Final draft - any additions? Also, Lee Ormesher - is he for britania? JANH - is this the thomson address?
Thomson Holidays,
Greater London House,
Hampstead Road,
London NW1 7SD
To Whom It May Concern:
Firstly I would like to express how utterly appalled myself and my family are that organisations as large as yours would let a consumer down so badly. We expressly went with on our first family holiday since our young sons were born with a larger holiday company as we felt it would offer us more assurance should anything go wrong.
Let me again explain the background to my complaint; we were booked to go on holiday through Thomson Wintersun on the 22nd March 2005 to Furteventura. Our party consisted of two adults, 3 children and 1 infant (11, 9, 2 and 1 respectively). On our arrival at the airport it was in chaos as the conveyor belts that take the luggage had all broken down following a power cut, however, on our check in they began to work again. We left check in and proceeded to obtain some travel cheques, it was at this point, less than 3 minutes later that we became aware that one of passports were missing (that of our 9 year old). We immediately returned to the check in desk where the staff member who checked us told us the passport was not there, I couldn?t see how it would be anywhere else as all our documents were together, and had we lost one passport we would have lost all of them. However, we made a detailed walk to where we had been without success.
We returned to the desk and found the check in supervisor who then took us to Thomson?s desk. The supervisor said she would ask engineers to walk the belt in case the check in staff had indeed dropped the passport, and the Thomson rep suggested we go to London and get a new passport and go the following day to Manchester airport to get a flight. At no time did the rep suggest the either myself or my partner take the children with passports and the other to remain behind in order to obtain a new passport for our 9 year old and join the holiday later.
The check in supervisor returned 5 minutes later and informed us the engineer had walked the belt but had not located the missing passport, the inference was clearly that we had lost it in the walk from check in. We decided to leave the airport as our elder children were now very upset at the prospect or no holiday and the younger ones in need of a bottle. On the way home we contacted the police to inform them that our passport was lost or stolen and the passport office to see if we could have an appointment. We also contacted Thomson and spoke to a call handler named Ellie, who looked at other possible flights for us and suggested that as there were no other flights to Furteventura we should buy flights to Lanzarote for the following day and get a ferry from there to Furteventura at a cost of £275 which we did.
My partner dropped myself and the children home and proceded to London to obtain a new passport, however, when he was half way there Ellie at Thomson contact us and informed us that the passport had been found, when an engineer had walked the belt. We had been led to believe whilst at the airport that this action had already taken place, which clearly it did not.
We immediately contacted our insurance company and were informed that we had a claim, although there would be a limit on it and that limit wouldn?t cover our added costs. We also contacted Britannia airline via e-mail with our complaints outlined. On our return from holiday we received a letter from Britannia stating that they would not compensate us for our losses and that it was out insurers responsibility (the letter was from a Terrence Extross). I then contacted our insurers and have been informed that as it was the airlines mistake and not our fault that they would not process a claim (call centre handler Ludovic Aujustin). Thomson customer services have stated that it is either the airline or the insurance that need to compensate us for our costs and compensate us for our losses, which I detail below:
§ £275 for additional flights
§ £19.23 for a taxi transfer from the airport to the port
§ £19.91 for a taxi transfer from the airport to the port (no 7 seaters available)
§ £26.77 for a taxi transfer from the port to the hotel.
§ Two days of our holiday were lost at a cost of £285.09 each.
Added to this it took 12.5 hours to arrive at our destination, which I am sure you can appreciate with 2 very young children, is not acceptable. At no time did a rep contact us during our stay to see if we had arrived.
Clearly we were not at fault with this situation, and I do not see why we should have to take these additional costs on, especially given the distress the situation and altered travel arrangements have caused both our children and ourselves. We would also like to express our disappointment at the level of service offered both during our travel and holiday and in dealing with our subsequent complaint, which fell short of our expectation of a company, which markets itself as No.1.
I would appreciate it if you could look in to the matter as soon as possible and come to the same conclusion that family, friends and myself have come to, that we should be recompensed for our losses and compensated for this catalogue of errors that have caused myself and my family, on what was to be our first holiday together since the birth of our sons, such distress.
I look forward to hearing from you.