I am writing to complain about the package holiday you arranged for me, Unfortunately we did not receive the holiday we booked, To begin with everything was fine flights, transfers but then it went horribly wrong when our party of 6 girls were dropped outside a hotel that was completely closed down, The coach driver was as shocked as we were and informed us there was nothing he could do as he had a coach full of passengers and just drove off, By this time panic and tears had set in, we tried endlessly to get through to On the beach customer service with no avail , after looking through my paperwork I managed to find the number for Jumbo Travel, I called them and got through straight away, they informed me that my booking had been changed and that they had also been trying to get through to yourselves to inform of the change, we were then told we had to get our own taxis to another hotel which was based in the heart of Benidorm, not the quiet holiday we wanted at all, jumbo travel heard how upset and panicked we were and arranged 2 taxis to come and pick us up telling us we would need to pay but to keep the receipts, which we did, After finally arriving at the new hotel which had been booked for us Magic Villa Benidorm more upset was caused as we were right in the middle of the busy part of Benidorm surrounded by stags and hens, The hotel itself was was not the large complex hotel we had booked, The manager of the hotel was on the reception and could barely speak a word of English, eventually-( name removed) who we later found out was the Entertainments manager came and translated for us, She looked over our paperwork and there paperwork and informed us that the Magic Monica holiday hotel we had booked in October 2013 had been closed since September 2013 and that On The Beach had in fact accepted the change on our behalf, once again 40mins was spent trying to get through to your call centre still to no avail, We were then informed that it wasn't the large 2 bedroom apartments with balcony we had booked but instead 2 small shabby hotel rooms with 2 single beds and a pull out sofa, we were then told we had to pay 50€ per person as a deposit and made to sign a disclaimer stating we wouldn't get our money back if any of there rules were broken, I explained we were not a hen party we were all hard working mothers who were looking for a quiet relaxing holiday! And that we had only brought a small amount of cash each, after another hour getting no where and still not being able to get through to your call centre we agreed to pay the 50€ each , we were then given the keys to our rooms which were extremely cramped and dark with no balcony what's so ever, from there things just went from bad to worse, everything was the complete opposite to what I had booked, there was one small pool, not the large lake style swimming pool with swim up bar we were expecting, inside there was 2 small bars and the "restaurant" was downstairs all very dark and dingy looking, We had now lost nearly a full day of our holiday so decided to try and make the most of it, least the weather was nice, we went to the bar and ordered some cocktails served to us in a plastic cup and then informed we had to pay 5€ as cocktails weren't included in our All inclusive package but if we wanted to upgrade we could at 30€ per person, we politely declined this offer, The food in the restaurant was edible but not much choice at all, we had 3 vegetarians in our party and the only thing they could eat was chips or salad, at one point we were told the pasta dish was vegetarian only to discover once started to be eaten that it had ham in it, from then on we had breakfast in the hotel but had to eat out for lunch and dinner, The hotel was full of stags and hens for the first 2 nights lots of drunken antics,foul language and ended with a group of naked boys outside our hotel room fighting in the early hours which was bad enough, we seriously thought things couldn't get any worse but yet again we were wrong, we were persuaded by the entertainments manager to go into the inside bar where she would be singing and were assured there was no rowdy groups of boys groping you every time you walked past them, well she was right there wasn't instead we were subjected to 2 ladies in there 50's who were there with there grandchildren giving us a full on sex show while xxxx was singing, these ladies were completely out of control and at no point whatsoever did anyone try to stop them, This holiday was meant to a relaxing break for 6 hard working mothers a far cry from what we received, from our perspective this was not a holiday but a very stressful experience that we would have done anything to avoid, i believe you have totally breached the Supply of goods and service Act 1982 and in these circumstances we do not feel it unreasonable to expect a full refund of the money paid to you , if this is not forthcoming we are quite prepared to take this matter to court under the small claims procedure, I have also been in contact with citizens advice who have taken note of all this information.
Reply from On The Beach
Dear ----,
Many thanks for your recent comments regarding your holiday.
I am sorry you are disappointed with the service received from us. It was not our intention to cause you any upset and disappointment upon arrival at the hotel or for the duration of your stay. We of course want all our customer’s to enjoy their holiday.
Firstly, I would like to advise, the operational change was administered was from the hotel directly due to a hotel closure. I am sure that you can appreciate changes of this nature are above and beyond our control and as a booking agent we are bound by the decision of the hotel providers which On The Beach Holidays cannot be held responsible for hotel changes.
However, regrettably on rare occasions something can go wrong which disrupts these arrangements. This may be down to a fault with the local agent or an administration problem on our part which is due simply to human error.
Unfortunately, it would appear that an administrative error did occur in this instance and the hotel change was not sent to you. I would therefore like to express our sincerest apologies for the obvious inconvenience and distress caused.
We are keen to restore your faith in On The Beach Holidays and the services we provide. Therefore, having regard for all that you have said, we are happy to offer you 20% refund of the hotel, namely £176.20.
I have passed your documents to the finance department for them to authorise the refund for you. Please visit the manage your booking section on our website, within 3-5 working days and follow the instructions on the screen to claim your refund.
Furthermore, we would respectfully request that you provide us with copies of telephone bills/ receipts/bank/credit card statements detailing the cost incurred whilst on holiday, this will enable us to investigate the extra costs incurred in full. Please send this information to the address below;
On The Beach
Park Square
Bird Hall Lane
Cheadle
SK3 0XN
Once again, I am sorry for any upset this has caused you but I do hope that despite this issues raised you still had an enjoyable holiday and will consider booking with us again.
Kind Regards,
name removed
Customer Feedback Advisor
On The Beach
-
Edited by
Fiona
2014-07-03 20:36:01
to remove names
