In the red corner we have moose (holiday lover and sun worshiper) and in the green corner (its their logo colour!) we have JMC (tight-fisted holiday company). DING DING! The battle commences! Ok…..what the heck am I on about….
To those of you that haven’t read my Bahamas op – I mentioned at the end of the opinion that despite opting for half board at my hotel, in theory I really got the room only basis (the food was so bad at the restaurant in my hotel that I would have sooner stayed in my room!).
The story begins! Having heard that eating out in the Bahamas is dead expensive we decided to opt for half board basis with our hotel (via JMC). This added an additional £224 per person on to the cost of the 14 day holiday which, when considering the average cost of eating out was around £25 per person for a 2 course meal, seemed pretty reasonable.
I was a little sceptical however, having been on a holiday to Tunisia about 5 years ago, again half board – the food was appalling! But that was Tunisia….and this was the Bahamas – a top destination for Americans who are fussy buggers and are always complaining! So the food and service had to be of a reasonable quality, right? WRONG!
I won’t go into the exact details, as this op is about JMC and not my hotel but all I will tell you is that the service was appalling and one of the restaurant ‘specials’ was spam in gravy…enough said! Anyway….after about 4 days of crap food and service I complained to the rep in our resort. She was very helpful and
said that she would sort things out with the restaurant manager. To cut a long story short – even though she tried, the restaurant situation still didn’t improve. We then wrote out a customer complaints form (essential to do in resort if you intend on complaining when you get home – you need your rep’s signature).
She was initially a bit apprehensive about giving us the form (obviously this didn’t look good on her ability to sort out problems in resort and thus prevent whingers like myself claiming dosh when they get back in the UK!). The form itself is quite small (obviously so as not to encourage pages of complaints like what I wanted to write!), so I had to ask for a couple of continuation sheets. Surprise! She didn’t carry these with her….but I insisted that she found some and delivered them a few days later. She was actually quite sympathetic and understood why we were complaining.
JMC Big Mistake No. 1…..She said that we were the first people at the hotel to have chosen the half board option (JMC clients made up a very small percentage of their total guests).
JMC Big Mistake No. 2….She pushed the hotel manager to try and sort it out, trying to take responsibility away from JMC – he was appalled with what had gone on, and offered us compensation direct from the hotel (my argument was that the compensation wasn’t adequate, and that I had a contract with JMC and not the hotel).
JMC Big Mistake No. 3…..She actually said that she would ‘back our statement up when we got back to the UK’. To me that is admitting there IS a problem (I was always taught to deny all responsibility for mistakes!!).
I have emphasised these mistakes as these are actually helping us claim for compensation.
Anyway, I had 28 days when I returned to the UK to complain…..and within 24 hours my 3 page letter was in registered post (I cannot stress how important it is to register letters like this so that they require a signature at their end to prove receipt). They say that they usually send out an acknowledgement letter within 7 days and send a full reply within 28 days. I didn’t receive an acknowledgement letter but after 10 days I received their full explanation.
I must say that at this point I claimed £448 (the cost of half board) plus an additional £400 for the additional cost of eating out (as in the final week we hardly ate in the restaurant and it was quite expensive to eat out).
Their letter pointed out that our hotel had won awards for its service and that ‘our internal statistics, which are compiled from our customers’ feedback, do not indicate that the quality and variety of the food served in the restaurant has been a cause for concern’. This is where Big Mistake No. 1 will come into play! Their rep actually told me that we were the first guests she had known to opt for half board. So now I am questioning the reliability of these statistics!
The sheer fact of Big Mistake No.2 offering compensation – already admits liability! I am pointing that out in my second letter! And the most blatant mistake is that of No. 3 – the rep said that she would back our statement when we returned to the UK – again to me this is admitting liability!
So…in their first letter what are they offering??? This is the biggest joke of all! They have sent me a voucher worth £350 off my next holiday with JMC to be taken before 02/08/02!!!! Who in their right mind would settle for this?!
So back to the red corner, moose has just typed up a letter mentioning that she thinks their statistics are totally unreliable (the rep said!) and that at this present time she is unsure whether she will be travelling with JMC again after this experience. I have also mentioned that we are considering arbitration (if you don’t know about this service offered by ABTA find out about it now! – a mere mention of it has travel companies trembling in their boots!), and also thinking of contacting the relevant media (that includes my op on Ciao!).
I cannot yet conclude this opinion as it is still in the making! Look forward to another juicy instalment soon. For now, 2 stars (the rep was quite helpful in resort – and hopefully helpful in giving us a case for compensation!). Everything else about them seemed average - the sales patter of trying to book us on some 'wonderful' trips was standard and so was the general level of attentiveness.
To be continued......
UPDATE 7 SEPTEMBER -------------------- I have won!!!! Following the offer of the £350 voucher and several phone calls they offered me £350 cash. This took many painstaking phone calls to a woman called Jennie Harrop (I believe in naming and shaming!). This person kept promising to return my calls but never did (and I have later found out that she didn't even update my file on computer - there was no record of my many phone calls). I only got some joy when she finally left the company last week (I think she was fobbing me off knowing that she would be leaving!).
Anyway, my case was taken up but another member of the JMC team, who I have to say was extremely helpful and returned my calls when he promised he would. I really wanted the half board supplement back (£448) and refused to settle at £350, again threatening arbitration - it was a matter of principle rather than the extra £98. I finally received a phone call, as promised, this morning saying that they agreed to my demand of £448 - a cheque is in the post! Sorted!
I have only one complaint with regard to how this problem was solved and that lies entirely with Jennie Harrop - she was appalling and I urge JMC to not give any new complaint cases to staff that are leaving. Right up to her last day, she was supposed to ring me but never did.
I would recommend anyone with holiday problems to do the following:
*Take up the problem in your resort
*Ensure that you complete holiday complaint forms IN RESORT
*Take photo/video recordings (write your own notes too)
*Complain in writing as soon as you get home
*Phone ABTA for advice & look at the Holiday Watch website
*DO NOT GIVE UP & SETTLE FOR SOMETHING YOU DON'T REALLY AGREE WITH
*But be realistic - 60% of the holiday cost will usually be the flight costs, and if this was ok, you are unlikely to be able to claim the total cost of your holiday back unless you can prove that the holiday company has broken the law/ABTA rules
Your review made very interesting reading, I found it concise and to the point, and really glad you won, though it makes think that surely big companies like this should own up in the 1st place rather than drag it out, maybe if they did this then it may give them a chance to redeem themselves. Good tips as well. - Thanks Phil:)
MRSCANADA 17.03.2002 01:04
Finished reading your page 3...I see so far you have received 2 awards..congratulations..LL
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Aug 5th, 2001
(Sep 7th, 2001)
very helpful by (99%):
helpful by (1%):
