Did you complain in resort and fill in a complaints form via the rep?

sorry dont really understand this???
if an 8ft shark nudged you...i would not let my kids get in the water let alone myself go in ,plus "we pointed out she was 8 and the trip states you need to be 12" i would not let my kid go in if they were under age..
was you not worried about any risks???

Hi wendiewoo,

If you have not got a written report from the rep this rather weakens your case. Added to that, the fact that you did not complain in writing straight way. In their eyes, it is deemed that 'you were not that bothered'. Bereavement, Xmas/New Year are irrelevant to them. If you felt that strongly, you would have complained sooner, they will assume.
Most TO's recommend that you report ALL complaints to the rep to give them the opportunity to put things right there and then or at least give an explanation.

1. Which hotel did you book and where did you end up?
2. Its possible that the decking by the pool had recently become damaged, forcing an immediate repair. Better that than an unsafe area with kids around. Also, though TO's are duty bound to inform you of any building work, its possible that TC themselves were not informed by the hotel that it was about to start therefore they were not able to let you know in advance. This happens a lot. Often the reps find out what it happening the day it starts.
3. All brochures tell you in the T & C's that in low season you should expect some facilities to be closed.
4. Sales rep. Do you mean Thomas Cook Resort Rep for your hotel or a member of staff from the hotel? I'm a rep and I would never sell an excursion to an underage child. Also, you as a parent have to take some of the responsibility here, sorry!
5. How many times did you complain to reception about the leaky pipes? Sometimes you have to keep at them. Did you follow up with the rep again when it wasn't fixed?
6. Did you seek medical advice re respiratory problems? If you did not see a doctor in resort, this also weakens your complaint as it cannot be proved either way.
7. Did you complain to reception about the smell and the bugs? Cockroaches and other bugs are prolific in hot climates (I live in Cyprus so I know!). They are not an indication that your accom is dirty. Apart from the smell, which could have been sorted, forget about complaining about bugs in the Caribbean.
8. The transfer sounds very bad I have to agree. Never would we use a non A/C bus and overfill it. This DOES need addressing if it was part of your TC package. Did you complain to the rep yourself or to a senior member of TC staff at the airport? All TO's have a Head Rep or Airport Supervisor on hand for these issues.

Sorry for all the questions. Helps us to know a bit more.

Louise

Thanks to all my posting was a bit brief as I had sent a three page letter originally and was higlighting a few points,

I need to verify we did not go on the trip, the Thomas Cook rep said it was a nice swim with nursing sharks and they were vegetarian, my daughter had wanted to swim with dolphins and we told the rep this, she said the park we wanted to go to was condemened but suggested the shark swim. We pointed out the brochere said 12yrs and she said my daughter would be ok. As loving and responsible parents we decided our precious daughter was not worth losing so we opted out. It was after speaking to others at the resort who had been on the actual trip that they were told when swimming if the sharks nudge you it is because they feel threatend and you must swim away slowly with careful movements, and these sharks are 8ft plus, and we feel that my daughter had she gone on the trip would panic as I assume would anyone, and if God forbid something had happened we know we would have been told it was our fault as she was not old enough to be insurered. My point here was the rep was misinformng us, either deliberately or unintentionly.

If you have not got a written report from the rep this rather weakens your case. Added to that, the fact that you did not complain in writing straight way. In their eyes, it is deemed that 'you were not that bothered'. Bereavement, Xmas/New Year are irrelevant to them. If you felt that strongly, you would have complained sooner, they will assume.
Most TO's recommend that you report ALL complaints to the rep to give them the opportunity to put things right there and then or at least give an explanation.

We did complain to the rep three times and she told us to tell the hotel again we did complain three times, and nothing was done. We know now to complain get it in writing and keep complaining but we are relaxed people.



1. Which hotel did you book and where did you end up?
We were at Dom Rep Sirenis Hotel.

2. Its possible that the decking by the pool had recently become damaged, forcing an immediate repair. Better that than an unsafe area with kids around. Also, though TO's are duty bound to inform you of any building work, its possible that TC themselves were not informed by the hotel that it was about to start therefore they were not able to let you know in advance. This happens a lot. Often the reps find out what it happening the day it starts.
The decking was obviously part of the hotels refitting as they were working around the resort fixing different parts of the resort the whole time we were there.

3. All brochures tell you in the T & C's that in low season you should expect some facilities to be closed.
we were not informed it was low season and paid high season prices.

4. Sales rep. Do you mean Thomas Cook Resort Rep for your hotel or a member of staff from the hotel? I'm a rep and I would never sell an excursion to an underage child. Also, you as a parent have to take some of the responsibility here, sorry!

Yes I do mean Thomas Cook rep, and I do take responsiblity as a parent however until this trip I would have believed someone saying they would be fine, they had been on the trip and it would be ok, to be fair to us, age restricitons are not always in place for the right reasons BUT my point was the rep. had no right to say she would be fine when we find out from adults that its a white knuckle swim, if the rep, tells others it is ok, what if they are not so over protective as we ae.

5. How many times did you complain to reception about the leaky pipes? Sometimes you have to keep at them. Did you follow up with the rep again when it wasn't fixed?

We told the rep. then the hotel, then the rep, then the hotel, it went on for the last four days of our holiday, again as we are not the complaining type, we said we didnt need to move rooms just get it sorted, again I know now how to approach it, we saw others demand actions when compalining and upgraded etc, but we are genuinely not like that.

6. Did you seek medical advice re respiratory problems? If you did not see a doctor in resort, this also weakens your complaint as it cannot be proved either way.
We have no real grounds here as we did not see anyone at the resort as we assumed it was a bug he had caught and it was only when we found out the pipes and the air con were faulty that we put 2 and 2 together, we assumed the urine smell was due to the last occupants in our room and just sprayed the room, we know different now, but we were on holiday and we were British about it!!!!

7. Did you complain to reception about the smell and the bugs? Cockroaches and other bugs are prolific in hot climates (I live in Cyprus so I know!). They are not an indication that your accom is dirty. Apart from the smell, which could have been sorted, forget about complaining about bugs in the Caribbean.

We visit the carribean often and take bug repellant and cockroach powder, we are not bothered by them however we do feel it wa sonly after the smell got stronger in the second week that they appeared, we know is was probably co-incidence, however one family were moved to a different room when they complained of cockroaches. We were trying to highlight that we felt badly done to because we did not scream and shout, we quietly accpeted it would be sorted, we should know abour dominicans laid back attitude, but a five star, ok, now four, should be on the ball when it comes to hygiene and blocked sewage.

8. The transfer sounds very bad I have to agree. Never would we use a non A/C bus and overfill it. This DOES need addressing if it was part of your TC package. Did you complain to the rep yourself or to a senior member of TC staff at the airport? All TO's have a Head Rep or Airport Supervisor on hand for these issues.
Again No, we know we should have now but we just wanted to get home at this point!!

Sorry for all the questions. Helps us to know a bit more.

Not a problem Louise I hope I have made things clearer, I expect people to know what I am going on about. There were a few other bad points but so minor you would let them go, but we put it all in the original letter and we even explained we would not usually complain over such things but overall we did not have the best holiday.

We sent our initial letter to Thomas Cook and they sent a letter stating they gave the other party 28 days to reply, and it was only after this time was up did they send the response we were too late, why did they not send that straight away and whilst we were waiting for the reply they sent a letter offering 20% off a future holiday as a reccurring customer.

I appreciated there is a time limit etc and I agree to others saying if I felt it was that bad I would complain
in straight away but I did reply only over the 28 days considering.
Thanks to this site I will know what to do in the future, and will keep complaints log items and have all the forms filled in,
however I didnt expect my holiday to be like this!!

But I have learnt for any future rubbish holidays!!!
Thanks to all Wendie.

I ended up on a Holiday from hell 2 years ago and when I came back I complained to the company who offered me £80.I had no form from the rep as we didnt have one!.I phoned Ros Fernihough,gave her all the details and she got my money back.
I would phone her tomorrow and take her advice.

Ros can be reached on 01922 621114

When you say that there were restaurants closed as it was low season do you mean the main buffet and beach restaurants or the speciality ones because Sirenis is actually two hotels joined together, each nearly a mirror image of the other and in low season there is just no need to open both as one is more than able to cater for low occupancy.

The repairs to the decking I can only imagine were the ones round the beach restaurants, were they doing both at the same time? The pool at Sirenis stretches nearly the full width of the resort, its huge, could you not have gone to the other end where you wouldn't have been disturbed?

Its very disappointing to hear that standards at Sirenis have fallen so much. My Mum and I have have had many happy times there and found the staff to be more than helpful to cater for our disabilities. The only reason we haven't been recently is because First Choice dropped it from their brochure when they opened their new hotel in the North DR.

Hi wendiewoo,

Are you looking for compensation or just an explanation and an apology? You have to be clear about this in your letters to TC if you want to go forward.
You have weakened your claim as I said before but if you are determined to hang on to this for dear life you may be able to turn it around. They will fight you harder and you will have to do the same, perhaps with the help of a specialist like Ros. They will hope that you will just give up and accept the 20%. Don't pussyfoot around them, if you feel very strongly. Make a fuss. It IS British, I have had many guests make a bigger fuss over a lot less that you experienced.

Glad to hear you didn't go on the shark excursion. Sounds terrible. From your first post it did sound like you had gone!
TO's are usually very mindful of health and safety on excursions, due to the compensation culture we now live in so their rep needs some retraining re pushing for bookings for underage children. At the end of the day, as a responsible parent you decided not to go. From a compensation point of view this gives you zero but the reps attitude needs looking at by his/her superiors.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and you didn't want to make a fuss but you must always do a written report in resort and give the rep/hotel a chance to put things right. Also, if you had been my guests, I would have done this for you and kept at them until it was sorted.

I had a look at Sirenis Hotels own website. Their two adjacent hotels are rated at 5 star but TC rate them at 4 A's (under Airtours). So unless the brochure/website said 5 A's at the time of booking and they have since lowered it, there is nowhere to go with this.
TO's don't always agree with the official rating of hotels and will rate them slightly lower.

TO's expect you to read the T & C's. They can't tell you every single thing right down to the finest detail. As silverpixie says, could you could have used the facilities at the adjacent sister hotel?

The problem with an all year round desination is when to do repairs? In Cyprus we have the same problem. We still have guests staying in low season but have to do repairs too. I imagine this was the only time they could do it, short of closing the hotel for a couple of weeks. How bad was it? Could you have moved away from it? How did the other guests feel about it? TC know that you will have had this option and may quote that nobody else complained about it. However, if TC knew the work was going on before you left and did not inform you, they are in the wrong.

You are not the complaining type and good for you. Far to many complain unecessarily and some like you, don't complain enough when they should. Again, I lay this at the reps door for lacking in his/her duties and not backing you up. Thats why we are there. To be the your representative.

Re the bugs. Yuk, I hate cockroaches and go to any lengths to keep them out of my house. But, I think you are flogging a dead horse on this one. The best the hotel could have done was spray the room for you but they are resilient little *******.

Also, no doctors report so this one will be difficult. As I said, can't be proved either way and TC know this.

Again, no complaint in the airport re the transfer but this for sure needs addressing. I'm quite horrified at what you have described. I would not leave resort on a coach that did not have enough room and our coach company would be severely penalised for not having AC and our transfers dept too for not arranging a big enough coach. I dread to think what would happen in the event of an accident.

If you want to take it further. If you can say, hand on heart that it was the holiday from hell. Write again, don't accept the 20%. Leave out personal opinion - it is just that, your personal opinion. Keep to the facts and make it concise and to the point.

I think almost all of the problems could have been fixed/explained in resort (apart from the transfer) by you rep. He/she was either green as grass and seriously lacking in training or an old hand who didn't really give a ****. This certainly needs addressing by his/her resort manager.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Louise

Wendie,

Just so you know the 28 days in not enforceable in court, as Ros will tell you. It relates to internal rules and ABTA regulations to ensure they can investigate as quickly as possible (i.e. it's hard for them to investigate what happened in December as they might not be able to speak to everyone who were involved in the incidents, and the time limit also helps eradicate spurious claims - of which there are many). It sounds like you need to speak to Ros as she will help you with this, and also I don't think all of your points are relevant, and she will help you sort out the right and wrong things to kick up a fuss about.

Keep us informed!

hi,

did you take any photo's or videos of the leaking roof, workmen, or cockroaches, this would help you to complain?

Just so you know the 28 days in not enforceable in court, as Ros will tell you. It relates to internal rules and ABTA regulations to ensure they can investigate as quickly as possible (i.e. it's hard for them to investigate what happened in December as they might not be able to speak to everyone who were involved in the incidents, and the time limit also helps eradicate spurious claims - of which there are many). It sounds like you need to speak to Ros as she will help you with this, and also I don't think all of your points are relevant, and she will help you sort out the right and wrong things to kick up a fuss about.

Absolutely correct, there is room for discretion given the circumstances. IE a death and I assume you have access to a death certificate.?

Bereavement, Xmas/New Year are irrelevant to them

It might be to them, but a sympathetic judge may look upon this entirely different.

Cockroaches and other bugs are prolific in hot climates (I live in Cyprus so I know!). They are not an indication that your accom is dirty. Apart from the smell, which could have been sorted, forget about complaining about bugs in the Caribbean.

Nope, it doesn't matter if you've gone to Greece or Tim Buck Two on a £99 bargain or paid £1000's, the TO has a duty to ensure that you're not sharing your accommodation with a family of squatters, ie : cockroaches.
Your hotel can be basic, but it must "be suitable for the purpose" which means safe and sanitary, if not the TO is letting you down and you are entitled to compensation. Cockroaches are classed as a health hazard and it's could be an indication that the hotel is not fumigating on a regular basis...probably because of the cost involved.
The fact that cockroaches are prolific in hot climates does not mean you have to share your bedroom with them, the Uk has a rat population that out numbers the human population, but we don't find it acceptable to sleep with them.

Ros can be reached on 01922 621114

Here in Cyprus cockroaches and other ugly bugs are the bane of my life in summer. My hubby (god bless him) makes every effort to keep them at bay and we have cats which help. The point is, that no matter what measures are taken, they will always find a way in. Sometimes we don't see them and find them dead under the furniture, nice huh?

Most hotels should have a have a pest control programme in order to keep the bugs down and I can't see that wendiewoo's hotel would be any different. It won't eradicate them totally but it will help. She herself says that she goes prepared for them so they were not unexpected.

In my company we have to check hotel pest control records and also view the guy actually going about his work. Many moons ago I did see a guy doing it while I was on holiday in the Dom Rep and also in Turkey.
I reiterate that it does not mean the accom is dirty. My house certainly isn't. A couple of bugs does not indicate an infestation. So I really think she should concentrate on the issues that really spoilt the holiday, things that could have been sorted pre departure, such as the building work, room problems during the stay and of course the shocking transfer.

Sanji you are right that a judge would probably look more favourably on a bereavement delaying the complaint but I was trying to explain how TC see it and how they will use it against her therefore making her either give up (they hope) or fight harder.

Louby

4. The sales rep told us our daughter could take a trip to swim with sharks and she would be safe, they are vegetarian,
we pointed out she was 8 and the trip states you need to be 12, the rep said no problem, but the sharks although rare to bite are not vegetarian, being fed prior to swimming with them, if they nudge you, you need to stay calm and swim with small strokes, I am sure if an 8ft shark nudged you, you would be scared. I believe if anything would have happened we would not be insured because of her age.

I to find this strange as insurance wouldnt cover you for this.
I wouldnt let any of my kids do this no matter what anyone said.
As for the cockroaches not a lot TC can do about them its up to the hotel to keep them at bay.

As for the cockroaches not a lot TC can do about them its up to the hotel to keep them at bay.

Nope, the TO is responsible for your health and safety and if they sell accomodation, then the onus falls back on them to ensure it's fit for the purpose.....Cockroaches are a health hazard.
I've been there, got the T-shirt and won the court case

I have been in some grotty hotels over the years and have been lucky not to see a cockroach,probably because they mainly come out at night,but I went to the new Holiday Village at the end of December,Guest what crawled out of the wardrobe? .I just went to reception and asked to be moved to a upper floor room.I dont think the hotels can be held responsible for cockroaches in hot countries unless there is an infestation.

Hi wendiwoo

Have you contacted Ros on the telephone number given? Do not be put off by flippant responses about isolated aspects of the problems you experienced, even if a resort is known to have a cockroach problem there is still a duty of care on behalf of the TO to ensure hotels have a programme in place to control things, after all they are a health hazard, or possibly offer to move you to a different room to see if that helps.

You may find that a well worded solicitor's letter will help you persue your case. You need professional advice on what can be taken forward and what can't.

If TO's get 3 page letters with long lists of generalised complaints, the complainant tends to make less progress. A short consise letter detailing the more pertinent points, might be more effective.

Good Luck and let us know how you get on.

Doe

i have to agree with sanji re the cockroaches, having been on a holiday with them in our rooms and having various other problems over a holiday to tunisia a few years ago, i contacted ros over this and she told me that cockroaches are a health hazard and are usually found in dirty places and arent acceptable and she was happy to take my case on and won for me so ive had it first hand from her

Cockroaches are most definitely not always an indication of a hotel being 'dirty', but obviously a dirty hotel with food dotted all over the place will encourage them. I've been woken up in a famous 5 star hotel in Thailand by a cockroach running across my chest, but that wasn't worthy of a complaint.

Likewise I have family in Jakarta who have one of the cleanest houses I know. But they keep a badminton racket handy to swat away the occasional (flying!) cockroach that comes running / flying into the house, particularly in the rain!

Cockroaches are only one tiny aspect of this complaint and wendiwoo herself has stated that if that was the only problem she would have overlooked it.