The Cure for Holiday Illness & Complaints? Bring In The Heavies! IV | The Crows Nest Blog | HolidayTravelWatch
Apologies to regular readers of this column; I decided to take a short break, but, we have also been inundated with calls for assistance from angry and sick holidaymakers! I have been struck by the wide range of holiday complaints; poor hygiene and standards in hotels, unsafe balconies, exposed wiring, sickness demonstrating a very wide range of disease and threats to those who complain! I was therefore intrigued to read the banner headline in a recent edition of The Times Online (19/10/08) – ‘Thomson bans serial complainers from booking holidays’. Holidaymakers reading this will not be surprised that such an aggressive approach could be made; many can relate their own experiences across a wide range of tour companies and hotels.
Tim Williamson (Customer Director) sought to re-assure The Times readers that they were only talking about a ‘tiny’ number of ‘persistent troublemakers’, and that they were keeping a list of them. He went onto to state, “Black books by no means always work. So people complain and, if we accept we are in the wrong, we settle and they get next year’s holiday free”. Yes that’s right, if they accept that they are wrong, this company is going to give you next year’s holiday for free! Really? I would like to hear from any holidaymaker who has enjoyed such a benefit; it’s time for other holiday companies to take note follow their lead!
But hang on, the article then raises the view that holidaymakers are ‘whingers’ – I doubt that the holidaymakers who contacted us this year following their visits to Turkey, Egypt, Cape Verde, Majorca and Spain would recognise that element in themselves!
Within the article First Choice talked of the ‘cult of the complaint’, blaming the rise of the internet and advice and support online – I wonder who they could be talking about? They go on to say, “most of it (online consumer support services) telling people that if they make enough of a fuss, we’ll pay up. The truth is that we hardly ever pay out, but we waste a lot of time dealing with the complainers”. It would be easy to demonstrate my thoughts on this red herring but I am not going to rise to this bait – our record speaks for itself!
Could it be that the online advice community is actually empowering the consumer for them to make these comments and adopt these positions? Is it not the conditions and the low expectations visited upon holidaymakers, after the promise of the brochure, that is the root cause of the Great British Complaining Public?
Just examine the words and phrases used in this article - ‘persistent troublemakers’, ‘keeping a list’, ‘these people will never be happy’, ‘black books’, ‘whingers’, ‘nobody had complained previously’, ‘cult of complaint’, ‘complainers’ – is it any wonder that there is a crisis of confidence amongst travel consumers when their true worth is displayed in such noble terms?
In the final analysis, this article simply adds to our sincere and deep concern that heavy tactics will be employed against holidaymakers, let’s rule them by fear, let’s frighten them so they will fear not being able to travel again, let’s snuff out the complaint before it has even begun! The 2009 holiday season has already started!
Tags: Bullying Holidaymakers
HTW has noted that amongst the submissions to the Committee on Toxicity (COT) it has been suggested that the symptoms highlighted by crew and passengers were akin to the condition of hyperventilation.
HTW has for many years received reports from concerned holiday makers or independent travellers as to the safety of their aircraft, ship or boat, train or road transport.
