Thomson / Portland - Bad customer services with visas

Portland holidays have been an absolute disgrace, there customer service is diabolical, after being given totally miss leading info by E-mail (Attached below) from Portland / Thomson I called there customer help line and was told buy some guy called Tom the systems are down call back in an hour.. so I called only to be informed no system problems and nobody called Tom worked there, so I went on to advise that I had now sent 4 applications back to the visa company, 1st wrong address 2nd postal order made to wrong company 3rd wrong postal order amount 4th is till waiting for a response. Waited for a call back for 4 days Anyway to cut a long story short I asked if Thomson / Portland are willing to allow me to change the date of the holiday with not charge if the visa does not arrive in time as it was there error in sending this information. Answer was NO… what about some compensation toward the ££££ I have been changed in postal orders and recorded delivery answer was NO

I am so angry about the attitude of such a large organisation; I understand that the responsibility of a visa lies with the customer that’s not the point, it’s the fact of the miss information I was provided could result in me missing out on my holiday

I have attached my email for your perusal

Thanks for your email,

You do have to get the visa yourself and below id exactly how to go about it:

• You must have a valid passport and ensure that it is valid for at least 6 months from your intended return date.

• A visa is required to visit Goa and the rest of India. You can download an Indian visa application form from the link below.

• Fees are payable to obtain an Indian visa and these are shown on the application form.

• Please allow sufficient time to obtain your visa. Postal applications take at least 2 weeks to process. You can apply in person to the Indian Consulates in either London or Birmingham or Edinburgh and in most cases you can obtain a visa the same day.

• There are companies who can obtain a visa quickly for you. They will charge a fee for their services which is normally about £30 per person. This fee is on top of the charge made by the Indian Embassy.

We recommend Omnia Visa services in London. You can call them on 0207 837 5803

See their website at www.omniavisas.com/ and they can generally have a visa for you within a week.

• Two references are required for your visa application form and they must be contactable addresses in the UK.

• For two contactable addresses in India please state your hotel name for the first reference and either the ';British Embassy, Mumbai'; or the name of your tour operator if known for your second reference.

• Please note that no address or telephone number is needed for the Indian references.

Indian Visas can be obtained from the following offices:

High Commission of India

India House, Aldwych, London WC2B 4NA

Queue numbers are issued between 8.30 a.m. and 12.00 noon Mondays to Fridays, except holidays

Consulate General of India, Birmingham

20 Augusta Street, Jewellery Quarter, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6JL. Tel: 0121 212 2782

Consulate General of India, Edinburgh

17 Rutland Square, Edinburgh, EH1 2BB. Tel: 0131 229 2144

WRONG WRONG WRONG….. Don’t listen to a word….

Thomson / Portland - Bad customer services with visas

Don%26#39;t know when your going I did my online with great help from MEERKAT on here she won mastermind on her subject %26#39;completing visa%26#39;s for Goa%26#39;

We had our visas back the other day took 6 working days.

Thomson / Portland - Bad customer services with visas

OMG how bad is that, I would you suggest you write a letter to Portland and then if you get no joy write to Abta or one of the holiday governing bodies. keep copies of all correspondence. Good Luck.

Definitely some incorrect information from Portland, you can only obtain a visa direct from VFS via the website, you can%26#39;t go to the Consulate General direct - that stopped last year. You must have some come-back if they%26#39;re giving our completely WRONG information - hope you get the Visas in time Rob.

Didnt think about Abta or one of the holiday governing bodies, ill get onto that tonight, thanks

Absolutely disgraceful service (if you can call it that) from Portland. Agreed, it is up to the customer to get their own visa but the information they provided with the links and everything is all completely and totally out of date and wrong. Really hope it is fourth time lucky for you Rob. Like said above, keep copies of all the correspondence you have with them and good luck with everything.

When were you given this info because if you booked some time ago at the time of booking that would have been correct

I agree that you should contact ABTA - you%26#39;ve nothing to lose. I know it%26#39;s difficult to keep up to date as the visa information has changed but Thomsons are a major tour operator and should be giving out the correct information.

was sent email 3 days after i made my booking email came From: New Media Contact (newmediacontact@tui-uk.co.uk)

and was sent to me Sent 27 January 2009 at 11:21:11

Hi Robcop,

Sorry to hear that you have a terrible time with the visa application, i had the same problem myself in Dec.

In the end i had enough with the online thingy, and we found a company that sorts the application for you. (see link)

http://www.astrotravel.co.uk/

I have been going to Goa for 5 years and only know the ';old way'; for the visa applications, and this company does just that!

The company is based in Bolton, you take your application to them or by post, the turn around is about 10 days.

Good Luck!

Moggybrown

This is very bad advice and there is no excuse for them not having up to date info after all this time but I dont think you will have any comeback on them because always it says in the small print somewhere that visas are the sole responsibility of the holidaymaker. I still agree some strong complaints are in order though.