First Choice are Absolutely Diabolical

>>  Friday, November 05, 2010

Just in case the search engines didn't pick it up first time.  First Choice are absolutely diabolical.  That is the Travel company First Choice.

My first experience with them was about 5 years ago when it took them 36 hours to get me to Cyprus.  Never again I said (not Cyprus - it is lovely there - never again with First Choice).

HWMBO said he'd found the holiday we were after.  A 5 star luxury all inclusive in Turkey, with swim up junior suite.  This means you have your own veranda on the pool, jucuzzi...all sounded lovely ...except it was with First Choice.  What the hell, we said, throwing caution to the wind, it will be fine and booked it.

When the confirmation came through I noticed that just under my daughters age (12) it said "children under 16 are not allowed in this room".  WTF?!

So hubby rang them..."not to worry sir, it's an old rule, it doesn't apply now"
He rang the hotel, they had no problem with under 16's in those rooms nor do many travel companies.
He range First Choice again "It's to do with our insurance and being as you use your own insurance it'll be fine"
I said "sounds like you've been fobbed off, best get it in writing"  and here the troubled started.
This time he was told (by the same department) "No, it's a current rule, it is not related to insurance, we do not allow under 16s in those rooms"

"Oooook, what can we do?"
"you can have a standard room."
"we don't want that, we want a swim up suite"
"you can't have that"
"That's what we booked with you, your system let us book it even when we entered our child's age"
"yes, it does that"
"but we can't have it?"
"no"
"can we have our money back?"
"no"
"Sorry?" 
"No you will lose your deposit if you cancel"
"We don't want to cancel! We want to go on the holiday we paid for"
"you can't do that"
"and we can't have our money back"
"no, you can book another holiday with us and transfer the money"
"but you won't let us have the holiday we want"
"did we mention the £400 cancellation fee"
"WTF!"

So, it took several layers of management, a disputed payment transaction from the credit card company and a stoic and patient HWMBO to finally get our deposit back and not be charged a cancellation fee for being sold a holiday they would not let us go on.

Guess what?....we are still waiting for our apology!!!

So my advice before you log onto First Choice or pootle into their shop is walk right on by and try someone else because First Choice are one of the most unhelpful, uncustomer orientated companies we have ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

And my final word of advice to companies is be careful who you annoy because sometimes losing that customer is going to cost you more than you think. This guy was treated poorly by an airline and bang goes the company account.!

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