Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s star investigator, battling readers’ corners, revealing the truth behind closed doors and winning victories for those left penniless. Find out how to contact him below.
DN writes: My wife and I booked with Tui to go on a five-day ‘Mistletoe and Rhine’ cruise, starting on November 23, visiting a Christmas fair each day in five different German towns and cities.
Now I have just been informed that the first fair in Frankfurt will not even have started when we are there and that the fair in Koblenz will be closed for “All Souls’ Sunday”.
Christmas calamity: Frankfurt’s colorful holiday fair
Tony Hetherington replies: The Germans organize huge Christmas fairs and markets, and they promised you five of them while the Tui Isla cruise cruised along the Rhine.
Then Tui dropped his bomb. On the first day of the cruise you were supposed to visit the Frankfurt fair, but Tui explained that it wouldn’t start until two days later, on November 25th. And Sunday, November 24, is the ‘Totensonn tag’, a holiday in which people remember the deceased, so the Koblenz fair will remain closed.
Tui explained: ‘We plan our itineraries well in advance of the actual departure date using the information we have available at that time. Sometimes we find that we need to update it as we have more information available.’
Actually? The dates of the Christmas fairs are known a year in advance and the dates of the Totensonntag are already known until 2034.
How long ago did Tui decide its departure dates? And what unpredictable new information fell into his lap a few weeks ago that made him realize that he had promised his passengers the impossible: two fairs that simply won’t exist while his ship is in those cities.
In fact, all of this has an air of panic. Three days after Tui contacted you with his bad news, I discovered that he was still advertising his cruise with the promise of five fairs in five days.
And as I write this I see that the independent online agent Crui.se is still offering Tui’s trip to the non-existent Frankfurt fair on November 23 and to the closed Koblenz fair the next day.
Don’t worry though. Tui assured you: ‘Our team on board will have a program of activities and entertainment for you to enjoy on the ship.’
Well, if I were a passenger who had paid the £1,997 you and your wife shelled out, it would take a lot more than seeing the boat captain dressed as Kris Kringle (the German Santa Claus) to make me forget that Tui has scrapped 40 percent percent of the attractions it advertised.
And the enormous irony of this is that Tui is a German company. That’s right: the Germans forgot to look in their diaries for Sunday of the Dead and they forgot to Google the dates of their own Christmas fairs.
You have to wonder who at their Hannover headquarters suddenly realized this at the end of last month and drafted the letter you received, in which the word “sorry” does not appear anywhere, as does the word “refund” .
Now, you would think that a refund would be offered automatically. Well, not for you. He told you that the changes were minimal, so there would be no refund.
No wonder you canceled your reservation. You have told me that Tui has refunded only £599, leaving the balance as a cancellation charge.
Frankly, I think Tui has breached the contract. I asked Tui to tell me exactly when he found out that the Frankfurt and Koblenz fairs would not be open. And I invited Tui to explain why a 40 percent loss of the attractions it advertised should be considered “minimal.”
Tui asked for time to respond and we agreed that the company would comment last Tuesday. But when Tuesday arrived he asked for a new delay to consult his lawyers.
I refused and Tui finally offered the following: “We would like to apologize to customers affected by the change to the Christmas market sailing on Tui Isla’s ‘Mistletoe and Rhine’ river cruise on 23 November.
“We are currently investigating the impact with our team, exploring options and will be in direct contact with our customer.”
So there are no answers or explanations. So Tui, I’ll come back to this and report back when you’re done researching and exploring. Your customers deserve better.
British Gas demanded £5,211 – for a £135 ticket
Mrs LB writes: We received a ridiculous bill for £5,211 from British Gas, which showed the meter had risen from 4973 to an estimated 5043, but the figure on the meter was only 2989.
Tony Hetherington replies: Receiving a dubious lawsuit is bad enough, but his problems were just beginning.
He called British Gas and was assured that the next bill would fix things. Instead he received two further demands for £5,211. You made a complaint, complete with a picture of the meter reading, and British Gas reduced your bill from £5,211 to £135!
Out-of-pocket costs: British Gas admitted incorrect figures spotted by meter reader were the cause of the whole problem
As soon as the revised invoice arrived, he went directly to the post office and paid in full. But the next day another letter arrived telling him that the £135 demanded just 24 hours earlier was outstanding and threatening legal action.
Then two more letters arrived, both informing him that his previous complaint had been resolved. Excellent, except that a fortnight later another letter said that British Gas had called the debt collectors.
I asked British Gas and they said they had never heard of you – that all your bills were going to ‘The Occupier’ at your address. It denied issuing payment reminders.
You explained that you own the house with your sister and that you had never bothered to put a single name on the account. But you certainly got reminders and gave me copies.
Eventually, British Gas admitted that the cause of the whole problem was incorrect figures recorded by a meter reader. He told me: ‘We are sorry for the mistake. This has already been resolved.”
But I wonder why no one at British Gas could have taken responsibility for fixing this much sooner.
If you believe you are a victim of financial irregularity, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large volume of inquiries, it is not possible to provide personal responses. Please only send copies of the original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
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