Hiya to everyone and here goes for my first post.

Whilst it is about a complaint with Thomson and their terrible customer service I would also like to warn anyone else who has booked car hire through their website.

I would imagine most complaints happen after a holiday but my complaint with Thomson has been caused before we have even gone away. I always think part of a nice holiday is the lead up to it knowing you have something to look forward to, planning what you could do or places you could visit. The last thing you need is a long battle with a company like Thomson, not exactly a good start to a hard earned holiday.

The Problem / Warning to Anybody else going to Majorca and booking car hire

Booked through Thomson online for a two week holiday in Alcudia and thought it would be nice to also hire a car for a few days whilst there, so used the Thomson Website to book the car. Luckily we phoned the hire company direct after the car booking was confirmed to ask a question about the car, only to find by chance after talking to a very nice lady who knew Alcudia, the pick up for the car was actually 65km away from Alcudia. I always find foreign addresses confusing and there was nothing in the address pick up to suggest the pick up was nearer Palma. There was clearly a problem with their website when selecting 'Alcudia' as the place of pick up for the car. The lady confirmed it was an issue with the Thomson Website and we both checked to confirm this.

At this point the situation could have and in fact should have been resolved without any further hassle, especially as the error was caused by Thomson. However when I subsequently tried to advise Thomson about this I was passed from department to department with nobody wanting to accept responsibility. A mention of the word online immediately they go into "nothing to do with us" mode, then after another lengthy wait listening to "Praise You" over and over again you eventually get to talk to the Thomson Direct department, but once again it is not their problem and you are passed onto the car hire section (which unfortunately is based in Germany, with the obvious language barrier) as soon as they hear "online booking" they transfer you to the web support team. At this point it will come as no surprise it is not their problem and they suggest you call customer support on another 0870 number. Phoning 0870 is not exactly cheap either.

However each time when we phoned 'customer services' we always got the same old story. On several occasions we were promised the famous call back which did not happen. Finally after a week and countless calls, costing at least £48 on 0870 numbers, I eventually got to, after many requests, speak to a "Team Leader". This lady promised she would sort out this problem once and for all and also promised a call back; she even gave me her personal Thomson direct phone number. At this point knowing we had her direct telephone number was happy to leave the problem with her. We knew the holiday was fast approaching and was happy it would be sorted.

When she did not respond, the following week we phoned her, only to be advised by the girl who answered her phone she was off on holiday. The girl did not want to know anything about the problem and refused to pass me on to her manager instead putting the phone down on me. When I called back the phone was picked up and immediately put down... a total of 6 times, on the seventh it was not answered.

This was the final straw for me and as this point wrote a full complaint and sent it off to their head office in Coventry, including reference to all the times we had been passed from section to section, names of team leaders who refused to take the call, times of calls, details of rudeness and screen shots of the booking problem as proof.

I had an initial response by letter back from Thomson acknowledging the complaint and a promise that it would be forwarded to the "Pre-Departure" team to investigate. I noticed at this point the website had been corrected and a couple of days later an e-mail arrived from the German car hire department stating they accepted no responsibility for errors on their own website and it was up to us to rebook another car. They did not even see it as their responsibility to address the issue. They actually had the cheek to suggest the problem was caused by the car hire company.

Fearing this was their 'closeout' of the investigation and no reference to any of the other issues raised I phoned Thomson again yesterday. By now the team leader who went off on holiday was back and full of apologies as she had left comprehensive instructions what she had expected to be done whilst away... on her return she was told it had all been sorted. She then tried to talk to senior managers within the car hire section herself finally admitting she felt sorry for us as she also experienced the great 'slopey shoulder' reactions.

As an interim measure she has now made another car booking for us, this time arranging for it to be delivered to the hotel and advised that all the other issues resulting from the saga would be definitely investigated and we would be informed of the outcome. Obviously financially the car hire gesture will make up for the massive cost of phone calls but I am still angry over all the time I have wasted trying to sort out. As stated earlier this is the time me and my wife should have been spent looking forward to the holiday. What cost do you put on that and what would be a suitable apology and outcome of this complaint.

Never once have they thanked me for letting them know about their website problem and I only hope no other Thomson customers will be affected by car booking issues when they are actually on holiday. For peace of mind I would advise anyone not sure to check their booking information.

I will of course update this post subject to any final resolution by Thomson.

Thankyou all for reading and any further advice or suggestion of what would be considered a satisfactory outcome you may have.