Dear Teletext Holidays,

Re: Unsatisfactory Holiday at Gran Canairia on 07 November 2015 - 14 November 2015

Booking ref: TT305421

I have just returned from a holiday at Gran Canairia with my Mother, Aunty and 2 friends, which was most disappointing.

Please find below a list of our complaints:

1, When booking the holiday with teletext holidays the telephone operative made several mistakes and repeatedly informed us that we must have all information correct or we would be charged £100 for any changes. I have evidence of five text messages of confirmation from teletext holidays with the incorrect details in respect of the parties name details.
2, We were informed that the total holiday cost would be £2,599 however on the final text message where the operative finally got the parties name details correct the cost of the holiday had been changed to £4161.89. The operative then was pushing and pushing for my bank details luckily I did not give them as I realised that the amount of the holiday had been changed and double the amount of the holiday would have come out of my account. With all of the errors I became very suspicious and made the decision to end the call and not to go ahead with booking.
3, The following day I received a phone call from another operative from teletext who apologised for the errors and informed me that the holiday was still available so I thought I would give them the benefit of the doubt and booked the holiday.
4, The whole party had to travel for 3 hours the night before the holiday as we could not get a local flight which meant we had to also book a hotel for the evening before the holiday. We arrived at the airport checked in and all was fine we were finally happy to be going on holiday.
5, On arrival at Las Palmas airport we were unsure where to get transport to the hotel as we were aware that we had no transfer booked. We were informed to go to the shuttle office for help, which we did and they asked to have a look at our paperwork, to the only be informed that we were on the total wrong island and should have been at a different airport, the shuttle bus manager was in total shock as were we as we had no idea what to do. The manager of the shuttle bus contacted the hotel which was present on our confirmation notice only to be informed that there wasn't even a reservation booked for us. As you can imagine panic set in amongst the party so we immediately contacted teletext holidays only which of course were no help at all the customer service from your call centre in India was absolutely diabolical I have never experienced such much unprofessionalism in my life. They did not even sympathise with the situation and said they could refund out hotel money. This was no used to us five ladies stranded in a foreign country with nowhere to stay and one of the party having heart problems, they then continued to tell us that if the refunded the hotel money it would take five working days but they could actually take the holiday money in one day. We arrived at Las Palmas airport at 6pm and were still there at 110pm with nowhere to go. We were informed by the shuttle bus manager that it was actually gay pride week in gran canairia and everywhere was fully booked. He finally managed to get us booked into a hotel for one evening and we had no other choice but to go. We originally booked the holiday as all-inclusive and found ourselves the having to pull out money for self-catering. The hotel for one evening was approx. 400 euro and then we had the same worry again the following morning to find somewhere to stay. We walked the streets without luggage the following day with very little money and nowhere to go to try ourselves and find a hotel as teletext holidays would not even try and help us to do this. After hours had gone by I located something on my mobile internet and eventually found somewhere for the party to stay which cost approx. another 900 euro. This was a self-catering villa in the middle of the mountains which then cost a lot of taxi fares due to the remote location and obviously we had to pay for all of our food and drink. I cannot believe the stress and upset we had to go through and we were only 2 days into hat should have been a relaxing holiday.
Luckily I had a savings account to be able to fund all the extras we had to pay but I am disgusted that I should have had to do this and loose interest on my savings by a very huge mistake your company had made.
5, I contacted teletext again to inform them that I had managed to find somewhere for the party to stay once again they were not interested and all they were ever interested in was taking my money in the first place. I demanded a full refund to be immediately put into my bank (which I am fully aware could have been done through a BACS payment) but they were insistent that they could not and would only refund me the cost of the hotel and it would be in my account within 3 working days. The refund was put into my account but much to my horror they had not refunded the total amount of the accommodation I received £1188 and in fact the cost of the accommodation was £1431.60, I again then contacted teletext on the return of my holiday to inform them of this to only be told that I had to send proof of my receipts to the company. Who the hell do you people think you are it was bad enough that the mistake was yours in the first place, then you underpay my refund and I have got to give you proof. Your company is an absolute joke and I will be taking this matter further if this is not resolved as a matter of urgency.
6, I will enclose all of my receipts including the text message with the incorrect information and I expect to receive a full refund along with compensation for the extra costs.

We contacted your representative at the resort on 07 November 2015, but they were unable to resolve the matter and advised us to complain upon our return home.

Under The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 you have a responsibility to provide all the elements of the package contracted for as they were described. We are legally entitled to receive compensation from you for loss of value, consequential losses and for the disappointment and loss of enjoyment we suffered. As you failed to provide us with the holiday we booked we are seeking ££500 compensation from you as well a full refund of the holiday £2601 for the problems we encountered, and for the distress and disappointment we suffered as a result.

I have enclosed copies of documentary evidence to demonstrate my claim.

I look forward to receiving a response from you within 14 days of receipt of this letter.