Ricey Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 As you may know me and Carla went to Majorca last week - this was booked a few weeks prior via http://www.onthebeach.com. Basically the way their site works is you click on a hotel to view it and on the pop up they have loads of information and links to Tripadvisor for independant reviews. So imagine my delight when I found a 4 star spa hotel rated 3rd best of 30 in Sa Coma for a measly £350 for both of us!!!! The Blau Mediteraneo Hotel! However after visiting the Blau website cheer myself up one morning it became clear that I had made a grievous error..... Blau Mediteraneo Hotel - 4 star........3rd best in resort Blau Mediteraneo Club - 3 star verminous grim gulag...........17th best in resort. Couldn't work out how I'd made the mistake but it became clear that they had linked the Hotels Tripadvisor page to the Clubs booking page. The following is the email exchange Dear Mr Rice, Thank you for contacting us. I have looked into your booking and can confirm that you are booked into the Blau Mediterraneo Club as per the hotel selected on our website. I have also checked our website and can confirm it stated that you were booking the Blau Mediterraneo Club apartments. The description and photographs shown are also for the apartments. I can see that the trip advisor link does say hotel and I have advised our IT department to update this. I apologise if you were unaware you were booking the apartments, however this is the hotel that was indicated. I have checked the Blau Mediterraneo Hotel and they do not have any self catering facilities. As they are a hotel they only supply bed and breakfast, half board etc. Unfortunately we do not have availability for the dates you require. Best Regards, Howard. Hi Howard, Many thanks for taking the time to look into this although I feel you may have missed the crux of my complaint (for clarity please acknowledge that this is now a complaint). I have no dispute that the hotel I purchased is the hotel showing in my booking confirmation. My dispute is that my purchase was based on the independent reviews that you had linked to your website (provision of independent comparable information) which suggested that this hotel was of a very high standard and independently was ranked by my travelling peers as the 4th best hotel in the resort of Sa Coma (i.e a different hotel). As it turns out following a chance encounter with the Blau website some days after booking it became apparent that there are 2 Blau complexes in Sa Coma and I was in fact (after further research) booked into the Club which has many negative reviews, is an inferior hotel and is ranked a lowly 17th of 30 hotels in Sa Coma. The hotel you had linked to the Blau Mediteranio Club was the Blau Mediteranio Hotel – I firmly believe it is unreasonable to expect me to question the integrity of your websites data based on this discrepancy (only difference being ‘Hotel’ and ‘Club). One would not assume that they were 2 different places. I’ll give you an example of what you have done to me and see what you think Howard – I’m going to sell you a car - here’s the car I’m selling to you for £15,000 (click this *can't put hyperlink on forum but it linked to this *can't put hyperlink on forum but it linked to this[/b] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 Bit more boring than my usual fayre but I'm in work.......its 28 degrees in the office and I'm bored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasso Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 I love some of your finger pointing, very nicely done mate. Bit of a sh1t though, you 'could' have had a real shocker of accommodation to contend with. Favourite section for me was...... Quote See what happened – you thought you were getting a DBS for 15k and instead you got a glorified Smart Car. Your not happy about this I reckon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Fair play to Mr Howard there as well, not his fault IT ballsed it up and likely it was a genuine error. £50 isnt bad a deal as well - so good work on pushing for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 I love your letters of complaint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Fair play to Mr Howard there as well, not his fault IT ballsed it up and likely it was a genuine error. £50 isnt bad a deal as well - so good work on pushing for that. I'd agree with that and *you're argument skills are top notch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeroy Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 You are a true literary hero Mr Rice. I reckon you could make a career out this complaining / getting a fair deal lark - and if not then you could certainly write a book of anecdotes that should be a hit The best bit is that you didn't even need to resort to threats of curling one out on Howard's desk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 How very erudite young Mr Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squee Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Nicely done So come on then, how many boxes of free stuff have you acquired after sending in letters of complaint? Are you this semi-mythical character who got a years supply of KitKats because you found one missing a wafer inside? Glad you got the hol sorted! S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian@TORQEN Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Are you this semi-mythical character who got a years supply of KitKats because you found one missing a wafer inside? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 I thought that was a really good compromise actually and fair play .....they could have insisted on cancellation so good on them (although it still took some pushing from the initial response) Squee I never push for more than I feel is reasonable (refund if fees are unacceptable etc) but its the incompetence of the world at large I object too. For example I'd never fall down a hole like a clumsy ***** or spill a cup of scolding hot coffee on myself and think anything other than 'you complete and utter clumsy *****......pick yourself up and RUN before someone sees you'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK350Z Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 I'm gutted Paul. We could have had a grade-A write up on your return of staying in a 3 star verminous grim gulag that you mistakenly thought was going to be paradise on Earth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squee Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 I thought that was a really good compromise actually and fair play .....they could have insisted on cancellation so good on them (although it still took some pushing from the initial response) Squee I never push for more than I feel is reasonable (refund if fees are unacceptable etc) but its the incompetence of the world at large I object too. For example I'd never fall down a hole like a clumsy ***** or spill a cup of scolding hot coffee on myself and think anything other than 'you complete and utter clumsy *****......pick yourself up and RUN before someone sees you'. Hope my comment didn't come across as a bit 'off' - wasn't calling you a compo **** so no worries I'm loving the email exchange and think it's an inspiration to us all! Anyhoo, I've been given the nickname 'the rottie' for growling loudly at the complaints department. And I'm pretty proud of the fact that I haggle at M&S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 I thought that was a really good compromise actually and fair play .....they could have insisted on cancellation so good on them (although it still took some pushing from the initial response) Squee I never push for more than I feel is reasonable (refund if fees are unacceptable etc) but its the incompetence of the world at large I object too. For example I'd never fall down a hole like a clumsy ***** or spill a cup of scolding hot coffee on myself and think anything other than 'you complete and utter clumsy *****......pick yourself up and RUN before someone sees you'. Hope my comment didn't come across as a bit 'off' - wasn't calling you a compo **** so no worries I'm loving the email exchange and think it's an inspiration to us all! Anyhoo, I've been given the nickname 'the rottie' for growling loudly at the complaints department. And I'm pretty proud of the fact that I haggle at M&S Haha of course not.....but it's worth making clear that my fight is against the incompetent world not the chinks in the systems armour. Haggling in m&s is pretty impressive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choptop Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 Like it.............like it a lot............and a fair result in the end Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 Glad I dont have to deal with customers. I'd have told you to go swivel and just refunded you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted May 26, 2012 Author Share Posted May 26, 2012 Glad I dont have to deal with customers. I'd have told you to go swivel and just refunded you That's because it was probably a northern version ChrisI who programmed the wrong link into the page! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 Glad I dont have to deal with customers. I'd have told you to go swivel and just refunded you That's because it was probably a northern version ChrisI who programmed the wrong link into the page! More than likely, use developers aint very clever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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