Travel City DIrect

[nuttytart]

I would like anyone who has had the pleasure of travelling with TCD and had also booked a villa thru them to PM me about their experiences esp the bad ones.

We arrived on April 3rd, flight no problems, car hire no problems, getting instructions to villa and access code to villa no problem.

However the problems started once we found the villa. It was pitch dark, we are tired and cold and very hungry. Hurray we thought at least we have a home to go to. Alas no. We used the access code to get the key from the lock box outside the villa and unlock the front door and found that the villa was already occupied by another family. Luckily for them that we are trustworthy people otherwise they would have come back to a very empty villa! (they were out at the time).

Thinking that we may have the wrong address, we drive around for another hour only to come back to the same place.

We then use the emergency phone number that was given to us only to be told that it wasn't their problem but TCD's. We eventually get hold of a TCD agent who tells us to find our own accomodation for the night and they will sort it out the next day.

We drive around a bit more but all hotels along 192 are unable find any rooms (we needed 2 as we were 2 families). By now it is 10.30 pm, the kids are tired and cranky and hungry and we are all totally fed up. So ring the agent again and tell her to sort it out and it takes her an hour to get us into POP century for the night. In the end we ended up staying there for 3 nights before being allocated a villa in Formosa.

The villa was not what we had wanted but being totally fed up by now we just accept it.

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ANYONE OUT WHO HAS HAD THIS EXPERIENCE AND WHAT COMPENSATION THEY RECEIVED.

 

[KayleeUK]

I can certainly appreciate you were not happy with this.

How was the rest of your trip?

 

[Grumpy John]

Total refund plus some form of compensation. No question. Plus payment for Pop Century.

No quibbling. TCD not for the first time (we had problems) have totally lashed up someones holiday with their reps showing no interest at all.

The quicker people realise they can do it cheaper and with less hassle using the internet the quicker these travel companies will get their act together.

Good luck with whatever you do.

 

[nuttytart]

They already refunded the cost of the POP Century Hotel and are offering a further £405 (of which a mere £10 for phone calls). We are asking them to refund the entire cost of the villa (£1180).

 

[AlexE]

I would expect them to refund the whole cost of villa - between TCD and the management company, who TCD paid, they messed up big time - and as usual the paying customer is left to pick up the pieces. As for them telling you to find your own accommodation at 10.30 at night, what more can I say.

I would send them a letter stating that you feel you are more that entitled to the full refund of the villa plus some form of compensation for inconvenience for 3-4 nights not knowing what the outcome would be. You could also advise them that you are a member of a message board (not sure if you can name names here) and perhaps members of that message board would be interested in your experience along with the TV programme Watch Dog.

In my one experience with TCD, I found that you do have to be the terrier with the bone and keep telling them what you want very clearly. They do come through in the end, or they did in my case.

Hope you get a satisfactory settlement.

AlexE

 

[Miffy2003]

Hello,

I have never travelled with TCD but I just wanted to say, how awful for you and I hope you get it sorted out. Good luck.

Karen

 

[Netty]

god, what awful treatment you had. TCD DO read the comments on this board so lets hope that they get in contact with you over the whole matter.
Good Luck
Jeanette

 

[chucklechops]

Don't let them get away with it, We had a similiar experience a few years ago, not with your company.
They will never accept liability and always call their offer a goodwill gesture!!
We wrote a few letters and always got as usuall somebody who always gave us a different story everytime ( sound familiar ?)
Anyway they were ABTA bonded so we took them to arbitration and Won infact as soon as they recieved our paperwork they settled our total holiday cost and some.
Don't let these people win, You should never have had to experience what you went through, thats why most people book with travel agents so everything is sorted.
I have to say I agree with Grumpyjohn and we always book everything ourselfs, direct with villa owners, airlines car hire etc you name it, It's not as hard as it looks and saves a lot of money, Yes thing's could go wrong (touch wood we have always been lucky ) but then you have only yourself to blame.
Anyway Im sorry that it didn't work out for you with TCD don't be taken in by them demand the full amount back hope it works out
Chucklechops

 

[nuttytart]

Our rep refused to come out to us and it was quite scary to find our way onto HW 192 to get to any decent hotel and try and get 2 rooms at 10pm at night only to be turned away.

Our villa was supposed to be in Calabay Parc. And it was lovely villa too as we had good look around it just so we could compare it to whatever we'd got offered.

4 days later we ended up in Oak Island Cove off Formosa. The instructions given to us were for Oak Island Harbour so we spent 30 minutes in that part looking for "Playing Otter Drive", even stopping to ask for directions from tourist and just when we were about to give up, I spotted "Playing Otter Court" and it was across the road in Oak Island Cove.

We entered the villa using the key from the lock box only to find that the property was alarmed and we had no de-activation code. Luckily the lady next door knew and managed to save the day. She told us that we were not expected until the next day!

The villa was small. We had booked a 4 bed exec with pool heating. It had basic furnishinings and only 1 thru lounge/diner/kitchen.

The villa had only 1 tv. The 2 masters didn't have a proper bathroom only showers. THe pool was small. When all 8 of us got in there was barely any space to swim. (I don't expect Olympic size, just large enough for the party occupying the house)

The pool was not heated and took 48 hours to heat. It had no pool cover to retain the heat. The villa only had 7 towels (we hadn't bothered to take any from here as you expect the villa to provide them). The management company came thru for with all these things.

There were only 2 deck chairs of which 1 was broken. It had only the basic plastic patio table with 4 chairs (this is a villa for 8)!

The pool had no lights so you couldn't swim at night.

You couldn't use the phone as it wanted your credit card details even to use a phone card on it. It wouldn't let in incoming calls. The owner had diverted it to a messaging service which we had no access to. SO nobody from home could call us.


I could go on...

Oh yes one more very important thing - 2 live cockroaches in the villa!

 

[JANNYANS]

Well what a tale of woe -but I am not surprised it happened at Easter as I know a lot of the booking agents drastically over booked homes for the holiday period and were asking for anyone with a home if they had space but unfortunately most of the homes that the ownerswho book their home themselves were already booked and had been for a long time.

This happens quite often with agent bookings which is why they are reluctant to give out actual subdivisions in advance -so they can move you around at will which isn't good for the holiday maker or the owner as the booking sometimes disappears.

I would not let TCD get away with this claim for everything you can after all it spoilt your holiday keep a record of everything you send them and don't give up .
Good luck

 

[MsPennieLane]

Wow, how awful this happened to you - you must have been seething I wouldn't use TCD again if you paid me. We had problems with flight delays due to techical hitches (there and back!) with them and they refused to give us any compensation, even having the nerve to basically call us liars saying we were the only ones who complained and even including 2 letters from supposed people praising them There was no happy person in our party of 400 so I think they got someone's mum to do it Seriously tho, I really hope you get 100% refund for the villa - the way you've been treated is disgusting. It may be cheaper at the mo to go with TCD but I'd rather spend a little more on either going with someone more reputable or doing it DIY by using the net. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Anz

 

[patdavies]

Very interesting

We also flew with TCD on 3rd April and were diverted to another villa on arrival because the booked one in Calabay Parc "was unavailable".

We eventually found the other villa - in the dark - in Windward Bay. We were given the address of Madison Court, but the villa (actaully a multiplex) was a gated area called Madison Circle. This villa had not been cleaned and had no pool; by this time it was 11:00 pm local and we just went to bed.

It took two days to get TCD to sort out a villa and then only in response to a threat to get the next available scheduled flight home and sue TCD for the total cost.

The villa they finally gave us was OK, but without the pool heating we had paid for and when this was activated it took 48 hours to come to temperature. We were unable to visit parks, not knowing when we would have to move. When the local rep tols us the address of the new villa, she said that we could claim a refund oin 1 week's villa hire cost. I shall be writing to TCD by the end ogf this week to claim this and point out that if I do not recieve payment within 14 days then the next contact will be a county court summons and interest will be added to the debt at the base rate. I do not intend to get into a long drawn out string of letters/conversations or excuses.argument about it

The oher part of TCD's holiday that I take issue with is the pre and post flight passenger handling. We had paid ffor first class and did not get priority boarding or disembarkation or priority baggage handoing in either direction.

Pat Davies

 

[Shropshire Saint]

I have just posted on the Trip Report board something similar but I will repeat it here. I have travelled with TCD 5 times, the last 2 times with EAL Sunshine First. The only problem we had was with the baggage in Sanford.
TCD take note, as a direct response to the number of people on these boards having problems with after sales service, I have booked Virgin PE for £300 more than TCD offered.
The true test of a company is how it deals with problems or faults. It appears TCD dont know how too, I can not risk having the same potential problems with 2 boys under 3. I would hate to imagine experiencing what you guys had to.

 

[MsPennieLane]

We too have booked Virgin's Premium Economy for our next trip. I'm a very nervous flyer and after the fiasco with TCD (I wouldn't mind if we had technical problems going out there but coming back too??? My nerves were a wreck!). Booking the holiday DIY, we are paying the same amount of money for our Christmas trip that we paid for our last one through TCD, which is why we are going again so soon. TCD don't know how to deal with problems and their levels of customer service are disgusting. I really hope you get all your money back from them, you certainly deserve it.

Anz

 

[allie5]

This is an interesting thread.

I know Travel City management used to monitor these boards and be very helpful and supportive to people. I had a problem on an EAL flight last year and was PM'd direct by a member of their team...so I hope they still look in and are going to do something about the downward spiral they have been on of late.

We have used them about 5 times, but after last years holiday, we will have to think carefully about whether we would ever use them again. I didnt suffer huge problems, but TCD showed no interest in solving the issues I had...It worries me what would happen if I did have a BIG problem, like some of you have experienced.

TCD became successful, largely due to word of mouth (and Disney boards like this), you could always rely on them to get you a bargain trip to FL. What they need to SERIOUSLY consider, is that bad press travels 10x faster than good! Its in their own interests to offer a top notch customer service team, NOT the disinterested, rude and unhelpful one that is in place at the moment.

In my opinion, I think they got to big to quickly. One minute they were offering charter fly drives and the next they have their own airline. Seems to me the customer service team needs to grow a little faster???

Anyone from TCD lurking, that would care to comment?

Allie

 

[poet123]

There is a certain thread on another site(not sure if I can mention the name so I wont) which had over 5,000 views on the subject of TRAVEL CITY DIRECT and thier lack of customer care! go read

 

[edie w]

Originally posted by nuttytart
They already refunded the cost of the POP Century Hotel and are offering a further £405 (of which a mere £10 for phone calls). We are asking them to refund the entire cost of the villa (£1180).

According to Which you should write to them and ask for compensation - not a refund - for loss of enjoyment. You shouldn't specify an amount, but their compensation should be based on how much of your holiday was ruined and for the distress caused.

£400 seems inadequate to me if there were at least 6 of you inconvenienced for 3 full days, and then given a villa which failed to meet up to description. I'm guessing this represents approx 10% of the whole holiday - but well over 10% of your holiday was ruined.

I should try ABTA arbitration if writing to them doesn't work.