Hi JMK I wonder if the 28 days is 'working' days just a thought?

Yes I wondered that too but it doesn't say that so I'm sure legally it is just 28 days as stated. Whatever it is though they are dragging their feet as I sent them a signed report on an official card signed by one of their cabin staff stating we should get a refund.

It means 28 days. Have you spoken to Abta about it? They don't usually take too kindly to their guidelines being breached.

We are now on 36 days so by Monday when the next post arrives it will be 38. 10 days over that stated by ABTA's guidelines and that stated twice to me in communication with Thomas Cook. Both these communications were basically saying that they would look into it and as ABTA members would report back to me within 28 days of October 8th.
I have looked on the ABTA website and can contact them but I'm going to have to muster up some enthusiasm as it involves going over it all over again and sending them copies of everything. I quite fancy writing to a director or someone at the top though and see what comes of that. I might set aside tomorrow morning to do it all.

I had problems getting a reply from a tour op (not TC) a few years ago. I rang Abta and they said they would speak to them about it. I didn't want to escalate the claim through them I just wanted to inform them about the breach of guidelines. It might be worth ringing them.

Thanks sunaddict. I'll try that on Monday.

I finally got an email from TC, after sending several to them expressing my displeasure! This is the reply which i think is not good enough. They obviously must have a lot of complaints. I still feel they took my money, failed to supply the goods and now are delaying a refund. They are definately not keeping to ABTA guidelines.

Thank you for your email.

I apologise for the delay in responding, unfortunately we are experiencing delays and are responding in date order to be fair to all customers. We received this complaint 08/10/10, we are currently responding to files received 15/09/10 so please allow a little longer for a full response

Yours Sincerely

With a service like they offer I'm not surprised they are dealing with a lot of complaints!!

I would email them straight back (presume you have a name on the email) and point out that your complaint was received on the 8/9/10 so should have been dealt with by now..

Did you speak to Abta? Thos Cook's are taking the ???? They definately need reporting IMO.

A maybe slightly unconventional method of waking up Thomas Cook?
Way back a couple of years ago I'd booked to go to Mexico with those clowns.
About two weeks before departure they phoned me to say "Oops - we just discovered there was a hurricane two MONTHS ago, and so we have now decided that Cancun is now closed for business - we will give you your money back, have a nice day"
I was less than happy since they had sat on my deposit for a year and full and final payment for a couple of months. I said lots of other companies were still flying, and I asked for compensation - they said - NO! - Go Away....
A few more to&fro mails followed, basically Thomas Cook did their usual "Customer Disservice" practice of saying "Please go away and die"

So I found the email address of their publicity office. I made a little poster up in WORD describing what they had done to me, and mailed it to the publicity office saying that I'd print it and stick it on the outside of the window of their local shops early each Saturday morning - and I'd do that AFTER telling the local and national press my schedule for doing it.
Within 20 minutes - yes - just 20 minutes - I got a highly apologetic Email reply and a promise of reasonable compensation. And that was paid into my bank in 48 hours!
I rebooked with First Choice and actually ended up with an even better holiday to Cancun.
Which - despite what Thomas Cook pretended - was not closed.
Thomas Cook Customer Service are NOT nice people - they are trained to make you GoAway - without it costing the company money.
Don't give up - you CAN win.
The only thing these folk are scared of is bad publicity.
And you CAN give that to them.

I have just received my 7th letter from them today regarding my May holiday.
Since May I have since been on another holiday with them and am going away next week with them.
I pointed out it was the first time I have ever had to make a complaint and I wont stop sending them letters until its sorted.
I have emailed them many times to the different customer service personnel I have received letters from but they never answer.
In my last letter to them I said I wanted answers to my questions that I have been asking since May and if it is not resolved I will contact a Travel Solicitor. They have said in the letter I received today that they will look at my case again.

just read the original post, bang out of order, by them and the useless staff,

i would be sitting in my pre booked seat, or the flight wouldn't be taking off!

You could prove with your boarding cards the seats were yours as pre booked, and i would make a point of letting the whole plane know

Fil,
Unfortunately when passengers start behaving in that manner they become the "difficult ones" rather than in this case the ones in the wrong seats. In my experience when customers start giving crew ultimatums over "this happens or this flight isn't taking off/i'm not doing that" then they usually find themselves having a nice chat to the boys in blue, holiday cancelled and collecting their luggage a few hours before they intended to(at the wrong airport)

The original poster did the right thing although Thomas Cook could be doing the right thing now, which they don't seem to be.

I feel I did the right thing too and remained dignified (lol). Still no word from TC. I don't suppose it makes any difference to them but I have now booked 4 return flights to Dalaman next year for several of us with Easyjet who despite the scramble I now prefer, their leg room is far better and planes cleaner. Friends who visit my villa have also booked with them on my recommendation. We got in early and our flights were £90 return including luggage - brilliant. The times of the flights were good too, none of this middle of the night business. So Thomas Cook you are no longer my airline of choice when it comes to flying to Dalaman. All they had to do to pacify me was to respond to my complaint within the 28 days laid down by ABTA.

well said u . feel like making a complaint my self, we were meant to fly out on the 12 th nov at 7 .50 in the morning , by 9 .45 we were still sitting on the run way, only for hubby saying oh leave it i would of said somthing before but knowing me it would not of done any good tammie

JMK
Sorry to hear you've still not got this resolved.
Do please keep us informed.

Tammie
Did Thomas Cook tell you why you were still sat on the runway 2 hours after you should have departed?
Did they make up some of the lost time?
Am I right in thinking you were flying to Goa?
There are usually strong tailwinds out to Goa and most flights do make up lost time or land ahead of schedule.

Sometimes there are last minute reasons why flights are delayed.
We were due to return from Goa yesterday (with Monarch) at midday but were told that there was a 1 hour delay.
Apparently, on the outbound flight from Gatwick to Goa which was picking us up, one passenger became so ill shortly after they boarded that they had to be taken off the plane and of course, the baggage handlers had to locate their luggage and off-load it.
Definitely not the airline's fault, imho.

The 1 hour delay turned into an extra 30 minutes in Goa as we also had to wait for a passenger who'd flown out on the plane but had got to Immigration and been refused entry to India (presumably a visa problem).
Of course, her luggage was somewhere on the carousel with everybody else's so somebody had to locate it and arrange for it to be reloaded onto the plane.
Again, imho, not really the airline's fault - unless Monarch staff had not properly checked her visa before allowing her to board the plane in Gatwick.

do you know i cant remember now what excuse they used for being late flying out , and yes they said they will make the time up, but seeing as it was my first time flying to goa i dont know if they did, all i know is we landed at 11,45 at night.

sorry to hear you had to a delay on your plane, tho as you said someone took ill and someone didnt get boarding, nothing to do with plane error. we just got a call over the speakers that it would be 3omins which turned out to be longer, but loved the holiday any way looking forward to next year tammie

I received a response from Thomas Cook, 68 days after they received my letter of complaint. This is way over the 28 days they originally stated and the amount of time ABTA expect them to respond by. So a miserable failure on that count. It also means they had my money for a service they failed to provide for quite a long time. There was no attempt to pay interest on the money held for that time!
They stated in their response that they cannot be held responsible for the behaviour of inconsiderate passengers. They mentioned nothing about the behaviour of their captain when he rather abruptly told us to sit down when we didn't have seats to sit in! At the end of the letter they did apologise for the inconvenience, so that along with the reimbursement was all I was expecting. It's such a shame it took them so long.
They have sent me a cheque for £26 which is repayment of the prepaid seat fee but nothing to compensate me for several phone calls where I was put on hold or cut off and nothing for the postage of the recorded delivery letter. They tell me they enclosed a voucher so that I can book specific seats free of charge on my next TC flight but unfortunately they failed to put it in the envelope! I have now booked all of my flights to Turkey for next year with Easyjet along with all relatives and friends who will accompany me. It's somewhere in the region of 15 return flights so I am not going to waste yet more time and money trying to get hold of this voucher as I do not intend travelling with them.

Thanks for the update. At least they finally acknowledged you and sent your refund. Perhaps we should be thankful for small mercy's?

JMK
thanks for the update.

I'm pleased to hear that you got the refund for the seats you didn't get - eventually.

However, I think Thomas Cook have been exceedingly poor throughout this saga and their letter to you (and lack of voucher as promised) just underlines that.

I hope you have better flights on Easyjet, just put Thomas Cook out of your mind and have a fab Christmas.