“Lone Oak”
18 Woodcocks Crescent
Castledean,
Mrs Vivian Sparkes 3rd June, 2006
Customer Service Manager
Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines
Fred. Olsen House, White House Road
Ipswich, Suffolk. IP1 5LL
Dear Mrs Sparkes,
Re: Black Watch - BW26513
I refer to your letter of the 24th March, 2006 to Mr Stanberry of Bath
Travel, Bournemouth.
I am accepting the cheque of £60.00 for the medical expenses only, which
was as a consequence of the unacceptable level of comfort on the flight
out to Buenos Aires. This is in no way an acceptance of what will be my
final claim against your organisation.
In my letter to Nigel Lingard your Marketing Director, dated 21st May,
2006, I informed him that I was forwarding all details of the flight and
cruise to Which? Services. They have come back to me with their
observations and I will now follow up my claim through the small claims
courts. In
addition, they have agreed with me, that I should now place my complaint
in the public domain through a National Newspaper.
My claim will be:
Loss of enjoyment and value, due to my back problem, brought about by the
unacceptable level of comfort and restricted movement on the flight out to
Buenos Aires. Unable to sit for long periods on the ship resulting in not
being able to attend any shows or outings by coach.
Having to address the problem of the flight out with the numerous other
passengers over the entire period of the cruise. Like the other
passengers, I was terribly worried about getting back safely to the UK
and this further affected the total enjoyment of the holiday. In addition,
my wife had to
suffer along with me, compounding the overall problem. Your current
advertisement claims that...’The officers and crew are always at hand to
ensure you can enjoy your time with Fred. Olsen...’ Why, in our case,
didn’t they take on our many complaints regarding the flight, only to pass
the problem to and fro to me throughout the entire cruise? Asking us to
start enjoying the cruise after a week into our holiday, didn’t alter the
fact that most of us were simply too scared to return to the UK on the
same aircraft that we came in on. Our continual daily fears seemed not to
have been their problem.
Furthermore, I was not even given the opportunity to upgrade on the flight
out and to know the type of aircraft being used, until shortly before
departure. When I enquired about this cruise shortly after cruising on the
Black Prince, I was informed that the flight should be schedule out of
Heathrow.
Over a period of at least ten months I enquired about the flight through
your office and was told that
details were not known.
If I had known at the beginning that this was the case, I would have had
reservations about booking this cruise. Many of the passengers shared the
same experience with your office and were most
upset with the responses they got at the various times they called. There
were, again, many like
myself, who would have upgraded given the choice.
I enclose a copy letter of just one of the many passengers, who felt the
same way, as to how we were treated by your office prior to the cruise.
Please note the date of this letter. Peter Randell was not the only one
still very worried about the flight back well into the cruise.
All the evidence clearly shows, that you and ‘your officers and crew are
NOT always at hand to ensure WE can enjoy OUR time with Fred. Olsen...’.
How we got to your ship and back, clearly shows that your organisation was
not concerned. This was again evident on us having to wait for at least
two hours to gain access to our cabins on arrival in Brazil, thus reducing
the time available to look around Buenos Aires.
Your subsequence responses bear this out.
encl: