Please can we have our money back?

We went on Thomson Dream's Caribbean cruise in February. One destination (Gustavia) was cancelled owing to bad weather. We had booked and pre-paid an excursion on the island which obviously had to be cancelled as well. We received a letter on board the ship advising us that the Destination Services Team had requested a refund for us. To date no refund has been received. We phoned Thomson's Canterbury office (where we booked the cruise) on the 4th of April and were assured that we would be refunded £84 "within a few days".

Today (Tuesday 15th April) we have spent a long time on the phone trying to get some information. Firstly we rang the 0871 number for cruise excursions - we were put on hold (at whatever cost!!) many minutes later still not having been able to speak to anyone we gave up.

My wife then rang the Canterbury office again and was told "Obviously you are going to get a refund". My wife made it clear that it was by no means "obvious"!! She asked to speak to someone with authority and was told someone would be in touch. Subsequently a man named Ashley called and asked for details of the cancelled excursion. He has promised that he will contact "Head Office" and call us back with the result.

Although we enjoyed our cruise (and this was our third with Thomson) this experience has made it unlikely that we will go again.

If we hadn't wasted a lot of our time and effort chasing this would we ever have had a refund? I doubt it.

This is the same tactic used by insurance companies to avoid making payments: Delay as long as possible and eventually the claimant will give up through sheer frustration!!

We are now waiting to hear from Ashley as to when (and if) Thomson's will at long last refund our money.

Hope you get your money back and have you tried the Complaint Dept ? ;)

Thomson Holidays Contact Details:

After Travel Customer Support

Thomson Holiday Complaints Department

Wigmore House

Wigmore Lane

Luton

LU2 9TN

ContactEmail Address for Thomson Holiday Complaints

aftertravel@thomson.co.uk

Telephone Number of Thomson Travel Complaints Department 0844 871 0882

Thomson Holidays are obliged to respond to your holiday compensation complaint within 28 days under ABTA’s guidelines.

If you do not hear from them within this timeframe contact ABTA straightway to ensure your holiday complaint is taken seriously.

Quote your booking reference when contacting Thomson to make a holiday complaint.

Good luck :)

Not good at all. This is the kind of admin issue which does Thomson a lot of harm and you would think should be so easily resolved.

In fairness, we have, over the years had qute a few trips cancelled - or we have changed our minds and they have always been very prompt in refunding the excursion costs. If booked before travel online, the money goes back into the account you used to pay when booking - if it was booked on board it goes back into your on-board account.

I hope you get satisfaction very soon as it does take the shine off your holiday if you have issues to follow up on your return. Good luck - not that you should need it! :rolleyes:

Thanks for input. It now transpires that we have to go back to the shop where we actually booked the excursions. Two points: 1- this was back in October of last year!! After a lot of head scratching we remembered calling the local shop because we couldn't get through to Canterbury where we booked the cruise. The local shop was very helpful and when we said we would book the excursions on line they insisted on 'helping' us by taking the booking over the phone. 2- Surely wherever the booking was made, there must be a centralised record? How come Thomson couldn't find any trace of our booking, even though the crew on Dream knew all about it when we boarded?

Even now although they were perfectly able to take the booking and payment over the phone, we have to present ourselves in person at the shop to claim our refund.

STILL DISGRUNTLED!!

Sorry to hear about this. I have always been wary of booking excursions before the cruise and now I think I might have been right. :rolleyes:

As you say they must have some central record of your booking.

Lesson for us all to learn here - don't book your excursions via your travel agent. We have always booked ours directly online; when one was cancelled prior to departure, I have had great communications from Thomson Shorex & they refunded the money straight back to the card I paid on.

When a trip was cancelled when we were onboard, again it was refunded straight back to my card & a notification of this was sent to me by email.

If you think about it, if you book it via an agent, they are the third party & you have paid them so the refund will be paid back to them.

Thanks for input. It now transpires that we have to go back to the shop where we actually booked the excursions. Two points: 1- this was back in October of last year!! After a lot of head scratching we remembered calling the local shop because we couldn't get through to Canterbury where we booked the cruise. The local shop was very helpful and when we said we would book the excursions on line they insisted on 'helping' us by taking the booking over the phone. 2- Surely wherever the booking was made, there must be a centralised record? How come Thomson couldn't find any trace of our booking, even though the crew on Dream knew all about it when we boarded?

 

Even now although they were perfectly able to take the booking and payment over the phone, we have to present ourselves in person at the shop to claim our refund.

 

STILL DISGRUNTLED!!

I would send a letter of complaint to the CEO, as they cancelled the trip, due to not going there, they should have automatically refunded you, not sent you through hoops, and keep moving the goalposts.

http://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=9741

david.burling@thomson.co.uk

Lesson for us all to learn here - don't book your excursions via your travel agent. We have always booked ours directly online; when one was cancelled prior to departure, I have had great communications from Thomson Shorex & they refunded the money straight back to the card I paid on.

 

When a trip was cancelled when we were onboard, again it was refunded straight back to my card & a notification of this was sent to me by email.

 

If you think about it, if you book it via an agent, they are the third party & you have paid them so the refund will be paid back to them.

Good advice Jules. I hadn't thought of that possibility and since we've always booked either online or onboard we've not had a problem. But I can see how going through a TA can introduce complications. Something to remember.