not sure if to post this here or under the Travel Republic thread, but here goes.
I posted this on the MoneySavingExpert Forum, and someone suggested ppl here may be able to offer advice etc.
"Firstly our flight landed in Rhodes (Greece) at 3am local time (on time), as we booked our flights separately with Thomas Cook we got a Taxi to our hotel which was booked with Travel Republic.
upon getting to the hotel at approx 4am we noticed it looked like it was shut, but as it was late we assumed they turned off the outside lights etc, however upon closer inspection the Hotel wasn't open for business and hadn't been all year. by this time our taxi had left, so we were somewhat stuffed. we called all the help numbers we had but all closed as it was so late.
We ended up walking back the way we came with luggage in tow, after 10-15 mins a Taxi came past so we hailed it down and told him to take us to any Hotel close that was open.
luckily we got a room for the night so were at least not left sleeping on the beach!
Next day I called Travel Republic at 12pm local time (10am UK) when they opened. we were told "a case was open and they would call back" as we were essentially wasting our holiday time I called them every 30mins - 1 hour for updates, but nothing . eventually at 5pm local time they told us they found another hotel 20 mins away in Rhodes Old town so left with little choice we accepted it.
On top of this I was told I would have to pay for our one nights stay and taxi costs and claim it back, as of yet TR have not done this and Iam sure they won't despite the guy on the phone telling me to keep all reciepts as the will pay it back when we got home.
To further add to the misery TR only produced a travel voucher for 1 nights stay, so on the Monday I spent half the day on the phone again getting them to produce a travel voucher for the remainging 5 nights. there were other things that went wrong but this post is long enough already."
The "travel provider was "sunhotels" who TR have passed my letter onto. so far heard not a thing from either company other than a computer generate acknowledgement letter.
In my eyes I should be reimbursed all the things I had to pay for out my own pocked (first night hotel stay and taxis, phone bill) and also some form of compensation for the first 2-3 days of our holiday being ruined, and to be honest the whole week being completely sour due to the bad start we got.
What are your thoughts? and how is best to seek compensation
hi...if it was me I would have paid with my credit card....if you did too...sugest you contact your credit card company and raise a dispute....you didnt get what you paid for...you were sold something didnt exist in first place...worth a try....tweetie
There is a chap who works for Travel Republic who posts on this web site who will probably pick up this thread and try to sort this out for you, he is very good and allthough he works for TR he does this off his own bat and has been very helpfull to several members.
Regards
Alan
No doubt that when Steve picks it up he will try to sort it out. Unfortunately due to HT being offline due to the new server work this will create a delay. I have sent a PM to Steve asking him to have a look for you
Write to Travelrepublic and tell them you're claiming your costs and 'LOSS OF ENJOYMENT'. This is the advice ABTA would give if you chose to pursue it with them. TR are ABTA bonded and regardless of who your supplier is, they have a duty as you travel agent to get it resolved to your satisfaction, so if they try and play the 'We aren't you agent' line, just ring ABTA and they will tell you exactly what to send to TR.
Good Luck!
TNG
Problems like this are not just 'passed' to hotel providers because we are passing the buck, it is because the booking has been made with the holiday provider, and we need them to accept responsibility for not advising us the hotel was closed. We will of course manage this for you, and ensure we do get a response.
I will try and get things moving along.
Steve
hi steve....being the dumbo that I am I just had to ask...whats MSE...nice to see you on here helping out...great stuff....tweetie
moneysavingexpert
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/
they have a travel forum, but in my opinion the advice given there varies considerably from very helpful to blatant untruths.
i regularly refer people from there to here, but you can lead a horse to water..........................
Thanks Jimd-f, sorry for using abbreviations Tweetie Pie! I have mixed opinion about them to be honest, I find their forums both very good, and very bad, a bit like Trip Advisor, so somewhat confusing!
thanks everyone for the reply, I'll wait upto the 28 days TR quote for a reply and see what happens from there.
Will update soon as poss
Phil
Next Tues will be 28 days, chances of hearing anything by then?
Rule number 2 when buying virtually anything online USE_A_CREDIT_CARD
Rule number 3 ......
Not a debit card you have little buyer protection
The exception to this rule is that sometimes - if you can get someone in your bank/building society who knows how to do it - is a visa debit card. They have a chargeback scheme which offers similar protection to the section 75 cover a credit card does. However it is time limited
We booked and paid for our accommodation to Greece last September and were due to fly out mid July 2012. I emailed our hotel 3 weeks before we were due to leave to ask if they could pick us up from the airport, as I read that they do a free shuffle transfer. They replied saying that they did not have any booking confirmed for us and they are full, even though I gave the reference and names of our party. I called Travel Republic who said not to worry, we have accommodation booked at our chosen resort and they haven't heard anything from their supplier Med Hotels that we aren't booked anywhere else. I emailed the hotel owner back stressing that we do have accommodation booked and told her that Travel Republic use Med Hotel on behalf of TR, where she said that she is refusing to take any bookings from Med Hotels as they didn't pay her for last years bills. Alarm bells started ringing, so I called the TR customer service team on countless occasions almost every day speaking to someone different. Non of them had a clue, they were all useless, one of them told me to get of the phone as he needed to take other calls!!!! What kind of Customer Service is that. To cut a long story short, this went on every day not knowing where we would be staying, and then the day before our flight to Greece we got an email saying that we would be staying in the apartments opposite, which didn't cater for breakfast which we had paid for nor did it have a swimming pool. The apartments where also cheaper! I accepted the accommodation under protest as it was far too late to go and look for different accommodation. They also had told us a week before that they wouldn't put us into this accommodation as it's not up to their standard. I was fuming, but had to accept this.
I didn't want this to end there, This company really got my back up, so when we got back from our holiday I contacted their Customer Relations Department to complain and put in a claim for not providing breakfast which we paid for and also for the amount of stress caused before our holiday had started and for the amount of hours wasted on the phone to their useless customer service team. I didn't hear anything for a while, so I posted something on Facebook, to which I got a response saying they will get someone to reply to my email. The reply was that they will investigate my claim and have a response within 28 days. They don't start the 28 days from when you contact them, they do it from when they respond to your email which is ridiculous. Anyway, 28 days passed and I didn't hear anything back , so I posted on their Facebook wall again and I was told that someone will get back to me. This went on for another month. I was persistent with them as I wanted my money back from what we had originally paid and also some compensation for all the trouble they had caused. My first offer from them was a lousy 10% discount of any future hotel booking. What a joke! I had already told them that I'd NEVER use them again, so I refused and a week later after I kept on posted negative comments on their facebook wall I was offered £48 for our breakfast for 4 days. I accepted it but this was disgusting, as that money was rightfully mine in the first place and they waited 3 months to give me it back without any apology. I wished I had the time to take it further as they are a disgusting company and should not be allowed to still be trading. If you really want honest reviews, keep looking on Facebook, all you see are mostly people complaining about how they have been treated. I told the customer relations manager that I will be posting this on every review site and I am keeping my promise. I want everyone to be aware of this dreadful company and to stay away from them. They don't care about you, they just want your money. They are cheap for a reason!
But I'm wondering whether the hotel is entirely blameless here? Many hotels overbook as a matter of course - in order to keep their occupancy levels to the max they accept more bookings than beds knowing that in most cases they will have last minute cancellations. In a situation where a customer has not booked direct with the hotel then it is relatively easy for them to blame the 3rd party supplier rather than admit that they are responsible for the overbooking. Apart from what the hotel told you, have either TR or Med Hotels given you a reason as to why your booking wasn't honoured?
In the circumstances, I think it would be helpful if you would name the hotel - after all they might have done this to other customers too, and members might want to try and avoid booking this hotel if they have a reputation for overbooking.
SM
well in this case i think the situation has been handled appallingly. Travel Republic is a travel agent and I would expect them to handle things better than they did here. Yes, they can't help it if their suppliers let them down but they can go all out to sort things as best they can.
It really comes to something when you keep on having to complain on Facebook just to get a refund of what is rightly yours in the first place , although this does seem to be the way to get a response from the customer services dept at TR .
From what barbarylane has told us it seems that TR as his agent did very little to help or resolve the problem , they said they would not put him an accommodation as it wasn't up to their standard and then promptly dumped him there one day before his holiday minus breakfast and a swimming pool ! How can anyone be impressed by this level of service , I can certainly sympathise with barbarylanes dissatisfied feelings , it looks like the agent couldn't be bothered to help .
I know many on here have experienced good service and no problems , so TR are not all bad , but then they're not all good either ! You can only draw on your own experiences to whether you are 100 % confident that you won't end up in a situation like barbarylane and having to resort to Facebook to prod them in to action......... eventually !!
We booked a 10 day holiday with them to Menorca. Our 2 children were taken very ill on 2nd day at the hotel and had to be taken in an ambulance to hospital where they stayed for 4 days. We found out that others were ill at the hotel too (the hotel confirmed this) and so as soon as they were discharged we flew home.
Travel Republic are not interested in our complaint. I am not asking for an extra money (although we had to spend a lot on taxis, flights home etc.) but just a refund for the accommodation but they are not interested.....
I have tried to get their attention on twitter but nothing. I have to say we have used them once before and everything was fine but now there is a problem their customer service changes completely....
That doesn't sound that bad to me.....
TR will more than likely have to take this up on your behalf. They are agents for the hotel reservations which is a different kettle of fish than booking a full package deal with a tour operator.
If there is illness confirmed and you have all the relevant paperwork related to that it may be worth your while to take it via the solicitors who work alongside HolidayTruths. I think it's Simpson Millar....
Post a Reply
Please sign in or register an account to reply to this post.
Similar Topics
-
travel republic,Goldtrail travel
Posted by wrighty57 in Tour Operators and Travel Agents
-
Travel Republic
Posted by Aslemma in Tunisia Discussion Forum
-
Using Travel Republic
Posted by holstyke in Holiday Advice
-
TRAVEL REPUBLIC - YOU OWE ME £200
Posted by Jane Frances Longstaffe in Holiday Complaints
-
HAVE TRAVEL REPUBLIC DONE IT AGAIN
Posted by WalkingMan in Tour Operators and Travel Agents