Advice wanted please

[johndouglas]

Hi - hopefully I'm posting in the right place.

I'm currently in Crete where we had booked a holiday in a quiet hotel. On arrival we were told we had been moved to another hotel and told we had to lump it (the rep and documentation both lacked courtesy). This turned out to be noisy, lacking in facilities expected and right under the flight path. The apartment and bedroom opened out directly onto the pool area with a bar and the flight path. We did not get to sleep until 4:30am.

The following day we arramged with the hotel to move to a better room and complained to the rep. It was like talking to a brick wall. The rep said that none of the holiday arrangements were anything to do with their company, it was down to the Travel Agent we booked with. She abbrogated all responsibility and basically said we were stuck with what had been provided and it was our responsibility to sort things out.

Anyway I tried to cover everything I remembered from the holiday programs, including pointing out that as far as I was concerned they had failed to provide the holiday supplied and had nullified the contract.

There was no complaint form and the rep left immediately. A complaint form was delivered the next day (to the wrong room) but with no instructions as to how to fill it in and all the fields were blank (significantly no rep name, no local details that only the tour company could know). Also no instructions as to what we have to do with it - appasrantly we have to deliver them to various locations such as ''resort'''. I think they are playing silly buggers.

The tour company have not provided equivalent or better accomodation (or in fact anything promised, customer servicewise), placed us in an awkward position at the hotel and left us to sort out their mess using our holiday time to do so.

I have emailed both the company and the travel agent but have had no reply.

Any idea how to proceed from here?

any help much appreciated

Thanks

John

[HW Jan.C]

When you see the rep ask her for the local head office phone number and the name of their supervisor.
Complain in writing in resort if you can, BUT do not give the rep your letter, ask her to sign her name clearly at the bottom of the letter and keep it to send to her superiors.
I am sorry but I really dont think you can do anything in resort as any travel company has 28 days in which to respond to your letter of complaint.
The kicking only starts when you get homre really. I am sorry I cant be of more help.
Regards
Jan

[HW Chris]

Get in touch with your operator. I assume this is an Accommodation only operator as the local agent has negated responsibility.

You should have an accommodation voucher with a contact number in the UK, if not let me know who you booked with and I will find out the contact for you.

Chris

[johndouglas]

Thanks for the replies - the complaint form has a UK address to complain to after our return so I will do that. They are actually a tour company (ie flight+accomodation).

As we are out and about, contacting the local people means a day of holiday lost and since they officially (through the blank in the complaint form) are telling me I have no rep, there is no point. I doubt if I'd get them to sign anything anyway.

Logically then my next step is to contact my travel agent on my return to see where they stand and then do a complaint to the company.

It seems I've done all I can here (apart from gathering photographs of hotels, airplanes etc and retaining all the bits if paper).

Thanks again

John

[I'll try an add a review at the end of the holiday]

[HW Chris]

You MUST complain before you leave. If you do not, you will waive any right to compensation - this will be stated in the booking terms and conditions.

There is lot's of point to making sure the UK office of your accommodation is awar of your problem before you return home.

I cannot stress how important it is that you spend a little time on this while you away, even if you make one call to the UK and get the name of a Customer Services staff member so they have logged your call.

Don't let them get away with this - there is loads you can still do.

[johndouglas]

I complained to the rep on the first day and she made notes as she had no complaint form at the time. I sent an email to the tour company and the travel agent (neither of which have had a response).

I now have a complaint form (the front page of which is blank so I want to keep it as evidence). Am I obligated to use this form? Should I do more?

John

PS oddly enough the company has just disappeared from http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/Uni ... d_Tourism/ Travel_Services/Travel_Agents/Europe

[delly]

Your complaint can be written on form or by letter but you MUST get the rep to sign it as otherwise it will be of no use on your return home.

[indokarasan]

If it was named hotel--then you should have checked everything

If it was allocated on arrival then im afraid you fall into that trap