Complaint against TUI- advice please

So in August the other half and I decided that we needed to get out of the UK for some sun. We just wanted somewhere that was cheap, guaranteed sunshine and somewhere where we did not have to lift a finger.

Against my better judgement we decided on booking a holiday to Sharm El Sheikh with Thomson.

At resort we were approached by the Thomson rep who successfully sold us an excursion up to Cairo based upon a number of promises/reassurances. Had it not been for her promises/reassurances we would not have booked the trip.

We go off on the trip to find that the rep had essentially missold us the excursion and all the 'promises/reassurances' were false.

In resort we complan to said rep who promises to get back to us and then promptly avoided us for the last three days of our holiday.

Upon our return to the UK I fire off a suitably worded letter and threw in some legal jargon that I managed to pull from the back of my brain from my contract law days at law school. Thomson don't acknowledge my letter at all but promise a response in 28 days. 28 days passes, so ring and get some rather condensending man who states that they are working as fast as possible.

This evening I come home from work to find a letter from Thomson which basically states:

- Sorry that we didn't enjoy the excursion;
- they do not take responsiblity for their reps comments or the excursion itself as they only act as agent (!) for the excursion company;
- sorry the rep didnt come back to me in resort;
- thanks for our feedback but no refund.

Now my thoughts are as follows:
- At no time did I believe that I was entering into a contract with the excursion company;
- The excursion was sold to me as a Thomson Excursion by a Thomson rep;
- I was not told at any point that my contract was with another operator and indeed the rep went to great length to talk about 'Thomson Excursions' etc;
- Therefore in my view my contract was with Thomson and not the excursion company who Thomson asked to act as their agent (co-incidently, the excursion company, happens to have a stake in Tui and vice verser).

My gut thoughts are that Thomson are just trying to fob me off.

I wanted to get your views before I fire a response back. Any thoughts/suggestions?

I agree, they have a cheek. Vicarious liability?

Hi Willd

Sorry to hear of your disappointing excursion & lack of suitable compensation.

Do you belong to WHICH Legal Services?

I have rung them several times over the past few years when I did not receive a suitable reply from a holiday company/airline etc.

They have not failed to give me prompt, supportive, qualified advice, which I have taken on each ocassion & have had each matter resolved to a more than satisfactory conclusion.

It may be worth joining just to reslove this matter to your satisfaction.

Good luck.

TTFN R-P

Perserve with Thomson (Tui) they can be difficult to get anything out of them, if you ring always ask for a supervisor and keep going up the chain. They are waiting for people to get fed up with the wait and not bother any further or other such a small recompense its hardly worth it.

Say what you want them to do for you IE: Full refund, partial etc but keep going if you feel strongly enough. y)

Don't ABTA have a complaints service?

Failing that take them to the small claims court. It's not like going to proper court and you can do it all online too

I was going to suggest a trade association complaints service, too; also might look at whether major newspapers run columns in their travel sections on this sort of stuff, where they take this up for you. I'd usually want to avoid having to take it to court, though I have to say that if their rep sold you something I can't imagine how they could disclaim responsibility for it just because it's not "their product" they sold you. That sort of reasoning would seem to absolve any reseller from any responsibility, a pretty ridiculous notion.