Barrhead Travel Service

I booked four excursion via Cruising Excursions.com a highlights of Ko Samuai and Private tour of Ho shi Ming city which was a rip off for both

the first one the girl spoke to us twice onces to welcome us and to point out airport rubbish tour

second was a private tour of city took us to Parliament building post office and that was it was supposed to be da day tour but finished at 1 when she said she would take us back to ship but when we said to early she mentioned the war museum but we would have to pay entry ourselves which we did we paid a lot of money for these trips and extremely disappointed

I have no access to my email just now to send direct email to feedback@barrheadtravel.co.uk due to issues with virgin media

I have complained about a holiday my son booked and I paid gave them all the complaint details they then said I needed power of attorney cost me more money only to be told I only needed written permission from my son to get the details of a recording as all of a sudden my name was not on it and the dates were changed I have provided this material that was witnessed by doctor in the hospital my son is in and I am still waiting for a large company the way they treat people is disgusting

To whoever this may concern,

There has been a delay in sending this as I have been busy getting back into a routine since coming back from Mexico. I was to raise my concerns and also a complaint regarding the misinformation and false hope that your company are giving your customers. My boyfriend and I booked our first holiday and first trip to Mexico staying in the Rui Cancunb hotel. We paid, as you will be fully aware of, a lot of money to go to Mexico on the 20th of September. On our first day, we were given room number 100, with the view of a tree trunk, and a balcony smaller than I've ever been in any hotel in my life never mind a 5 star. This balcony wasn't ever half as wide as the other balcony's in Riu Cancun, it was shocking. I have attached pictures of this. When booking this holiday with you I was shown pictures of my room and the view I was supposed to be having and continuously reminder of the view i would be waking up to as you were selling this holiday to me. There was also a bunch of other people we met who had experienced the exact same thing. The reps also made us aware that this is a constant issue they have as you fail to tell us that there is a possibility we may not get the room shown to us or even close to it and promise everyone these sea view rooms which is absolutely disgusting. This caused a lot of stress and upset on the first day of our holiday, resulting in us arguing because of how raging we both were which is not how I planned our first holiday together and set it off in a horrible way. We then had to go to the reception and go through a lengthy process to get this room changed, almost needing to pay an additional charge however were let off with just paying a tip which we shouldn't have had to in the first place. This wasn't done until the following day resulting in us both having to repack our cases and hang around for this new room which also put a dampener on our second day. I think this is an absolutely disgusting way to treat your customers and it is definitely something I will remember in future as I usually book every holiday through Barrhead Travel.

Gutted and shocked that you feel this is an acceptable way to sell a holiday to someone, wouldn't have paid £300 for that room never mind around about £3500.

The holiday was booked under the name Craig McMahon.

Yours sincerely
Skye

I visited the silver burn store in April where we booked 11 nights in zante. This included flights, hotel and car parking at Newcastle. The lady serving us was also going to message the hotel and jet 2 to let them know we were getting married in zante while there and ask if we could have honey moon suite etc.
I then visited the Ayr store last week to see if we had been able to get these things sorted and was disgusted with the rudeness of the staff and how unwilling they were to help me out, and the problem seemed to be because I had booked it at silverburn and not Ayr. So after walking out the shop, my partner and I went to the silverburn shop, for them to tell us the car parking wasn't in the deal and that nobody had messaged the hotel to ask about room or inform jet 2. My parents have booked to stay in exact same hotel with everything the same as us and in a superior room through travel republic and have got their holiday for £800 less than us and I am disappointed with the service I'm receiving. It's stressful enough planning a wedding, never mind having to chase up things about the holiday, which we though would be the easiest part.

Good morning,

My husband and I are recently back from our honeymoon which we booked through Barrhead Travel and I have numerous complaints. Our trip was 3 nights in New York, 4 nights in Las Vegas and then 7 nights in Bahamas. We spent almost £7, 000 on this trip and to say I was disappointed by the service would be an understatement. My list of complaints follow:

- a few weeks before our trip when applying for our ESTA Visa's, I googled our hotel to get the contact details for our application, we were booked to stay at the W in Manhattan and I was shocked to see on google that the hotel had now been closed and bought by another company and renamed. No one at Barrhead had bothered to contact us to inform us of this and when I called to ask, I was told "it doesn't really matter its still in the same place but there are not notes on your file" but they would have someone would call me back. Not only did no one bother to call me back but I have never been to New York so the fact that the hotel "is still in the same place" means nothing to me, it's not like I know where I am going, I would have hate to have turned up in a new city and asked for a cab to take me to a hotel to be told it wasn't there anymore.

- Two weeks later we received an email to say our tickets were ready. When we arrived in store the agent started to go through our itinerary and I was shocked to hear that so much of our travel itinerary had changed with no update from Barrhead what so ever. Like I said before I had called the store only 2 weeks before to be told their was nothing on our file. Our outbound flight was now leaving 2.5 hours later than when we had booked. We were only in New York for 3 nights and the early flight time was one of the reasons we weren't staying in New York an extra night however now rather than arriving in the afternoon, we weren't arriving until almost dinner time. meaning we were basically missing half a day. When I told the agent we already had a tour booked, her only response was, I'd have cancelled that anyway I doubt you would make it, takes 3 hours to get through customs and into the City, something that was never mentioned to us when booking and also FYI, it did not take us 3 hours to through customs and into the City so if the flights had not been changed we would have made our tour. This flight change really impacted our trip and I cannot express enough our disappointment in this change and the fact we weren't even informed by it is even more disappointing.

- Our return flights were also changed, meaning we were going from a 3 hour layover in New York to a 6 and a half hour layover. Again with no notification from Barrhead of this change. Our flight from the Bahamas to New York was changed to an earlier time and our flight from New York to Edinburgh was also changed to a later time, meaning we left our resort in the Bahamas at 9:30am on Saturday the 6th of October and didn't arrive back in Edinburgh until 10:00am on Sunday 7th of October. Again this isn't what we signed up to when we booked this trip and really put a dampener on our last day.

- the attitude of the agent in the Glasgow Fort is something I would also add to the complaint. If I'm honest she couldn't care less about my complaints to the changes and the lack of notification from Barrhead. She advised that the flight changes were made in December and that we were notified. When I told her I had called 2 weeks ago and was told nothing was on the file and that we hadn't received anything she basically just shrugged her shoulders. We checked the email on file and they definitely had our correct details but we definitely had not received any emails or phone calls from Barrhead at any point to say there had been changes made to our flights, however we did receive the email to say our tickets were ready to clarify that the details were definitely correct.

- When we got home I checked our tickets and again had to contact Barrhead, there was no notification of any check in times - I have never been on an international flight so was not aware that check in was 3 hours before. There was also no notification of our baggage allowance so I had to confirm this also. We also specifically asked to book seats on all our flights as we previously flew to Mexico and hadn't pre-booked our seats and ended up sitting at opposite ends of the plane however only 1 flight had seats booked, despite us specifically requesting this when we booked. Luckily the seats weren't yet fully claimed so we were able to book our seats together, but had I not queried this we may have ended up not sitting together despite it being a specific request. Also a friend of mine had also booked her honeymoon through Barrhead and had been told to check in online, but online checking wasn't even mentioned to us so I also had to call and clarify this.

- When we were ready to leave New York and head to Las Vegas again there were no details of check in times once again. I have never got an internal flight in the US before so I don't understand why check in times are just assumed. I tried googling it but there were multitude of answers between 45 minutes to an hour and a half so I had to call Barrhead from New York to clarify - to be told it was 2 hours. Again you can't just expect people would know this. Then when we arrived at JFK we were attempting to check in on one of the self service machines as advised by the JFK staff. After trying every reference number on our itinerary I had no choice but to phone Barrhead again as none of the reference numbers were working. I couldn't believe when the adviser said that VS/ reference had to have the VS/ dropped, it was just the following numbers that were the reference number. Again how would i know that! no one mentioned this to us when we picked up this documentation. Luckily our flight was in the afternoon and so Barrhead in the UK was still open. But there seems to be a pattern emerging that Barrhead just seem to assume far to much, and therefore do not pass on enough information.

- When we booked the initial plan was to leave Las Vegas on Saturday to fly to the Bahamas, however the agent recommended an overnight flight on the Friday night to save a nights accommodation in Vegas and get the full day in the Bahamas which sounded like a great idea so this is the option we went for however they failed to mention that our hotel check in wasn't until 3pm! So we arrived at the hotel at 9am and had to sit in the lobby for almost 6 hours! Had we been told this we would have either paid for early check in if that had been an option or we would have just stayed in Vegas another night and left for the Bahamas in the morning, as it was all well and good having the full day in the Bahamas but we didn't really. We weren't dressed to sit out in the sun, we were dressed for a flight. We had been travelling for the past 10 hours so the last thing you want is to just be sitting about the hotel lobby, you want to get into your room and get showered and changed so we were extremely disappointed by this lack of communication once again.

- Finally when we arrived at JFK there was an onscreen message at customs with regards to connecting flights that stated that passengers had to collect their baggage for connecting flights and re-check them in. I had never heard of this but I have never actually got a connecting flight before this trip so again I had to call Barrhead and clarify as we hadn't had to do this from our Las Vegas to the Bahamas connecting flight. The agent at Barrhead told us that we shouldn't have to collect the bags but we may have to identify them, but we were never told any information in regards to our connecting flights before hand and this just added extra stress for us, again just total lack of communication from Barrhead.

The fact that this trip cost almost £7, 000 I honestly cannot express enough the disappointment with the lack of communication, information and customer service we received from Barrhead Travel. Never have I had to call a travel agent while on holiday to clarify any details, so to have to do this multiple times is just appalling. This was our first trip with Barrhead Travel and from this experience I highly doubt we would ever book another trip with Barrhead or recommend to anyone else. This was a very special trip, our honeymoon which was tainted by these constant issues, all of which could have been easily avoided if Barrhead would actually communicate information with customers and not just make assumptions that everyone has flown internationally with connecting flights before and we expect to be compensated for this bad experience.

I am writing to let use know that i booked an all inclusive holiday with your company to Sunny beach Bulgaria Laguna Park. I travelled here on the 16th of September for 2 weeks with my 3 year old daughter, my father and myself for 2 weeks. Let's just say i am not one bit happy about this holiday and i will be taking use the full way. On the 2nd week of our holiday the hotel was an absolute disgrace! The food was horrible the standard of the food had dropped from the first week, the snack bar closed down and might i add the food standards in the snack bar was diabolical! The food looked preheated and dried out and scattered all over the place! My 3 year old daughter had took the runs the full 2 weeks we were there! They closed half of the restaurant, on lunch all there was on offer in the restaurant was a slice of pizza and dried out sandwiches. The entertainment had all stopped there was no entertainment for the kids at night no music, no nothing! They closed all the flumes and the kids flumes in the childrens pool, baring in mind i had still had a few days of my holiday left with a crying kid because she couldn't play on the chutes or pirate ship! They told us it was because it was end of season. I was also not informed about this, we paid the same amount of money as other people that came earlier in the year but yet we didn't get treated with the same standards! Being the last 3 people to leave a big hotel like that is horrible. This is just not acceptable at all. If i had been told it was end of season i wouldn't have booked that holiday in the first place! Also the day before we fly out your company decide to send me a later stating that my return flight will drop passengers of in East Midlands before we fly back to Glasgow! This was just not acceptable as there was not a thing i could have done as i was flying out the next day! We get to East Midlands to then be told we have to get of the plane and go to another gate to go through all security checks again, just to get back on the same plane and same seats! To then fly back to Glasgow. Since getting home both my father and i have took very ill and we are only getting worse! Both your company, Balkan holidays and hotel Laguna Park has ruined our full holiday that we saved for a long time to get. I will be demanding compensation and now my next step is to head to citizens advice then my lawyer as i am no one bit impressed with all this and will be taking use every step of the way as i believe we deserve compensation in return of the shamble of a holiday yous sold us!

My husband saved for my special trip to Santorini for my 60th birthday.
He paid £2553 approx to fly from Manchester on 18th August ten nights room and breakfast Kamari Beach hotel and spa.
I asked the lady Laura at the branch at the Fort Easterhouse Glasgow if we had to do anything like check in on line etc. Was advised that no everything was taken care of, and a special request to hotel for my birthday with a view to upgrading.

We travelled from Glasgow the day before by train booked into the Radison BLu at the airport.

Next morning we arrived in plenty of time for the flight only to discover we had in fact not been checked in as advised.
Which in turn meant we may not have been sitting together for the duration of the flight. However we were seated together.
On arrival at the hotel it was late and dark. We were showed to our room which was very small, curtains were hanging off the rail.
No balcony as specifically requested . A terrace with a very small table and chairs and a glass panel on either side. Looking at a wall with a flower box...Over £2500 I was not impressed to say the least. The shower room was very small and not ideal I have mobility problems and would have struggled with it.

I did complain in the morning and was advised the hotel was full.
On insisting in a very nice manner they did change our room.
Between transferrring from one room to another my kindle was lost in transit. I asked the hotel to check the safe or under the bed, they said it wasn't there?
Still not turned up by the time we left.
On route home once again on
arrival at the airport in Santorini not checked in on line as advised we were.
We were not seated together on the duration of the flight home.

The sale of that holiday was misleading. Not clear and I was very unhappy at the cost for what was involved.

This was to be the birthday present of a lifetime and It was somewhat spoilt by the lack of customer service.

Mrs Julie Doherty

Tried to invoice me for a vacation I never booked. Right name, wrong country, and IDEK how they got my email address which isn't my name. fishy as heck. And of course you can't submit a contact form without giving them all kinds of personal information. I need more letters so I'm just filling space now, just avoid this company. Try again, scammers, your bait is stale and your sauce is weak.

Holiday booked through Barrhead Travel East Kilbride under the name of Kieran Mcluskey 24 Glamis Drive East Kilbride Departure date to Majorca (Palma) Frid 11th May 2018 - Mond 14th May for my husband's ( Gordon Burns snr) Son's stag (Gordon Burns Jnr). I paid £50 for a suitcase for this flight which was taken from my account on Feb 19th 2018. When my husband arrived at the airport jet 2 could not find the paid case, so my husband paid a further £80 and kept the receipts. I phoned Barrhead travel in East Kilbride to ask what to do and they said to call back when they arrive home from their trip which i done on the day after they returned in MAY.I spoke to chloe who said that jet 2 had confirmed it was there error and they would be sending out a cheque and i have phoned at least 4 times since and spoke to chloe suzanne & stephanie and twice they have said the cheque has been sent out, 1st time was Monday 25th June then told on 2nd July. I had firstly phoned Jet 2 who said they had posted the cheque. We are now at 5th July 2018 and still no cheque, i am very disappointed in your customer service and hope to have this resolved soon.

Kind Regards
Anne

I choose Barrhead travel in Clydebank to order my Swiss franks as they had the best rate on Monday 25rh June it was according to the teller I spoke to sitting at 1.19 i. The teller advised she would be ordering on Thursday for delivery Friday 29thJune.

I received a phone call from mark on the Thursday telling me the rate had dropped to 1.16 and asked if I still wanted to order I advised him yes I still wanted to go ahead.

I went to collect my Swiss franks on the Friday about noon but they had not been deliver yet they were finally in about 14.45 and I duly paid and got the franks. When I noticed I never received as much as I expected I asked the girl what exchange rate she had given. She advised the rate was 1.12.

I was not happy at this as she never informed me of the exchange rate before I paid for them and I also never asked as I had been told by Mark when it change so if it had dropped again I assumed I would have been informed.

I also thought you would get the rate it was ordered at please look into this for me as it has put me off using Barrhead travel for my New York trip in September.

Regards

Joan Mclevy

Booking Reference: 9265468,

I am writing to you to raise an issue about Travel Agents at Barrhead Travel on June 4th, 2018.

Firstly the travel provider/hotel changed the 24 hr buffet so it is now no longer 24hrs. When being advised about this change we decided that this was probably not the right hotel for us as it tells us that they are scaling back. My husband phoned Barrhead travel to tell them that we had found a new hotel and that we would like to change. They told us that it would £300 plus £100 admin fee. My husband said that due to the fact there was a change in what the hotel was providing that the admin fee shouldn't be applicable. He said that he would provisionally book this room and get back to him regarding the admin fee. He was also told he would receive a confirmation email regarding the change. This email never came so my husband phoned the next day in order to give Barrhead travel time to sort this out. On this phone call he was told that it had not been dealt with and that the last person he spoke to was incorrect and there wouldn't have been an admin fee in the first place but now the room was £800. Every time my husband has phoned he has had to speak to different call handlers and every time begin the process again. So to sum up the issue. Barrhead are asking for £800 extra when we can get the same hotel online for £137 difference. I am extremely disappointed that due to incompetence of Barrhead travel staff we have missed out on the hotel we wanted to change to. They want £2000 from us if we cancel the holiday. Now, I completely understand that hotels change things but we are within our rights to change our mind because of these changes, especially when we are willing to pay the difference. However, I do not accept that because of incompetent staff that I am stuck with a hotel we are now unhappy with. I can safely say I will not be booking with Barrhead travel again and I will not be recommending. Thank you in advance.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Laura Hunter

Booking Reference [protected]
In July 2017 my partner and I booked the holiday of our dreams for my 21st birthday, when my flight was cancelled by email through the night with little information I sought the support of Barrhead Travel which has been ineffective. Contacting customer support 0914 hours promised callback at 1000 hours from Glasgow fort branch had to call at 1100 hours and no support offered as I was told "its in Thomas Cooks hands" having paid so much money for my dream holiday via Barrhead travel I expected a level of service and support which has fallen well short. I am very angry, upset and distressed and when I was looking for answer and help Barrhead Travel could not provide it.
Up until now I have been pleased with the service offered however when a problem occurred, your service has failed me.
I seek and fully expect compensation as I booked through yourselves to provide me with protection and support should something ever go wrong and when i ws looking for your help I was told to look for information on Thomas Cook webiste.
I hope you can understand the frustration, upset and anxiety caused as I have paid Barrhead Travel for a fully ATOL protected holiday package and I have been left on my own to sort this issue.

On the 7th of April me and my partner laid down an £80 deposit to go on holiday on the 11th of December this year at your Silverburn branch in Glasgow. unfortunately we had to cancel, as we were both involved in a car accident, on the 12th of April and we were told that we would not be charged any more money and that we will not be receiving our deposit back.
Yesterday (15.05.2018) i received a call from the sales rep demanding i owed them £60 of the original booking deposit. That manner I was addressed in was absolutely shocking. After explaining I would call her back as I needed to talk to my partner about this matter, I read through your booking terms and conditions and this states that if we cancel within 28 days of booking we are entitled to 100% of out deposit paid back to us.
I called back later that day to inform the sales rep of this and she then passed me over to your creditors who then informed me that this was something they could not help me with and that it was the finance team at the store I booked from that would deal with this. So after phoning the store for a third time and had been passed between manager to manager I was told it was customer service that would deal with this.

I am still awaiting response on this matter but I feel like I have been passed about and that no one is willing to help. for a company as big as this I would assume that staff would be trained in know who deals with what situation. We were also looking into booking with yourself for the same holiday for next year but after how I have been treated from the sales reap I will be going else ware and I really would like this resolved as this is now affecting my mental health due to people demanding money.

Booking reference [protected]

When we arrived at the reception of the Roosevelt Hotel, New York on 4 April 2018 we were told that we had to pay a facility charge of 32.99 dollars per day for internet connection, gym use, being able to make local calls and they gave us vouchers for 10% off at their restaurant. The hotel said that as we were an Experia booking we had to pay this and this was disclosed when the booking was confirmed. We had not been told anything about this facility charge when we booked the holiday and although we wanted the internet connection, we had no intention of using the gym, making local calls or eating in their expensive restaurant. We had to pay £167.32 for the facility charges for 4-11 April 2018 when we left the hotel for just for using the wi fi. There is no mention of the hotel's daily facility charge in the accommodation voucher ref. 7392373 we were given. We feel that we were badly let down by Barrhead Travel and the company should refund us the £167.32 we had to pay for something we should have been told about at the time of booking. If we had of been told about the hotel's facility charge we would have chosen a different hotel with free wi fi. Barrhead Travel is responsible for informing its customers of all costs and charges they will incur especially when these would be in addition to the total cost of the holiday which had already been paid and they failed to do this.

We have always thought Barrhead staff extremely helpful and polite. However when we received a phone call regarding our ticket pickup, after explaining we had no printer, we were advised they did not print boarding passes everything was done at airport!

When my husband requested boarding passes to be printed again when he collected our tickets he was was again refused and advised everything was done at airport!

As I find travelling stressful this caused a lot of concern and undue worry.

Surely it would have taken a few minutes to carry out this simple request and saved undue pressure and stress

Recently been to cuba booked four nights in havana and ren in varadero however only got three nights in havana.we were told transfer to varadero would commence at 1500 hrs but got phone call at 9am saying our bus was there this was rather stressful as youcan imagine .
Now on to varadero iberostar we specifically came in to your oswald st Office, raising concerns about our accomadation in varadero prior to departure in light of hurricane imra and were told everything was up and running and we wouldn't encounter any problems.this was certainly not the case entertainment theartre was a building site .there was building works all around pool and lobby areas as well as accommodation areas constant power tools and hammering including rip snotter chainsaw and grinders to name but a few considerably interrupting what was supposed to be our holiday in paradise.
We feel somebody should have contacted us beforehand to tell us these works were going on and offered an alternative.this took us three years to save for and should have been our special holiday for our 50th birthdays and our friends wedding anniversary.
Kind Regards
Robert Guthrie
Barrhead travel booking ref:[protected]

I booked sandals Antigua for 2018 for my husbands 50th next year in may.
From the beginning there have been problems, difficulties and a to.tal lack of transparency.
From flight times being changed to not informing myself of charges, i.e. Booking premium club seats, but have to pay £200 to sit together. To lack of consistency, i.e. Having a set number of hours for flight transfer. When going out there is only two hours, and expecting us to wait 7 on return, and. Or book connecting flights ourselves. I am totally dismayed, disappointed and troubled by the way I have been treated.
To top it of. Sandals have taken no responsibility with there changes. Leaving, I feel is having to compromise or change or holiday.
Due to these issues, I know have had to cancel a concert, organised for our return for my husbands birthday
I would appreciated you looking at my case
Karen cameron