Hi, this is my problem, i've outlined an account of what happened below. This has been written pretty quickly so might not read very well at the moment. I was wondering, what can i expect as a resolution to this matter, and what can i ask for? my sister has said that they have breached The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992, particularly:
Significant proportion of services not provided
14.â€â€Â(1) The terms set out in paragraphs (2) and (3) below are implied in every contract and apply where, after departure, a significant proportion of the services contracted for is not provided or the organiser becomes aware that he will be unable to procure a significant proportion of the services to be provided.
(2) The organiser will make suitable alternative arrangements, at no extra cost to the consumer, for the continuation of the package and will, where appropriate, compensate the consumer for the difference between the services to be supplied under the contract and those supplied.
(3) If it is impossible to make arrangements as described in paragraph (2), or these are not accepted by the consumer for good reasons, the organiser will, where appropriate, provide the consumer with equivalent transport back to the place of departure or to another place to which the consumer has agreed and will, where appropriate, compensate the consumer.
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Went into Thompson Lakeside, requesting quotes for multicentre package holiday to Hong Kong, Bangkok and Phuket, spoke to Coral, who made numerous calls to Hayes and Jarvis to obtain quotes on various hotels to obtain an overall price for us.
We settled on basic three star accommodation in Hong Kong and Bangkok, as they were just stop overs, and we wanted to splash out a bit on our hotel in Phuket.
Originally we were going to go for Evason, however we wanted to be in the main area of Patong as we were going to meet some friends there, so we discarded it for La Flora or Sheraton Grande Laguna, we eventually settled on a pool access room in La Flora. Coral showed us the website of La Flora Patong and we together checked out the reviews on tripadvisor which had ranked it as 3rd best hotel in Patong - this made our minds up.
After 3 nights in Hong Kong and 2 nights in Bangkok, we flew to Phuket. A representative (Sean) from Pacific World greeted us and we were on our way to the hotel, he made some comments about us being in the quiet part of Thailand which alarmed us - we ultimately found out he was in fact taking us to another region of Thailand - Khao Lak! We told him we had booked at the Patong branch of La Flora but by this point there wasn't much we could do, we were on our way there.
We made numerous phone calls to Hayes and Jarvis operations department to try and solve the problem - we asked them to transfer us to La Flora Patong as we had called them and they did have availability in a pool access room, however Hayes and Jarvis would not do this, they gave us two options, a refund or a transfer to another hotel in Karon- which we'd have to pay £140 for to obtain a Pool Villa and we'd have to pay our own transfer fees. (note we specifically wanted to be in Patong). We felt we had no other choice at this stage but to pay extra and be transferred - we tried to look on the bright side - at least we'd have pool access in our room, which was one of the reasons we'd booked La Flora Patong in the first place. Note at this stage, we'd wasted one day of our holiday making phone calls / waiting by the phone to hear something and very stressed.
The next morning La Flora Kao Lak had received an email to let them know we were transferring, and we were on our way back, we got to Centara Phuket Village and they had no recollection of our reservation, after 2 hours of waiting it emerged that our transfer was meant to be to Centara Karon Village, so we made our way there. Once we got there we were shown to our room, we told the employee hat we'd booked a Pool Villa (Cabana room) he said that we hadn't and we'd only paid for a basic room! This was a big disappointment to us as we have been stressed and disappointed since we arrived in Phuket - and we'd had to pay an upgrade fee for this resort - £140 out of our spending money, we immediately called Hayes and Jarvis again just to be told there was nothing they could do, and the person dealing with this (Chris) would not be in until 9am GMT (5pm in Phuket) which was 2 hours away, again we had no choice but to check in to a basic room! Chris did eventually call back to basically tell us that there was ‘nothing he could do' after just spending an extra £140 of our spending money to get a basic room was a complete disaster and very upsetting, Chris said that he would call the following day with other options/explanation, this never happened we had to call ourselves to get a status update, we got the same answer again which was ‘there is nothing I can do'
The underlying fact is that La Flora is a top 5* hotel it has been given excellent reviews from all independent websites and people we have spoken to, even the travel advisor said it was one of the best in Phuket. Centara Karon Resort is on the other hand very basic and is no way in the same league as La Flora (hence the price difference)
La flora- Currently 53.900 THB is £977.3521
Centaron - £35125 THB = £636.9108
So as you can see, for the same amount of time in the room that we were booked into at La Flora, and the room that we were transferred into at Centara Karon Resort (Lagoon room) the price difference is: £340.4413
We queried this with the representative at Hayes and Jarvis, stating that the Centara hotel was in no way the same price range as La Flora, he said because we'd booked 8 months ago the prices were cheaper (apparently we paid £780 for La Flora) which is fair enough, but doing this price comparison indicates that there is still a large price difference between the two even if we had booked last minute.
· Booked 8 months ago, looking forward to a luxury holiday
· Supposed to be relaxing, ended up being very stressful, expensive and disappointing
· Wasted 2 days of our holiday trying to get the correct location
· Not offered the same standard of hotel
· Had to pay for transfer to hotel
· No sympathy, apologies
· Had to chase
· Expensive phone bill
· Offered very limited options
· Had to pay cancellation fee
· We booked La Flora based on tripadvisor reviews, it was #3 In Patong, whereas Centara was #10 in Karon and by reading reviews we definitely would not have booked it independently for the type of luxury holiday we were planning.
· We were told the £140 had been refunded because we hadn't got the pool villa in Centara, however it hasn't been. At this point we are tired of chasing Hayes and Jarvis for a mistake which we hadn't made, again at our time and expense
· We got a cheaper deal with La Flora because we booked 8 months ago, and booking a hotel last minute was more expensive - I don't feel like these costs should be passed onto us, it wasn't our fault that the wrong hotel was booked 8 months ago.
· No one is accepting the blame, we are the people that are suffering.
I would suggest you contact Ros Fernihough on 01922 705134 (You will probably speak to her assistant Pam). Ros is a travel law solicitor who often assists our members and will offer you free advice.
Sounds awful.
Apparantly Hayes and Jarvis listened to telephone conversations, and when booking the H & J adviser did say "that one's in Khao Lak" and the girl booking the holiday said "Yea thats fine" so they're blaming Thompson, and on Thompsons records the holiday is recorded as Hong Kong, Bangkok and Phuket.
GAHHHHHHH!
If thats the case then if you get hayes & jarvis to review the tapes of the phone call between them and the travel advisor as long as the travel advisor asked for what you wanted then you have two outcomes.
1) If the travel advisor read back the holiday details to the thomson travel advisor and she agreed to it (and did not pick up the mistake at the time) she is at fault and its a thomson customer service issue.
2)If they read back the holiday details that you asked for and booked the wrong hotel , they are at mistake and they are at fault.
I hope this may help you.
Thanks for your reply. I do have the original documents that were sent over to me, they said Phuket. Hayes and Jarvis did listen to the phone call, the lady booking it at Thompson said "La Flora" and apparantly the lady at Hayes and Jarvis said "Thats in Khao Lak and Thompson lady said, "Yea that's fine" even though we clearly wanted to stay in Phuket.
The only thing is, they did offer us alternative accommodation, it wasn't in the area which we wanted, or of the same standard so we ended up rejecting it in favour of where they had originally moved us to, but could they use this as an argument to give us less compensation? I would have thought that if they were to offer an alternative, it would be of the same standard (on Thompsons website the one we chose was 4 star, the one they transferred us to was 3 star) and at no extra cost to us, so surely they also handled the situation badly?
I think I will initially send a letter, i'd like to post it here to get someone to check it, so hopefully someone will reply once I do...
Mini
Thomson (The Travel shop) then would be at fault and its for them to have a internal argument with hayes and jarvis to take the blow of the cost as really they should pay for the cost of what was ment to be booked.
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