 Thomas Cook Probs. Any advice
Just found this forum. Looks very ineteresting with some good quality advice and detail. Anyway, heres my little story of which i`m obviously not happy about and don`t know if anything can be done.
Round about the 26th/27th March I phoned a Thomas Cook branch with an Intenarary for a holiday in Thailand all through their Thomas Cook Signature brochure, of which I wanted them to qoute me on. They came back with a decent price and i chose to go ahead and book it. The holiday was for 18 nights in Thailand covering 3 destinations and was due to to begin 22nd Feb 08.
Prior to booking i was made aware that the flight timetables for the internal flights were not yet available due to being too far in advance but i would chose the times once available with no problems. I was also made aware that the rooms at two of the 3 hotels i would be staying at would be on a request basis. This is normal as I was requesting to upgraded rooms from the standard type and normally Thomas Cook Signature would contact the hotel direct and request the upgraded room as part of their room allocation of which this is normally a 48-72 hour process.
On the 28th March I was not back at my work on an offshore platform at which point i decided to go ahead and proceed with this booking so phoned Thomas Cook branch and paid £300 deposit via debit card over phone. I told the travel agent that as my girlfriend worked opposite the branch she would pop in and pick up the paperwork in a couple of days.
On 30th March my girlfriend went into branch to pick up the paperwork. The travel agent i had been dealing with was off work so she dealt with another travel agent whom she asked was everything ok with the booking and everything came back available. The travel agent told her yes, all the rooms have came back available but the internal flight times were not available. This was as expected. We expected rooms to be available yet we knew the internal flight times would not be due to being too far ahead. At this point the travel agent handed her the relevenat paperwork and asked if she would sign the booking forms. At this point my girlfriend refused and told the travel agent that she could not sign the booking form as she was not the lead name on the booking and that i would sign them once i returned from work. Travel agent had no problem with this. My girlfrined left the shop with the Thomas Cook paperwork stating the Itenarary we wished and had a breakdown of the costs and showed deposit being paid and what was left to be paid. This was an official Thomas Cook document in my eyes and even stated at the top. "Thomas Cook Signature Package Holiday - Confirmed."
However, on Tuesday 10th April (11 days after my girlfriend picked up paperwork) as i returned from being offshore I recived a voicemail on my mobile aksing me to contact the Thomas Cook branch as there was a problem with the booking. I phoned the branch immediatley and was that we could no longer have the room type at one of the hotels as Thomas Cook Sig said it was fully booked. I found this a bit strange since we had previously asked if everything was ok, had recived paperwork saying confirmed, had paid deposit and was even asked to sign the booking form as well as the fact that the holiday was nearly 11 months away.
To be fair, the travel agent also admitted that she though this was strange that the room would be fully booked, so said she would ask Thomas Cook Signature to look into it again. During this time i decided to email the hotel direct and aksed if they had this room type available on the dates i was looking for and they emailed be stating that the room type was available so therefor not fully booked at all.
By this point a couple of days had passed without any correspondance with Thomas Cook and was on my way to see them when i got a phone call saying they were still looking into it. I told them that i knew that the room was not fully booked and i was on my way to branch to get this sorted out.
Between me hanging up and the 5 minutes getting to the branch the travel agent had took it upon herself to phone the hotel direct and alos found that the room was available. She then said she`d go back to Thomas Cook Signature and ask what was going on.
By this point i had enough and said i wanted to speak to their customer services department. I had the pleasure of dealing with a member of the customer services team who worked in the branch there and then who`s attitude was rather poor to say the least so asked for a contact number for to speak to someone in customer services who did not have any allegiance with the branch. I phoned customer services once i left the branch and explained what was going on and was then told i`d need to phone Thomas Cook Signature. Got put through and Thomas Cook Sig said as it was a holiday which had not taken place yet then it was up to me to sort out with the branch where it was booked. I explained the situation and that the branch were saying it wasn`t there problem, that it was Thomas Cook Sig. She was a nice woman and decided to look into the matter for me.
She got in touch with the branch who then got in touch with me after another couple of days and the same rude member of the in-branch customer service team told me that the hotel was not releasing the room to Thomas Cook Sig as they reckoned they could make more money by selling the room direct.
To try and keep this shorter, I then said i was not happy as i had recieved paperwork stating package holiday confirmed. Thomas Cook shop was saying they had never told me that the rooms were available and were still on request of which they clearly did. I said i was taking this further. On the 23rd April i recieved a voicemail from the same in-branch customer service member stating that she had refunded my deposit. At no time had i asked them to cancel the holiday/refund deposit as i was still believing I was chasing this issue up and worst come to worst i would have had a possible look at changing hotels or even room types depending on what prices/options the gave me.
My grievance is,
Why did i get told the rooms were available ok and girlfriend asked to sign paperwork.
Why did I recieve confirmation paperwork, never once recieved paperwork stating still on request as i know that usually happens with travel agents to cover their bums.
Why did i get a phone call 11 days after receiving the paperwork to say there was a problem with the room.?
Why during all this did they not try and settle this by enticing me to change the holiday by offering me qoutes on other room types or hotels.?
Why did i feel like i was dealing with someone different everytime ias had correspondance.?
Why was my deposit refunded without informing me beforehand or even asked.?
Anyone have any opinions on any of this.?
Sorry its a bit long winded. | 
