70 - they don't like to make a fuss - they put it down to a misunderstanding.
At my encouragement, however, they mentioned the issue when booking this Madeira trip (booking reference at the top of this letter). The agent at the branch ( Nottingham) was 'mortified' and assured them that she'd fix it for them. They were excited at the gesture and looking forward to everything.
Four days before departure, my father popped in to confirm everything and your rep assured him that an email had gone on 12th November to the hotel and 'everything was confirmed'. You can imagine his surprise, therefore, when he and my mother arrived at the hotel to see 3 other couples who'd been on their flight get upgraded to celebrate their
(shorter than 50 years) anniversaries - and for my father? The response that no notification had been sent through so nothing could be done and they'd have to wait for the rep the next day.
My mother was very upset as I discovered when I called on their first night to ensure they were having a lovely time. So I called your branch in Arnold, Nottingham where this holiday was booked and where, again, 4 days before departure, my father was reassured that these special things would be waiting for him. I spoke to a lady who looked up the booking and confirmed that - on 12th November - a request for these things had been sent to the hotel but she maintained there was nothing more the store could do. She couldn't (wouldn't?) call the hotel or fax through the screen shot of the email or call your local rep. She wouldn't even call head office. When I asked for a number to do that myself, she told me these wasn't one - that there's no way for customers to contact your HQ with issues. All she could give me was a number for agents and she 'couldn't guarantee they'll even speak to you because you're a customer'. Would she phone them then? No, there was nothing more she could do. When I called the number, a recording told me it was no longer operational. Fantastic service experience so far.
Meanwhile, back in Madeira, your rep arrived the next day with the same response - no message from the branch who'd sold the holiday = no anniversary treats. She did offer to write a report (yay! Very exciting for the anniversary celebrants) and to 'try' to arrange fruit
basket and wine. So what does that result in? A plate with 2 bananas, an apple and an orange and a mini bottle of sparkling wine. Nice but good enough? Not really. So disappointment again. Her other remark - admittedly delivered with a smile - ''Well, your anniversary date's passed now (it was whilst in Ibiza) so it doesn't really matter because it's too late'. What a delightful response.
No offer to connect to branch. Negotiate with hotel. To try to join the dots. In the meantime, having chatted to one of the lucky recipients of that elusive sea-view upgrade, my parents discover that the rooms on either side of them are empty. But hotel and rep alike say no rooms are free.
It's extraordinary to me that - whilst your online site, your high street stores and your reps work in perfect harmony to allow people to spend money with you - that synchronicity disappears almost immediately when it comes to resolving an issue or providing a
customer experience that's likely to generate positive word of mouth and repeat business.
I'm not operating under any illusion here. I highly doubt you'll read this, let alone respond to it. And I'm pretty certain you'll make no attempt to offer something to my parents by way of an apology or long-overdue celebration of their anniversary. So instead of waiting to hear back from you, I'm going to spend my time posting this story on travel-related social media sites so that other potential customers of yours can truly appreciate the special service touch offered by Thomson. Feel free to prove me wrong.
Yours sincerely
*****
This is clearly very bad customer service and inexcusable and I can understand that the whole experience has been very upsetting for all three of you. I hope that you do get some redress but there are other ways that you could have gone about this that might have stood a better chance of getting a positive response from Thomson.
You don't mention the hotels concerned by name but the Thomson website does seem to indicate that room upgrades for anniversaries are subject to availability and hence are probably at the discretion of the hotel. The hotel, for example, might only be prepared to upgrade a certain number of bookings each week and who gets these is probably decided by them not Thomson staff. The website is also ambiguously worded with regards to the fruit basket and champagne etc and some entries do make it clear that these will only be available on presentation of proof in the form of a marriage certificate. So it will be important to check exactly what is on their confirmation invoice and how it is worded. Sometimes these things have no higher status than being a request so the exact wording on the documentation is crucial.
If you want to take this further I suggest that the best way forward would be to:
1) Send a short, concise letter that details the substance of the complaint 'They were promised a room upgrade and complimentary fruit basket and champagne and did not receive this' rather than having a rant.
2) Make sure that you send it by a 'signed for' service so that they cannot dispute that they have received it.
3) Remember that anybody you speak to in a central customer services dept is not personally responsible for this so don't take it out on them - get them on your side and you stand a much better chance of getting a result.
I hope that despite this your parents have been able to otherwise hav a good time and that you are able to get some satisfaction from Thomson.
SM
You don't mention the hotels concerned by name but the Thomson website does seem to indicate that room upgrades for anniversaries are subject to availability and hence are probably at the discretion of the hotel. The hotel, for example, might only be prepared to upgrade a certain number of bookings each week and who gets these is probably decided by them not Thomson staff. The website is also ambiguously worded with regards to the fruit basket and champagne etc and some entries do make it clear that these will only be available on presentation of proof in the form of a marriage certificate. So it will be important to check exactly what is on their confirmation invoice and how it is worded. Sometimes these things have no higher status than being a request so the exact wording on the documentation is crucial.
If you want to take this further I suggest that the best way forward would be to:
1) Send a short, concise letter that details the substance of the complaint 'They were promised a room upgrade and complimentary fruit basket and champagne and did not receive this' rather than having a rant.
2) Make sure that you send it by a 'signed for' service so that they cannot dispute that they have received it.
3) Remember that anybody you speak to in a central customer services dept is not personally responsible for this so don't take it out on them - get them on your side and you stand a much better chance of getting a result.
I hope that despite this your parents have been able to otherwise hav a good time and that you are able to get some satisfaction from Thomson.
SM
To be honest Rebecca, I'm not sure what you expected to get with that letter. You have already carried out your threat without giving time for them to reply so I can't see that writing a more concise letter with a specific request will make much difference. However it might be worth a try. I do agree that the branch did let your parents down with promises of upgrades. Are you absolutely certain this was said and it wasn't a case of sending in a request? What is down in their confirmation?
For any future holidays they have, could i suggest you contact the hotel yourself and arrange for champagne in their room( I did recently - I paid for it of course- and my parents were delighted. In fact the hotel owner then went on to provide a bottle of wine for dinner and made a real fuss of them).
In a hotel at any given time, there could be countless people celebrating something. I don't suppose it is realistic to think that a hotel can reward them all with upgrades.
Having said all that, I hope they enjoyed Madeira and it didn't spoil their holiday too much. Please let us know if they do reply. You could always tell them you will update your posts with how you get on
For any future holidays they have, could i suggest you contact the hotel yourself and arrange for champagne in their room( I did recently - I paid for it of course- and my parents were delighted. In fact the hotel owner then went on to provide a bottle of wine for dinner and made a real fuss of them).
In a hotel at any given time, there could be countless people celebrating something. I don't suppose it is realistic to think that a hotel can reward them all with upgrades.
Having said all that, I hope they enjoyed Madeira and it didn't spoil their holiday too much. Please let us know if they do reply. You could always tell them you will update your posts with how you get on
rebeccar wrote:Letter I sent to Thomson this week - says it all!!!
It's extraordinary to me that - whilst your online site, your high street stores and your reps work in perfect harmony to allow people to spend money with you - that synchronicity disappears almost immediately when it comes to resolving an issue or providing a
customer experience that's likely to generate positive word of mouth and repeat business.
Yours sincerely
*****[/quote
Hi Rebeccar,
I have every sympathy for you and your parents at the dismal customer service you have received , but hey look on the bright side , they've only got it totally wrong twice !!! Third time lucky if you can really be bothered to part with your hard earned cash to people who have displayed such high levels of incompetence and a lack of interest in trying to put things right . I just find it totally shocking that when you consider that a holiday is quite an expensive purchase that the customer service can be so lacking , it really is so unreasonable to be treated like this , I mean how much does it really cost them to supply a fruit platter and some local fizzy ? I guess around £15 cost price , how difficult is it to upgrade someone to an empty room ? , and on the back of just going that little bit more you could possibly recoup a repeat booking .
I understand you having a "little rant" in your letter, hopefully the person who gets it will actually "get" how you feel , you might be lucky in that it might be someone who has some common sense and feel a cringe of embarrassment , and feel that being given a third chance they might actually provide some customer satisfaction . Good luck !!!
I am really grateful for all your responses. I am very conscious that - in the grand scheme of things - this is pretty small. As Andy66 said though, I had to have my rant because this isn't a 'one off'. I totally understand that these things are generally non-guaranteeable and discretionary (indeed, Thomson HQ have emailed me a 1 line reply to that effect, wishing me luck in getting this resolved' - to have them say that to me as the people I'd be expecting to resolve it, incidentally, seems somewhat odd but at least I got a reply!). I think what has blown this up for me is that that wasn't what was said when they returned from Ibiza. That would have closed this down. That the staff in-store made it a big deal for the 2nd trip rather than simply making that point is what has made this so frustrating - and the on-site rep for that matter. But a line is drawn under this in my mind. I guess I've said my piece to Thomson and I will certainly let this group know if anything else happens. Thank you all again
Whilst I do understand the disappointment this will have caused I do think that there was possibly a misunderstanding and they were emailed requests, which is common practice, rather than guarantees.
Requests for anything special for anniversaries, birthdays etc are down to the individual hotel. It is not something that can be guaranteed, unless it is bookable in advance (when this happens there is often a charge involved) or comes as a standard event which can happen because the hotel is owned by, or is exclusive to that companies guests, and they have some jurisdiction over it.
At any point in time there are often lot's of people celebrating something special, and it isn't feasible to for the hotels to give freebies to all of these all the time. Often events that are entitled to upgrades etc free have to have some sort of paperwork to prove them (which makes sense or everyone could start claiming anniversaries, honeymoons etc.)
With regards to your letter, two points. Firstly, as you weren't on the booking Thomsons may not even respond to you, other than to say they can't discuss it with you because of data protection. They only would normally only deal with the lead passenger, or sometimes a named passenger, after the event.
Secondly, having written what you have in your letter you have given Thomsons no reason to respond, but that's not to say they won't. Standard practice is to respond to every complaint, (within 28 days) even if it's only to say they can't discuss it with you.
They are 'threatened' regularly, as are all tour operators, to be exposed on travel media sites. It is something that most people tack onto the end of a complaint thinking it will worry them into dealing with it quicker, or paying compensation, and it doesn't. Why should it? One persons bad experience wouldn't normally deter anyone else from booking through that travel agent or tour operator, and if it did, for every customer Thomsons lose, the other tour operators gain. It's a natural cycle. I'm sure they will respond to you but please don't think that it will be as a consequence of your 'threat'.
The branches customer service isn't of the best calibre
and they really should have made more effort to try to sort it out, so I'm presuming the complaint is really about that particular unhelpful member of staff, rather than the company as a whole.
Requests for anything special for anniversaries, birthdays etc are down to the individual hotel. It is not something that can be guaranteed, unless it is bookable in advance (when this happens there is often a charge involved) or comes as a standard event which can happen because the hotel is owned by, or is exclusive to that companies guests, and they have some jurisdiction over it.
At any point in time there are often lot's of people celebrating something special, and it isn't feasible to for the hotels to give freebies to all of these all the time. Often events that are entitled to upgrades etc free have to have some sort of paperwork to prove them (which makes sense or everyone could start claiming anniversaries, honeymoons etc.)
With regards to your letter, two points. Firstly, as you weren't on the booking Thomsons may not even respond to you, other than to say they can't discuss it with you because of data protection. They only would normally only deal with the lead passenger, or sometimes a named passenger, after the event.
Secondly, having written what you have in your letter you have given Thomsons no reason to respond, but that's not to say they won't. Standard practice is to respond to every complaint, (within 28 days) even if it's only to say they can't discuss it with you.
They are 'threatened' regularly, as are all tour operators, to be exposed on travel media sites. It is something that most people tack onto the end of a complaint thinking it will worry them into dealing with it quicker, or paying compensation, and it doesn't. Why should it? One persons bad experience wouldn't normally deter anyone else from booking through that travel agent or tour operator, and if it did, for every customer Thomsons lose, the other tour operators gain. It's a natural cycle. I'm sure they will respond to you but please don't think that it will be as a consequence of your 'threat'.
The branches customer service isn't of the best calibre
and they really should have made more effort to try to sort it out, so I'm presuming the complaint is really about that particular unhelpful member of staff, rather than the company as a whole.
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