)We returned from a Thomson (budget) holiday in Corfu a couple of months ago and as we'd had problems, we went straight into our local high street branch the next day to complain.
Our complaints centered around the poor service we'd received from the rep (sorry..."Holiday Adviser") on site, who turned up so badly hung over to our "welcome meeting" that she was barely able to function and with whom we booked three excursions.
The evening before the first excursion, the rep arrived to tell us it had been canceled due to lack of interest. Then despite assurances that the others would not meet similar fates, she arrived at a similar time the evening before the second excursion with the same sorry tale. At this point we canceled the third excursion ourselves.
Putting aside the obvious inconvenience of the canceled trips, the problem for us was that we were informed of the cancellations too late for us to make our own alternative arrangements, effectively leaving us stranded with nothing to do for half our holiday.
The whole holiday was affected though. Both because the arrangements we were able to make as an alternative for the third trip, had to be made via a local travel agent in cash, thus forcing us to make alternative money arrangements and because the time spent "kicking our heels" left us stressed and unable to properly enjoy what little fun we were able to eek out of the remaining holiday.
The main points we raised with the manager of Thomsons local branch on our return were that;
* The Rep was too badly hung over that first day to effectively do her job, which may or may not have had caused a problem with the bookings she made.
* The system in place from Thomson to advice customers of cancellations is obviously inadequate if we were not informed until it was too late for us to make our own arrangements.
* The rep showed little or no aptitude for customer care, with both poor service on delivery of the news and a complete failure to follow up afterward to see what if anything we were arranging ourselves.
(The first time she arrived dressed as a schoolgirl and obviously more concerned with not missing her coach to that nights party than helping us at all. The second time she arrived dripping wet having just been "thrown in the pool" a hazard which we observed over the course of the week, she seemed somewhat inept at avoiding.)
* The local travel agent we booked with in the end, told us that there was absolutely no reason for any of the trips to have been canceled. Telling us that if she booked a trip for one person alone, the company concerned would collect them as per her ongoing contract with them. Thus Thomsons needs to review either the companies used, or it's arrangement with them.
The manager at our local branch appeared horrified when we told her all the details and assured us we were right to complain. If we would commit our complaint to paper and bring it in to her on the following Monday, she would chase it for us herself. We left feeling better at having been heard and that we'd made the right choice by bringing it to her attention.
I wrote a five A4 page account the next day and returned it to the branch on Monday at which point I was informed that the complaint "could" take as long as twenty eight days to receive a response.
Having heard nothing toward the end of this period, we went in again just to follow up and encountered a quite different response. This time the manager (who you'll remember was going to chase it through for us personally) told us she had said it "would" take twenty eight days, not that it "could", but that she would chase it for us the following week. Subsequently she informed us that head office had "lost" our complaint and as it had effectively never arrived to be dealt with, we would have to wait another twenty eight days!
Our comment that as far as we were concerned the twenty eight days started from the moment we handed it in to her, was met with concerned nods and platitudes.
Too late to cut this long story short of corse, but suffice to say that about three weeks later we did receive a reply (by email) from Thomsons. Who started by thanking us for our email (not the best start since we never sent one) and saying how sorry they were that we felt let down. But then went on to ignore 99% of my original letter, concentrating solely on the trip cancellations and stating that these were occasionally subject to cancellation as stated in the small print on the booking forms (Which we never had since the rep did all that, but that is completely beside the point).
So staggering was the mark by which they seemed to have missed the point and so surprising was the fact that they made absolutely no comment about most of what I'd written, that I replied immediately saying that I could only assume that this person had not actually read my original letter and that this coupled with the fact that they had "lost" the query in the first place had now successfully converted us from "upset" to "angry". I suggested she obtain an original copy as soon as possible and read it properly before replying again.
They did mention that the rep in question was no longer with the company, but made no mention as to why. But in any case I responded by saying that whether or not she was still employed by them had no bearing on the matter as our complaint was with Thomsons, not with the individual rep, who's failings were ultimately down to poor management in any case. An obvious case of a party girl who was left with too much autonomy when she really needed proper supervision.
We gave her till the end of the following business week to reply to our satisfaction, at which point we would be looking into presenting our complaint to which ever official body was appropriate as well as taking legal advice.
A second reply was forthcoming much more quickly this time. But this again completely ignored most of my comments. Settling again on the actual trip cancellations and saying in as many words that as they are covered in the small print, this was the end of the matter as far as Thomson are concerned.
So there you have it, a long and sorry saga brought to you by the company who "build holidays with you in mind". An irony is that had we been dealt with in a timely and considerate fashion in the first place, we would probably have been content with a sympathetic ear and perhaps some vouchers. But now after they've treated us so shabbily and dismissively, we feel that we want a full apology covering all our original points, compensation for a spoiled holiday and frankly even then we feel like we want to shout about this loudly enough that people can see how they behave.
We ruled out Abta as our next move as I've read that we might incur a significant cost if they get involved. So we're thinking "Citizens Advice" to begin with and take it from there.
Grateful for any thoughts and suggestions?
Badger
What I find really infuriating is that the TO's make such a play of how much safer and better it is to book all excursions through them and imply that we will be at the mercy of rogues and vagabonds if we book with the locals or 'go it alone' using local transport. The truth is of course that much of their income comes from these trips.
