Thanks for the update and good luck with your claim.

luci

Nothing today. Co Op rang Thomas Cook and now they're saying they don't have to reply until a week on Friday. Funny that, considering last week we were told Tuesday.

So I rang TC myself and spoke to the person dealing with our complaint. He said that the 28 days is only a guideline set out by ABTA, they don't actually have to stick to it, so I told him that was a terrible attitude to take considering how upset we are & the fact its been 8 months since we flew and theres still no solution, so unfortunately we have no other option but to take them through small claims court to which he replied "ok, I will write that in your notes, you are already high priority though"

Really?? Coulda fooled me!!

So Im going to call Ros this afternoon and see what advice to get

Looks like this is going to get messy

I would quote ABTA back to them:

http://www.abta.com/filegrab/?ref=42&f=codeguidance200109.pdf

See especially number 5B and also refer them to the fact that as members of ABTA and therefore having their logo all over the shop they shouldn't put them into disrepute. Why have guidelines when you're not going to stick to them?

A complaint to ABTA about the way they are conducting themselves and quite openly are ignoring the rules/guidelines they agreed to, would be my next point of action.

Mark

Im not sure if we can still go to ABTA our travel agent told us it was only a possibility within 8 months of travelling and its about 4 days over the 8 months which is why we opted for small claims.

I called Pam/Ros today & Pam said she's going to send out some forms etc in the post for us to fill in, and she said not to go through legal procedures ourselves because if we word something even slightly wrong it'll get kicked straight out. Dont know how true that is but it's a worry Ive had from the beginning tbh... The links posted previously have been very useful and I already filled in the letter of intent to go to court but holding fire now Ive spoken to her. She also accentuated the point about the complaint form we should have filled in on the resort but oh well, you live and learn.

Also another thing is going to press, people at work are telling me I should go to Watchdog etc but Im nervous about doing that as I dont want it to affect our case, however I dont want them to think they're going to get away with what they've done to us.

I hope you dont mind me keeping a log of whats happening on here, just in hope it might be useful to someone else one day? Ive been very interested in reading other members posts especially when they're followed right through to the outcome.

x

The time limit for Abta arbitration is 9 months from the date you returned from holiday.
http://www.abta.com/consumer-services/travel_problems

According to Abta their members are required to acknowledge correspondence within 14 days of receipt, and to provide a detailed response to any letter of complaint within 28 days of receipt, but Tour Ops and Travel Agents, in my experience, will say anything to cover their own backs. I used to work in travel and if I use an agent at all, I double check everything.

Going down the small claims court route is not that complicated. The forms and procedures are pretty straighforward. We have done it and have friends that have also.