Thomas Cook fury sees agents tweet to the top
An independent travel agent has resorted to tweeting Thomas Cook boss Harriet Green at her personal Twitter account after becoming so infuriated with the company.
Helder Lemos, who runs Gallivant Travel in Essex with his wife Celia, calculated that he had spent a total of 14 hours since last Thursday trying to get through to Thomas Cook to make a booking amendment.
In the end, he decided to go straight to the top and sent a message via Twitter to CEO Harriet Green on Monday evening.
At 6.15am the following morning he was surprised to receive a tweet from the top woman herself, asking for his contact details and promising that someone would get back to him.
By 4.45pm yesterday afternoon (after starting at 11am on Thomas Cook’s Live Chat in position 149), the agency finally spoke to someone, only to be told that they can’t do the amendment because the 70-day amendment period expired on Sunday.
A tweet from Green arrived at 4.30pm apologising for the frustration and difficulty, and said: "We are changing – some change takes time unfortunately. I hope all ok now? Harriet."
Like other agents, Helder Lemos says he is now avoiding booking with Thomas Cook because getting any support is so difficult.
"It’s not worth the hassle, and I know we’re not the only ones," he said.
He shared his frustrations with the company on Travel Gossip, a Facebook page for the industry, saying Thomas Cook’s call-waiting jingle was now "ingrained in our brains, permanently, forever in eternity".
Others in the trade echoed his frustrations on the Facebook group page, slamming Thomas Cook for using ‘rip-off’ 08 phone numbers which allow them to earn money from agents’ calls.
"As soon as the call is answered and we are waiting in the queue, we are paying them," said Lemos. "That’s what is most insulting."
Lemos is also not the only person to turn to Green’s Twitter page in an attempt to get through to Thomas Cook.
In the last few weeks alone the page shows several tweets from people contacting her with complaints.
Jan McCann ‘@moorside007 said: "Really disappointed by your office when I had high hopes!! Nothing since 11 March."
Treacs99 ‘said: "Hoping @harrietgreen1 replies to the email Steve’s just sent. Totally ignorant service from Thomas cook customer relations."
Meanwhile, a tweet from a glossy travel magazine praised Green for responding in person.
"Oh wow, here is the CEO of a travel giant dealing with customer care enquiries: @harrietgreen1 We are impressed, are you?" it said.
Green replied: "I’m great thank you. Sun shining in London! Listening to customers impo for all of us. We know holidays v special to people."
Thomas Cook confirmed that Green manages her own twitter account as "one of several important ways of communicating with customers and colleagues alike as the company undergoes its transformation".
It also assured travel agents of several initiatives in the pipeline, including a new dedicated telephone numbers from next week (see separate story).
by Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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