I actually had the problems in March 2010 and provided with OTB two opportunities of 30 days as required by the ABTA complaints procedure. I have therefore provided OTB ample time to resolve this matter before making it pubic

I did follow the advice of fellow members of this website and sent all communications to OTB via recorded delivery. OTB replied to the first letter after 28 days, but did not to reply to the second one.

I also tried writing directly to Simon Cooper the Managing director in a letter marked 'private and confidential' but received a standard acknowledgement letter from customer services in reply.

Hence my first post: "Simon Copper does not reply to letters of complaint"

Are OTB via the link here, helping you now thought Wireman, I know its a lot later

if only they would answer me!

going to add AVOID to my thread title to see if that makes a difference

julesmay,

Have you contacted OnThe BeachHolidays as they suggested to a previous poster.

OnTheBeachHolidays wrote:

By all means drop me an email to the address listed and i'll take a look at this issue.

send email to forums@onthebeach.co.uk with you MYB and the url of this post so that it can be traced back to here.

Many thanks

Angie.

On the beach have not responded as suggested in the previous post

I have already sent an email together with MYB reference and URL of this thread

I expect that it will take 5 days as per their normal email reply response time

Below is an email I have just sent to forums@onthebeach.co.uk - fingers crossed this will now be sorted as these threads are giving me some hope that their is a caring representative of on the beach that can help - watch this space....

Dear Sir/Madam

I have been recommended to email you from the holiday truths website.

I have just spoken to someone from "on the beach" customer services department (unfortunately I did not take her name) who happens to be the most unhelpful person I have ever spoken to.

Can I start by saying that I have booked my holiday (party of 9 or more) for the past 2 years and have been extemely happy with the service I received. I felt assured and booked with you again this year but this has left me stressed and unhappy.

Reason being is that I have not been allocated enough rooms. When I received my confirmation which stated this, I immediately phoned through to the aftersales team who advised they could not help me and I had to put a request in under the "manage my booking section" of the website, which I did immediately.

The reasons for my concern is I have already had £5227.64 taken from my credit card. I agreed to be the lead party name and took responsibility for booking all parties going so we were under one booking reference. Last year, I received a phone call from one of your team to ask how we wanted the rooms allocated, this year, no such thing, just confirmation. Can I also add that extras were added onto the price further into the booking process that lead to holiday costing alot more per person, for example, flights that started out at £177 ending up being £214, also quotes had not included any baggage allowance so also extra £18 per person - very disappointing!

I explained to the lady from customer services that due to the above extras we had not envisaged, we were already above our budget, also that had I booked 2 people at a time we would have been given 1 room per 2 people at no extra cost....... (except for one booking party who needs 3 to a room).

Please, please, please, do not make me lose faith in your company, I have highly recommended you in past and apart from this occasion have been delighted with the service.

Just to confirm I require the following:

3 rooms to accomodate 2 people
1 room to accomdate 3

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Julie

juliepage,

I'm sorry to hear that you are having the same customer service as I received from OTB. This company is very difficult to deal with. My advice dealing with this company would be to send all correspondence recorded delivery. If things go wrong, then OTB simply do not respond to email or phone calls.

I sent email to forums@onthebeach.co.uk. Although they have claimed to have responded to my email with a previous post it is 10 days later and still my inbox empty.

If you attempt to contact them by telephone then here is my experience:

3 telephone calls to their premium rate customer service number

Call 1 = Friday 6pm : 1h20m (gave up after being at position 10 for the last hour)
Call 2 = Friday 8pm : 50m
Call 3 = Saturday 9am : 20m

If you decided to use their free 0800 sales number, then it is answered within 3 rings. Unfortunately they claim it is impossible to transfer calls to customer services.

If you decided to call reception on the direct 0161 number the most unhelpful and rude receptionist in the world also claims that it is impossible to transfer calls to customer services.

My conclusion is that OTB have organised themselves so that once they have your money, that they are going to extract even more money by:

1) Hiding non-optional extras after you have paid with your credit card
2) Make vast amounts of money by forcing all customer communications to go via a premium rate number.

have you checked your junk e-mail/spam message folder?

Messages addressed to you and we a re: in the address can still end up in there.

I added OTB to the safe senders list after I my dealing with them in April and there is nothing in the SPAM or junk email.

Based on previous experience 5, 10 or 15 days to reply to email is perfectly normal for this company.

I phoned OTB about a complaint today. got through to a staff member who was working form home and unable to help me with my particular query ! Thanskfully though, she did give me something that was like gold dust ! It is the free phone number for 'onthebeach' !
It is: 08000 858 859

I think if you look hard enough you could find fault with any holiday. Well, between myself, my husband and our family members we have booked near to a 100 holidays through on the beach, and have been reasonably happy. Therefore, this is not just wrote on a whim. So after booking a family holiday for a total of 15 people, a couple of months before going my mother-in-law suffered a massive stroke. We informed on the beach via email that she would not be able to go on the holiday. They said to contact the insurance company and inform them which passengers were unable to travel. We informed the insurance company that my mother in-law and father-in-law could not go on the holiday and we started the insurance claim. One of the things the insurer asked for was a cancellation notice for both passengers. We contacted on the beach, to be told we never notified them that Joan and Terence would not be going. We still have the emails saying different. So on the beach informed us all we needed was a notice of no show from them which would be an additional £30 and we would receive it within 30 days. We begrudgingly paid the £30 and waited the 30 days for it to arrive ( on the beach never sent it) So we contacted them and they eventually replied saying my mother and father-in-law had used the holiday transport and hotel and would be happy to refund our £30 for the no show letter. My mother-in-law did not or will never be able to go on holiday again. We have now asked for proof of their travel which on the beach will not be able to provide because they didn't go !!!! I've never wrote bad feedback for any company but I feel that if a company such as on the beach can lie like this, customers need to know who they are dealing with. Please be careful when using on the beach, when it comes to any help they appear to be dishonest. I am now forced into seeking legal advice over on the beach's clams that the holiday was used. They have not come back with any proof that the holiday was used and just say they can't provide a no show letter. We have pleaded with them to sort this. Again please be careful when using on the beach I would not like to see anyone else in this situation. No doubt on the beach will put a clever and apologetic reply to this feedback that will nether help resolve this matter or help with all the distress they have caused with their fraudulent claims.

A week before we were due to arrive they emailed her letting her know hotel was closing and we were being placed in another.she had booked transfers to hotel which we didn't get and had to pay for a taxi which ripped her of!
On arrival to hotel we were told that this hotel was closing on Sunday and would again have to go to another one.
My grandson was tired and hungry as were we, and we refused.
Hotel staff are extremely rude and food is is inedible and usually cold because its left opened in Burgerland i and wouldn't feed it to a dog
I have had sickness and upset stomach because chicken hadn't been properly cooked.
My daughter has had to take my grandson for food elsewhere by travelling by taxi( another expense)
Yesterday, she managed to get through to representative who promised a call back......we are still waiting.
We still have until Tuesday until we get out this hellhole, and I advise anyone about considering this hotel or any of their others.......Don't, unless you are on a starvation diet and want to lose weight, and don't forget the 'added extra' of course, it will save you a lot of stress and misery!

A week before we were due to arrive they emailed her letting her know hotel was closing and we were being placed in another.she had booked transfers to hotel which we didn't get and had to pay for a taxi which ripped her of!
On arrival to hotel we were told that this hotel was closing on Sunday and would again have to go to another one.
My grandson was tired and hungry as were we, and we refused.
Hotel staff are extremely rude and food is is inedible and usually cold because its left opened in Burgerland i and wouldn't feed it to a dog
I have had sickness and upset stomach because chicken hadn't been properly cooked.
My daughter has had to take my grandson for food elsewhere by travelling by taxi( another expense)
Yesterday, she managed to get through to representative who promised a call back......we are still waiting.
We still have until Tuesday until we get out this hellhole, and I advise anyone about considering this hotel or any of their others.......Don't, unless you are on a starvation diet and want to lose weight, and don't forget the 'added extra' of course, it will save you a lot of stress and misery!

They should have offered you a refund even just the hotel part.

Which hotel were you meant to be staying in & where are you now?

Keep receipts of all extra expenditure.

Email OTB from resort, outlining your complaints. (Always best in writing as phone calls can't be proven. I know however, you need to call them whilst there, but I'd back the calls up with an email)

Have you contacted the emergency number for the accommodation supplier? It will be on your hotel voucher. You need to do this to comply with OTB complaints procedure. If they can't help then you contact OTB using their emergency number which will be on your confirmation email.

Have called tome and time again but no joy, they are only interested in taking your money and not sorting problems.
I am totally sickened by their attitude, and will NEVER use that company again, and want to warn other potential customers....DON'T, it's not worth the stress and misery!

Have emailed them and daughter has messaged them as well.
she has gone down to reception at this moment to call again, and having to endure the leering looks from hotel reception guys, it's a joke.
The hotel in itself is a new build and clean, but hotel staff and 'food' is beyond a joke.
Just wish the company would come and experience it, I am sure their attitude would change.
FALSE ADVERTISING!

It's called Eftalia Ocean, Resort, new build and very nice looking, but swimming pool is freezing, and I'm not kidding, not even like warm. Staff are extremely unhelpful, and food....well what can I say, I have had to suffer the consequences of it, and still doing so at this moment
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, for anyone reading this, please think twice about booking through this company, and especially booking here, it will save a lot of misery and heartache!

Hi Christine
What a nightmare. Speaking purely as a member here, I have read enough problems here to know I would never use On the Beach. I hope they eventually respond. BAbaby asked if you had phoned the accommodation supplier- I am just making sure you weren't just calling On The Beach.
Let us know how you get on. Good luck