Age has nothing to do with it in my personal opinion. At one time it was fashionable on forums to have stars against user names which indicated how many posts someone had made. Even had them here on HT. It caused many problems at the time I seem to recall as those who had 5 stars often were offensive to people with less.They considered themselves to be the senior members and thought lesser mortals did not give them respect.
Even now similar things are done on forums with little notes against user names that indicate the number of posts a member has made with "Post Clubs" for example.
You could even say that about HT. Below the user name is the date joined which means very little s some of us are shown to have been a member since 1970 which is actually before the internet and HT got started. We even get questions asked about it at times.

senior contributor strikes me as being rather pretentious - quality (and truth) mean far more than the number of posts.

fwh

fwh your quite right age has nothing whatsoever to do with it !!!
as you rightly say some people can post 400+drivell posts and 30 good posts and be seen as a senior contributer..
it says nothing about their knowledge or wisdom its just says they contributed a lot of posts )
anyone who thinks they are something more than that because they are a SC are living in cuckoo land !!!!
im a SC over there too but don't think I am anything more than just another posted.

now a destination expert that's a different kettle of fish )))

Sorry folks we are heading off the Media Travel thread aka one hit wonder, please keep on topic.

Every new member is checked, their IP and various other things are investigated before a post is approved, I am sure there are some new poster who do manage to slip through our checks but they usually show up very quickly.

Here on HT we do encourage travel companies to respond however we do stipulate that they must make it clear from the onset that they are indeed an employee of or represent that particular company.

Graham

billywizzer wrote:

We are using Media travel for a holiday to Majorca, we fly out this Sunday and we have nothing but praise for the way our holiday has been organised.
The paperwork has been sent on time and any queries we have had have been dealt with very efficiently.
The telephone queuing system they have is excellent, it tells you your position in the queue and gives an approximation of how long your wait will be, I found to call first thing in the morning, approx 9am then the wait is very short.

We will be using this company again

Having just returned from our holiday which we booked via Media travel, all we have to report that all went well, no problems at all.
We would without hesitation use this company again if they offered the best price.
My only complaint is too much cloud in Majorca and it is very cold back in the UK.

Update time

Media travel have written again offering the same sum as last time. This amounts to just the additional costs that we incurred. Apparently they don't feel that wasting your time having to arrange for the to and from airport transport that you paid them to provide, together with the time wasted trying to contact them from resort doesn't warrant any element of compensation. The call back that we were promised after we eventually got through to them didn't happen until we got back to the UK!

This tells me all I need to know about this business. Once they've got your money they don't care and certainly don't want to even try and put it right now by making up for all of the lost time and inconvenience.

If all goes well then may be, just may be, they appear good value but the true test of a business is how they respond when things go wrong and Media Travel were hopeless when this happened so provided you are OK with this approach then by all means go ahead and book with them. Personnally I never will again and judging by the forums that I have seen I'm not the only one (allowing for the suspect happy customers).

Meanwhile I've had an acknowledgement from Travel Trust Association and I'm awaiting their further response.Whether they can bring to bear the mediation that they refer to in their letter remains to be seen although I'll remain with a healthy level of scepticism as they still appear to me to be a cosy trade organisation to look after members and will therefore achieve precisely nothing from a customers perspective. I would love to be proved wrong and if I am I'll let you know.

Further updates will follow.

Many thanks for the update

I'm back again with a further update.

Having written to Truly Travel on 17 September (upon receipt of their letter dated 16 September) I have heard from them again.

Their letter of 11 October encloses a further copy of their letter 16 september as it appeared to them that I hadn't received their letter of 16 September.

I would have thought that beginning my letter of 17 September by thanking them for theirs of 16 September was some form of clue to all but the most stupid. Now clearly they are not stupid (I could include lots of suggestions as to what they are but if I do this post won't make it onto the forum). So the only realistic alternative explanation must be to create deliberate continued delay and to cover an unwillingness to put in writing why all of the inconvenience caused doesn't warrant any element of compensation.

I've tried again to see if they can be bothered to reply properly although I'm obviously not hopeful and I'll post again in due course. Any suggestions as to next best course of action very welcome particularly if it saves me some research. I should say that this really is a point of principle and I don't mind incuring some costs (recoverable or not) just to show that this is a completely unacceptable way to behave towards customers.

I've also had the latest pointless response from Travel Trust Association and I'm more convinced than ever that writing to them is a waste of paper/printer ink as they are indeed some cosey members club with fine words but no real interest in helping me as a customer.

All I can say is save yourself the hassle and don't under any circumstances use Truly Travel in any of it's guises.

What about the Small Claims Court in the UK?

Having just read the "if it is a person making a complimentary statement about Media Travel" they must work for the them.
I like a number of others have had no problems with this company and did not bother to continue with any more comments after my initial post, when the only retorts were "snide" remarks about my dealings.
After coming upon this site again It would appear that a number of people have had some problems and like to go about it on this site, but please accept that there are people who have used this company and had a nice time and would use them again.

Methinks billywizzer doth protest too much......5 posts all positive about one TA???
Not one review or post elsewhere??

I booked a holiday on Saturday with Teletext Holidays which I found and got a quote for on-line but had to telephone to make the booking which I did and got a cheaper quote which I queried but was reassured it was right so happily paid the deposit.
When the invoice came through the next day the hotel was different to the one I had requested (cheaper and out of the centre, up a hill) and a footnote said that "Teletext Holidays is a trading name of Truly Travel" who I hadn't heard of.
As Customer Service was closed on Sunday, I looked at reviews on Trip Advisor for Truly Travel and thought I was going to have a battle on my hands to get this sorted out but I couldn't have been more wrong.
I rang first thing Sunday and spoke to a very helpful guy called Nelson who said he couldn't do anything until someone listened to a recording of the booking but promised to ring me the next day. True to his word he rang before the office had even opened to let me know that it was their error and he would ring again when his supervisors had decided how to rectify it.
He rang again later that day to confirm all the details for the hotel we wanted and they've let us have it for the price we'd agreed, a saving of £144 so no complaints from us.
Don't believe everything you read and remember most people would only bother writing a review if they have a problem, otherwise they tend not to bother.
Hazel P Durham

hazelpnut wrote:

I
Don't believe everything you read and remember most people would only bother writing a review if they have a problem, otherwise they tend not to bother.
Hazel P Durham

....and what made YOU decide to join a forum just to praise a company???

brewerdave wrote:

hazelpnut wrote:

I
Don't believe everything you read and remember most people would only bother writing a review if they have a problem, otherwise they tend not to bother.
Hazel P Durham

....and what made YOU decide to join a forum just to praise a company??? :rofl

Yes I wonder if we get any more contributions from this person on other topics and helping others out with holiday queries, posting hotel reviews etc or is it all just about Media Travel for her

doe wrote:

brewerdave wrote:

hazelpnut wrote:

I
Don't believe everything you read and remember most people would only bother writing a review if they have a problem, otherwise they tend not to bother.
Hazel P Durham

....and what made YOU decide to join a forum just to praise a company??? :rofl

Yes I wonder if we get any more contributions from this person on other topics and helping others out with holiday queries, posting hotel reviews etc or is it all just about Media Travel for her :rofl

Same thing posted on Trip Advisor