The customer should lodge their complaint in resort and preferably, in writing. The complaint form (usually) informs you that you should follow it up within 28 days of your return from holiday if your problem was not resolved already in resort.

You could try writing to the tour operator again, but from experience it's unlikely they will entertain your complaint and particularly so if you did not complete the relevant forms in resort.

Having worked for a UK tour operator - I do have to say, I find it very difficult to understand how any holidaymaker did not manage to see their representative during a holiday lasting for more than 7 nights.
On a 7 night duration - yes, I can appreciate that the arrival time, possibly taking excursions out of the accommodation etc may well attribute in not meeting up with your rep (if you did not attend the welcome meeting). However, for a stay of more than 7 nights I find this is pretty much impossible...

I've heard so many times that guests complained they never saw a rep at any time during their holiday but when asked how they managed to get to their accommodation from the airport, the answer was "the transfer coach" Just who managed to tell them which coach to get on always seemed to remain a mystery Surprisingly enough, these were the people who didn't complete the complaint procedure.

Cynical, I know - but when you've taken hundreds of phone calls and have spoken with the resort staff on many occasions (as somehow passengers seems to assume we don't always talk to each other), the story does often repeat itself.

I'm not saying for one minute that your complaint wasn't genuine but that if it was causing a real disturbance to your holiday, you would have set time aside to contact either your resort representative or the resort office. The contact details are usually given out when you are on your resort transfer or at the welcome get together. Failing that, the hotel staff have the resort office numbers and also the tour operator notice boards carry the same information along with Emergency contact numbers in case of accident etc...

I doubt your complaint will carry much weight, having waited so long to issue your complaint but sometimes there can be a turnabout.... They may however, accept your letter of complaint but you may only receive an acknowledgement and a "thank you" for bringing it to their attention but there is little they can do at such a time after the event.

My comments probably won't help your complaint on this occasion but hopefully, other members reading this will recall my advice, should they ever need it.

Good luck with it if you decide to pursue it.

CwB

Thank you for your reply. I can agree with what you have said but the problem is how can we do a report if the rep was never there at all and we were told that if we have any problems at all, we are to SMS her which we did but there was no reply from her either. There was no information board when we arrived and the rep told us she needed to sort that out after apologising to us but it was never sorted during our stay there for 11 days! So how could I file a report with someone who was not there nor reply to our SMS?
Am I right to say that if a complaint is done after the 28 days, the travel agency have all the right to ignore the compensation I'm seeking including the difference in change which the rep was suppose to give us when we booked and paid for the excusion with her (we didn't get the change from her because she didn't have the right amount of money and she said she'll give it to us; we told her could leave that in an envelope at the reception for us to collect when she's in the hotel next time)? Unfortunately, next time was never there so we didn't get teh change back from her as we never saw her again. Is there another way for the travel agency to deal with my complaint even under those circumstances which I mentioned in my first posting here?
Once again, thanks for your time and help on this matter.

Back in May we had an escorted tour in Spain with Archers Direct. We had a rep with us at all times. We had also booked second week in Nerja as part of the deal. We were told via a notice on a board the time we would be collected to transfer there.

We never saw another rep until we got to the airport on our way home. Enquiring at the hotel we were told that reps did not attend but they expected that we would be collected on the Sunday at 8.45am as was usually the case. From what we able to gather the hotel never saw reps.

Back to your problem, whilst a company may state complaints need to be made within 28 days I doubt that a court would back them up. All sorts of things can go wrong which prevent someone being able to stick to that rule. In some cases I have known people to come home from one holiday and go straight off on another. You did, as you came to the UK for time with the kids..

I would assume that any trade body to which you could complain will be in the Netherlands and whilst their rules may be the same as the UK you do need to confirm this.

I agree that in an ideal world complaints should be made/registered in resort. That enables a proper audit trail to be established and makes investigation easier but that is not always possible. On most of my holidays reps have been very noticeable by their absence. Usually I have been given a mobile number to contact them if needed. Several years ago even that did not help as the rep resigned/was sacked and it took four days for us to be able to contact someone.

I suggest you contact - in writing - not email - the company and express your dissatisfaction with the manner in which they have replied. Contact the relevant trade body and lodge a complaint with them and your local trading standards body.

fwh

Hi again

For money owed to you for whatever reason, that should be refunded - and your rep should have a paper trail for the resort office or UK office to follow....

For a complaint, the guidelines for all tour ops are pretty much the same (28 days max) for lodging an official complaint.

As I said, it's possible you can try writing to them again (I assume you already did this) and make sure you refer to the refund in the first lines of your letter. Unfortunately, as soon as the letter is logged against your holiday reservation as a 1st complaint letter, the tour ops complaint handling system will automatically throw it up as being "out of time".

Did you book through an agent or direct? If through an agent, it may be worth getting them to pursue the claim for you... get them to fax it, then follow it up by a phone call to explain why it's out of time.

It's a difficult one as you hold no paper record. A copy of a complaint form (even if over the deadline) would have carried greater clout, as it would have clearly shown there was a problem at the time.

A phone call from the customer while in resort to the UK office would also have helped had there been no contact with a rep. If they can leave you a number to send an SMS, then it has to be attached to a mobile number somewhere. Was it just not answered?

A number of the smaller units and independent tour operators now use "appointment only" for their rep visits - even so, there should be set contact numbers and the hotel reception has the local office or handling agents numbers. They get paid by them and receive their rooming lists from the tour operator in one shape or form so they have to have a contact number.

The refund - please pursue it....

If the company is Abta bonded, Abta will require you to have had 2 written responses from the tour op before they will even look at your claim to see if there is a case to answer. The other alternative would be to contact Ros through this forum or your local Trading Standards office is usually a good place to start.

For fwh - the notice board at your hotel would have had contact numbers for your representative as would the hotel reception desk.... As a last resort, your holiday documentation has UK office contact numbers and a call to them will provide you with a local contact number if the situation merits a call to the UK. Failing that, if you reserved through a travel agent - call them and let them get in contact with the tour op! After all, it's part of what they get their 12% commission for...

I've taken calls from numerous travel agents, upset parents following phone calls from sons & daughters out in foreign resorts etc. They all have to be acted upon - not just ignore them as the tour op still has a duty of care.

CwB

Hi!

Firstly, thanks for both of your help. I know that GoBest is part of First Choice travel company so you could say, we booked directly through them via internet.

As for the complaint letter, I did make a complaint to the hotel over the way one of their staff treated/behaved towards me and I wrote out my complaint letter by hand on 15.07.08. which was handed in to the hotel staff late evening before we left the resort on 16.07.08. The reasons for me handing it to the hotel staff was because I know we won't be seeing the rep. again before we left plus our rep. did tell us that we have to deal with whatever problems we have first with the hotel and if we don't get any satisfaction out of that then we are to let her know by SMS.

It was 3 days before we left the hotel that one of their staff was being very rude to me and she even threw the pen down at me when I was polite and civil towards her asking her for information of where to go for our A La Carte dinner the following night. She started ranting and shouting at me in Turkish when she saw going to the reception desk the second time because she forgot to write the time down on the dinner card. Luckily, a rep. from another travel company was at the reception area and came to intervene asking me what is the problem. I told the rep. that she pointing to that girl at the reception desk forgot to tell me what time is our dinner booked for. The rep. took the card from me to give to her explaining what the problem was. She didn't like that and started ranting again in Turkish and then threw the card down for me to pick up and I even thanked her before picking the card up and walking away. You can imagine how angry I was feeling as I walked away and no one should treat another person in that manner espcially in public.

That was why I wrote the complaint letter to the hotel and could this be considered as part of my complaint letter? If it does, then that will be good as I could always follow up with the rest of my complaint much later on after the 28 days couldn't I? I did mention this complaint letter to GoBest when I first contacted them via email and told them they could get their rep. to get a copy of it as I do not have a copy of it unfortunately. GoBest replied saying that my complaint came too late and there's nothing they can do again which is all I seem to get as their reply and they didn't even want to acknowledge the change we didn't get from their rep.

The 28 day rule is not set in stone, knor is making a complaint in the resort, that is the tour ops rule under abta but UK law will give a longer period to make a claim through the small claims court. It is actually a better route to take than abta. Remember abta does not represent you they represent the travel agents and tour companies.

Just gather evidence from other holiday makers to back up your case, also take photo's to back up your case. I always say use a different set of film or memory stick to take pitures. The court will want to see all pictures on the memory strip or film, if it shows your family happy smilling have a good time, the tour op will jump on it to say you had a good holiday and it wasn't spoiled, make sure you add unhappy gloomy faces in the picture, if you have little ones chuck in a picture of them crying. Compensation reduced if it looks like you had a good time, increased compensation if looks like you had a bad time. Showing you had a bad time is not being dishonest, because even though you have just been on a holiday from the tour op will try anything to wiggle out of their responsibilties.

Showing you had a bad time is not being dishonest??? If your evidence shows a false picture of the overall holiday then I would suggest that is dishonest. As for "chuck in a few pictures of the kids crying in" - that does not even deserve a response - perhaps they could be made to cry if they had no cause to??

I'm all for getting recompense if you have not received what you paid for but there has to be some responsibilty and truth with any complaint surely?

Taxman

If the kids are crying for some reason take a photo whats wrong in that, suppose they wanted to do something but the facilities are not available and get upset, it adds to the stress of a ruined holiday which is ruined through no fault of your own. The Tour op do not care if your holiday was ruined and the big names will send people to hotels where sickness breaks out on a regular basis. Tour ops are business's and if can get away with paying you nothing they will different tricks to get you to drop the complaint.

Just read the complaints on here and the trouble people have trying getting compensation, some need the help of ros when the toru knew there is a problem. As I said the tour ops don't care if your holiday is ruined, as long as they have got you cash they are happy.