Our first foreign holiday for ten years.
I've just had reason to complain to TUI about a holiday me and my wife have just come back from - here's my email to them-
Arrived at Tenerife South Airport on Friday 28th February to be greeted by Giuseppe - the TUI representative. He directed us, along with four other couples, to a nearby wall where a driver took us to a minibus waiting to transport us to our respective hotels. On trying to board it with her hand luggage, the driver told my wife that there was no space for this on board and he removed it, placing it in the rear of the vehicle. We were the penultimate couple to be dropped off. On exiting the vehicle, I went to the rear and the driver passed us our two suitcases. Clearly on a tight schedule, he got back in the minibus and proceeded to drive off. In the ten seconds or so it took for us to orient ourselves and realise the hand luggage was still on the minibus, he'd driven off.
No direct contact number for Giuseppe was on any literature so the hotel staff began trying to contact him on our behalf. A couple of hours later, he arrived at the hotel and listened to our story. We told him how my wife's medication - namely Ventolin asthma inhaler, Metformin for diabetes, Nortriptyline for fibromyalgia, omeprazole for acid reflux as well as Zapain for pain relief - as well as her bank card and mobile telephone were in the hand luggage, and it was imperative we got her medicine as soon as possible. He did not make a written report (catching another TUI rep by chance - Francesca - a few days later, she said one of the first things to be done was to complete a written Lost/Stolen report. She's a credit to them, by the way.) He made no mention, other than a costly visit to hospital for a prescription that he said would cost in the region of 200 Euros, of how we could get my wife's prescription medicine. He said we could try one of the pharmacies to see what "over-the-counter" medicine we could get. Not being familiar with Spanish pharmacies - expecting them to operate similarly to UK pharmacies with qualified pharmacists - I went to the nearest one, spending just under thirty Euros for medication I was told was "stronger than Zapain" and "better than Omeprazole." I later found the pain relief medication was a herbal supplement with extract of pineapple and turmeric, and the acid reflux medicine was similar to Rennies.
We told Giuseppe that the hand luggage - simply a blue fabric holdall - could only be in one of a few places and he said he'd try and contact staff at the depot. The next day, when we asked him, he'd not managed to contact them. The next day, he quickly showed me an email saying that the holdall had not been located. A visit to the local police station was futile, as not a single police officer spoke English to an effective enough level to take a statement from my wife - instead feebly handing her a slip of paper with a telephone number to contact, prior to returning to the station to make a statement.
When my wife stressed again to Giuseppe how important her medication was, and asked if there'd been any success in locating the holdall at the depot, he informed her that it was not company policy to look inside bags, as allegations could be made about money going missing. This strikes me as completely fabricated, to avoid the effort of looking for something. I fail to see how contraband substances, such as drugs/weapons, could be located without a bag being opened. What Giuseppe did manage to do was talk in great length to my wife about his family's beer brewing business in Sicily, and the fact that he'd recently had a collision in his new car. Under different circumstances, all very interesting, but he seemed to be using the car accident as an excuse for not trying harder to resolve our problem, as he remarked to my wife that, "my head's been on other things" because of his car.
On Wednesday - my wife's birthday - my wife had had enough of him seemingly fobbing us off with excuses and asked to speak to his supervisor. He contacted her by mobile 'phone - "Pat," I believe her name was, and she started the conversation with my wife by saying she believed "you'd just recently lost your hand luggage with your medication in." My wife said she seemed surprised, when she learned it was actually Friday it was lost, that this was our first contact with her. My wife then passed the telephone to me, to speak to her, as I knew the names of the medication. With thirty seconds, she had given me clear directions to a proper pharmacy - which was only around 150 yards from our hotel - and explained the difference between a "farmacia" and "parafarmacia." If I'd have known this on Friday, I'd have been able to get most of my wife's medication and her health wouldn't have deteriorated to the level it had. I am amazed that Giuseppe did not pass this information onto us immediately - instead allowing me to buy herbal supplements.
As a direct result of Giuseppe's inaction, we were not able to travel more than a quarter of a mile or so, as my wife did not have her ventolin inhaler for her asthma until Wednesday afternoon. Consequently, we missed out on the excursions we had planned to celebrate her 60th birthday, and our first foreign holiday in just over ten years.
We still have not got the hand luggage back and I fully expect, now we've left the island, that Giuseppe's already feeble efforts at locating it will reduce to nothing.
One last note in relation to my wife's 60th birthday; on their app, there was a section for me to complete additional information of this nature, which I did - hoping for something in the way of a small cake or even flowers. Nothing - nothing at all.
In light of the very poor level of service given to us by your representative, though he was aware of my wife's medical conditions, I'd like compensation - in the form of a "2 for the price of 1" holiday voucher - to be considered.
This was their reply -
Good Morning Mrs Galvin,
We are sorry to hear that on your recent holiday your hand bag was left on the coach with your medication and personal belongings in it.
I can see that you reported this in resort and that the Representative there was not helpful, for this i truly apologise.
On the booking confirmation we do provide a 24/7 Holiday line number and they may have been able to assist you better than the Rep in resort .
Unfortunately i can see that they were unable to get this luggage back to you .
I can also see that on your booking there was a note stating that there was a birthday whilst in resort and that nothing was done to help you celebrate this , sadly as this is a request only it is down to the hoteliers to provide anything to make it more special and a it is a request only this can not be guaranteed.
I would like to offer you a Holiday Voucher for the amount of £50.00 ( fifty pounds) as a Gesture Of Goodwill for the inconvenience caused by all of this but i would be unable to offer you a voucher for the "2 for the price of 1" holiday that you were looking for.
I am sorry if you were looking for a larger amount of compensation but we have our guidelines to follow and in this instance that is the total amount to be offered.
The voucher will be sent to your home address and will arrive within 28 days.
Please accept my apologies again in relation to what happened.
Yours sincerely
Louise
Senior Advisor
Customer Support Team
TUI UK & I
Obviously, this was an unsatisfactory offer - the cost of the medicine alone was not covered by it - so I let them know in another email. Here's their response -
Dear Julia Galvin ,
Thank you for contacting us again regarding your recent holiday.
I am very sorry that you were disappointed with our previous reply, and that this remains a source of disappointment to you. It was a genuine and open apology for the upset you experienced.
I have taken the opportunity to review all correspondence and notes, and whilst I acknowledge your comments and feelings, I must concur with the response and explanation given by my colleague. I feel the offer made was reasonable and this will remain our position.
I do thank you again for contacting us, and despite your expressed feelings, do hope that we may indeed have the pleasure of welcoming you back again in the near future.
Kind Regards,
Dilshear
Senior Agent
After Travel Customer Service
Considering the cost of replacement medicine alone was over 80 Euros, their offer of a paltry £50 voucher is nothing less than offensive. I don't think it was unreasonable for me to ask for a 2 for 1 voucher, as my wife's holiday was completely spoiled by them and mine was spoiled, as my wife was poorly.
If you are considering booking a holiday, and you think there's even the remotest chance you may encounter a problem, I'd seriously consider using another tour operator than TUI - it would seem they pay lip-service only to the idea of customer service.
Arrived at Tenerife South Airport on Friday 28th February to be greeted by Giuseppe - the TUI representative. He directed us, along with four other couples, to a nearby wall where a driver took us to a minibus waiting to transport us to our respective hotels. On trying to board it with her hand luggage, the driver told my wife that there was no space for this on board and he removed it, placing it in the rear of the vehicle. We were the penultimate couple to be dropped off. On exiting the vehicle, I went to the rear and the driver passed us our two suitcases. Clearly on a tight schedule, he got back in the minibus and proceeded to drive off. In the ten seconds or so it took for us to orient ourselves and realise the hand luggage was still on the minibus, he'd driven off.
No direct contact number for Giuseppe was on any literature so the hotel staff began trying to contact him on our behalf. A couple of hours later, he arrived at the hotel and listened to our story. We told him how my wife's medication - namely Ventolin asthma inhaler, Metformin for diabetes, Nortriptyline for fibromyalgia, omeprazole for acid reflux as well as Zapain for pain relief - as well as her bank card and mobile telephone were in the hand luggage, and it was imperative we got her medicine as soon as possible. He did not make a written report (catching another TUI rep by chance - Francesca - a few days later, she said one of the first things to be done was to complete a written Lost/Stolen report. She's a credit to them, by the way.) He made no mention, other than a costly visit to hospital for a prescription that he said would cost in the region of 200 Euros, of how we could get my wife's prescription medicine. He said we could try one of the pharmacies to see what "over-the-counter" medicine we could get. Not being familiar with Spanish pharmacies - expecting them to operate similarly to UK pharmacies with qualified pharmacists - I went to the nearest one, spending just under thirty Euros for medication I was told was "stronger than Zapain" and "better than Omeprazole." I later found the pain relief medication was a herbal supplement with extract of pineapple and turmeric, and the acid reflux medicine was similar to Rennies.
We told Giuseppe that the hand luggage - simply a blue fabric holdall - could only be in one of a few places and he said he'd try and contact staff at the depot. The next day, when we asked him, he'd not managed to contact them. The next day, he quickly showed me an email saying that the holdall had not been located. A visit to the local police station was futile, as not a single police officer spoke English to an effective enough level to take a statement from my wife - instead feebly handing her a slip of paper with a telephone number to contact, prior to returning to the station to make a statement.
When my wife stressed again to Giuseppe how important her medication was, and asked if there'd been any success in locating the holdall at the depot, he informed her that it was not company policy to look inside bags, as allegations could be made about money going missing. This strikes me as completely fabricated, to avoid the effort of looking for something. I fail to see how contraband substances, such as drugs/weapons, could be located without a bag being opened. What Giuseppe did manage to do was talk in great length to my wife about his family's beer brewing business in Sicily, and the fact that he'd recently had a collision in his new car. Under different circumstances, all very interesting, but he seemed to be using the car accident as an excuse for not trying harder to resolve our problem, as he remarked to my wife that, "my head's been on other things" because of his car.
On Wednesday - my wife's birthday - my wife had had enough of him seemingly fobbing us off with excuses and asked to speak to his supervisor. He contacted her by mobile 'phone - "Pat," I believe her name was, and she started the conversation with my wife by saying she believed "you'd just recently lost your hand luggage with your medication in." My wife said she seemed surprised, when she learned it was actually Friday it was lost, that this was our first contact with her. My wife then passed the telephone to me, to speak to her, as I knew the names of the medication. With thirty seconds, she had given me clear directions to a proper pharmacy - which was only around 150 yards from our hotel - and explained the difference between a "farmacia" and "parafarmacia." If I'd have known this on Friday, I'd have been able to get most of my wife's medication and her health wouldn't have deteriorated to the level it had. I am amazed that Giuseppe did not pass this information onto us immediately - instead allowing me to buy herbal supplements.
As a direct result of Giuseppe's inaction, we were not able to travel more than a quarter of a mile or so, as my wife did not have her ventolin inhaler for her asthma until Wednesday afternoon. Consequently, we missed out on the excursions we had planned to celebrate her 60th birthday, and our first foreign holiday in just over ten years.
We still have not got the hand luggage back and I fully expect, now we've left the island, that Giuseppe's already feeble efforts at locating it will reduce to nothing.
One last note in relation to my wife's 60th birthday; on their app, there was a section for me to complete additional information of this nature, which I did - hoping for something in the way of a small cake or even flowers. Nothing - nothing at all.
In light of the very poor level of service given to us by your representative, though he was aware of my wife's medical conditions, I'd like compensation - in the form of a "2 for the price of 1" holiday voucher - to be considered.
This was their reply -
Good Morning Mrs Galvin,
We are sorry to hear that on your recent holiday your hand bag was left on the coach with your medication and personal belongings in it.
I can see that you reported this in resort and that the Representative there was not helpful, for this i truly apologise.
On the booking confirmation we do provide a 24/7 Holiday line number and they may have been able to assist you better than the Rep in resort .
Unfortunately i can see that they were unable to get this luggage back to you .
I can also see that on your booking there was a note stating that there was a birthday whilst in resort and that nothing was done to help you celebrate this , sadly as this is a request only it is down to the hoteliers to provide anything to make it more special and a it is a request only this can not be guaranteed.
I would like to offer you a Holiday Voucher for the amount of £50.00 ( fifty pounds) as a Gesture Of Goodwill for the inconvenience caused by all of this but i would be unable to offer you a voucher for the "2 for the price of 1" holiday that you were looking for.
I am sorry if you were looking for a larger amount of compensation but we have our guidelines to follow and in this instance that is the total amount to be offered.
The voucher will be sent to your home address and will arrive within 28 days.
Please accept my apologies again in relation to what happened.
Yours sincerely
Louise
Senior Advisor
Customer Support Team
TUI UK & I
Obviously, this was an unsatisfactory offer - the cost of the medicine alone was not covered by it - so I let them know in another email. Here's their response -
Dear Julia Galvin ,
Thank you for contacting us again regarding your recent holiday.
I am very sorry that you were disappointed with our previous reply, and that this remains a source of disappointment to you. It was a genuine and open apology for the upset you experienced.
I have taken the opportunity to review all correspondence and notes, and whilst I acknowledge your comments and feelings, I must concur with the response and explanation given by my colleague. I feel the offer made was reasonable and this will remain our position.
I do thank you again for contacting us, and despite your expressed feelings, do hope that we may indeed have the pleasure of welcoming you back again in the near future.
Kind Regards,
Dilshear
Senior Agent
After Travel Customer Service
Considering the cost of replacement medicine alone was over 80 Euros, their offer of a paltry £50 voucher is nothing less than offensive. I don't think it was unreasonable for me to ask for a 2 for 1 voucher, as my wife's holiday was completely spoiled by them and mine was spoiled, as my wife was poorly.
If you are considering booking a holiday, and you think there's even the remotest chance you may encounter a problem, I'd seriously consider using another tour operator than TUI - it would seem they pay lip-service only to the idea of customer service.
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