E tickets gone astray and Thomson say they will charge to replace !!!

[ozscotart]

I find this really hard to understand : maybe someone out there with more experience of Thomson can explain ? We have booked our first Thomson cruise last wednesday (very late for very personal reasons) : we are on Ancient Wonders on 20 May on Celebration. Anyway, the very nice Thomson lady with whom I booked, over the phone told me that if the e-tickets hadn't arrived in the post by today I should ring to query. I don't understand why they would post e-tickets either but that is another story. They haven't arrived so I have just rung Thomson to find out where they are : I was told that if they have gone missing

1. there would be a charge to replace them (even though I certainly didn't ask for them to be posted) !!!!????

2. that if they don't arrive I can check in with my original booking email

3. he was able to forward me the confirmation of our seat bookings on the flights so that is something.

 

I have to say this all seems very primitive and generally unfriendly, having cruised recently with both HAL and NCL where your etickets are printed off online, and you can reprint them (no charge) at any time.

 

Would anyone be able to reassure me that we will in fact be able to check in without etickets ? I really don't feel happy about ringing Thomson again, they were not very friendly or very helpful.

 

Thanks for any assistance.

[kruzseeka]

I find this really hard to understand : maybe someone out there with more experience of Thomson can explain ? We have booked our first Thomson cruise last wednesday (very late for very personal reasons) : we are on Ancient Wonders on 20 May on Celebration. Anyway, the very nice Thomson lady with whom I booked, over the phone told me that if the e-tickets hadn't arrived in the post by today I should ring to query. I don't understand why they would post e-tickets either but that is another story. They haven't arrived so I have just rung Thomson to find out where they are : I was told that if they have gone missing

1. there would be a charge to replace them (even though I certainly didn't ask for them to be posted) !!!!????

2. that if they don't arrive I can check in with my original booking email

3. he was able to forward me the confirmation of our seat bookings on the flights so that is something.

 

I have to say this all seems very primitive and generally unfriendly, having cruised recently with both HAL and NCL where your etickets are printed off online, and you can reprint them (no charge) at any time.

 

Would anyone be able to reassure me that we will in fact be able to check in without etickets ? I really don't feel happy about ringing Thomson again, they were not very friendly or very helpful.

 

Thanks for any assistance.

 

This doesn't surprise me at all. Sadly Thomson's admin just doesn't match up to the slick and well organised set-up once you have checked-in. From there on in it's our experience that it's a well oiled machine with flight/cruise and transfers all well coordinated.

 

What I don't understand is why you haven't just had an email and can then print off your own tickets. Thomson have gone in for eTickets with a vengeance of late to the extent that you get very little else prior to travel!

 

And how do they know they have gone missing?

 

If they say you can book in with your original booking info I would do just that. They have for years offered a late ticket pick up service at the airport for late bookings when you didn't have time to receive tickets in the post prior to the use of eTickets - and all you ever had was an email confirmation to take with you. Lots of people have queried on here arriving at the airport with so little documentation but we've never heard of there being a problem - they have your details at the Thomson desk. At least you have your flight details/seats so they must have you in their system!

 

But why not try emailing at the address below detailing your booking ref and the gist of what you have posted on here and see if you get a response.

 

What I would not be prepared to do is pay to replace tickets which you have never had in the first place! You haven't lost them!

 

thomsoncares@thomson.co.uk

 

Good luck with that - hopefully Rhiannon or Dan will spot this and sort it out for you.

 

But in the meantime please don't think this confusion is typical of what your cruise will be like! Hope your mind will soon be put to rest and that you enjoy your cruise. :)

[ozscotart]

kruzseeka

Thanks for your very helpful reply : I will email and see what happens.

[Deb71]

That is mad! Silly me for thinking that the 'E' in E-tickets meant electronic ie. digital! If they are going to post them shouldnt they be calling them P tickets?! I would have thought as long as you have a booking ref that should be sufficient, although it would be nice for you to have confirmation of that from Thomson so fingers crossed they get back to you soon. Enjoy the Celebration :)

[ozscotart]

Further to this saga :

 

Having emailed thomson cares email on the suggestion of kruzseeka, I received a reply timestamped 5am this morning, saying that the cruise had been booked over the phone with a shop in Yorkshire (which I didn't know, I thought it was just Thomson) and I would need to ring them to find out what had happened to the etickets. They didn't address my questions re charges for replacing etickets or checking in without etickets.

 

In the meantime, some documents arrived in the mail, having come 2nd class from Yorkshire (this takes a while to get here to the wilds of Edinburgh), these seemed not to be etickets but booking docs.

 

So I rang Yorkshire and another very nice lady explained that they would be emailed to me 10 days before, which will be tomorrow.

 

I do think that when you ring Thomson on the number given on the cruise website you should get someone who is both helpful and able to help with your query !

[Grez]

Further to this saga :

 

Having emailed thomson cares email on the suggestion of kruzseeka, I received a reply timestamped 5am this morning, saying that the cruise had been booked over the phone with a shop in Yorkshire (which I didn't know, I thought it was just Thomson) and I would need to ring them to find out what had happened to the etickets. They didn't address my questions re charges for replacing etickets or checking in without etickets.

 

In the meantime, some documents arrived in the mail, having come 2nd class from Yorkshire (this takes a while to get here to the wilds of Edinburgh), these seemed not to be etickets but booking docs.

 

So I rang Yorkshire and another very nice lady explained that they would be emailed to me 10 days before, which will be tomorrow.

 

I do think that when you ring Thomson on the number given on the cruise website you should get someone who is both helpful and able to help with your query !

Please don't be put off by the customer service from Thomson in the UK. As seen time and time again they are absolutely clueless, almost embarrassingly so. I can assure you though that as soon as you reach the desk at the airport it will be a different matter and the customer service will be second to none. It all works like a well oiled machine from then on. As long as you have your booking reference you should be OK, but I appreciate you want the e-tickets for peace of mind.

[campolady]

We booked Cruise Only on-line from Spain last year and didn´t receive anything except our original Booking Conformation that came through within 5 minutes of booking.

 

All we had to show on arrival at Palma Port terminal was this document but our room key and Info pack were waiting for us - no problems at all.

 

We are expecting the same when we cruise again with Thomson in October.

[kruzseeka]

Further to this saga :

 

Having emailed thomson cares email on the suggestion of kruzseeka, I received a reply timestamped 5am this morning, saying that the cruise had been booked over the phone with a shop in Yorkshire (which I didn't know, I thought it was just Thomson) and I would need to ring them to find out what had happened to the etickets. They didn't address my questions re charges for replacing etickets or checking in without etickets.

 

In the meantime, some documents arrived in the mail, having come 2nd class from Yorkshire (this takes a while to get here to the wilds of Edinburgh), these seemed not to be etickets but booking docs.

 

So I rang Yorkshire and another very nice lady explained that they would be emailed to me 10 days before, which will be tomorrow.

 

I do think that when you ring Thomson on the number given on the cruise website you should get someone who is both helpful and able to help with your query !

 

 

Tell us about it! :rolleyes:

 

 

Yes we've had a similar thing re booking - unknown to us we were booked through an Thomson shop in Derby. When our holiday was getting close I rang the number on the booking invoice and queried where my tickets were (in the days before eTickets when you got a booklet) and I was told - "Oh they're here waiting for you to collect them!" Where? Derby! Obviously they posted them on after I told them I wasn't doing a 400 mile round trip!

 

Now it may well be a good idea for Thomson to tap into their stores and divert calls if the phone lines are busy in the on-line dept but wouldn't you think the staff in the store kept an eye open for tickets arriving to them which obviously weren't for local people - or flag up on the booking that clearly these tickets were from phone bookings and need posting?

 

Still at least you have got some documentation and reassurance now which is something. You are definitely on their system and with your plane seats booked you won't be rolling up to find they know nothing about you! ;)

 

Thanks for letting us know your problem has been acknowledged and that at least you had a pretty prompt reply from them (even if all your queries weren't answered!).

 

And as I and others have said - from here on in it should be slick and well organised.

 

Enjoy the Celebration. :)

[ozscotart]

Thanks to all who have helped : etickets have arrived by email, courtesy of very nice lady in Pudsey, Yorkshire. No idea where Pudsey is, but I will never forget it !

 

Very excited to be seeing some warmer weather, it has been very cool here in Scotland for what seems like forever.

[Jim The Scot]

 

 

Glad your sorted

[highlandlassie]

Jim The Scot

 

Glad your sorted

 

 

hahahaha Jim that what I thought when the OP said Pudsey

 

glad to hear your e tickets have arrived

[ormy]

You cannot beat going into your local travel agent to book - they will always match on-line quotes.

Whilst we were sat in the Thomson shop she answered a call from a customer many miles away wanting to book a holiday, apparently calls are diverted to any free Thomson phone line anywhere in the country.

By booking local its no problem to collect tickets and if something is amiss they are there to sort things out.

[Doc2410]

Thanks to all who have helped : etickets have arrived by email, courtesy of very nice lady in Pudsey, Yorkshire. No idea where Pudsey is, but I will never forget it !

 

Very excited to be seeing some warmer weather, it has been very cool here in Scotland for what seems like forever.

 

Yorkshire prevails again :D Pudsey is in Leeds west Yorkshire so not a million miles from me in Sheffield

 

So glad you got sorted. I've booked June's cruise via the phone & it's a shop in Scotland somewhere. Good job we get eTickets, bit far to pick up, 16 hour round trip :eek::eek::eek: Then again always fancied a weekend in Scotland, looks beautiful :p

[merciaman]

Off topic a bit. Pudsey bear is actually named after the town of Pudsey,as it was the hometown of the creators grandfather.:)