I would write to John Dunscombe. He's the Customer Relations Manager and is based at Park Buildings, 2 Park Street, SWANSEA SA1 3DJ.

I would point out that you first wrote on 31st August and expect a condidered response from them no later than 28th October.

You must appreciate that whilst it may take time to seek infortmation from their suppliers, the ABTA rules require them to respond within 28 days to either answer your questions or to provide a sensible explanation as to why they cannot at that time provide an answer whereupon they have a further 28 days remaining to them. In all, 56 days is the back-stop position.

You don't say in your post where you were flying to or which carrier took you there. I get the impression the problem might lie with the airline and you may have complained in the resport to the TCD offices.

I'm guessing here, but your outbound flight date was a Friday and I guess you flew to Sanford. The carrier would likely be Air Atlanta and the crew Excel. You complained to the office in Orlando - maybe spoke to Arun.

If I'm right you should know TCD, Air Atlanta and Excel are all owned by the same company, Avion Group. Communication between these three should be simple but I've found they use this to their advantage (or try to) and pass the responsibility onto each other.

If you can provide a bit more detail and in particular, if you booked a package or just flights I could help further.

Mike

Thank you Mark,

We did fly out on Friday from Manchester to Sandford, complaints include that we booked Sunshine Upperdeck but did not get the advertised services we paid for including the fact that priorty baggage meant we were the last to leave the airport on arrival.

The food on the plane was not any different to Economy and the excel crew were not "dedicated" as in they did not even offer drinks appropriately among other complaints, they actually managed to loose one of our "priority" bags on return to Manchester.

The whole holiday was booked as a package through TCD, the car was the only thing we did not have a problem with. The villa, which was a 4 bedroomed executive villa at Regal Palms was in a disgusting state when we arrived:

the sheets on the bed were from the previous occupants (without going into detail)

my children had to sleep on sofa (without being made into bed) because no bedding for the first night.

supplied with bedding eventually in a black bin bag for us to make up ourselves.

ensuit toilet blocked up completely and tiles cracked on floor and enormous amounts of black mould around the bath and window.

When we complained the following morning in the Buena Vista office Lisa (the manager) told us she would sort things out, but we did not want to stay in that villa but ended up doing so because she felt that matters had been dealt with because she got the cleaners in and the toilet unblocked on the Saturday but not until around 4.00 pm and not until we had phoned twice to see why nothing had been done all day. She actually told me on the phone that we were due to compensation and would phone later to let us know but no phone call was ever made to us even though I phoned the office to speak to her but guess what.... she was never available.

We were told that we had to pay extra to have the pool lights and the spa put on which was absolute nonsense and they were eventually put on on the Saturday afternoon also.

All this together made our first day of the holiday terrible as we just hung around all day (without unpacking) to see what was happening.

On return the excel crew did no better with serving drinks we were even told that the drinks had all been closed and there was around 2 hours left to fly. When we boarded the airplane we did not have priorty as all the passengers for the flight went to the gate at the same time and we had to wait while each were told they had to wait longer until first and sunshine had got on and waiting 2 hours in baggage to eventually be told that the bag was lost was the very last straw - oh no it wasnt we had to make three calls to chase the bag with was delivered to us on Monday as we had flown home on Saturday.

I have a headache now, thinking about this all happening when all you want to do is get the service you pay for. I am sorry it is so long but you did ask.....Ha Ha

Jam,
what can I say? TCD caused me some problems in July this year. I'm working towards a resolution with the wonderful help of Ros Fernihough. She's a specialis travel solicitor and can be contacted on 01922 621114.

I'd contact her a.s.a.p.

You have some time limits when seeking compensation but by complaining in resort and again immed. upon return you've done all the right things so far. You may receive an offer of compensation from TCD before matters progress with Ros (assuming you ring her) and if you are unhappy with the initial value of any such compensation received DO NOT CASH THE CHEQUE as doing so would kill off any further chance of seeking redress through the courts.

I'd ring Ros.

Cheers, Mike

Mike, I have just phoned to speak to Ros and spoke to her assistant Pam as Ros not there, she is going to send me out a letter asking for all the details, she did explain that TCD reply to complaints in date order so all I can say is they have got 5 weeks worth of complaints before mine so far!!!!!! Doesnt look good does it. Pam was helpful and I feel better that I am doing things the right way.

Thank you for your help and advice.

Julie (JAM)

Julie,
Pam's a treat.
I've spoken with her several times and appreciate that Ros is busy actually handling the cases and would likely only talk to me if absolutely necessary.

Your 5 weeks' worth of claims includes mine.

Good Luck
mike

ps. I PM'd you before you confirmed you rang Ros but the info in that PM is still very much applicable.

Hi Julie
So we were not the only one's put in a dirty villa by TCD this year .We did get moved to a lovely villa on the 2nd day after a lot of phone calls to Lisa.The 1st villa was dirty scruffy rusty(showers etc) and to top it all the pool was a filthy slimy green(pea soup) cess pit!Plus there were only 6 towels between 8 of us and these were old worn and some had holes in them.We are at the moment between letters with TCD
Sue

Mike,

Can you believe it, got a letter from TCD today they are offering us £40 each compensation for Sunshine Upperdeck saying that they are proud of the service they offer but out of courtesy they offer the above. I am flabbergasted, they do not mention anything about the poor service we received just that they are PROUD!!!!!! oh yes and they are pleased we received our lost baggage in a reasonable time frame!!!! not that they are sorry it was lost in the first place. Nothing mentioned about the meals or the fact we did not receive drinks etc. etc.

They also are offering us £87 for the inconvenience caused with regards to the villa (that works out at the daily rate for the villa) which actually I think is reasonable... do you????

I am waiting for the letter from Pam and then wait for their advice.

By the way they also mentioned that they hoped we would consider their services again ha ha ha ha ha ( and when I pick myself up from the floor)!!!!!!

Julie

peteandsue,

It is nice to know we are not the only ones (or is it really!!) I hope you receive compensation accordingly but going by what I have just heard it will be a long process.

Julie

Julie,

Only you can decide if the amount of compensation is acceptable. However, if you bank their cheque (and I bet it hasn't arrived with the promisory letter - should arrive about 4-6 days time) you'll kill off any chance of taking further legal action.

Their initial response to me was of a similar nature. There's no way I'd ever knowingly use TCD, Excel or Air Atlanta in the future.

Thanks for letting us know the progress.

Mike