'I am writing to express my disgust and disappointment in the events following the booking of our holiday as referenced above.
We booked a holiday in February 2009 to travel on 2nd April 2010. Within that period, my partner and I have become husband and wife so in August 2009 we visited the store at the White Rose Shopping Centre, Leeds and upgraded aspects of the holiday and asked if we could allow people to come and pay off some of the holiday in lieu of a traditional gift list. We were told this would be fine and that a record would be kept of who has made payments and for the amounts paid. Having been given this information, we arranged for cards to be made to be put into the wedding invites giving people the information they required to make a payment.
Shortly after the invitations went out, we had a phone-call from a family friend who advised they had tried to make a payment but no-one in the shop knew what they were talking about and said they couldn't do it. When this information came to light we phoned the store and expressed our concern and it appeared that as they didn't have the reference number with them a payment couldn't be made.
Towards the end of November we began receiving receipts through the post for payments that had been made to our holiday. These receipts also contained the payer's credit card payment slip showing the details of the card they had used which we felt was bad practice and surely against data protection requirements. As we didn't receive any more we didn't think anything of it. We felt that Thomas Cook would adhere to Data Protection as per clause 2d within the ABTA code of conduct of which Thomas Cook is member nr 48226, being: ‘Comply with relevant data protection requirements and ensure that they have in place an effective policy for protecting the privacy of clients, which shall be available to clients'. It seems to me that in this instance, this has clearly not been the case and it would be interesting to see the policy which as stated should be available to clients.
The date of our wedding approached and on Christmas Eve - 24th December 2009, my brother phoned to advise that they had made a payment towards our holiday and he had been asked if he would like a receipt. He took the receipt and realised that he had been given the full details of our holiday, which included flight details, hotels we were staying at, and the full holiday cost as well as payments that had been made and the current outstanding balance. Again we telephoned, as we could not believe this type of private and confidential information was being given out to anyone that came into the shop. My wife phoned, the response she got from -- name removed -- was "Well you never told us not to give this information out". With the careful and meticulous actions that companies must follow to adhere to the Data Protection Act 1998 we would assume that it would go without saying that all of our personal details would not be given out. We received a verbal apology and was told it wouldn't happen again. This was all well and good but it was less than a week to our wedding so anyone who intended to make a payment had probably already done so and therefore now had all of our holiday details.
Whilst upset and realising that mistakes happen we tried not to worry about the details people now have about our holiday.
We visited the store on the Evening of Monday 4th January to pay off some more of the balance and to obtain the list of people that had made payments to contribute to the cost of what was now our honeymoon. We were utterly dismayed to find that a handwritten list was given to us, of only approx 10 different contributions. Your representative said they only started taking names when we phoned on Christmas Eve. When we pointed out that we said all along that we wanted names saving the lady said there was no note of that, and showed us the system on the computer screen; this system had a note which clearly stated in August that the names of people making payments were to be noted for our information!
Conversations ensued but we were going round in circles. We later worked out that from the payments we had made ourselves, and the list of payments given by the store supposedly from our wedding guests and values given; there were over £500.00 of unallocated payments which our guests must have paid of which there is no recognition. This was very important to us that these records were kept so we could send personal thank-you letters to everyone who contributed as we see it as a very kind gesture.
Due to the failure of our seemingly simple requirements fulfilling, we then had the very embarrassing task of phoning friends and family members to see if they had made any payments and how much they had paid. We did this not only to enable us to send thank-you letters but also, as comments we received back from the store lead us to believe that the whole process had been farcical to many of our contributors in that no-one really seemed to know how to do it or whether to give receipts out etc. In light of this, we are now concerned that payments may have been made but incorrectly allocated to other bookings. Again, in accordance with the ABTA code of conduct, clause 2q, all documentation receipts and confirmations (including of payments), the travel agent must: ‘Issue and pass on the correct receipts, confirmations, tickets and other relevant documents relating to the travel arrangements booked as soon as reasonably practicable"¦.'. This is another obvious breach of ABTA regulations.
We realise that this is not a service normally provided, but we were assured by the store that this could be done so we undertook completing the booking of the holiday and payments from our guests in this manner. We were intending to return and book our ski lift passes, ski equipment hire and a show whilst we are at Las Vegas but with the experience we have had we will be doing this elsewhere. Having booked a number of holidays with Thomas Cook; which is a reputable ABTA covered company, over the last few years we are disappointed that this has occurred. It is something that has upset and caused us great embarrassment and we have lost our trust in the store. We are also having some friends join us on the skiing section of the holiday of whom we have advised to go elsewhere to make the booking.
We would ask that everything possible can be done to attempt to find out who has paid what and when. As it is a legal requirement to keep such records, surely a list of all transactions is kept for each booking in case of dispute?
On Tuesday 5th December my wife phoned the head office to lodge a complaint and were told someone would call us back that same day. At the time of writing we are still awaiting a response.
We are so alarmed by this that we considered cancelling the holiday and booking it elsewhere despite the probable loss of our deposit. The remaining balance of our holiday is due to be paid on the 8th January 2010. We are unwilling to pay this off until the actions are resolved.
I trust that a satisfactory response will be made in writing promptly.'
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Edited by
MarkJ
2010-01-20 16:31:53
To remove name of member of staff
