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★☆☆☆☆

“Money grabbing shambles of an organisation ”

written by on 14/09/2015

I was a loyal customer of teletext - I have booked 5 holidays with Teletext amounting to a spending total of around £2950 from October 2013-present.

The way I have been treated by Teletext regarding my most recent holiday is absolutely appalling. I have been nothing but stressed since originally booking the holiday on the 28th June 2015.

Below is a list of all the issues we encountered before and during our disappointing holiday:

· Myself and my 3 friends booked a weekend break for my friend's birthday. We had an original spending budget of £200 per person - which I believe is quite reasonable for a self catering 2 night holiday. We found the deal on their website for £200 per person, staying in residential Casanova - Benidorm, so we phoned to book. After speaking to one of the agents for over an hour and a half - she advised that the price had gone up to £260 per person. As it was only £60 more than we originally budgeted for and the cheapest deal you had we decided to book it.

· We paid £150 deposit each and the person I dealt with told us the final payment was due on the 31st August 2015. The hotel was advertised as being in Benidorm and she said it was in Benidorm so I trusted her. About a month after booking I decided to look up the hotel. After doing some research I found out that the hotel is in Calpe which is a 45 minute drive from Benidorm. I then called up one of the agents (I can't remember his name as I have spoken to so many different people - I had difficulty understanding him as I have with all agents.) The agent asked me for an extra £17 per person to change the hotel to Pierre en Vacances in Benidorm new town. I refused to pay this as I wasn't willing to spend money on something that wasn't my fault. The agent then said that he would listen to my original phone call and call me back within 48 hours. 72 hours later I still hadn't received a phone call as promised so called the agent back. The person I spoke to then said that no one had listened to the call and changed his story 5 minutes later to say that someone had listened to the call and that we specifically asked to be in Calpe. This is untrue. I go to Benidorm twice a year and would never ask to stay 45 minutes away from the town.

· The agent said he would call back in 24 hours - again, I did not receive the promised call. I seem to have spent the past 2 months hanging around waiting for a phone call that never happens.

· I had to call teletext again to resolve the hotel issue as no one had contacted me. This time, Pierre and Vacances was full and the only other hotel available was the Don Jorge hotel - the agent asked for £39 per person to change the hotel. Again, I refused to pay this as the price had doubled and I shouldn't have been paying for something that wasn't my fault. I explained to the agent I wasn't willing to pay and he said he'd speak to his supervisor and call me within the next 24 hours - of course, again, a lie. I didn't receive a phone call. I then received a letter from Teletext on the 21st August - dated the 20th August stating that they had tried to contact me numerous times and my payment was overdue. If I didn't pay the full amount by 4pm on the 21st then my holiday would be cancelled. I received this letter at 5pm on the 21st so was under the impression my holiday had been cancelled.

· As mentioned above, the person I dealt with told us on the day we booked our holiday that we didn't have to pay the outstanding balance until the 31st August 2015. The statement "we have tried contacting you numerous times" is insulting and upsetting. They had my phone number, address and email address and not once did I hear anything from anyone at Teletext.

· I instructed my solicitor to make contact with them as I was at breaking point. In his email he stated that the issue with our hotel needed rectifying within 72 hours. He didn't receive any form of contact and I will be instructing him again to make contact. He has never had a reply to his e-mail.

· As I was worried about the holiday getting cancelled I took a loan out to pay for the remaining balance as none of the passengers had funds until the 31st August. I was fed up of arguing and spending so much time on the phone to teletext so in the end paid £39 per person to change the hotel to Don Jorge. I wasn't happy about paying for a mistake that I hadn't made but paid it to save myself from having any further distress.

· The agent explained that he would send me a conformation email (to state the hotel change) within 24 hours. I did not receive this email. I called 24 hours later to ask for the email. I was again promised it would be sent within 24 hours. I did not receive this email. I checked my junk folder each time. 72 hours later I called again to ask for a conformation email of the hotel and was promised it would get sent that day. I did not receive this email.

· I took to Facebook to express my concerns. An agent Mindy commented on my post and said she would call me the next morning. I did not receive this phone call. I commented on the post saying I had not received a call so another agent  called me around midday. This was the first time since booking the holiday that I had received any type of communication from Teletext. He explained to me that the original hotel - Residencial Casanova had never been cancelled and that we had to pay 27% of the final cost to Residencial Casanova as a late cancellation charge. Of course I was furious about this and refused to pay. He said he would look into my case and call me back within 3 hours. I never received this phone call.

· On the 7th September - 4 days before my departure date I received a conformation email stating that I was staying in "Residencial Casanova Don Jorge." This is the two hotel names merged together so didn't clarify which hotel we were staying in. By this point I was well and truly fed up of calling Teletext. Luckily, my friend speaks Spanish so he was able to call Don Jorge hotel and confirm we were staying there.

· Because of the despicable way I had been treated by Teletext, I did not have high hopes about this holiday. What was supposed to be a relaxing weekend birthday break away turned into a stressful, nerve wracking and disastrous holiday from start to finish.

· On arrival at the Don Jorge we had an hour long wait to get seen to check in. The hotel is advertised on the website as 3* and I do not believe it deserves this rating. During our stay the water shut off twice, the electricity cut out three times and the draining system in the shower didn't work. As you were taking a shower, the bath was filling up with dirty water. Don Jorge is a self catering apartment with no kettle, no toaster and an oven that didn't switch on. We had to pay a €20 deposit for a hair dryer - we had to walk for ten minutes just to get the hairdryer from their sister hotel, Palm Beach. The room was advertised as a 4 person room. The bedroom had 2 single beds and the living room had a sofa bed with no bedding. Both nights two of us had to sleep on a sofa fit for one child with no duvet or pillow. We weren't able to report this to reception as the reception was constantly closed. And as we were only away for 2 nights we didn't want to spend our whole holiday complaining. We were told by other guests that if we wanted another 2 single beds we would have to pay €180.

· On the morning of our departure date we wanted to check out but no one was at reception. We waited an hour for a receptionist who then tried to charge us €80 for a late checkout. We refused to pay.

· We asked the receptionist the time and pick up point of our transfers. She didn't have our name on the list so I contacted Holiday Taxis at 12pm. Holiday taxis told me that they would be there at 12 midnight on the 14th September to take us for our flight at 2am. I have no idea where they got this information from as by 12am on the 14th September we were in Bristol.

· Our flight was at 22.10 so we were expecting a transfer at around 7pm. Holiday taxis then made us aware that because we were giving them less than 24 hours notice we were unable to change the time of our transfer. They told us to contact teletext. At 12.30pm I made a phone call to teletext. By 17.15 the issue was partly resolved. I did not imagine the last day of my holiday to be spent inside a stuffy hotel reception for 5 hours on the phone to numerous agents. I was advised that as holiday taxis couldn't help us I should pay for the taxi to the airport myself and claim the money back once I'd got home. As it was our last day we had run out of money.

· We had paid for the transfers upfront so weren't expecting to have to pay any extra. None of us took credit cards with us so our friends and family at home couldn't send us money. A taxi from Don Jorge to Alicante airport was €75 and we could not get this money at such short notice. I even resorted to asking guests around the pool for €1 each to try and gather money together. This was highly embarrassing and insulting and we still couldn't gather any money. Angus was highly unhelpful and kept me on hold for hours on end. His only suggestion was to pay for a taxi and I kept explaining to him that we couldn't get the money and he told us he couldn't help. After being on the phone for 4 and a half hours I had a panic attack in the middle of the reception area in front of many guests. This was discomforting and mortifying and not how I envisioned spending my last day in Benidorm.

· We paid £180 for a private taxi transfer as I suffer from claustrophobia and travel sickness and cannot travel via coach. Angus told us he was sending a private taxi to pick us up at 18.15. The transfer arrived and it was a coach - not what I paid £180 for but got on the coach anyway as there was no other way of us getting to the airport in time for our flight.


From the booking date to present day I have experienced nothing but stress, worry and trouble. I wish we never booked this holiday. Holidays, for me, are meant to be a time to run away from daily stress and relax without concern. I have come back feeling worked up and anxious.

I booked a short break away to get away from stress and because of your inept approach from the outset I did not get that. I am awaiting an immediate reply from Teletext and would advise all customers to re consider before giving your hard earned money to this disgusting excuse for a company.

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