Holiday Hypermarket Hype! (Holiday Hypermarket)

Member Name: harmonyk

Product:	Holiday Hypermarket
Date:	04/06/01 (3413 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap

Disadvantages: dont answer phones

Being a 45 year old, recently separated mother of two I never expected to be travelling to the other side of the world ALONE! Finding myself in the fortunate position of being invited to stay with a friend in Australia - all I had to do was book a flight and go! Simple!

I wasn't really sure who to buy my ticket from. I checked online (of course) got a few ideas about prices and, thanks to Dooyoo, decided which airline might be best to travel with. I also had a good look through the Sunday papers and teletext - they all said the same - 'cheap flights to OZ - only £500'. Hmmm - we'll see!

I decided to visit the Holiday Hypermarket in Southampton. I arrived just after 3pm one Monday and paid for 1 hours parking ticket (I'm so niave!)

I went in and the place is huge with several different areas. I went to the area which seemed to have Australian brochures (seemed like a good idea) and stood by a desk where a pleasant woman was working at her computer. She said to take a seat and she would just be a minute. The building was not busy - there were a lot of staff sitting around - phones were ringing (and seemed to be ignored).

When she was ready, the assistant asked how she could help. I told her when where and how much I wanted to pay. I also informed her of my preferred airlines. She said she would see what was available. It soon became apparant that I would be lucky to get anything so soon as I was planning to go. Her first offer was Quantas at £800! I dismissed this as unrealistic. She continued and after one hour I asked my daughter to go and feed the meter!

After 2 hours of searching and phone calls we found a flight on Singapore Airlines (my first choice) for £653. This was better so I agreed. We then had to iron out the finer details. Stop-over in Singapore - transfers etc. Then it was done. Thanks to a piece of plastic it was paid and all I had to do was wait.

I thanked t
he assistant for all her help and left.

Last week I thought I would try to phone and check if my tickets were in. it was disgraceful. I was put on one of those holdin lines and after 15 minutes gave up. I tried again several times and then remembered the staff sitting in the shop ignoring the ringing and decided not to bother.

I will write to the Holiday Hypermarket when I return from my holiday and complain about the fact that they never seem to answer phone calls - but I doubt I will get a satisfactory explanation. has anyone else experienced this problem?

Summary: