Thanks for your interest,Wizard. I wonder however, how harsh a Lawyer would be in a breach of contract action. Our guy certainly will not pussyfoot around if it comes to it. Thomas Cook at the height of the problems last week were answering both phones & emails promptly. They have refunded or rebooked customers. Those booked through TR have however had nothing. A few harsh questions could be asked on this. This is not a little one man operation,snowed under, their IT section is pretty advanced, a simple matter therefore to set up a quick response to the situation. a few email templates ,mail merge & put Steve1 in charge and keep the customers informed. I trust some non evasive answers will be fothcoming. Thank you for the facility provided here.

Wow I too find your posts harsh oldandbold.

Firstly I did not come here for preferential treatment or to give Steve1 a chance to do some damage limitation

Steve1 doesn't give preferential treatment. He is a member of the site in order to assist TR customers & as far as I've been aware he does a good job. As for 'a chance to do some damage limitation' that is a very cynical approach to someone who has volunteered to help.

Our site is here in order to help assist problems and as far as I can see Steve1 is attempting to do just that.

Package holidays booked through a Tour Operator work differently to those booked by a booking agent. Thomas Cook may use their own flights for instance. TR may use budget airlines ie Jet2, Easyjet, they therefore don't have any control over flights etc, but am sure your lawyer will explain this to you.

You have a choice to either accept Steve1's assistance in the manner it's intended or not.

Hi, Glynnis HT,This was a package not a dynamic booking. Therefore covered by the Package holiday rules. ie we must be offered refund or acceptable rebook, (how do we do either TR?) I notice now that TR have had time to change their banner to announce a sale. Plenty of time for doing that ,yet still no time to post info for those left in limbo. Their FAQ's have not been updated for days now, can't they see how this looks from a customer's point of view ? Perhaps steve1 could consider this point for the benefit of all and post it on the TR site. I appreciate fully that steve1 is well regarded and helpful ,but it should not be necessary to impose on him here to obtain simple information to which any customer is entitled. Further why is steve1's help not available on TR's site rather than here ? Start a little 'ask steve' box on their site, it would do them no end of good. The term 'dynamic booking' is now in the public domain and customers will soon learn that they can DIY, so why use an agent ,no advantage at all . TR have done themselves a lot of damage. I am at a loss to understand the thinking here, perhaps others might care to comment. Thanks for your interest.

Hi oldandbold, if you can reply to me in the PM I have sent you, with your booking reference, I will assist with your particular situation.

If we can postpone the discussion this seems to have expanded into until after the dust (ha!) has settled, I would much appreciate it.

In the meantime, please send me your booking reference and I will do all I can to assist.

Steve

Thanks for the offer Steve,but I will sit this one out. I wish to see the outcome for 'non Steve' cases as it is now been tracked by interested parties . Best not give competitors an even bigger stick to belabour you with. Anyhow the Press are on to this now.(unfortunatley) Any corporate headhunters reading here take note, Steves are hard to find.

Firstly I did not come here for preferential treatment or to give Steve1 a chance to do some damage limitation.

what exactly did you come here for? You don't give a specific problem that members can help with and you turn down help from the staff. Seems a bit pointless really.

the Press are on to this now

- on to what? Anyway, you'd be better off with the brownies on your side than the UK press, especially 10 days off an election.

Quote:
Firstly I did not come here for preferential treatment or to give Steve1 a chance to do some damage limitation.

what exactly did you come here for? You don't give a specific problem that members can help with and you turn down help from the staff. Seems a bit pointless really.

Quote:
the Press are on to this now
- on to what? Anyway, you'd be better off with the brownies on your side than the UK press, especially 10 days off an election.

Members here on HT like to try to assist. We do not like the forum to be used as a platform to attack companies or for personal rants And if truth be told that is all we have heard.

You have an offer from Steve to try to assist. It is not a damage limitation exercise. If you you do not wish to take him up on his offer then that is your decision.

As far as the media are concerned I would not rely upon them to give you a fair chance. They will only print "their" version - they are renowned for publishing the story they want and never let the truth get in the way.

fwh

Does any member know what is happening at Travel Republic ? Since the start of the volcano issue they cannot be contacted. Cancelled package customers should have been refunded. Their web site has only very vague ,out of date info. T.Cook could not help but confirm that refunds have gone out. I booked a Package by CC so probably Ok. Complaints now gathering on various review sites. Emails are not answered and phones appear dead. No re booking possible Not a good sign. Am I right to be concerned. What would be the best way to tackle this situation. Thanks.

Oldandbold, the above is your original post in full and the the advice you have consistently received from other members is that the best way forward is to take advantage of the help and advice that steved1 provides as a result of monitoring this site and taking up members' problems on their behalf with the company that employs him. Having decided for your own reasons not to take the advice of other members or to take up steved1's offer to look into your case personally for you, then yes, you have no alternative but to sit this one out. As you have not provided any of us with more details of your problem - in fact I'm still not even sure whether there is a problem yet - as you simply pose the question 'should I be concerned?' and seem to have come to the conclusion that no you shouldn't be because you booked a package with your CC and so think that in the end that you will probably be OK.

In the circumstances then I can't work out why you are still posting about this. You are quite at liberty to ignore any advice or suggestions that any of us make here but the tone and content of your follow-up posts has escalated the issue in a way that seems to obscure your case rather than explain it (or at least to me) and I have now lost track of what you expect from us. You are also perfectly entitled to try and pursue a legal case over this, though in the absence of more detail I can't work out what that case would be. However, I would assume that the courts would take a dim view of you turning down an offer of assisatnce from a TR employee, acting with the knowledge of his employers and the Mods here, to help you resolve that problem. Withholding information that would help someone from Travel Republic resolve your problem strikes me as a pretty cockeyed thing to do but this only my opinion.

SM

hi Steve - save your energy for those people who want - and receive your valuable help - and that includes me.
For those interested, Steve had been a fantastic help in adding an extra guest to my booking after a family tragedy and subsequently arranging an early return for us after the family needed our support.
Like other people, I really do wonder why oldandbold posted in the first place! Jenny x

I note that none of my points have been answered. I have just realised that I have walked into an ABTA convention.

hi ..oldandbold ..i call it as i see it .
steve .was a great help to me ..
even though i have not booked with T.R .since my problems .
regards .j.d

On Sunday 25th April you asked a question does anyone know what is going off at TR.

On Monday 26th Steve posted and apologised for the lack of response and asked you to PM him so he could investigate your problem. He did point out that they were very busy - not surprising considering the number of people who were (a) trying to get home and (b) the number of people who had their travel plans disrupted.

The same day Wizard - one of the HT team did advise you did not yet have PM facilities here on HT.

Steve did send you a PM - which you can receive and it was confirmed you would be able to reply to him.

On Monday evening you posted saying :

"Firstly I did not come here for preferential treatment or to give Steve1 a chance to do some damage limitation." And then proceeded to lecture all and sundry.

Wizard did reply to your post.

You then replied and continued your rant.

Glynis then replied to your post.

You then replied adding nothing new or any meaningful information regarding your problem.

On Tuesday 27th Steve again posted asking you to reply to his PM.

Your reply to that was:

"Thanks for the offer Steve,but I will sit this one out. I wish to see the outcome for 'non Steve' cases as it is now been tracked by interested parties . "

You have now posted:

I note that none of my points have been answered. I have just realised that I have walked into an ABTA convention.


So perhaps you might like to explain exactly what you are on about?

You asked a question in your first post and Steve from TR replied and offered his assistance.

What more do you want?

This forum exists to give information help and advice to holidaymakers. We are not a site for the use/abuse by campaigning groups or individuals.

For you information I made a complaint to the admin team yesterday about the tone of your posts. We are people who like to help others - perhaps you may not like the replies but there is nothing we can do about that. We are not interested in joining in a campaign against TR or any other travel provider. I would point out that you are legally responsible for any and all statements you make here on this forum so attacking TR or anyone else could be counterproductive in the long term.

If you have a problem with a booking via TR then I suggest you take advantage of the offer made by Steve to assist and leave it at that. Remember the old adage. When you dig a hole the wise man knows when to stop! The comments of some of our members should tell you that you have reached that point.

fwh

I would love to know how oldandbold would react once he's had a holiday and then has to go through the complaint procedure with one of the major uk tour operators!

Having worked for one for 10yrs (one of the top 3 UK operators) I'm sure he would be hopping mad when the acknowledgement letter doesn't arrive until after the stipulated 14 days and 28 days (of a fashion) for a reply, followed by another 28 days for a 2nd reply before he can even think about talking to abta....

A reply to what really wasn't a direct question within the space of a couple of days with an offer of a helping hand is quite remarkable.

I would suggest we forget this one and help those posters who are actually asking for assistance

Thanks for the offer Steve,but I will sit this one out. I wish to see the outcome for 'non Steve' cases as it is now been tracked by interested parties . Best not give competitors an even bigger stick to belabour you with. Anyhow the Press are on to this now.(unfortunatley) Any corporate headhunters reading here take note, Steves are hard to find.

The press are onto what?? The volcanoe...Im pretty sure they already know about it.



I pity Travel republic in this situation.

steve 1, i have pm'd you.

Can I just say thank you to Steve for replying quickly to my pm recently and putting my mind at rest!! I have just returned from a trip away, and my accommodation through TR was brilliant, and at a great price.

A question for Steve1 if he is around.

I have saved very hard and booked a big family holiday to turkey this summer. I booked the flights first via Easyjet and then booked the accomodation and transfer through TR. I am really worried that in the event of not being able to leave the UK because of the Ash, I will loose all the money I have paid for the accomdation. I don't know whether it is better to cancel the accomodation now and book somewhere last minute if we are flying. I don't really want to loose over £3k

Can you point me in the right direction and tell me if TR would move the holiday or anything if our flight out is delayed?

Thank you

Hi Liney, I'm afraid that is a real 'how long is a piece of string' type question. No one seems to be able to predict the effect of the ash cloud, mainly because it is weather related, and we all know how tricky the weather forecast is if you are interested in anything further away than this afternoon.

If you pm me your booking ref, I can see who the provider is, then tell you how flexible they have been so far, then you will be better placed to decide.

Steve

ps ali, my inbox was full, I have made some space, will reply shortly when pm arrives!

Just want to say thanks to Steve1, he has done his best to put my mind in a sane place.