Oh my worst nightmare! Where was this?

It was in Egypt, hurghada

How are you gong to prove this now you are home ? Did you fill in a complaint form in Resort with the Thomas Cook Representative and photos etc ( I appreciate that rats don't pose for a camera ) or photos of wires been chewed, rat droppings that kind of thing.

I am just wondering how you are going to evidence this, otherwise it will just be your word against theirs.

forgive me for laughing but I was waiting on the hotel in Egypt we were at coming up there. tho nothing would surprise me but its not that one that's bad tho, luckly for us we had a rep stay over night to see how bad things was for us and we did get compensation

sorry sinbad club aqua hurghada we stayed, all the evidence in the world we have, photos of rat cages with lemon slices as bait we have dropping mixed with poison photos, the rep was informed and we filled in customer relations forms in resort, the dates of holiday were 6th january 2012 till 20th january 2012, we have persued this complaint since last january, within 6 days of our return home we recieved two letters as there was 2 booking refs, apologising for any suffering and the offer of a £500 voucher and £ 300 voucher towards our next holiday as a gesture, we paid £549.00 per person for this holiday and there offer was between a group of 12 which amounts to less than £60 per person for the worst 2 weeks of our lives, the place looks beautiful, and has high ratings however from the 2nd night of scratching noises and informing the reception things went drastically down hill. two family were moved instantly the rest were told we could be moved friday which was 5 days later and it would be downgrade, we didnt choose a dream all inclusive holiday to be downgraded, however the two familys that moved still stated the incidents of scratching was very much still happening, so downgrading was not going to prevent the problem anyway, and bearing in mind one of the two familys that had to be moved from the first room which was approx 2 rooms down from the kitchens then the dining area, which was offputting as the rats were probably coming for the food, we were told by one of the maintenance guys theyd caught one huge rat after we.d heard them screaming n shouting in the room the family had been moved from, we was next door to that first room and didnt notice for first couple of nights any noise probably over tired from travel perhaps but we suffered from the noises from then onwards, the scartching was like someone was rattling a packet of chrisp in the middle of the night , you could hear them chewing and gnawing at stuff, and at one point i jumped up onto my bed in middle of the night scared to death that itd chewed thru to the floor in our room, the staff ill treated the full group from the complaint about rats and we suffered for 12 days being sent here there n everywhere for ice cream, only to eventually get one at the first bar we,d asked, the staff were ignorated, things were that bad we went to the bar on the night of arrival and felt too intimidated to sit and have a drink for the rest of the holiday, i could go on to mention many many more incidents which the rep dismissed even told a couple from hull that they were listening to rumours about rats when we questioned wether theyd heard noises after they was put in the room the first family had been moved from, the towel man who handed towels out was reserving sunbeds for a group of 4 germans only we was up earlier than the towel man arrived and placed our towels on the best beds rd the pool before them which went onto the towel man even arguing that we had to hand our towels in at the end of the day, which i felt this was to prevent us getting the best beds rd the pool so refused to hand them in to which he stated he couldnt go home till they were all in, which i pointed out all the towels on balconies on the upstairs floors had been there since day before, on retiring from the sun for the day we got ready and was meeting the rep to inform him of many faults we,d endured and walked past the sunbeds to find that the towel man had placed 4 small towels on the sunbeds in order to reserve for these german group for the next morning, to which was another complaint to point out to the rep regarding the difference of treatment, to which he said it was me that was making a differnce and in fact this was not the case, i then took him to show him the sunbeds, his excuse was they were there for hygienic reasons, to which i said on just four beds out of approx 200, he then walked towards the towel guy started speaking in a different language to him then angrily pulled the towels from the beds and threw them behind the bar and continued arguing with each other..

we have argued continuosly with thomas cooke and abta didnt do much so we decided to go to small claims court to which i have a hearing 3rd may and didnt expect it would get this far as thomas cooke have no defence i have stacks, i have days left to prepare my opening statement for the judge and i dont know how to write it or lay it out with bullet lines and evidence in numbers and im now in a panic n no time left to get help or an idea so would be grateful if anyone on here could send me a example opening statement so i can get an idea please

Didn't get any further help but was a must as I was days left to provide my witness statement and evidence time up today but thank god iv managed to complete it all for my small claims hearing in two weeks, ill let you know the result after the hearing thanks everyone wish I'd found this site last year x

Sorry Eileen but I've been away or I'd have tried to help, however I think in your case your photo's will speak volumes as it's more the photographic evidence that will prove your complaint. Good luck and please let us know how you get on

yes sorry I cnt help but hope it goes your way, do come back and let us know how it went

I won

Oh excellent news Eileen I'm really pleased

Would just like to say that Thomas cook sent there defence the day before the court date to which I received 2 hours before court, which did not impress the judge, but they admit there was a problem with rats, however I took this case on with little knowledge and was not the lead name but was given authority from all the group, which Thomas cook used as there main argument and the law says I cannot claim for a group unless I am the lead name, but that is now going to cost them dearly because the whole group is determined they,ll fight it out individually if the lead name cannot claim for the group and the file I prepared can be used for each party, and Thomas cook will have difficulty defending themselves when they've admitted the problem in there statement which is there for all to see, which will double the request we first asked for, but they had that option many times before court....... I would like to ask the law on how long the rest of the group have to take cout action for a holiday hell....

I would have thought that now all it needs is for the Lead Name on the booking to make the claim especially in the view that the case has already been proved.

It's always the case that the lead name of any booking must instigate any correspondence regarding changes or complaints on behalf of the other members on the booking.

Why not get the lead name to contact the solicitors on this forum rather than start again from scratch?

Well done Eileen:-)

I agree with Shell, it would be more sensible just for the lead name to do it on everyones behalf, the others who are not lead names will come up against the same issue as you did, ie not being the lead name on the booking if that makes sense so will probably also be wasting their time.

You need to talk to the lead to get them to persue it on everyones behalf.

Any destination where you're stuck beside a loud disco would be hell for me, however it has never happened to me in Turkey. The nearest I came to a disco was in Luxor but because the disco was in the basement and we have a tendency to were on the third floor, it never became as issue.