Hi hassie

I followed your thread in the Egypt forum so know a bit of the background. If getting your telephone costs and credit card fees reimbursed will be enough to satisfy you then you should write to them enclosing receipts & you should get a cheque or CC refund & can draw a line under it.

If you want some kind of compensation for the shamefull way you have been treated by TC, spent a year looking forward to going to a hotel you didn't end up at, stress of knowing what was going on & them denying it, constantly phoning a premium rate line, being passed from pillar to post etc. You might need to put it in the hands of a travel solicitor like Ros, only she can inform you if you have a strong enough case to get a part-refund on your holiday costs, if that is what you really want.

A lot of folk think that TC were aware their customers were not going to be put in hotels they had selected months in advance as TC had lost the contracts, but alledgedly they still took bookings.

TC allegedly then left it to the last couple of weeks to tell people so that customers options were virtually non existent. You can't leave it much later than when people have actually arrived on the tarmac in Egypt.:banghead:

By any standards that is very sharp practice & they should have informed customers as soon as they new they were not going to the hotels they had chosen.

Thanks doepsmc,We just want what we are entitled to and will send copies as requested.I'm still not sure whether we are entitled to compensation as per there t & c as it is very ambiguos .

hassie 1,

Go for it! get the compo you deserve! phone Ros the travel solicitor and see what she says
fiona

Could I suggest again that people who find themselves with a premium telephone number that they try
saynoto08709. When it comes up click find an alternative number. When the company no's come up look for the one which is nearest to your needs eg Customer Services. Sometimes there will be a switchboard no and they will put you through.
Also when they ask you to press different no's do nothing ignore it and keep doing this until someone will come on the line. eg BT (operator told me to do this) There is a great temptation to press the no's but just resist.
I use this facility for everything and 99 out a 100 I will find an alternative. I have a telephone account which covers all my calls national and local for £5.49 per month. I had occassion to have to call ebookers and had to hold on for can't remember how long but I found a freephone number and if I didn't it was 10p per minute. Cost would have been £6.
I had booked with an offer of ebookers free breakfast but when I printed off the details it said room only.
To cut a long story short at one point I was told a supervisor would phone me in 24 hrs. NO NO then they would get back to me in 72 hours no no again. Sent an email got a reply in 90 minutes. I have become so assertive but I think we need to be.
Yes I don't think it is enough to say we will pay your phone etc. Even if they made a gesture of sending you some flowers it might help to restore your confidence in them.

Good Luck

Sue

I have just read the posts which were not there earlier. My daughter some years ago arrived in Majorca to find they were being sent to a different villa from what they booked. Situation different out in the country and FIL would not drive although they had 2 cars. 3 bedrooms instead of 5 only 1 bathroom instead of 4. No lock on back door washing machine and dishwasher broken'
Told that there had been a last minute problem with their villa and nothing else was available. Had paid a total of £3350 for the holiday. Went to where the villa was and it was being reroofed and had been underway for months.
Breach of contract in the end they went to the small claims court and although they kept offering them compensation initially £600 they kept refusing and insisted on a full refund as well as compensation. They had a terrible holiday with the FIL and ended up with my D saying she was going home. A lot of friction in that they would never go on holiday with anyone again.
2 days before the court case they paid them £3800 so result. it was a very clear case of BOC as they had not given them the opportunity to change cancel or whatever. My daughter has a law degree which did help as at one point they asked for holiday photo's but she said she would only produce these if ordered by the court.
She was sorry not to have her day in Court as was her MIL as she was so impressed with all my daughters statements etc.
They were even foolish enough to say at £2800 that is my best offer for NOW. I am not saying that you are due back all of your money but I do think you should fairly have some compensation even if it is only as a goodwill gesture. Speak to Ros as others have said.

"Could I suggest again that people who find themselves with a premium telephone number that they try
saynoto0870"

Thank you ,as a member of moneysaving expert I even found an 0800 number which I used .This was for customer services and they couldn't help ,it had to be a certain department (can't remember now)and when I asked to be put through was told because the queue to speak to them was so big they had been told not to put any one through,obviously tc didn't want to pay the premium rate themselves but ok for us.I'm still not sure if we are entitled to compo on there t&c or not.If any one with a legal background could help I would be most gratefull.

Hi just to finalise this thread,I have today received a phone call from thomas cook and have been offered my phonecall charges and a small gesture of good will.This has been accepted .Thanks to all who took the time to help

Well done on getting a result and many thanks for coming back to update us.

luci

Yes I too am happy to hear that at least you got your phone call charges refunded. Not the best outcome but better than nothing.

Sue