second complaint letter

[sallycroc]

I stayed in a really awful hostel in Edinburgh and we were charged �42 for 2 in a room.

We didn't even get clean sheets.

I wrote a letter of complaint to the manager 5 weeks ago.

I haven't had a reply - do I send another letter?

Would love some advice to take this further. I thought about contacting local trading standards.

Sally x

[~max~]

Can I ask which one it was? I must have stayed in all of them!

[B00]

Is the hostel ABTA bonded?

If it is, you should write another letter to the hostel, giving them a further 21 days to respond to you, otherwise you will contact ABTA for them to proceed on your behalf. This may spur them into action.

Can I ask what exactly you want? Compensation? If it is the full amount you are expecting back, I'd be extremely surprised (it's almost unheard of to be honest) if you get 100% back.

Personally- considering your expenditure was only �42 i wouldn't proceed beyond a 2nd letter to the company. These things can drag out for quite a while and in my opinion, for �42 it just isn't worth it.

[HJT40]

Did you complain when you were there and, if so, why did they not rectify the situation?

Did you report the problems when you went to pay?

These are really things that you need to do whilst you are there and in person.

If you want to write a second letter send it to the head office and send a copy of your first letter,

[funnygirl]

Write to the local Edinburgh paper, they'll get back to you soon enough!!!

[sp1214]

Did you complain at the time?

[SRH]

I was fed up of being ripped off all the time so set up a blog via my local newspaper site (I'm a journo at the paper but run my blog as an anonymous separate 'entity' on 'blogstoday'). I publish my own and readers' gripes and contact firms' press offices and customer services depts to get action. Might be worth doing the same, even if you only blog every couple of weeks. Nothing gets action faster than 'I'm researching a story for publication via my local newspaper!'

My best refunds up to now have been a full refund from Travelodge - similar experience to yourself, and �150 compensation from BT for a catalogue of problems.

The pen, as they say, is mightier than the sword...