Wrll in that case, TC are acting as your agents and should be negotiating with Balkan on your behalf. Make them aware that you would like to pursue Balkan for compensation, since its Balkan that have done the cancelling. They will contact them on your behalf, and they should also be doing more about sorting you a new holiday out too! Good luck

Hi there, Basically, in a nutshell, if you made any changes within 8 weeks of departure, the charges do go up ALOT!! Anything right up to cancelling the original person and losing that money and rebooking the new person and paying again. You need to look in the back of the Thomson brochure to find out exactly what their charges are, and were you charged in line with those advertised?? I understand what you are saying about being misinformed in the first place. In the agents defence you did say to go ahead regardelss, not her fault, and also not her fault that she couldn't get through to you on the phone. What I dont understand is why the mis quoted you in the first place, its in black and white in the back of all the Thomson brochures what their charges are, all they had to do was take one off their shelves and read it.... not exactly difficult. Your complaint isn't with Thomson, its with your booking agent (First Choice) I would begin by telling them that you expect them to pay the £60.00 difference (not much to them on a booking for 22 people) as a gesture of good will. If they refuse point blank then ask them to meet you half way. I would also ask to see back over the notes on your account with them, as they should have record of your previous conversations regarding this matter, the girl should write in what you asked and what she said in reply eg: "....came into office to ask how much the amndt chgs are for name chng, advsd £20.00 per person" or words to that effect! The trick is (and its hard I know) not to get angry with them in the first instance, as if you do they will be unwilling to help you! Try and keep your cool and see how you go. Good luck Heidi

Hi Jenndoug, You would be better off starting your own new thread for this one. Basically you wouldn't be able to go on the original holidays as it has been cancelled, for what reason I obviously dont know. TC should offer you the chance to cancel with full refund, and you can ask for compensation regarding the inconvenience etc, and take it from there. You are then at will to book another holiday for the right dates with another company. The thing to do is to check availability now with other companies, may to different destinations?? If you want help with this please private message me. Did you book direct with TC or through an agent?? Heidi

Thank you very much for that. That was a very quick reply, :D Going to ask a really boring and stupid question now, whats this contractual compound interest or whatever its called?? I have 2 successful claims againts banks behind me already, but not come accross this one before (in as plain english as you can please, I'm tired!!) Thank you

Hi, Firstly let me appologise if this question has already been asked, but, I am over my limit by about £200, mostly due to the charges, plus as I have not been able to keep up with the payments because of charges, my account has been passed onto their collections firm Debitas. Can I still pursue them for my charges back if the account has been passed over? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Heidi

Hi Skat If you took out travel insurance, they may cover you for such delays, normally only after 12 hours but its worth checking. Flight delays are not normally compensated, 7 hours is only classed as a minor delay. If you were delayed 12 or more hours then its a slightly different story. In my opinion, you will be flogging a dead horse trying to take this any further with them. Someone who has a different experience may comment to the contrary, but in my 10 yrs in the industry, I have never known an airline compensate for a minor delay. Heidi

Hi there, I am no expert at this legal stuff, but I would have thought you could send it in as one claim, so long as you include all of your booking references, after all, you are all claimnig against one company. If it were two or three different companies then thats obviously a different story. I would take MCOL and Rosiecottons advice and speak to CAB or a solicitor to point you in the right direction. Sorry I'm not much help. Heidi

Hi, Any news on this? Sorry I dont know the statistics with TC defence of conceding!! Not much help am I!! Heidi

Hi there, a tricky one... Firstly did you get anything in writing regarding the deposit due date for May?? I assume not, in which case there isn't very much you can do about it. The problem is that FC as an agency will have to pay the tour operator the full deposit amount at the time of booking, unless they have a special arrangement with them. Have you had an invoice from your tour operator yet? And if so, what does it say in the amount paid section? If it says £40.00 (your low deposit) you could get the agent to negotiate with the Tour operator to extend the due date. They may have only been negotiating with their own head office or management. If the tour operator is happy to wait a while, then the agent cannot do anything more than to accept this. I will forewarn you though that there aren't that many that are flexible and willing to put extentions in place, but its worth a go. Just out of interest, which tour operator are you travelling with, assuming you have booked a standard package holiday?? I will see if I can shed any light on the matter. Kindest regards Heidi

Hi Ralu, A difficult one. First allow me to introduce myself, I'm Heidi, pleased to meet you... I'm a Travel Agent of around 10yrs working self employed from home! Soooooo, I should know what I'm talking about:-D lol Firstly, I find it astonishing that they took your money and did not make the booking at the same time. Are you sure this is what they did and the date on the e-mail is not the date the confirmation invoice was raised? I would check this out. Did the booking agent go through everything with you before and after booking? ie: "so its for .... date at ....time from .... airport!!!" This is a basic requirement from any booking agent to avoid these sorts of mistakes. It is not your responsibility to to instigate this conversation, but its always a good idea if they dont! Name spellings and ages are a common thing to get mistaken I'm afraid, again the agent should be spelling things back to you, even if it is plainly obvious what the spelling is, cuz you never know! BUT DATES?? How on earth did they manage to book the wrong date? Its difficult to lay blame when there is no proof of a conversation. As far as they can argue, they say you booked those dates, later realised YOUR mistake and then tried to change them at their expense (I'm not for one minute saying this is what happended, just merely pointing out what they can argue when there is no proof to the contrary). My advice is to write a stern letter to their complaints dept, with names of agents, time and dates etc., exactly what happened as far as you are concerned, and what you expect them to do about it. Sure you've already done this...you will get replies fobbing you off all the way down the line, but persevere and dont give in. You are entitled to get abta involved after recieving 2 pieces on unsatisfactory correspondence. They are entitled to 28 days to reply to each letter of yours, so please dont e led to believe that this will be sorted out quickly, because it wont. Most get fed up and give up which is where they get away with it! The trick is not to give up withou a fight! Good luck heidi

Rosiecotton is right to suggest the judge may take the other view, and bigboy, you are right to suggest that Joe Bloggs is unlikely to interpret the paperwork properly. There is no way of telling which way a judge will see it until the day comes that you are stood in front of him/her. A good, strong and well thought out argument to contradict what the defense may come up with is the only thing that he (jkr is male BTW) can do and hope the judge sees it from his point of view. I wish we all had crystal balls, but we dont! In a nutshell, First Choice booked component parts of a holiday to make a "dynamic package", and took one full payment, thus making it a package holiday. I have established that since they DO have an Atol licence, they are well within their rights to do so. However, they should make it clear to the customer what they have booked (which they clearly did not do) and they cetainly should not be fobbing JKR off with "its Medhtls fault about the hotel, we've sent the complaint onto them for investigation" WRONG..... First Choice are responsible for the whole thing as a package and should be sorting this out themselves. By all means they can go and complain to Medhtls, but that should not have anything to do with the customer. Jkr does not have and agreement with Medhotels, First Choice do! Heidi

Hi jkr, Did you send the letter off to Abta?? I would stick by your guns on this one and insist you DID advise them of the need for a suitable hotel aswell as the flights, and if they continue to argue to the contrary, to kindly ask them to supply you with evidence (ie phone transcripts) and also use this point for the package/ not a REAL package argument too. I should send all new correspondence to Abta too as we discussed, copies of all First Choice correspondence and your reply. Abta may tweek it a little but should gain your authorisation first before any amendments are submitted to FC. I you want me to have a go at a reponse for you (not suggesting that you cant do it yourself, but the red mist can sometimes blind you) you can e-mail me a copy of the FC reponse (sensor any private information ie: your address etc) and I can pen a response for you if you like. Just copy it and amend where you see fit. Sorry I dont mean to patronise you, you seem very affluent and capable yourself, I just thought some explerience with these operators and their ways around things may help you a little. If you dont want to then thats ok, if you do, e-mail a scan of your reponse to me, if you have already sent your response, then thats ok too, not much point in doing anything til the next letter. Let me know how you get on. Take care Heidi

Thats the last time I make a typo!

OOPS!! ok ok, its been a long day already!!

Hi, sorry to hear of you bad experience, I will try and help where possible. Go Easy Tvl are the agent woring on behalf of you nd Somak, they should be fronting the complaint on your behalf. Your complaint lies with Somak, being the Tour Operator. Is the agent aware of your complaint? If not you need to tell them straight away. They work hard on your behalf to get what you deserve, and are the powers that be so to speak! Hope this answers your question, if you need any more help, please shout! Heidi

Oh dear!! This is not good! Happy New Year!! Have EJ offered a refund on the sector of flight that will no be used? You may not know this yourself as yet, but I would be asking for a refund, costs, and a full explanation if it were me!! Heidi

Hi Everyone, After 2 successful claims from my banks, my husband has decided to take the plunge and sort out MBNA. Just typing out the harassment letter as we speak, as its getting beyond a joke. I have just one question.... do we send in the same SAR and prelim letters etc as I did for the normal banks?? Or do you have special letters for cc companies?? Sorry I'm sure it says somewhere but I cant find it!! Thanks again heidi

You dont calculate the interest until you are submitting your claim to court! The address to send your claim to is Halifax Bank Plc, Trinity Rd, Halifax, HX1, (cant remember the rest of the post-code, sorry) You can claim back 6 years from now.... not the last 6 yrs you were with them for, you may already know this, but just wanted to make sure that was clear to you! I recieved 2 lots of my statements, in the first batch, some were missing, it took a phone call to get them all sent!! Good luck Heidi

I dont think its too bad TBH, they have offered me £2900. I paid £3000.00 for it 5 weeks before it was nicked! So I've lost £100 in 5 weeks, I dont think that is too unreasonable! I hear what you are saying but I dont think its going to be worth pushing.

I think Rosiecotton has a point here actually! As I said in an earlier post that I would have thought that First choice acting as Tour Operator would be responsible for the complaint against the hotel. Its a difficult one but I do think you have a point Rosiecotton!! I would state in your next letter if you do not get an acceptable response from this one, that you expect First Choice to sort out all matters and not pass the book onto Medhotels, as they have acted as Tour operator by booking this "package" for you. I would (having thought properly about it) let this one run and await their reply. Lets just hope that this time they dont forward your complaint onto Medhotels again. Its up to First Choice to invesitgate what happened there and take responsibility for it. The ABTA issue was mentioned because you have already sent correspondence to First Choice and not had an acceptable outcome. Abta can intervene once you have sent 2 pieces of correspondence and not been satisfied with the conclusion of your complaint. People have very mixed feelings about where ABTA's loyalties lie and how useful they are in sorting out a complaint, however I can asure you when they have a strong case with a strong arguement like you have here, they will do everything they can to help.... its just not very quick! Heidi

Hi, no I dont work for TC, I work for an independent Travel Agency. If these guys were British then its plain for all to see that TC did book these guys. You are in a difficult position now because TC could argue the point that they cannot or will not refuse a holiday to people just because they are a large group. Group booking are very lucrative for any booking agent. The rugby players more than likely booked through an agency rather than through TC direct (which you may or may not have done), and of course is this is the case, then the agent will have had no way of knowing any different. You are right in what you say, you dont ask you dont get!! I hope you get something back from them. I also think to a point that TC should take some responsibility for the behaviour of the customers, if theyare behaving in a manner that is upsetting other poeple, then that is not on in my book. I have stayed in places where similar things have happened and people (the culprits) have been moved out of accommodation, and not re-accommodated elsewhere. I'm sorry I'm not much help on this one! I just want you to understand the arguements you may come up against so you can prepare yourself with and even better comeback!! As far as other issues you have, I would continue your complaint, theres no harm in trying! Heidi

WELL DONE YOU!!!!! Fabulous news, Happy Christmas!! Heidi, xx

Hi Jkr, I have just had a conversation with a girl named Shelley in customer services 0870 1975199, They can act as a tour operator, as the Atol licence they have for the Operator side of things covers the agency side too, so unfortunately they were allowed to do what they did! And as Rosiecotton said in the above post, you need to make a claim under the PTR's. However, you should have been made aware that this is what was being booked and still have a right to complain that this was not explained to you. Shelley has suggested that you seperate your issues into 2 seperate complaints, one complaint against the booking agent for not actioning your requests regarding the disabled access and assistance, and one to Medhotels re: the complaints about the hotels, sending both in to First Choice. I would have thought my-self that as First Choice are acting as the tour operator, that they would be responsible for the Medhotels section of your holiday. I would mention that in your letter to them! I will send you a private message shortly. To access it, see your name above these posts and click on private messages. Not the best news I'm afraid, but at least we know where we stand now! Heidi

Oh no, what a terrible situation your in. To be honest I'm not much of a lawyer, which is why I'm a Travel Agent lol, but joking aside, how awful for you! Maybe asking a stupid question here, but did they give you a list of Terms and Conditions in writing, did you sign them??/ Is there any mention in there thats its "members only" or anything like that? Have you used the services at all since you paid for them? I maybe way off here but I think there maybe a clause in some kind of legislation that means you may not be liable to incur further costs when their services are no longer required?? Someone will tell me if I'm wrong I'm sure. How soon after signing up did you ask them to cancel? Did they offer a "cooling off period", most, if not all reputable companies have to offer a minimum of 2 weeks. I'm sorry this may not be much help, timeshare is not something I am too familiar with (something I stay well clear of for this reason!) Hope everything works out for you, and I am sure someone will offer more experience and useful advice. Good luck Heidi

Good luck Kirky.....Nothing to add I'm afraid..... just hope it all goes your way! Keep smilin' Heidi