Dear Thompson Holidays,
I feel that i must complain about the all inclusive holiday we booked with you in Nerja Spain, The hotel Villa Flamenco was meant to be a five star, but when we arrived it was obviously one star if that, whoever did your rating clearly had never stayed there. We also booked an adults only, but there were families there with extremely unruly children who misbehaved everywhere including the dining room. The food was inedible, i mean none of the guests ate any of it, which alternatively we had to eat out at an extra cost, considering we payed for fully inclusive. Your staff were rude on every occasion and the rooms did not have the bedding changed for the whole of our stay, untill i complained, I want you to look into this matter, we paid £3,000 for two weeks and it was anything but enjoyable, we booked this for our 30th anniversary which was completely ruined to the point we could not wait to get home.
I do not want one of your vouchers, i want a full appology and at least a 50% refund for our holiday, for all the heartbreak this has caused, my Husband is ill and this could have been our last holiday, I feel that it is a disgrace the way we have been treated by you, the Holiday rep, and the hotel staff.
I await your reply and if i do not find it satisfactory i will be taking matters further.
Your Mrs P.T. Jobes
re thompson holiday
i totally agree that these 5 star rated holidays are a load of nonsence
Hello,
I am making a BBC consumer affairs programme and I’m looking for people to take part. We are filming a roadshow in London on 22nd May and want to take on cases to try and get money back for people. Please post or drop me an email on christina.schultz@reeftv.com if you’d like us to help.
Thanks,
We have just got back off holiday 2. 1/2 hours ago. 1 week in the magaluf sol in Magaluf, and a 1 weeks cruise on the destiy. Both thompsons holidays. Dates 05/06/2010 til 19/06/2010. First of all, the Magaluf sol kneeds brought up to date, cracks all over the place, rooms kneed updating and the food isn’t too good. It was better 35 years ago when we went there on our honey moon. it doesn’t look as if its been updated since then. ( DIRECTORS OF THOMPSON HOLIDAYS SHOULD TRY IT, YOU LL SEE I’M NOT LYING. ) The cruise on the destiny. The rooms kneed some work done to them. very shabby for the money your paying. ( ITS NOT CHEAP ) The food isnt top quality in my opinion, but the worst part was when they dock in TANGERES AND CASIBLANCA DOCKYARDS. TALK ABOUT SCRUFFYNESS. they are working dockyards and its supposed to be a pleasure cruise. What a joke. everyone was complaining. dust in the air, off ships been unloaded with what looked like coal dust, on one ship. another ship was covered in cream coloured dust, landing on the ship. lookes like bits of fibre glass bits. could have been asbestose or anything. It was going everywhere. then the next day there was black soot off the chimney going everywhere. on your clothes on the tables n chairs you were sitting on. they kneed a chimney sweep to do the ships chimneys. i should get some compensation off someone at thompsons. NO more though
O dear… these sort of complaints are so common, which is such a shame.
Really sorry your holiday has been spoilt, there such highlights to our year… but lets be clear (and blunt) There is no standard method of rating hotel and apartment accommodation across the world. Many countries have differing official and unofficial ways of assessing properties and some do not rate holiday accommodation at all. UK tour operators offer a variety of rating systems including Stars, Shields, Suns, Flames, Diamonds, “T”s and “A”s. Some tour operators do not show any accommodation rating but these are NOT british star rating or standard.
All inclusive food is well known for being terrible and in some countries has actually killed people.. seriously.. although in your case I’m sure Thomson will tell you they contracted to supply you certain products but they didn’t contract the type of products (such as as main meals you would get burger and chips and not 12oz steaks etc…) Furthermore, I checked the hotel on the thomson website and could find no mention of it being an adult only location (actually adult locations can actually be more noisey than children ones, especially at night!)
Now.. I am in no way defending thomson as obviously wasn’t on holiday with you and didn’t experiance what you mention but these tour operators have clear guidlines about complaints which are usually laid out at the welcome meeting.
To ensure you have a positive outcome to your complaint, did you bring all this up as it happened with the resort rep? When/if you didn’t get any satisfaction with the rep, did you expadite it to the reps line manager/ hotel manager? Did you take photos of the issues such as poor quality food, lots of children running around etc. and finally how did you come to a 50% refund is it just what you think your suffering was worth and how did you put a monetry value on it?
I’m not being bolshey here, but pre warning you on how the complaints manager will look at your complaint as so many people do nothing in resort and wait to complain when they come home but in your letter I see at the end of the week you complained about the bed linen so you must of had some sort of contact that may of been recorded in the hotel.
Be realistic the tour operator will probably not award you 50% in fact based on your brief letter I would be suprised if you got anything.. seriously they have thousands of letters just like this every month, usually from people trying to get a partial refund on the huge costs of a holiday which I am not saying is you… but they may see it that way!… so to get anything back.. something pretty serious usually has to happen and even then some people get nothing. In your case all I see is you didn’t like the hotel, the food wasn’t up to your standards, a few kids ran around and you bed wasn’t changed for a week, which is VERY normal in spain. If I was looking at your case I’m afraid you would get a very standard sorry letter back but that would be it (not even a voucher)
Perhaps if you re-wrote with some photos, facts, times and places, you may get a move favorable response back – seriously.
I wish you luck and perhaps post back here with the outcome.
Christopher Marson
I am very sorry to hear that you did not enjoy your holiday however, I do completely agree with Christopher on this one.
Had you written a far more comprehensive letter, then I feel your complaint may actually be noticed however, as Chris says, the reality is that it will more than likely be tossed on the pile like thousands before it.
Evidence is key, now more than ever, and nothing tells a story of a thousand words quite like a photograph! Hopefully you will have taken photo evidence of the poor conditions you experienced. Furthermore, you mention being unhappy with the Holiday rep as well as hotel staff, however it is a very generalised statement (as is the letter as a whole to be fair). You should try to be more specific, giving details including names and specifics of what exactly you weren’t happy about, conversations that were had etc. Regarding conditions you were promised, such as adults only, you should refer back to the evidence of this. Unfortunately a verbal conversation promising such conditions just won’t cut it, always ensure you have written proof before going away.
With all due respect, I feel obliged to mention that poor spelling and grammar are complete ‘no no’s’ when it comes to letters of complaint in particular! As is the use of the phrase ‘I want’. Demanding things from a company portrays a sort of irrational behaviour, for want of a better phrase. It is far better to layout exactly what went wrong, with evidence of course, and if it is as bad as you say it was, then the letter should speak for itself and the correct compensation should be given.
Lastly, may I advise against package deals. These companies have been around since I can remember (granted, I’m fairly young), and they have featured on every ‘disastrous holidays’ programme which ever aired, and yet they are still up and running. Short of a near death experience due to the conditions in which you are placed, I think very little will ever be done. Even with the best complaint letter in the world, you’ll probably find a clause somewhere in the T’s and C’s, and you won’t have a leg to stand on.
I wish you all the best in getting a response though.
Travelled to Tenerife with Thompson’s on the most cramped plane you could imagine. We always pick isle seats opposite each other due to my Wife having arthritus in her left knee. This allows her to stretch her leg out into the isle. What we did not allow for was the very limited space under the end seats for ourselves. Due to the lack of space to stretch out I eventually ended up with cramp in my legs and had to stand in the isle. This was all well and good until the countless trolleys came down the isle and I had to sit down again. This was on the outward journey. Coming back to the UK was an absolute nightmare. We asked at the check if we could pay for extra leg room seats but were told there was none. Asked then for isle seats and were told we could not have them. We were given the worst seats you could imagine especially for my Wife. Seats “A” and “B”. The check in staff did not care less for anyones prefference as long as they got us booked in. We were totally cramped in and claustrophobic in these conditions on the plane. We had complained to the Thompson Rep at check in but were told if we were not happy with the seating to wait until we were the last people onto the plane and ask if there were any spare seats. This is ok if you want to sit apart on the plane. (My Wife at one point walked down towards the front of the plane and found that there was an extra leg room seat vacant with an isle seat behind it empty. These would have been ideal). No one had told us at check in that the plane was four hours late. Nor did they tell us that we could have claimed a voucher each for a meal due to being late, so missed out on this. People we spoke to on arrival in the UK informed us of this and they were informed at check in. It was the first we had heard of it. Due to the crammed conditions on the plane it was the worst flight we had ever experienced. The nightmare did not end here. When we landed at Newcastle at 04-10 AM Saturday Morning (now four hours twenty minutes late) the plane parked up at least one mile from the terminal. There was only one bus available so three trips had to be made to ferry the passengers over to the terminal. We eventially arrived there at 05-00 hours. Due to us supposedly arriving back to Newcastle at 00-50AM we had booked into the Brittania Hotel because we had another two hours travel to West Cumbria and did not want to drive home at this hour. We arrived in the hotel at 05-30 hours. Check out time at the hotel is 11-00 hrs. We had to pay an extra £15 to keep our room on until 12-00 hrs so we could get a decent sleep prior to travelling home. We were shattered after travelling so long. The excuse we were given as to why we were delayed was total fabrication. They seemed to imply that it was only our flight due to a problem with a pilot issue. If this was so then why were all Thompson flights delayed not just ours. A little truth goes a long way. Holidays are suposed to relax you. The holiday was ok but the flights were the most stressful we have ever encountered.Travel with Thompson again? You must be joking. They want to be totally ashamed of themselves for the way paying travellers are treated. This is not just our complaint. The whole of the plane were complaining. We must have been mad to travel with Thompson. We will now be travelling all the time with our trusted Thomas Cooke Airline. Never any trouble with them. Thompson Airlines 0 out of 10. Thomas Cooke 10-10. Once bitten twice shy.
Fuming Ann and Bert.
i have just returned from a four day holiday to Spain with Thompson, whilst waiting to catch our transfer to the airport we received a call from a friend who had checked our flight on the internet to find it had been canceled. we contacted Thompson 24 hour help line who did not know about the cancellation they said they would ring us back an hour later and after we had rang them 3 times they never got back to us we was still no clearer. once we arrived at the airport we was told that because they was only 39 of us on this flight they needed the airplane for something else so we was to wait a delay of an extra 5 hours after the time we was meant to fly. to be took to a different airport which would then mean another 5 hour drive back to our airport. i could not wait as i had work to get back to and my friends both had commitments. we had to pay 170 each to get a sooner flight. Thompson never apologized and they would not give us the 8 euros which they where offering to get drinks with while we was delayed as we where not delayed but we only wasn’t delayed because we had just payed 170 to get home on time.
Terrible experience with Thompson Travel
My wife and myself booked a Holiday on line with Thompson Holidays in August. Then went away for 4 days. On our return we had an email from Thompson saying we were leaving for our Holiday in the next 4 days (July) It was obvious that a mistake their end was made and our holiday was allocated in July not August. I contacted Thompson’s and they said we should have contacted them straight away! but we were
away! We cannot take this holiday in July as we are both working. So Thompsons said sorry no refund!
We have lost £1500 I think this is dreadful of Thompsons. They have made £1500 for 5 mins work and given nothing in return!!
Be very wary of Thompsons they are Sharks!!
A couple of us booked a holiday in Croatia for my 60th birthday. It was a nightmare. I complained several times to the Thomson rep, complained to the manager, and nothing was done. Compained to Thomson when I returned, said they would look into it. After several letters and telephone calls, telling me they understood how I felt, but they would only offer me £70.00 in Thomson vouchers. When I rejected this offer, stating I did not want to travel with Thomson’s again, they said they could offer me considerably less if I wanted any monies back from them. They sent me a bottle of champagne, as a good will gesture to make up for my 60th birthday holiday being a nightmare. Never travel with this company, they do not want to hear complaints, even when they are the fault of the holiday company, even when their brochure offers something that is not even at the hotel. I certainly will never travel with them again, and have advised friends and family to boycott this company.
Just to respond to roger c – I would be extremely interested to know how it is the websites fault when you physically type your requirements. You ask for date, you pick flights and hotel, you view the price, select your extras, enter your names and card details… how is this Thomsons fault? Bad workman blaming tools springs to mind. If you are not confident online and want to minimise risk of human error why not visit your local agent who spend everyday booking holidays. And check details back thoroughly. Plus email confirmations are sent almost immediately, and you going away for 4 days isn’t Thomsons doing. Don’t ever book online again, this was clearly your lack of attention to detail. just ridiculous.
THOMPSON ROB PEOPLE……
We paid £2000 for a wk in Dominican 5star all inclusive …upgraded are seats with the fligh sounds nice couldnt wait…. alas got on there plane we were put apart seats now then could they have given us a harder more unconfertable seat i dont think so 9hrs on that couldnt walk even staff felt embbaressed and said they were allowed ti say anything good start erm! .. arrives at hotel to find we had been put as far away from everything ie reception pools entertainment etc …. so we thought erm a lot of walking here , gets up next morning goes to the pool empty shocked is an understatment oh well walked to beach no beach bars open 30 odd degrees where do we get a drink, partner finds one all the way up the beach by the time he gets back this little plastic cup of drink is warn ….beach almost empty .. lunch time walk all the way back to hotel to find somewhere open finaly found a restaurant had lunch to hot to go all the way to beach went back to pool no bar no one around so laid there n had a swim whole pool to ourselfs nice but very thirsty getting dyhdrated so had to go back to room had a bath an low n behold we had rain coming into our room told reception 4 times still not fixed next day go complain afferd to move us now take into concideration a day traveling a day on beach move next day thats 3 day we only have 3 days left because last day is traveling home whats the point in moving asked them to fix it tried again more rain in room … cut a long story short as there was no entertianment etc gets home calls thomsons several times emails them with pictures etc about hotel being half shut and and being knocked down .. there responce were sorry about your complaint but we feel there is nothing we can do … WHAT we have just been robbed of are hard earned cash … this is a crime if we were robbed at home the police would sort it come on thomsoms sort this out
Copy of letter to Thompson 06.05.2012
Thomson Holidays
Dear Sir or Madam
I am writing to inform you how disappointed I was on a number of things in relation to a recent holiday I booked with yourselves via First Choice, Nuneaton. We decided as part of this holiday to upgrade to premium class on our flight outbound being (20.04.2012) inbound 04.05.2012. one of the reasons being the description in your brochure of which part of the description being “For even more legroom, better entertainment and complimentary drinks, upgrade to Premium Class on our long haul flights. You get more space – at least 36 inches all to yourself – and comfy leather seats with head supports. Many Premium seats also have foot supports.” Both of our flights were on old and very tired First Choice planes. The seats were anything but comfy were very hard with minimum padding. The Seat backs were tatty with rips in the brochure portion of the seat backs and we both ended up having to sit on the provided cushions and blankets to try and get comfy. There was only a footrest on the outbound flight. Upon boarding the front of the plane I looked done the whole aircraft & ever seat looked exactly the same I couldn’t tell the premium seats from the economy & everyone boarded from the front & I heard a couple of people say oh this is the premium bit but don’t know how they realised. Our seats may have extra leg room not that I had noticed it was still the cramped seats as in economy that I am used to I couldn’t spot the difference & the chairs where so uncomfortable they where upholstered with hardly any padding . The seats where set out in a two three two way just like in economy & the plane wasn’t fatter In our cabin!! I must say the crew were very good and most attentive on both flights. On the return flight only about 2 of the films were those as advertised in the flight menu because it would appear that someone had forgotten to load. the latest films.
We stayed at the Vista Cay and upgraded to a 3 bed apartment and staff at First Choice emailed the resort requesting that we have a lake or pool view needless to say when we got there we were offered a view of the car park!! And said no such request had been received. The staff however were very helpful and got us a room with a partial view over a lake but not within the main complex which made it difficult to use the facilities of the resort without walking the best part of 0.5 miles. The room also wasn’t as shown in the brochure with blinds( not curtains) which we needed to have mended before they would open and very old TV sets. Furnishings were on the tired side.
At the airport on arrival we were given paperwork inviting us to attend a welcome meeting on the Saturday morning at 10.15. We got to reception at 10.00 and waited to about 10.20 but no one turned up!! Part of the reply from Thomson was that the rep did call us and spoke to my wife which was an absolute lie we never received such a call. Customer Support were just not interested we won’t bother with Thomson again.
”
A word of warning – if you are in Turkey and thinking of undertaking the Thomson trip to Rhodes DON’T! It doesn’t do what it says on the tin and is not worthy of Thomson’s name against it.
Things you should know that are not mentioned in any of the Thomson blurb:
You are left totally on your own and have to work out what to do on your own.
You spend most of the day either queueing, waiting and tr
avelling. To give you a clue – hotel pick up 7.15 am. Arrive at Fethiye port 7.35 am. Dumped would be a better description as between us we had to work out that we had to join a queue to get our boat tickets. That was a 45 minute wait. Then straight away another queue (30 mins) to get through passport control. On to the boat then a wait until sailing time of 9.30 am. The brochure advises a 90 minute voyage – make that 2.5 hours! Then off the boat into another queue for passport control (20 minutes this time). Fortunately someone on the boat held up a large clock with the time 4.30 pm which we assumed (rightly as it turned out) was our return trip time.
Queueing for passport control on the way back was even longer 40 minutes at least (good job we arrived a little early) as there were passengers from 2 visiting cruise liners waiting in line! Again the return 90 minute trip topped 2.5 hours. Yet another queue of 25 minutes to get through passport control. Then the first rep of the day – but not from Thomson – who directed you to mini-bus. Waited 45 minutes for no reason at all before departure to then find the driver doesn’t know where the hotels are and doesn’t speak English.
Finally got back to the hotal at 9 pm hungry, tired and a little ticked off! Almost a 14 hour day with just 4 hours in Rhodes!
Let the 24/7 Thomson Customer Service Team have some restrained feedback. This prompted an e mail from Lisa a Holiday Experience Team Leader saying I was lucky as she had done this trip and her day had been even longer. That was supposed to make me feel better?? Also why don’t Thomson tell you this upfront??
I then e mailed Ian Chapman the Director of Holiday Excursions who asked for 14 days to look into the issues I raised. Well 14 days have been and gone and no response!
It seems to me that sadly Mr Chapman has taken the view that Thomson’s have had my money and whlist the trip was not worthy of the Thomson name I am going to have to lump!
Anyway for anyone else thinking of this trip be aware that it doesn’t do what it says on the tin!
“
I am very dissapointed that I have to complain.
I flew back to East Midlands Airport arriving at 1am on Monday 15/07 2013 From Larnaca.
I had a fantastic holiday but It was soon ruined when I realised that my suitcase had been lost.
The treatment that I have recived has been appaling I have had to keep ringing up because their communication to me has been non existent and it took me 2 days to get to speak to someone as all I kept getting was an answer phone.
I have found out today (17/07 2013) that they found my suitcase back on the Monday that I landed but they failed to let me know.
I have been worried sick as I have alot of expensive gifts in the case. A bit of communication would not have gone a miss and it would have put my mind at rest.
Now I have found out that the earliest I will recieve my case back is going to be Monday evening (22/07 2013) even though my case will be back at East Midlands on Saturday(20/07/2013) so I have agreed to pick it up myself just so that I get it back.
I could keep going forever but I won’t.
I would be very very grateful if someone could give me an answer
on why I have been treated the way I have. If I had been given regular updates then it would not have been so bad. If I treated my customers in this manner I would not have any clients whatsoever.
I will finish by saying thankyou for your time and I look forward to a speedy response.
I booked a holiday in Ellaidhoo, Maldives with Thomson/First Choice in November 2013. Two days later I discovered numerous complaints about the speedboat transfer from the airport to the island. These concerned leaky boat, fires on the boat, lack of life jackets and other essential safety gear, smallness of the boat for the rough sea conditions etc. being a sailor and safety conscious, I decided to change accommodation to a resort closer to Male which had a far better safety record. Thomson charged us £100 for making the change which was reasonable. However they also charged usan additional £1300 by refusing to refund the difference between the four star all inclusive Ellaidhoo resort and the three star lesser standard Fihalhohi resort. £1400 just for switching resorts for very good safety reasons.
I wrote numerous times to Thomsons but their so called customer services staff merely referred me to their terms and conditions and disregarded entirely our complaint that the change we made only came about because the speedboat was considered by many travellers to be unsafe. The lesson me and my family and friends have learnt is that customer goodwill, satisfaction and indeed safety appears not to be of any importance to Thomson. I have informed them in very clear terms that they will lose our considerable future business potential but they simply do not care about that.
hi i booked a holliday with thomsons to cacum mexico in which i booked premium on the dreamliner so i was told i could not book seats till 90 day before your return date so on computer 1159 on19/02/14 no window seats left only11 seats left in center rows so as it turns out i had booked for 15 days so the result was the people who had booked for les than 15 dayshad been able to book before the 19/02/14 i coplained to thomsons and got nowhere with them .SO TO MEI PAID 800 POUNDS AND DID HAVE AN Y CHANCE OFF GETTING SEATS I WANTED SO BEWARE
We booked a 2 week holiday at the rio park hotel,starting sat 31may till 14 June, on 4th of June my wife started feeling ill, the last time we were there she spent a week in hospital, as the symptoms were the same I thought I had better get her home, I went to the thompson rep for help and advice, she looked on her computer and told me there was a flight the day after with easy jet but she was not allowed to book it for us, I would have to book it myself ? No computer! You will have to ring someone at home to book it for you, which is what I did,I then asked her where I could get my tickets sent,she said ask at reception. She was no help at all she didn’t ask our names or room number, we are home now I don’t think they even know. There is no use booking with them when they don’t want to help you, and we won’t be again.
The holiday I booked with Thomsoms to estival park in Spain was a joke booked two rooms together and explained it was our first time abroad so was very nervous we were told its in our hands just relax and we will sort the lot for you.When we arrived we wasn’t even in the same hotel never mind together so we made a complaint and was will will sort this for you as soon as possible 10 nights later we where on our way home and spent the time in different hotel from our children.so on arrival to the uk I went to the Cwmbran office to complain and was told no refunds were available ( basically that’s all they thought I went there for ) so the manager of the store said I will let head office no and we should here in 28 day’s.well after 28 days I emailed and said thanks for getting back to me ( which they didn’t) .Then 7 days later I received a letter from head office saying it was my fault because of the rooms we asked for where in different parts of the hotel and basically it was down to me (don’t worry mr h sit back relax we will sort this for you ) .as you can imagine I was best pleased with this and they had the cheek to ask me to book with these again (ha ha your joke please) So from me and my family we can honestly say once bitten twice shy no thankyou.