Holiday Complaints

Do you have a holiday complaint? For help and advice post in here.
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So how much compensation are you claiming???????????
you need to explain how much and why
silly though it may sound but as someone who deals in these matters, ( i have succesfully claimed compensation of Royal Mail and several utility companies to name a few ) it makes it easier when you break down what you want and why.
As a guide you would expect £10 at least for every hour of disruption, ie 1 1 1/2 hours travelling to where you were originally booked equals £15
on top of this you want your travelling expenses and that is just the start
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i saw on Ros's site, that we shouldnt detail how much we would like, becuase we may underestimate the amount of damage. Also things like loss of enjoyment cannot be quantified so i was a bit confused there.

I did find something online that helped to calculate the amount of compensation, it was something like : how much the holiday cost, and how much each day was worth, plus additinal expenses etc.

I'm just confused as to whether i should detail a specific amount initially, or maybe wait for a response and if i dont like it, then quantify it?
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The choice is yours but remember NEVER accept the first offer.
Now, they may if they offer you anything, say that this is the first and final offer. In that case go to to arbitaton / ombudsman, as you CANNOT lose.
It costs you nothing and if you get ruled against you still win
i.e if your awarded £500 and refuse, if the ombudsman rules against you still get £500, however if they say you should get more then you win. If my memory serves me right it costs you nothing but the holiday companies have to pay, so it in their interests that you don't.
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you mention "they may if they offer you anything," do you think they would not offer me anything after the spectacular mistake they made... surely not...?

How would i go about going to an ombudsman, is that where i'd contact ABTA?

Thanks for your help so far...
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They may offer you nothing
You have no automatic right to compensation
thats why you have work to get it
they will, like most insurance companies do they're best to avoid paying out
send them your letter of complaint and give them a reasonable time to reply. What you call reasonable may differ from thiers.
Gaive them 20 working days maximum. After that go the ombudsman and explain they refusing to answer. All this adds weight to your claim
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Not wishing to be picky but the name is spelt Thomson, without the P. I know when I used to deal with complaints, if the name was spelt incorrectly, I used to think 'it's a shame they don't even know the name of the company they are complaining about'.
Don't take it personally, but I think things like that are important.
I wouldn't mention figures in my opening letter, but when you do make sure you can justify what you are asking for. I would imagine you will get a standard reply, apologising etc.etc. Bear in mind that the Abta code of conduct gives them 14 days to acknowledge your letter and 28 days from receipt to provide a detailed response. If you get an none favourable response after the first letter, write again.

Have a look at Abta's website. There is a lot of helpful info.

http://www.abta.com/consumer-services/travel_problems/frequently_asked_questions_consumer#delays

If you want more info use the site search at the top of the site
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Thanks, have been using the site search but can't find specific queries relating to my own!

No worries about the spelling mistake, like i said i didnt draft the letter, so it still needs to be cleared up a bit before i send it!

I am thinking about how much compensation i should ask to claim, backed up with reasons.

Is this reasonable?:

expenses such as cancellation fee, my phone bill, transfer costs, the costs incurred for upgrading but not getting the upgraded room

the mistake affected 7 days of a 12 night holiday. 59% of it. could we ask for 59% of the money back? (£1829)

Loss of enjoyment, £500.

I realise this is quite a lot, but seriously the only thing that kept us going and helped us feel better about the disaster that had happened, was holding onto the fact that maybe we'd get some justice when we got home!

i will have a look at the ABTA site.

Thankyou very much for your help
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Leave the "without prejudice" out - if it goes to court you may not be able to use the letter.

Mark :)
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" the mistake affected 7 days of a 12 night holiday. 59% of it. could we ask for 59% of the money back? (£1829)"

Bear in mind that included in the 59% of the cost of your holiday was a flight, which you still used and was 'as booked', so you cannot really include that in your 'percentage' claim.
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Don't forget to claim for the time you are on the phone, not just the price of the call.
Every minute of YOUR time spent sorting this out is claimable.
Remember though, you are going to have to fight for everything.
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At over 2,000 words I think this letter is too long and goes into unnecessary detail - it tells the story of what I am sure was not a good experience when it should be concisely setting out the terms of your complaint. The core of your complaint is that Thomson made a mess of the booking and it is irrelevant to your complaint against them what Hayes and Jarvis did or didn't do in trying to sort that problem out once you arrived in Thailand. Nor is there any point at this stage in quoting the law at them - they probably know it better than the person who drafted the letter. After all they probably spend a lot of time trying to wriggle out of it!

I would suggest that as this is your first letter opening up the complaint procedure that you limit yourself to

a) Proving that they messed the booking up - There's no need to go into why it was important to you that you stayed in this particular hotel - the important thing is that this is the one you wanted to book and they didn't book you into it. Going back to what you said in your original post in the the first thread you opened up - it appears that this will be easy to do because your invoice from them (that is Thomson) lists a diferent hotel to the one you were actually booked into.

b) Ask them for the refund of the difference between what you actually paid them to stay in your chosen hotel and the the price of the one you ended up staying in.

c) Itemise the additional costs that this mistake resulted in for you. Itemise all the extras you paid in order to try and ensure that you could salvage what you could from the holiday including what you ahd to pay the hotel you ended up in, any transfer costs etc, the cost of your phone bills, anythings that had to be paid for at this hotel that would have been included in your original choice of hotel etc.

d) Then ask them for compensation for loss of enjoyment via refund of the dissatisfactory aprt of the holiday. As others have mentioned this will have to based on the total price minus the flights - they were correct - and minus the days spent in Hong Kong and Bangkok. So it won't be for 59% of the total cost given that the industry tends to work on the assumption that flights account for 40% of the total price of a package.

However, the best advice of all is probably to consult a specialist like Ros - she is the expert, not any of us who can only express a personal opinion - and she will be the best qualified of all to draft your letter for you.

SM
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I agree with SMa the letter is far too long and detailed. You booked a holiday specifying which accommodation you required. Someone either by mistake or ignorance booked it incorrect. You need to establish that.

You do not (and should not) enclose bank statements. It is sufficient that you are able to prove the figures should you be required to do so.

There is no need to quote chapter and verse of the regulations. Simply state that your claim is under The Package Travel, Package Holidays & Package Tours Regulations 1992. They know them better than you.

You might like to have a read through this topic - http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=135246

MarkJ (one of the HT mods) is in the process of making a claim via the small claims court and it started in June so it could take a long time to sort out. It is also a good example of how to keep a letter short and sweet. Loading your letter with fine details will only delay and confuse matters at this stage.

The most sensible advice has already been given that you should contact Ros who is a leading lawyer in this type of case.

Do consider that they require time to investigate the matter so any deadlines you impose must be realistic.

fwh
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Yes I agree that it is too long, but relatively concise, but you should be able to cut down easily without losing the salient points.

Shame on them for not dealing with this better at the time. It was a basic error, that a) shouldn't have happened, but once it did happen (and I can see why it might for inexperienced agents) they should have rolled out all the stops to fix it, especially as the paperwork quite obviously backed up what you were saying. There is no shortage of top end accommodation in Patong, and i'm sure they could have got you into one. La Flora vs Centara is chalk and cheese.

You won't be able to claim 59% because that includes your flights. Except if you take them to court and it's easier for them not to defend.

However, regarding the 'don't accept the first offer' I will say I know of 2 travel companies who actually make one fair offer, and won't negotiate after that. However, they are small Tour Op's with exemplary customer service (who i'd like to think wouldn't let this happen). So as you're dealing with a larger company it's probably valid advice.

Oh - who is Thompson? Did you book a Hayes & Jarvis Holiday through Thomson's? Or is Thompson a person? Need to clear that up.
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I can't edit - but you've answered my question re: Thompson / Thomson / H&J in your other thread. From the notes you have there, it sounds like Thomson are to blame is H&J person said 'That ones in Khao Lak'.

Phuket would be put as your destination as it's the Airport for Khao Lak.
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Thanks so much for all your advice! Looking at the letter and comparing it to the very good example that was written by Mark (?) I agree I need to work on cutting this down and making it more concise. Agreed that they'll know what laws and contracts they've broken, and if I don't get a satisfactory response i'll be pointing them out later on!

Thompson - bless. My sister means Thomson - who we booked it through who I then presume booked it through Hayes and Jarvis, I don't know how all that works, but Hayes and Jarvis have already said that they have listened to the tapes and that it's Thomsons mistake.
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Your problem started with Thomson at the Lakeside branch. Your instructed them on your requirements. The rest of your problems stem from that. Once you are at your destination then it is difficult to rectify no matter how willing the people you are dealing with.

Have a look at revising your letter and if you post on here we may be able to assist further.

fwh
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Did you recieve a holiday confirmation invoice from the tour op showing the correct hotel? If you had a holiday confirmation invoice showing the incorrect hotel before you travelled and didn't pick up on it they may try to get out of it that way.
Also did you sign a booking form showing the correct hotel at the time you made the booking or did it show the incorrect hotel and you signed it without picking up on it? Just a thought because they will check all of these kind of things to try and catch you out. Hope this helps.
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