first choice holidays v jkr

[jkr]

In August 05 we booked a holiday to turkey.In the original phone booking we asked for full disabled assisstance,(one adult) at the airport, and obviously for the holiday- 3 adults, 2children.When we arrived at the hotel which was on the top of a steep hill about 1:3,there were 13 steps into the reception with no handrail, no disabled access,i.e.a ramp.There were no facilities for disabled persons except for a lift.The room and bathroom was not suitable.The pool area was totally no good, no non- slip tiles, no disabled access to the pool.There were claims on the hotel leaflet that were untrue about services provided which were not.We toughed it out for 3 days(the food was disgusting with flies allover, and 3 of our party developed stomack bugs)and finally called the rep who was turkish.The company was Med-Hotels who were agents of First Choice.Before calling this rep, we tried to call First Choice in the UK ,nobody was answering the phones-this was when first choice was being criticised on Watchdog.

We filled in report forms about all the problems which were signed by the rep, who agreed with all of our complaints and we asked to be moved to more suitable accommodation.I spoke tp the resort manager on the phone who said nothing was available except an upgraid which was a £1000 more.In desperation we took it.We even had to pay for our own transfers.This was the 4* Kustur Tropicano in Kushadasi.On the 3rd day there ,my wife and grandaughter aged 11yrs wre sitting by the pool one afternoon which was adjacent to the toilets when a cloud of what turned out to be ammonia gas hit them in the face,(the maintenance man had drooped a chemical bomb down one of the toilets to clear a blockage in the main sewer without giving any warning).They were overwhelmed and could not breathe,(the 11yr old suffers from asthma)creating a medical emergency.Fortunately, there was a doctor on site who quickly administered emergency acute treatment.This caused us all great distress.Futhermore, we had to call the doctor again later that night as breathing problems continued.The after effects persisted for 3 days during which time they both were confined to their beds.I had, on the day ,called the rep who promised to come the next day.We filled in report forms, and the doctor also filled out a medical report for which we have copies.We spoke to the hotel manager who was turkish who was totally unsympathetic, and could not have cared less.I managed to speak to the owner(with the rep)who was even more beligerent when we asked for compensation, and almost threw us out of his office.I asked the rep to call his manager and ask him to come to the hotel.We met him the next day(he was english)and discussed the matter.He tried to speak to the owner with no better result than us.The manager advised us to contact First Choice when we got back to England.To cut a long story short ,First Choice have denied any liabilty even when I emailed the resort manager in turkey who replied agreeing with us, and also stating the accommodation at the first hotel was totally unsutable.The holiday company offered us £100 which I rejected.I had asked for £1000 but felt we should have had a complete refund as the whole holiday was ruined.I have written to them on a number of occasions, and have threatened court action to no avail!

Can anyone give me further advice on where to go from here?

jkr.

[rosiecotton]

Well, there's no doubt you have a case, and a good one in my opinion.

 

First Choice as tour operators are liable for the standard of the hotel and the actions of hotel staff etc.

 

I assume from the information you have given that you booked this holiday as part of a package, this would mainly involve booking flights and accommodation as an all in one deal rather than booking them separately.

 

In which case, your rights will be under the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 (I'll refer to these from now as the PTRs).

 

Section 15 of the PTRs covers proper performance of the contract. Rather than type it all out here, this is a link: The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992

 

Basically, though, the PTRs make the other party to the contract (in this case, the tour operator) responsible for any failure within the contract - this would include not providing disabled access, unsafe food and/or standard of hotel room.

 

It was clearly not acceptable for you to be expected to stay in a hotel without disabled access when you had specifically made this a term of the contract.

 

In the case of a problem with the holiday, the consumer must complain to the rep as soon as possible so that they can attempt to rectify the situation. You did this, so no problem there. However, I don't see that it is acceptable that the only place they found for you cost you £1000 more and they charged you for it! Why should you be out of pocket for their failures?

 

Worst of all, the incident you describe clearly affected your ability to enjoy your time on holiday and in fact caused you some serious concern.

 

The courts in this country rarely award damages for loss of enjoyment or anything that can't be financially quantified - an exception to this is holidays, where such awards are reasonably common.

 

Therefore, I believe you would be within your rights to claim not only for the additional money you had to spend in order to be moved to suitable accommodation, but also for loss of enjoyment of the holiday as you clearly lost at least three days of the holiday through being ill because of the hotel's negligence (which the tour operator must bear responsibility for).

 

Obviously the amount you claim for is ultimately down to you and how much you feel your holiday was affected, but I would say £1000 would be letting them off lightly here in my opinion.

 

There are other laws, such as the Misrepresentation Act, that could be brought into play here but I feel that the PTRs are your best bet to be going on with as they specifically deal with holiday contracts.

 

 

How did you pay for the holiday? If you used a credit card, even if it was only part payment, you can also put in a claim for damages against your credit card company under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, as this Act makes them equally liable for breaches of contract by the trader.

 

 

As a side note, if First Choice are advertising this hotel as having disabled access when it does not, I would be sure to inform Trading Standards.

 

 

Good luck with it - sounds like you had a horrible time.

 

 

Edit: just noticed date was 2005 - can you give some details of what's been going on over the last 16 months - have you been in constant contact with the company and did you let them know of the problem in writing as soon as you got back (or at least within 28 days)?

[jkr]

Dear Rosiecotton, 7th Dec.

Thankyou very much for your kind and informative reply which gives us renewed hope.To add more detail I add the following;

We booked an all inclusive 14 day package for 3 adults,(one disabled)and 2 children 13yrs,11yrs old on the 18/07/05 from an advert on Teletext for First Choice Holidays.The cost was £2600 paid by credit card.When we recieved the invoice ,there were a number of disputed charges which I tried to sort by telephone with the booking office locally.I was passed from 'pillar to post, and ended up writing to their Managing Director, copying in Ofcom, and Lloyds TSB Card Services, as well as contacting Teletext to no avail!(name and address can be supplied).He did not reply , and I received a letter from the centre mamager reiterating earlier position.

On the 18th July 05 I received from First Choice

[Bookworm]

I'm going to move this to the Holiday forum and out of the general consumer for ease of things.

[jkr]

Dear Rosiecotton, 7th Dec.

Thankyou very much for your kind and informative reply which gives us renewed hope.To add more detail I add the following;

We booked an all inclusive 14 day package for 3 adults,(one disabled)and 2 children 13yrs,11yrs old on the 18/07/05 from an advert on Teletext for First Choice Holidays.The cost was £2600 paid by credit card.When we recieved the invoice ,there were a number of disputed charges which I tried to sort by telephone with the booking office locally.I was passed from 'pillar to post, and ended up writing to their Managing Director, copying in Ofcom, and Lloyds TSB Card Services, as well as contacting Teletext to no avail!(name and address can be supplied).He did not reply , and I received a letter from the centre manager reiterating earlier position.

On the 18th July 05 I received from First Choice

[jkr]

Dear Rosiecotton, 8th Dec.

Thankyou for your kind and informative reply which gives us renewed hope.To answer your quries;

We booked an all-inclusive 14 day package for 3adults(one disabled with special needs)and 2 children, 13yrs&11yrs on the 18/07/05 from an advert on teletext for First Choice Holidays.Tha cost was £2600 paid by Lloyds TSB Visa credit card.When we received the invoice thre were a nimber of disputed charges which I tried to sort out by 'phoning the local office without success.I then wrote to the MD of First Choice Holidays quoting there own SP'S(STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE) and copied in Ofcom,

teletext and Lloyds TSB card services.I received a letter from the centre manager deleting some of the charges, others are still in dispute.

On the 18/07/05 we received confirmation of our request for disabled assistance from First Choice via Thomas Cook airlines enclosing a form asking for specific details of special needs,i.e.full assistance, wheelchair/lift onto plane on off either end (newcastle and adanan, turkey)departure and arrival.The letter from First Choice also says that you and/or agent make appropriate enqiries to ensure the chosen holiday resort and accommodation are suitable for the customers' needs!Im portantly, they also state that the form would be passed onto the relevent airline(thomas cook) and/or the resort supplier(Med-Hotels, turkey).To our disapointment no special needs had been arranged at any time at the airports.This awas dipite the fact that I specifically rang(through the augers of the Med-Hotels rep at the Kustur Hotel) the thomas cook rep at izmir airport we refused to confirm that special needs had been arranged!!

Incidently I tried to claim from our holiday insurance provider(Insure&Go) for the Kustur incident i.e. gassing.Claim rejected-no cover.

Details of written contact with First Choice:

 

8th Sept,05. Sent in a claim to local booking office for £1016 for mis-selling holiday,for personal injury(gassing)lossof enjoyment and value, and pain and suffering, and said I intended to instruct a solicitor to sue them.

 

9th Sept,05.Reply saying we had not registered a complaint.What about the phone calls, and the report forms from Med-Hotels-Turkey??

 

29th Sept,05.Solicitor begins action.Offer of £100 compensation for Kustur incident.Termination legal action on 8th Feb,06.Solicitor suggested we goto the small claims court.

 

14th Feb,06.Wrote to First Choice with final plea for reappraisal of compen

offer.No change-£100 offered.

 

1st Dec,06.'PHONE CALL 'OUT OF HE BLUE' from First Choice reiterating earlier offer of £100 compen!

 

Can you please advise us where to go from here?

Best regards,

jkr.

[rosiecotton]

There was quite a delay there where nothing happened, I don't think this will do your case any favours but I think you should still proceed in making a claim against the trader.

 

I would advise you to write to First Choice Holidays now, stating that they are liable to you for breach of their contract in not supplying disabled access, and also under Section 15 of the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992, which makes them liable for any failures by the hotel such as their negligence in the case of the gassing incident.

 

Detail exactly what you are claiming for, and state that unless a resolution can be reached, you will be taking the case to the small claims court. Give them a date by which to respond.

 

Copy the letter to your credit card company with a covering note stating that you will also be pursuing them under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which makes them equally liable for any breaches of contract by the tour operator.

 

There's been a bit of a delay with this, which won't help, but the main thing is to get this moving now and try and avoid any more delays. Was there a reason for you not taking action earlier in the year? Not being critical, just wondering, as the judge may ask this.

 

If you'd like me to have a look at any letters you are drafting, please feel free to post them up.

 

Good luck!

[jkr]

Dear Rosiecotton, 8th Dec.

The delay in proceeding against First Choice has been caused by intermittenet periods of illness.

jkr.

[jkr]

Dear Rosiecotton, 9th Dec.

In a previos reply I referred to a special needs form we had returned to Forst choice.I have just seen a copy of this form which raises concerns for me in pursuing this claim!On it we agree to the following:

1/ we are fully aware that there is no guarantee that theses special needs can be met.

2/I have checked the suitability of my holiday resort and accommodation and I am happy to continue with the holiday as booked.

 

We did try our best to check out the holiday(bearing in mind the disappointments we have had in the past) as fuuly as we could by trying to telephone the hotel without success, checking on the internet which gave basic information on the hotel and the resort.We could not have known the hotel was on the top of a steep hill, and that it did not offer disabled facilities.How would a judge view this? jkr

[jkr]

to forum administrator, 12th Dec.

Can you please tell if rosiecotton will be available this week to answer my reply?

[rosiecotton]

How was the resort advertised - did it state that it was suitable for disabled access? You could potentially argue that you were unable to check the hotel as you didn't have the relevant information and it should have been down to the tour operator to provide enough information for you to decide whether the hotel was suitable.

 

However, this could prove a stumbling block to your claim to be honest, although you'd still have an argument about the other incidents such as the food and the gassing.

 

I would still suggest a strongly worded letter and see how you go, although you may have to negotiate with regard to the disabled access.

[jkr]

Dear Rosiecotton, 12th Dec.

Thankyou for your email.Please find response letter to First Choice and Lloyds Credit Card Services for which I would appreciate your comment.

 

First Choice.

Your Ref:850-00000207957 Travel Date 11/08/2005.

Dear xxxxx,

Regarding the above holiday you are liable to me for breach of your contract in not supplying disabled access, and, also under Section 15 of the Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulation 1992.Any passenger asking for full disabled assistance and wheelchair access would not wish to be sent to a hotel perched on top of a very steep hill with 13 steps upto the reception with no handrail access or ramp for a wheelchair and,inaddition lack of disabled facilities in the hotel except for a lift.We did our very best to check out the resort and hotel, however, it is not resonable to expect for us to find comprehensive information.One would expect the supplier to check on the suitability of the holiday for a disabled family group.

The holiday cost £2518 for the Pigale hotel, and £1016 for the upgrade that was forced on us because of lack of disabled facilities at the Pigale hotel.Other elements include false claims on the Pigale hotel internet website:a fitness centre-this did not exist, entertainment- this comprised of a giutar player for one night starting at 9.30pm,swimming pool had no steps for access and, therefore could not be used by Mrs xxxx,the hotel internet literature advertised a complete bathroom.The hotel room had no bath, no nonslip tiles, no handrails, and a very small stand-up shower in which Mrs xxxx had to try and get washed holding herself up with one stick!There were no seats in the bathroom.A disabled friendly bathroom would have contained seats, handrails. nonslip tiles etc.In addition, the resturant food quality and variety was very limited, and flies were in abundance over open displays of buffet food.Nothing was refrigerated.Ms.B. XXX was ill for 3 days with severe diahorrea.The turkish Med-Hotel rep&Resort Manager agree with all of the above in their report, and, in addition, that the Pigale hotel is not suitable for disabled guests(photographs taken of all areas).Before asking to be moved to a more suitable hotel, we tried contacting First Choice in the UK, as I beleive did the Med-hOTELS rep without success!Left hotel in disgust on morning of 15th August for transfer to the Kustur Tropicarno.

Cost of upgrade £1016+taxi fares.This was forced on us as Med-Hotels said no suitable alternative accommodation was available.This was an all-inclusive hotel, and the 10 remaining days of payments made to the Pigale Hotel,£1798.57 was transferred to the Kustur plus our extra payment of £1016.This made the cost of the remaining holiday at the Kustur £2814.57!This all-inclusive hotel charged 3/5 euro for an ice cream,2.5 euro for an orange juice and 5 euro to dine at the ala- carte resturant.In the resturant non of the cold buffet food was refrigerated food was refrigerated,(air temperature was in excess of 30

centigrade) and the food was covered in flies every time we visited.Mr & Mrs. & Miss. B. XXX diahorrea which spoilt our remaining holiday.At night around 7pm agroundsman walked around the complex including near the pool blowing out blue noxious smoke into the air without any warning to the guests.This caused choking and wheezing in those of us who were caught up in the smoke trail.Three of us suffered from asthma!

on the 16/08/05,(2 days into this holiday)Mrs (grandmother)&Miss.B. xxx were sun bathing around the large pool. and while walking towards the pool toilets at about 3.30pm, both were caught in a blast of ammonia which came from a large quantity being poured indiscrimniately down a toilet bowl to try and clear a blockage in the main drain which runs adjacent to the pool area.No warning was given to the guests around the pool.Both suffered acute gasping breathing problems,(Miss. B. 10 YEARS OLD, sufferes from asthma)which required emergency treatment by the hotel doctor.Both retired to their rooms.Later that evening Mrs xxx required futher emergency treatment for breathing problems which involved Mr xxx taking Mrs xxx to the doctors' surgery rapidly by wheelchair.The doctor had so many patients that he was not able to come to Mrs xxx room!The effects of persistent coughing and sore chest persisted for 3 days.Despite the Med-Hotels' rep and Resort Managers' intervention the Kustur total mangement were totally completely unsympathetic, and said what they did with the ammonia was common practice!!!

Under the circumstances I feel entirely justified in claiming a complete refund of £2518 and £1016 claiming for mis-selling the holiday- no disabled facilities at the Pigale,loss of enjoyment,loss of value and pain and suffering.Unless a satisfactory resolution can be reached I will be taking my case to the small claims court.I expect a response within 14 days of receipt of this letter.

 

CC:Lloyds Credit Card Services.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3179.57

[jkr]

to the administrator: 13th Dec.

Can you please ask rosiecotton if she can reply to my quiery letter as soon as it is convenient?Than kyou.

[rosiecotton]

I think that's fine. Be prepared to negotiate with them though, if they come back with an offer. I think it's very unlikely they will offer a full refund and I think that as you will have had something from the holiday you won't legally be able to get all of the money back. No harm in asking though, just be prepared to be reasonable and negotiate with them.

[Sp00ky]

Sorry i havent read all the post, however, did you actually advise your travel agent at the time of booking or at any point after making the booking that there would be a disabled party member and the level of the disability as well?

[demon_x_slash]

the original phone booking we asked for full disabled assisstance,(one adult) at the airport, and obviously for the holiday- 3 adults, 2children.

 

First post.

[Bookworm]

to the administrator: 13th Dec.

Can you please ask rosiecotton if she can reply to my quiery letter as soon as it is convenient?Than kyou.

 

jkr, there is no point in asking this. Rosie is a regular user like yourself, she logs on when she can or wants to, and we have no way of knowing this.

 

Just keep on posting your posts like you have (don't worry about the date, it shows on the post you have created), and people will see it as it comes up in "new posts".

[jkr]

Can anyone comment?I am considering contacting local and national news media,(watchdog and others)to highlight the horrible circumstances of this'holiday' and the unsympathetic response from First Choicei.e. paltry offer of £100 compensation for the 'Kustur incident(gassing) ingnoring the disability claim.Would such an action predudice ant claim at the small claims' court?Any advice of similar cations would be greatly appreciated.

 

jkr.

[Bookworm]

Truthfully, there are 2 different things with no bearing on one another. In one case, you are hoping that the media spotlight would push them into action, in the other, you are using the judicial system. Personally, I have very little faith in the media route, as it often water off a duck's back in the case of those multi-million companies.

 

It wouldn't prejudice your claim, but it wouldn't help it either. Like I said, they are 2 different options.

 

Could you elaborate about why the travel insurance refused cover? Can you post here the letter of refusal and more information about the insurance company, please?

[Sp00ky]

right, ok so you advised them of this. Next thing, was this a First Choice holiday booked through a first choice branch or was it another TO's holiday booked through First Choice?

 

Theres method in my questioning... bear with

[jkr]

hello spooky,

The holiday was booked through a First Choice branch.

jkr.

[Sp00ky]

was it a first choice holiday or an airtours, thomas cook, sunset, jmc ?

[jkr]

hello spooky,

We booked from teletext on first choice page.The holiday as said was booked throught stockton branch of first choice.The flights were with thomas cook, and the resort agent was Med-Hotels.Hope this helps me.

jkr.

[jkr]

to rosiecotton, 15th Dec.

I have now sent off the letters to first choice ,and Lloyds card services.As you are aware this is a protracted case.I'm certain that based on past experience first choice will reject our letter, and reiterate their £100 offer.Are you able to advise me on the various steps I will need to go to to take the case to the small claims court where I'm suer it will end up?Thankyou in anticipation.

jkr.

[rosiecotton]

If they do not make you an offer that you feel is satisfactory, you will need to respond to this letter stating that you are rejecting their offer and unless they increase the offer by [reasonable time, say 10 days or so] you will be starting action in the small claims court.

 

If this date passes with still no reasonable offer, you will need to go to your local County Court and pick up some forms/guidance notes to begin your case. You can also do this online.

 

I can give more advice on what to do at this stage, but let's just see what their response to your letter is before starting work on the next stage

 

Let us know how you get on.