In august 2012, my mother booked me a holiday to Ibiza for my birthday at Piscis Park in Ibiza.
Firstly, the transfer coach driver didn't speak english which caused a lot of problems.
Then when we arrived at the hotel, money and property was stolen from my suitcase.
I also constantly told the staff about damages to the room, which they told me they would repair but never did. On top of this, the room was not what I saw on Sunmaster's website and looked nothing like the pictures. I believe it was so bad that it was a health and safety risk so I took many photos, which included the fuse and parts of the electric wall mains plug's which were sticking out and loose.
When I informed the staff they just laughed about the robbery and told me they doubted anything was missing and their staff would steal.
The worst was yet to come..My mother had bought me and my brother 'half board' and we were under the impression this was 2 meals a day.
However on the 3rd day we were booted out of the cafeteria told that half board meant only one meal with no drinks. I asked the manager to put this in writing and rang Sunmaster at the time. Sunmaster told me all I could do was file a complaint when I got back to the UK.
The staff their refused to put it in writing and they threated to report me to the police for theft.
As i had done nothing wrong I told them they were welcome too as my booking clearly stated half board and 2 meals, which they didn't respond to.
When getting back to the UK I complained to Sunmaster and I got a response saying they will investigate but with the wrong customer's name on! It has someone else's name on the complaint!
So I rang them, they told me someone will get back to me. It's now been a few months and no one has ever got back to me. I believe it's the same deal as what others have said, no protection..from ABTA etc..but i just wanted to warn people not to book with this company..they are terrible!
Sorry to hear about your holiday moneyhustler88. Half Board does indeed mean 2 meals a day, breakfast & evening meal.
Sunmaster only usually act as an agent, so who did they book the accommodation with? Did the confirmation from the accommodation supplier have half board on it?
It just said sun aster on invoice..and it just said half board '2meals a day'.
I did write to them to, never got a response. that was in September (i gave them they're asked 28 days to respond)..
What can I do now?
Do you have a copy? If so then send it again, stating that you are resubmitting an original complaint made in X (state date of original) but make sure you send it recorded delivery therefore, ensuring you have a copy of receipt of your complaint.
Can i not go to ABTA or anyone about them too?
All of the above. When they take payment details this should be the point of contract. Yet they call you and inform you that the price of the flight has gone up, in our case, over 10%. Apparently they don’t update their websites for days. There T&C's really aren’t very explicit. I am going to the Advertising Standards Authority to report this bunch of shysters.
I wish I had read these first.
Thoroughly disappointed, and Sun Master I won’t let this go!!!!
Heard from my cousin last night that as she was trying to make a booking with Sunmaster it wouldn't go through & a message came up that someone would contact her. Sure enough it was to tell her that her flight etc had gone up by £120. She had a whinge and they dropped it to £100 increase
Last August in 2012 on the 16th August my mother booked me and my brother a surprise birthday trip to Ibiza for my 23rd birthday. My mother paid for a 3 star hotel with transfers+ flights+hotel on a half board basis. She knew that one of my life long dreams had been to go to Ibiza but I had never been able to afford it neither have friends who could.
A week before we were meant to fly 'sunmaster' who is the company who sold my mother the deal through their website told my mother the original hotel she booked was fully booked.
They could not do her that hotel so could either refund her minus a cancellation fee which would be applied to everything (cancellation fee for flight..then hotel..then holiday..etc)... or put her into a same star hotel
which they claimed would 'cost them more money' and was 'better'.
My mum thought that was a fair offer and accepted but did state she wanted it to be to the same standard/star rating, they assured her it was.
Firstly when I arrived at the airport the booking sheet for the transfers told us our 'transfer coach driver' would be waiting at the airport/coach area for us. He was not and it took us 15 minutes
of walking around and asking every coach there to find our transfer company.
When we did get on the coach, the coach driver spoke no english and because of this language
difference we almost got off at the wrong stop, but luckily as we kept asking and he read
our hotel booking on our sheet he realised it was our stop.
The transfer didn't drop us off outside our hotel and we ended up walking 10 minutes to our hotel.
When we arrived at the hotel it wasn't as advertised or the pictures. Their was vomit on the
stairs and lift. Cups and rubbish in hallways and when I arrived to my room it had names carved into the wall, electrical sockets hanging out of the wall and blood on the bedsheets.
I expected someone to change these but no one did. The toilet/bathroom roof also leaked with water. I took this up with the hotel who said someone would fix it within 48 hours.
No one ever did and i kept being told they would come out in 48 hours but one did.
On the 2nd day drug dealers kept knocking on our doors asking us if we wanted drugs or
party tickets. i reported this to the hotel and security who assured me they would do something but didn't.
On the 4th day I went to have my meal and was told by the catering staff they were refusing me access to the food area as 'half board' meant only 1 meal not 2, therefore I had over eaten by attempting to have 2 meals in one day.
When i went to reception a gentlemen who claimed he was the hotel manager ( I will not name this person for data confidentality purposes).. said that we had eaten 2 meals a day and half board was only 1 meal a day. I explained to him this was not what our booking said with sunmaster. He said that was the rules and we would be banned. i rang sunmaster from spain then on their emergency line and all the woman told me was tha it wasn't real a emergency I couldn't eat but she'd pass the info onto sunmaster UK and to ask the man to write down he was refusing to serve me/the hotel was on this basis.
the manager refused to do this or even give me a pen and starting swearing and making racist comments towards me and my brother who are black. My brother was getting worked up so I decided to leave and just took the managers name as i saw his ID badge.
The next day I got a call from sunmaster and explained everything to them. they told me they had taken notes but there was no point in them going through every single detail as they could not take an official complaint till i returned to the UK.
I got back to the UK and complained on August 30th, a complaint was done through Sunmaster's website and a reciept emailed to me and a copy sent through the post to Sunmaster too. A few days later i got a response, but it was addresses to a 'miss XXXXXX ' and not myself. This woman was not me and it was clear the wrong complaint response had been sent to the wrong person. I since emailed sunmaster back and had no response.I waited and waited and 7 months have gone bye and i've not heard anything about my complaint.
Mad about it all last month when I posted on these forums seeking advice, in April i decided i wouldn't let them get away with this and so I sent them letters certified post, emails and twitter/facebook messages. I finally got a response last month in April via email after sending them photographs of the room i stayed in via certified post.
Sunmaster said that they were sorry about the problems caused and my file had been mixed up with another customers file and that the hotel had denied all allegations and they had never had any problems with the hotel before. Therefore all they could offer me was a discount if i stayed at the hotel again, but they stated they could not guarantee me this or give me any contact information on how to contact the hotel or when. When I argued this they then told me, well i had only said/stated for 1 night i had been refused food.
To me this is the stupidest argument I have heard..The fact of the matter is if the hotel wasn't going to serve me food on 1 night they weren't going to the other days as they had felt I had 'over eaten' and obviously got wrong what half board was. This is common sense. I incurred food bills, bank charges and telephone costs because of sunmaster so I would like this back. I will never get my 23rd birthday experience back but Sunmaster don't care about this.
After 1 month of exchanging emails back and fourth now with Sunmaster I have had no luck in changing their mind about this matter abd the level of response has been the same.
I therefore have decided that I will take sunmaster to the small claims court for 'false advertising' and the costs I incurred at their errors and unreliability to fix/investigate my complaint.
So I went to see a solicitor on Monday. I showed the solicitor all the reciepts of costs I incurred and explained everything including postage proof, postage evidence and photographs from Sunmaster's website..to the real photographs I had. The solicitor stated that I did have a case and he infact felt I could claim more money that what i stated.
Therefore on Tuesday I sent Sunmaster a legal intention to sue in line with the UK Small Claims Court Pre Action Rules.
Funnily enough within 24 hours I had a phonecall from the 'emergency rep' who dealt with me in Ibiza last August in 2012. She told me that she infact worked for Triton and the emergency number was Triton's and it was Triton who called me the following day and not Sunmaster. She stated that Sunmaster booked the hotel through Triton and went as far as to say 'Sunmaster' was one of their best customers and they rarely have complaints about them! I told her I disagreed with this. She told me that the reason my complaint was not being taken seriously was because there was discrepancies in my complaint. I asked her to outline what these was and she couldn't state..as everything I had stated I informed her of exact dates Sunmaster were made aware of this from last year to now. When I asked this rep why Sunmaster felt they could even send me the wrong complaint letter and breach data confidentality (as i had this womans full name, date of birth, holiday details and full address) if it really showed..their discrepancy and she could not respond. The final response I got was that 'on this occassion Sunmaster have been bad and they have not been passing information onto Triton'. So I've been told now that they will speak to the hotel further and see if this year as am going to another hotel owned by the same hotel group..get me a upgrade/additional room in the hotel. Or secondly she said reimburse me £174 which was the costs I incurred. I was told this would all happen within 24 hours.But now 24 hours have passed and theres no email or phonecall back..it looks like Triton are also liars.
So what consumer rights do I have? Can anyone help me? Surely these companies should be regulated?
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