Thomas Cook claim for compensation, ABTA arbitration or Small claims court ?

[grahamtabby]

Some impartial advice needed with this one please.

In May 2018 i had a 2 week all inclusive holiday to Cuba at what should have been a 4 star resort (as stated on my booking confirmation) The holday we experienced was far from 4 star, I would be generous to grant it 2 stars. After 1 week of cold food being served with flies, 2 days where the resort could not serve beer or cold drinks due to power cuts in a very run down and in need of extensive repair resort we complained to our thomas cook rep (the same rep short changed me when I booked an excursion earlier in the week so I did not trust him) we told him we did not feel this was the standard of a 4 star resort that we had paid for, this was our 5th visit to cuba so I knew what to expect. The Thomas cook rep logged our complaint but said I would have to pay to stay at another resort ($289 cuc pesos or £222 GBP). Wanting to salvage my holiday I reluctantly paid cash and got a receipt.
In the taxi to our second resort I took a photo of the receipt, I'm glad I did as it was retained by the reception staff at the new hotel where we had a great time. The day after we arrived at this hotel Thomas cook sent an acknowledgement email apologising and saying they would look into what went wrong.

Upon returning to UK I sent an email asking for an update to my complaint. About a month later I logged my complaint on Thomas Cooks online portal but again I received no reply. 3 months from or return date and I sent a final email asking for a response with a link to the trip advisor review I had made but again Thomas Cook ignored me.
I sent my complaint to ABTA and after a further 3 weeks Thomas Cook finally replied dismissing all the issues as being the way it is in cuba and finished off by stating the following " I've listened to everything you've told me. I'm really sorry but I won't be able to offer you compensation for your experience. This is because the rep has arranged an accommodation change which you have accepted in resort. Thomas Cook have covered the cost of this to the value of $289. Based on this, I do agree that our resort team have done everything possible to help you enjoy the rest of your holiday and I'm really sorry if you disagree with this."
The rep that short changed me has told Thomas Cook that he upgraded us free of charge when in fact I was made to pay for the upgrade! I sent Thomas Cook UK a copy of the photo of my receipt but they refuse to change thier opinion on the matter and are refusing to entertain an offer of compensation!
Since returning from that holiday I have noticed and taken a screenshot of Thomas Cook web page advertising of the same resort, it says this resort is "currently not available" and it is listed as 3.5 stars. I have learned that the hotel is under new management which may explain why it has been pulled from sale.

Thomas cook acknowledged that there were problems with the resort but wrongly think that because I was upgraded at cost to them I cannot make a further claim for compensation now, i'm guessing they thought the only evidence of me paying was retained by the staff at our second hotel.

1. Would I be able to claim under the misrepresentation of goods act as I paid for a 4 star holiday but experienced much less and the same holiday is a 3.5 on Thomas Cook website? They use hearts instead of stars which is based on Thomas Cooks customers reviews, when you click that link it states this resort is actually 3.3 hearts.
2. Would a court allow my photo of the receipt as evidence?
3. If the court do allow the photo as evidence will they allow Thomas Cook to blame the false statement in the email as a translation mistake from thier cuban rep or such like?
4. Taking all of the above into consideration should I go through ABTA's arbitration scheme (quicker and easier for a novice like myself) or small claims court (i really don't want to go through the same stress that thegobyone had to endure!) https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...th-thomas-cook

I am not impressed with my dealings with ABTA and so i'm left to question how impartial the arbitrators actually are (Hunt ADR) I sent Hunt's an email 4 days ago asking to clarify points 2 and 3 above but they have yet to reply.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Rochelle2407]

Hi can you tell me what happened with this...?? I'm in a similar situation with thomas cook, they are not looking at my complaint properly and keep saying no compo due. Abta have done nothing and said i can go to arbitration if I want but cant decide if its worth the bother and money if its going to be the same rubbish and not going to get anywhere. Thanks.

[grahamtabby]

Hi Rochelle.
I decided to take this through ABTA arbitration, I agree they are totally useless especially when you consider Thomas Cook staff sit on their board, but there are also members from other tour operators on the same board who will not be happy that Thomas Cook are acting in such a way. Contacting ABTA will at least force Thomas Cook to respond to your complaint if they haven't already done so but they will not force TC to pay you any compo unless you go through arbitration and win. I decided arbitration after looking at Thomas Cook share prices and noticing the large dip (now they are looking to sell their airline maybe confirms my suspicion they are going under and you would be unable to make a claim!

Arbitration is quicker than going to court and it will initially cost Thomas Cook, as soon as you open your claim they also have to pay a fee whereas if you take them to court they only pay if they lose and that can take up to 9 months to go through. I have read newspaper articles claiming that going to court might get you more compensation than ABTA arbitration (you need to be realistic with your claim, you cannot simply claim the entire cost of your holiday, only for the part that Thomas Cook failed to supply that you either expected from a 3/4/5 star resort or what was advertised on the web site or brochure.
If you win you will get court costs included or your ABTA arbitration fee back (paid by TC) whichever course you decide.

In my case I took it through ABTA, I think they give TC about 4 weeks to send defence evidence, they waited until 2 days before the deadline to contact me for the first time to apologise and offered £380 which I accepted. After being made an offer and you decline the offer deciding to let the arbitrators decide the case and they decide TC should pay less than your offer you have to pay the TC ABTA fee as well as not getting your fee reimbursed, for me it wasn't worth the risk for a potential exta £100. On the other hand I was so furious about the way TC handled my complaint along with the lies their rep told I was prepared to lose that money.

It will cost less to go through the courts and you may be awarded slightly more but it will take longer.
Your post has reminded me that I need to contact ABTA to find out if they fined TC on my case, Thomas Cook had broken the ABTA code of conduct with regards to dealing with complaints in a timely manor (Correspondence  14 days for acknowledgment  28 days for full reply  If you have good reason why you can't reply in 28 days, explain to client)
It took TC about 5 months to acknowledge my complaint and that was only because ABTA got involved and forced them to respond.

TC have since put the resort (Melai Cayo Guillermo) back on their site with a star rating of 3 instead of 4.

If it were me I would gladly go through it again, getting some of your hard earned £££ back from Thomas CROOK will make you feel better especially when you give that money to Thomson for a decent holiday.

Can i ask how much you paid in total for your holiday and what went wrong?
It might also be worth naming/shaming the resort.

Thanks

Graham