Go on to the Thomson's site . Scroll down and at the bottom left, there's a very small "help" tag. Once you get into it, there's a "contact us" option. I'd use that.

You could also click on the "holiday advice" tab above this subject on main forum and you'll get the number of Roz Fernihough a Lawyer specialising in holiday complaints.

I would send a letter to head office. Many years ago my travel agent told me comlaining was awaste of time but I never gave up kept writing back and eventually ended up with vouchers of another holiday. Good Luck !!

Hi i think your best bet would be to contact Ros Fernihough, Solicitor a call on 01922 621114

I think you should also write to Thompson and complain.
I would not take the £160 as i think you should be entitled to a lot more.
They didn't provide what you booked.

Hope you get it sorted.
Keep us posted.

Samsung's spot-on but if I may re-inforce the comments made:

Contact Ros a.s.a.p.
Don't write just yet to Thompson though - wait for Ros's professional opinion on that aspect.
Definately, don't take the £160. If they send a cheque without your agreement DO NOT BANK IT. Write back to Thompsom immed. and inform them you are refusing to accept that cheque and they may either collect it from you or provide you with an addressed and postage paid return envelope.

I believe they are in breach of the 1992 Travel Regs. These however only apply igf you booked a "package". This is usually two or more of the following - booked with the Tour Op. ...... flights, accommodation, transfers, car-hire and some pre-booked excursions.

My best guess (but I'm no expert, Ros is) .... you should claim for 2.5 day's loss of holiday. This equates to 35% of the 7 day period. Claim for 35% of the ENTIRE package cost.

This cost will not include the AI upgrade fee you intended to spend in addition at the hotel booked. So, ignore that cost (you would have willingly spent that amount). However, claim for the full cost of the drinks upgrade at the wrong hotel.

In addition, you were denied the benefits of the "full" A.I. upgrade during the two and a half days you were placed in the wrong hotel. This can be determined by determining the difference between the two 7 day upgrades cost you paid, one at the wrong hotel and one at the correct.

Claim 35% of this cost as well - this represents the 2.5 days you were at the first hotel without the full upgrade benefits.

Finally, £50 for distress and inconvenience per passenger should be added.

Small claims court otherwise - as I suspect will be the Professional advice.

Please let us know the outcome.

You couldn't make-up some of these complaints, What the hell are these T.Ops. being paid for ?

thanks for all help so far...... i have contacted Ros and waiting for her to call me, will keep you all informed.

Mike, talking as someone who will probably actually deal with Pennysutto's complaint, your advice ref comp is a bit off the mark-ref claiming for 35% of the total package (unless I am reading your post incorrectly)

ABTA's own guidelines state that 40% is the accomodation and 60% the flights.

It sounds like Penntsutto has received £40pp brochure comp, which is the minimum she is entitled to. Then I would expect you to receive any expenses, but that is about it im afraid. If Pennysutto is after more.. then would have to go to a 3rd party... would not get more from Thomsons

Holidayhelp,

thanks for querying my last post. I based the 35% on the belief that pennysutto was at the first (wrong) hotel for 2.5 of the 7 day total holiday. This represents 35% of the time.

I further base the refund element on The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992. In particular, Regulation 15 points 1, 2 and 3.

These call for the Tour Op. to provide ...

proper performance of the obligations under the contract, irrespective of whether such obligations are to be performed by that other party or by other suppliers of services

The classic example of the use of this Regulation is the delayed arrival at the resort due to the fault of the T.Op. For each day delayed you can recover one seventh or one fourteenth (depends on the booked duration) of the ENTIRE package cost - not just the accommodation element.

You are also likely to be awarded £50 per passenger for your distress etc should it get to court. This is based on a case agsint Kuoni Travel limited and stands (still I believe) as case law until a court finds otherwise.

Ok, pennysutto WAS in a hotel for the first 2.5 days but not the one she chose, booked and paid for. Her additional costs are covered in the clauses withint Reg 15.

I think this is the usual case of a cock-up on the part of the t.o. and they simply hope that the client doesn't know her rights.

I'm not saying I'm right here, but I might be. Please keep us informed pennysutto as the feedback is essential to this sites "knowledge database".

thanks mike for your support in this matter

we weresent to a hotel not of my choice and not in the resort booked, the hotel did not have the facilities that i had booked (facilities for teenagers, beach and option to upgrade to all inclusive) yes, we lost approx 2.5 days of our holiday, then once they moved us to our hotel the room was covered in ants and moluld and other things which i have photos of, the difference in the hotels faciliites were.................

the facilities at hotel we were sent to by tps

Pool table "¢ Table tennis

the hotel we booked:

upgrade to all inclusive ( as we have been for the past 4 yrs) and were meeting friends there!!!!!
Entertainment
"¢ Full entertainment programme from the hotel team "¢ Soundproofed disco at Hotel in high season (over 16s) "¢ 2 bars "¢ Beach bar "¢ Satellite TV "¢ Video games "¢ Internet facilities
For families
"¢ Children's pool (Club) "¢ Kids' section of buffet
"¢ Kidzone children's representative and clubs for 3-12 year olds
Park. over the road from the water park.

i have contacted Ros, i am waiting for a call , i will try her again on monday, because it is so wrong that they think they can get away with this.

My parents have booked a thompson holiday for next may and booked to fly from our local airport. They don't drive so they were relying on me taking them to the airport which was no problem. They received a letter yesterday informing them that they have changed the airport from which they had booked. This is now impossible for me to take them to the airport and have no alternative than to book an airport taxi. This will cost them an extra £130 on top of their holiday price.

Anybody any ideas if they are entitled to compensation?

Thanks

Laney

Hi Laney,

As far as I can see, under Sections 12 & 13 of the Package Holiday Regulations, your parents can either either get a full refund or change the holiday to one that uses the desired airport.

Negotiating compensation is always possible, but liable to be difficult. They can by all means try it, but I don't think they'll get anywhere.

Peter

Hi. i wish you luck with your claim. I tried claiming for my son who arrived a day late (on a 7 night holiday) due to a 11 hour flight delay. The tpour operator replied that they weren't in breach of contract as they provided hotel accomodation near Cardiff airport (far cry from Corfu!). After many letters I've given up as it was too much hassle. The total cost of his holiday was only £350 or otherwise I would have kept fighting. I quoted from the Abta rules and regs but they didn't want to know as the flight delay was less then 12 hours. Never mind that they arrived a day late and only got 6 nights in resort when they'd paid for 7. They seemed to think that the night in Cardiff was compensation enough

Advice desperatly needed!!!! My Mum and Dad are in Portugal at the Sol Lagos studios now and are having a terrible time. They are right next door to a building site. What was meant to be a well deserved rest after a stressful year is a total nightmare. They are met with noise, dirt and disruption every hour and just want to come home. They only booked their holiday with Thompson at the end of August and were not advised about any of this. After some research I have discovered Thompson were aware of this problem as the building work has been going on all summer. I'd like to help them take this matter further when they get home and would love any advice of what to do next. Should I write to Thompson, speak to the travel agent where they booked, seek legal advice???? Any help would be gratefully received.

Hi bellyfish,

They should make the strongest possible complaint NOW to their Thompson Rep in the resort, in writing on a company complaint form, and demand to be moved to another hotel.

They should then take as many photos as they can of the view of the building site from their hotel.

They surely can't be the only ones complaining, so the names and address of their fellow sufferers might be a good idea. They could all be witnesses for one another later.

Might be a good idea for you to ring Ros Fernihough on 01922 621114 and get her advice.

Best of luck,

Peter

Peter has given the best advice to you. - Thanks Peter.
As suggested please dont forget to fill in a complaint form in resort - it really is important.

Kath HT Admin

Anoter point6 is if you are taking pictures of the cause of your complaint take them separately from any holiday snaps you have. If you have a digital camera use a different memory card and if normal film use a new spool.

Thank you all for your brilliant advice. I've phoned my Mum and passed it on. They are going to try and track down the holiday rep ASAP. I'm going to give Ros a call today too. Thanks again.

Its worth mentioning to anyone else in resort that you may use a travel lawyer and swapping phone numbers. I organised this on a disastrous holiday a couple of years ago and Roz acted on behalf of us all with very good results. None of the others had used this forum and didn't know how to find a specialist travel lawyer, and by sticking together we got a better result. Please be aware you will each need your own photographs, we thought we could all provide different pictures and save space on our camera memory but Roz was disappointed at this, she said we should have each taken our own.