Can anyone actually confirm that they'd received any compensation for a holiday being ruined?
I've just received my letter from DH saying that they are investigating my problems (I sent a 3 page letter last week), but having spoken to some others on the same holiday and with the same problems, am being told that to actually get any compensation we should've put our foot down at the time on holiday, not after coming home. They got 7.50 euros per person per night compensation before they actually left to come home.
Seems that would be the ideal thing to do, but who wants to spend vital days of your holiday in talks with reps? That's the reason I wrote everything down and did a long letter at home........
They've told me that I should hear back with 35 days..........we'll see eh?

I had a letter 60 days ago saying they would reply within 35 days, and Guess what? They haven't. (no Surprise there!!!). Anyway I gave them 35 days to reply, then saw a solicitor, who's dealing with everything now. Must admit, I have never heard of anyone receiving any compensation from DH, in my opinion, they are very good at wriggling their way out of things!!! Will let you know if I get any joy with them, (and I won't be holding my breath either!!! All the best. BBB

Hi All

I received my letter from DH holidays after 11 weeks waiting for a reply and they have failed to answer my questions- again refused my deposit althoughthey would allow me to transfer my holiday to another destination and wave the admin charges. I am afraid this is not good enough.
So now I am making an official complaint to trading stantards and any other company i can think of- as they miss sold me a wedding package that didn't even exist. We booked the holoiday as the wedding package was so good. I have my recorded evidence and will of course be taking legal action.
Their treatment is morally wrong regarless of what it states in their terms and condition section.

Hi FB
Sorry to hear you haven't got your complaint with DH sorted yet. Keep plugging away at them.
I'm going off topic slightly but the Airtours complaints thread is swamped with posts on MyTravel's financial situation. I had a letter from Airtours last week, they sent me vouchers and a letter apologising for our "inconvenience"!!!
Bless them, at least they've admitted responsibility. Of course the vouchers and strong letter have gone straight back to them.
Keep us updated on your case FB.

Had a reply from DH today offering a payment of £200 needless to say they will be getting another letter back politely pointing out that this is not an acceptable settlement for having to live in one hotel and travel to another hotel for the food and facilities

Cheers Mark

Hi Mark
Sorry to be so nosey but what was your complaint with DH? Hope you get a satisfactory settlement.

Basically arrived in fuerte on wed evening to be told we were not staying at elba sara but at geranios suites "a new 5* complex".
Suffered powercuts/ cold inedible food/ no air con/ dirty water/ no sea view/ dangerous pools etc after complaining we were given AI at elba sara but had to stay at geranios suites and travel everyday which was about a 25 minute walk across wasteland.
We were told the system showed up as overbooked on arrival day but somebody also bumped out was told by accident on the previous friday by DH they were not at elba sara and people came in on the following saturday and wednesday bumped out from elba sara after rep had told us they would contact people due to come out after us.
We got a small amount of compensation in resort for hotel change but we are now claiming for not getting the things that you would expect to be right in a 5* hotel and the inconvenience we suffered having to get up and switch hotel everyday and not getting a restful holiday.

Cheers Mark

The same thing happened to us a few years ago. We couldnt get anywhere with the Tour Operator, until we issued a summns for the small claims court - hey pronto we got our money back !

Good luck with Ros.

Kath HT Admin

Blimey Mark
What a holiday!!! I can't imagine how difficult that must have been. But I do understand how upsetting it is to book a holiday at a place you like the look of and have researched only to find you are being dumped elsewhere. I can't remember ever being so stressed and angry just through trying to book a holiday before.
Keep trying to sort this out though. I've had a reply back from Airtours today. Its the exact same letter as two we have previously received. It basically says they are "investigating" our complaint. And of course they stress the "this could take 28 days" part. As far as i'm aware, this is therefore the third investigation into our disaster of a holiday. But I know they are just fobbing me off. Hoping that i'll get fed up and drop it. But each time I have to go back to my GP for his help with my medical problem brought on by Airtours dumping us somewhere unsuitable, it just makes me more determined to get a satisfactory settlement.
I hope you do get this sorted.
Kath:
Thank you for your advice. I think I will have to hassle Ros with my case against Airtours.

Hello there - just an update for anyone who may have an interest!!

I complained about various things ruining our holiday to Tenerife back in October (these include not being told about building noise, being mis-informed about distances, no rep being available, basically the first week of our holiday was full of problems).
I wrote to Direct Hols in the middle of October and received a reply a fortnight later saying they were looking into my complaint and would be back in touch within 35 days. These 35 days being over I was just getting ready to write again when I got letter in the post last week offering us £300 compensation (although they say they are not accepting liability!) this is just a goodwill gesture..................funny that eh?
Anyway for a party of 4 adults & 2 kids it's not really much, but we've decided to accept as we feel they have taken our points onboard and they did take the time to write a 2 page grovelling letter back!! And we really could NOT be bothered with solicitors, etc.
At least now we can put down a deposit for our next holiday eh?
Still not sure if we'd go with Direct HOls again in a hurry though

But it just goes to show that if you DO complain (and I think not enough folks do) the holiday companies take note!!

Sun brochures here I come..........

Well done Zukidee
I hope that DH have listened to your comments and problems, because only then will they be able to make the improvements that they so obviously need to do. I agree with you when you say that not enough people complain. We all seem to have a "put up and shut up" attitude. If our holiday hadn't been so important and costly, I probably would've just sent a letter and left it at that.

I, personally, will never use any member of the Mytravel group of companies again. It just is not worth the possible risks. They are supposed to provide the holiday of your choosing but when they fail to do that, they just ignore you. I wouldn't even risk a day trip to Blackpool with them anymore.

I hope you have a lovely holiday next time and happy Xmas to you.

Is there a agency that look for tourist complaints which
is some sort of International agency or organisation?

'I, personally, will never use any member of the Mytravel group of companies again'

That's been my philosophy since a disastrous family holiday with Airtours in 1987 - almost 20 years later and there are five pages of complaints about this group of companies on this website alone - why do pepole still book with them?!

Fist thing I do when looking at a brochure is see if they have any relationship to Mytravel, if so I leave well alone.

why do pepole still book with them?!

..because sadly people tend to buy the cheapest deal on offer - rather than buy according to their needs. Then complain that customer service was lacking, accommodation was poor, seats on the flight cramped etc.

daveyjp i think the same we travelled with airtours many years ago and we had such a bad experience we have never travelled with them again. The trouble is a may be getting a mytravel discount card and i may be tempted to use it!

This has me worried ... We are going to lanzarote in August 06 booked through Direct Holidays .... oooooh fingers crossed.

please read under holiday complaints " direct holidays + successful outcome".

If you are treated unfairly dont give up!

We have a dispute with DH at the moment see other post re cancelled xmas trip to Mexico, but we had to compain a few years ago after a trip to Lanzarote.

The apartment electrics were unbelievably dangerous with wires hanging out everywhere, plug sockets that moved, lights held on by tape. The water was brown and you could only get 4 inches of hot water in a bath before it went cold. Then they closed 3 of the hotels 4 pools for major work and half the hotel was being ripped out for refurbishment. None of which we were informed of prior to our departure.

The resort rep was useless - she didn't know about the work until we told her then she couldn't get info on how long it would last from the hotel staff - we found out from the workmen! We saw her almost daily during our stay and she did nothing!!!

When we got back we had pictures and videos in support of our complaints and sent them to DH, they took months to respond before offering us about £75. We refused and I sought legal advice - they failed to respond to all of the solicitors correspondence until the very last minute when they upped their original offer slightly - we proceeded to issue court proceedings and they had the audacity to issue a defence stating that the electrics were fine and that the closure of the pools did not affect our holiday, this despite seeing our photos. In the end we won around £400 which represented the apartment cost for the week.

They will do everything they can to ignore your pleas on the basis that the majority of disgruntled claimants will simply give up, and they will pay out little or nothing. Everyone who has a complaint should take the time to pursue them as far as is legally possible, so that they start to feel the pinch. With any luck this will put them out of business and will clear the way for decent tour operators to pick up their market share.

Agree 100% rbell11.
Oh, and I'm still awaiting an answer from Direct Holidays to my question asking:

As an ATOL member do you have a policy whereby you aim to respond to a complaint within, say, 28 days? Are you bound by any ATOL practice to meet certain deadlines?

This was originally submitted to them on 9th Dec 2005 with a follow-up on the 19th.

I'm still not holding my breath.

Mike