Has anyone else had an experience like this with Thomas Cook or another holiday provider over the summer? Is there a holiday provider that provides a great service that people are totally loyal to?

I think that was the flight my party were on to Orlando. If it was saturday the 20th septmeber and it sounds like it was. Yes the whole episode and Thomas Cooks reaction and help was non existant. The Orlando police were a great help. It took TC until january 2009 to give us our compensation, it worked out at measly £50 per including the hotel bill. TC have no customer service to talk of and the lies they tell you. You know its lies as they trip themselves up.
Never again will i trust TC to give us what we paid for.

As you can see from above, there is no love lost between myself and Thomas Cook, for the right reasons. However, a few months ago my aunt asked me to look into her complaint with Thomas Cook. Those of you who were members of this panel may have read about her complaint, "she went to the USA via TC and when she got to her hotel, not only did she change it because it was covered in scaffolding, but TCs had not paid the hotel for her stay in New York". My aunt had to pay for her stay by card so had paid twice. She complaoned to TCs about this and the Hotel sent her a refund of some £30 less than she paid. She asked TCs not only for the difference in payment, but also for Tcs original booking fee as they had not paid plus the refund on tickets for a show they missed due to trying to get their bill sorted out.
I contacted Tcs via letter 3 times and no answer. I phoned 5 times and each time its "sorry the lady you need to speak to is not in". Last friday i called and spoke to the lady "allegedly" dealing with my aunts complaint and asked her why it had taken 27 weeks from the original complaint and TCs had not been in touch with her, the response " oh, its not TCs policy to contact complainents until all is sorted out"!. I asked that if it took another 27 weeks to sort out would they let her know, "NO" was the reply. "So you do not have a customer service department do you". "Yes we are it". I asked how she could say that when they did not contact people and also asked if it was policy not to contact people and hope they went away and forgot. The phone went dead.
Normally i make phone calls instantly, however, this time i want to let the board of TCs what their policy on complaints is and have these letters drop on their doorstep and also to let them know they can be found. Now my big question is, does any panelist know any directors names of TCs if so please supply. I could ask company house, but i thought i would ask you the panelists first.

On monday this week (15th Nov), my aunt recieved a letter from Thomas Cook in reply to her complaint (see above). In the letter they say sorry for the delay and offer her £100 Thomas Cook vouchers. They also added that the hotel she stayed in was not prepared to pay compensation for the hotel bill she had to pay for or for misssing her show due to the problem with the bill. TCs also did not address the fact that her hotel bill she paid was £60 more than what TCs had refunded her. About the only thing TCs are saying is that it was not their fault. My aunt took out her holiday with TCs, it was a contract to provide as stated in the brochure a holiday for a set price, not to be doubled charged because TCs did not pay their bill to the hotel. TCs say they did, but too many things happened to back up the hotel in New York.
Letters will be going to Thomas Cook board members and emails if i can get hold of them, so if anyone works for TCs and can forward them please do an prove that not all TCs employees have no sense of guilt.
keep watching this space for further updates.

I agree with the terrible service from Thomas Cook. I travelled with them to Portugal last October, I booked a hotel with 185 rooms because I hate large hotels but when we arrived we found out that they had merged with hotel next door making it a complex with 1000 rooms. We had a small pool resturant and buy close by but at the start of the 2nd week they closed them all and took away all the beds and parasols so we thought we would go to the beach where they had some beds but they had taken them all away too so we were very unhappy, we had no choice but to use the very large resturant which was packed every night, the evening before coming home we tried to shower before dinner we had very little water and it was nearly cold so we complained about it spend all noght listening to running water then when we got up we had no water at all we wsere leaving early that day so I hate to think what the cleaner thought when she went in because we could not flush the toilet. I complained to TC when we got home and it took 3 months and 5 e-mails before they replied and they said that it was not important to tell us that hotel size had increased because most people like big hotels, I said that id I wanted a large hotel thats what I would have booked in the first place and they never mentioned the other problems we had so I sent them another e-mail telling them this and they said they would get back to me after they investigated them. I wander how long it will take this time, I have told them I will never use their company again but I dont think they care.

Hi Stella, first of all my sympathies for you. as Thomas Cook are very rude in their treatment of customers.
As you can see from above the ongoing problems i have had with TC. But recently i managed to get hold of a contact within TCs and emailed them about my aunts problem and within 24 hours had a reply from this person apologising profuously about the way things had been handled and has promised a full investigation and a promise of proper compensation, (of which i wil get back to this site and let all know).
The email address is ian.derbyshire@thomascook.com He is the new Cheif executive officer and only came into post on the 10th of this month, so why not do as i did and send him an email and then let us know the outcome.

By the way all, sorry i have been quiet for a while, but an unforseen health problem laid me llow, but i am back and ready to take on the world

At long last i can put the Thomas Cook affair to bed.
my aunt came to see me this evening and she brought with her a letter of apology from Ian Derbyshire the Cheif Executive Officer of Thomas Cook and a cheque for £400 and a £100 TC travel voucher. My aunt is delighted and so am I, but why do have to go to these lengths to get justice.
Stella, dont give up, keep pushing.