Travel Republic - terrible customer service - Page 2 - Holiday Complaints, Holiday Forums

Re: Travel Republic - terrible customer service

andy66

2013-09-12 00:13:18

People will post to complain and imagine how many people will read that , it's generally thought that if customers receive bad service they will tell 10 others , if its good service they will tell only 2 to 3 , so what's the point of offering good service ? It's not so they will tell 3 people , its because if you offer good service then it won't be bad and then 10 other people don't hear about your bad service , also if you do have a problem and its resolved by efficient and helpful service , the company will find that at least 70% of customers will return .

So to the problem at the top of this thread from Paulajay .

paulajay45 wrote:
Help !!!

We have spoken to them on numerous occassions in order to have this dealt with but they have been shockingly bad - passed from pillar to post, never get called back when promised, no records being kept on their part of telephone conversations had with them and here we are 4 days before departure with no hotel

Thanks

There is a problem with the accomodation but this can be resolved , the real problem is in the quote above , the customer is upset obviously about the accomodation but the problem has been made 10 times worse by the way it's being handled Things go wrong , we might not like it when things do but if we're treated in the right way we can open our minds to accept it .

What is letting TR down is not selling rubbish , the packages on offer are probably quite good and value for money and I can understand why people defend them because of this fact , but the complaints on here and on many other travel forums are down to the way things are handled , you can't keep defending bad service with , they're just an agent , you ticked the box etc whilst overlooking that the vast majority of the complaints and anger and frustration are down to , passed from pillar to post , not calling back when promised , showing a lack of concern etc .
It's not the technicalities of the package , it's the poor response that leads to the complaints made on travel forums , it's up to TR to improve this aspect to stop the " one sided " complaints , I don't think it's is unfortunate , it's in their own hands to improve , instead of seeing these problems as mistakes they are really opportunities to put things right which will stop negative feedback and also benefit them with more repeat customers which gives more profits .

SMa

2013-09-12 02:22:49

Re: Travel Republic - terrible customer service

. Personally I cannot see the point of using any middleman to book something you can do for yourself. The exception being if you want a package with package regs cover, and some dynamic packages do offer it, but usually not the cheap OTAs.

In most instances I too book direct because I share your sentiments but I use TR to book hotels in inland Andalucia rather than booking direct because I get a cheaper price by doing so. I have also used TR when booking seats with Jet2 because it has proved cheaper than booking direct with the airline!

you can't keep defending bad service.

I don't need to defend bad service from them because I've only ever had good service and that is what I and other satisfied customers are defending.

SM

doe

2013-09-12 10:49:36

Re: Travel Republic - terrible customer service

People will continue to book with them because they are cheap.

Presumably one of the ways they stay cheap is by offering very limited/poor customer service, if things go wrong. Maybe only employing a handful of people on this side of their business. Staff are a major expense to any company, especially well trained competent, motivated staff.,

They have to save money somewhere to offer the cheap prices and presumably their after sales service is 'pared to the bone' as we see time and again on here.

For every one complaint we see they may have another 200 satisfied customers, who will rebook. Maybe they have taken some kind of business decision to operate like this, and they are to lose a few clients along the way. They can't be unaware of the complaints about them.

I personally wouldn't book with them, I would book flights hotel and transfer/car hire direct or book a package holiday to be covered by the package holiday regulations.

Others seem to like them, they fill a gap in the market.

Tbh, there are complaints about poor after sales service from Thomas Cook, TUI, etc as well. There are no guarantees of good after sales service in the travel industry, it seems very hit and miss.

Fiona

2013-09-14 09:18:51

Re: Travel Republic - terrible customer service

A sign of a genuinely good TA or TO is how they deal with things when they go wrong, as does often happen in the travel industry.
In this case we don't know if TR were dealing with one block booking or multiple ones. However, any company with any business sense must make sure that their staff can deal with customers and not ignore/pass them from pillar to post etc. When things go wrong its often close to holiday time and customers are upset and worried that they wont get what they had planned. Keeping in contact and explaining what they are doing is absolutely vital. Its not always down to customers not reading the T&Cs so they have to expect a substandard communication and help.

fwh

2013-09-14 23:37:24

Re: Travel Republic - terrible customer service

Its not always down to customers not reading the T&Cs

But it is.

You have entered into a legally binding contract - although the truth of the matter is most people simply tick the box - and when things go wrong we get people screaming foul. Sorry but if you cannot be bothered to read and take note of what you agreeing to you cannot blame someone else for your tardiness.

Whilst I have sympathy for those who find themselves in such a position in most cases they only have themselves to blame. I also note the comment from Fiona

we don't know if TR were dealing with one block booking or multiple ones.

We are only being told part of the tale but responding as though it is always the fault of TR, or any of the other TAs for that matter. If we had the full story we might respond in a different manner.

fwh

Fiona

2013-09-15 08:10:32

Re: Travel Republic - terrible customer service

FWH- are you saying that its in the terms and conditions that you will get bad customer service? Perhaps you skimmed my post. The problem here is not so much that the hotel was no longer available, its about how the client has been dealt with.

paulajay45 wrote:
Help !!!

We have spoken to them on numerous occassions in order to have this dealt with but they have been shockingly bad - passed from pillar to post, never get called back when promised, no records being kept on their part of telephone conversations had with them and here we are 4 days before departure with no hotel

Thanks

fwh

2013-09-15 11:37:44

Re: Travel Republic - terrible customer service

There have been two posts from the OP - the first tells us the hotel has closed down/gone bust. Not the fault of TR. An alternative has been offered which the OP is not happy with. OK I can understand that but apart from that we have little information except a complaint about the customer service and talking to more than one person.
How many calls were made and how frequent? Was it a group booking or several? Who is making the calls and? If it is a group booking then it should be the lead name. If it is several and one person is calling on behalf of everyone then they will not talk about them.Surely if you ring them and speak to "Tom" then that is the person you should be trying to speak to again. Just making a series of calls and expecting that everyone knows about your problem is unrealistic. We don't have all the facts so with respect to everyone all we are doing is discussing the meaning of customer service. We are making assumptions based on the little we have been told.
Customer service works both ways. The customer is not always right although they often think they are. Customer service is not always rubbish but the customer thinks it is because they cannot get what their own way. If the customer is not being reasonable and accepting that what they are asking for cannot be delivered then the whole thing falls apart.
Using agents works fine in most cases but we only hear from those for whom it does not and we only get one side of the story.

fwh

cyprus100

2013-09-15 12:16:19

Re: Travel Republic - terrible customer service

I agree with FWH - people do not read the Terms and Conditions.
I don't often read them (depending on what I'm doing) but, if something goes awry it's the first thing I do read to see if it's worthwhile contacting the company...

With this complaint and with most others we don't have the full facts.

* We don't know who the person is who contacted Travel Republic.
* We don't know if this was an individual booking joined up with many other individual bookings.

This quote however leads me to believe it is multiple bookings and each party is calling to complain:

no records being kept on their part of telephone conversations had with them

This may very well explain why there are no notes/records of the conversations...

If they are individual bookings which were never tied together, it's most unlikely Travel Republic can resolve this matter to the liking of the customers as there's little chance I would feel that they can keep multiple bookings together if a whole hotel has gone bust. However, you never know and stranger things have happened.

If however, this was a group booking (ie: all parties were booked at the same time under the same booking reference) it should be a different matter. Only the person who is the lead name on the booking should be contacting Travel Republic and only that person has the overall control to deal with the Agent or Operator who they made the booking with (in this case Travel Republic).

It's pointless any of us trying to continue this any further without establishing the above facts from the original poster, who I reckon is already on holiday and enjoying the sunshine in one resort or another.

And it's very true - we only tend to hear the bad issues on here in these instances so one post about bad customer service gets more debate than when (and if) someone comes on and tells us how wonderfully an Agent/Operator handled their enquiry...

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