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- eldo's review
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Picture courtesy of Joe.
| Customer Service | 3.3/10   |
|---|---|
| Value for Money | 4.6/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 3.8/10 |
| Overall Rating | 3.7/10 |
By eldo on 24th Apr 2008
| Have you booked through this tour operator before? | Yes |
|---|---|
| Customer Service | 0/10 |
| Value for money | 5/10 |
| Overall value | 0/10 |
 eldo's recommendation | |
Once at destination everything was marvellous in comparison to the getting there!
Lack of information when delay occurred. Lack of Thompson representation at Gatwick when flight was delayed and then cancelled. Lack of skill at gatwick staff when handling delayed passengers. Atrocious handling of passengers when alternative arrangements were eventually made 17 hours after arriving at Gatwick. Lack of admission of fault, refusal to accept blame from anyone paid to make the service run properly.
6th April disaster day if you were going to Cancun. Recently flew to Cancun and just thought you might like to know about how Thomson look after their paying customers.
Got on plane at around 9.45 am which, because of the snow, seemed to be a good sign. Sat down and was informed that Gatwick had closed runway for an hour but to sit tight as when it opened again we would be first off. After roughly 2 hours we were told that we were waiting for a de-icing crew to de-ice the plane and then we'd be on the way. Around 1.00 pm, we were told that if we weren't gone soon there would have to be a new crew because current crew would be out of hours. By 2.00 we were told run out of time but new crew on the way. By 4.00 p.m the natives were getting restless. Staff on plane, who were good, hadn't served drinks or food by this time and you couldn't buy anything! Someone somewhere decided passengers were slightly better than animals and provided sandwiches and drink. By 4.30 we were told to get off the plane and return to the departure lounge - then the fun really began.
The staff at Gatwick who, one assumes, are supposed to have some sort of customer relation training were evasive and condescending to say the very least. One in particular seemed to find the fact that 300 people had just sat on a plane going nowhere for 6 hours amusing and went on to be one of the main reasons why many people were getting extremely agitated.
No representative from Thompson appeared to explain or apologise but we were told that the flight would definitely be going that evening and to remain in the departure lounge as this would be soon. By 6.00 with no further indication of a flight time whatsoever the invisible Thompson representatives had gone home - lucky them!
7.00 p.m. and still no news, no apology just a confirmation that the flight would be going and not to leave the departure lounge. Much misinformation from the staff about reasons for delay from crew not available, maybe fly to a midway point and pick up a new crew and so on but all the time we were going to fly that day.
8.00 pm and as you can imagine for most having had to check in at around 7.00 - 7.30 a.m. people were getting a little stressed - particularly those that hadn't been able to smoke over the last 12 hours and were facing a further 11 at least if the plane was going that evening. The crowd around the staff in the departure lounge were getting more and more vocal and the staff were getting more and more evasive and were feeling the stress of the situation too. However, this is their job so when the one who found it amusing that we'd been on the plane started getting sarcastic with passengers the scene was beginning to turn ugly particularly when he refused to give his name!
At around 9.45 after much whispering amongst the staff someone somewhere finally made the decision to tell us that the plane was not going anywhere and to go to Servisair desk to get more information - still no apology.
Well the poor woman on the Servisair desk was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. No one came to help her for around an hour so she had to deal for the best part of 300 people all by herself - to her credit she was much better at it than those in the departure lounge and was genuinely sympathetic the first 40 times she was moaned at. After then she managed to carry on but the poor lady was clearly as fed up as the rest of us with the lack of support from anyone at Thomson or any of her other colleagues.
To make matters worse the sarcastic member of staff arrived and with a smile on his face and gladly informed everyone that we had to return any duty free we had purchased before we could be escorted out. It was as if he was there just to wind us up!
So, by 11.00 p.m. we were back at our check in desk, where 16 hours earlier we had arrived, sitting on the floor waiting to find out what would happen next. No one really knew what was going on but we weren't allowed our luggage as this was still in the plane apparently.
At about 11.45p.m one coach arrived taking families with children under 8 to a nearby hotel. This left people behind because there were too many people on it according to the driver and split some families up! At 12.00 another one arrived, taking people to Eastbourne and at 12.30 another one came to take the remainder back to the first hotel. We got a cab to the hotel, they said it was quicker - the only truth in my opinion spoken by anyone from Gatwick or Thompson on that day with the exception of the Serviceair lady.
At 6.30 a.m in the morning, after a whole 5 or 6 hours sleep, if you were lucky, we were again travelling to Gatwick. We checked in. No details on flight time were on the screen, just flight number - still at least we weren't expecting anything and we eventually flew at around 11.00 ish, 25 hours late. The captain informed us that the plane couldn't go last night because there wasn't a cleaning crew available. Although one of the poorest excuses I have ever heard, at least it was something and we also got our first apology!
So - don't fly with Thompson. Not because they can't organise a good holiday, as once there everything was fine, but because when things go wrong they are the first to bail out and leave you in the lurch demonstrating the value they place on paying customers.
Fly with Thompson again - I fear not!
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