After a good experience with Tina from Paramount when booking the cruise it all went wrong after that. Took my £5000 and no customer service when you have an issue.
These are the details of my complaint which has not been resolved, and have received a letter on non headed paper from one of their staff, and after calling their office, the chap at the other end of the phone wasnt aware of this letter! Very strange indeed.
The promise was 2 nights in Barcelona H10 Art Gallery Hotel, 5 nights on Azamara Pursuit all inclusive and all transfers included.
The initial confirmation says we were docking at Monte Carlo (Fontvieille), then this was changed to Ville-Franche and yet again changed to Nice!
The confusion of where we were docking was becoming increasingly frustrating for us as this was a luxury holiday for us and the disappointments
just kept coming and we hadn't travelled yet! I got a call from Tina shortly after booking to say the transfers from the port to Monaco were not included and they couldn't get a coach into the circuit area. I was livid, Tina said we had to make our own way there, so we bought train tickets from Nice to Monaco as we honestly didn't know if we were docking in Nice or Ville-Franche. By this time we were losing faith in Paramount and yet this was our first time using their company. (they did give me £70 towards our independent travel to Monaco).
I then received an itinerary and it had Marseille port on it! what a shambles, by this time I did wonder how our holiday was going to go!
So the holiday begins. We took the train to Manchester Airport from Glasgow, checked in to the Clayton and were having dinner in the hotel because
it was a very early flight the next morning. Sitting enjoying our meal and feeling excited about going to the H10 hotel which we were so looking
forward to and wham there it is, I get a WhatsApp from their company saying the H10 is over booked and we are going to Catalonia hotel and attached a voucher. We were shocked, as hadn't received ANY voucher for H10 and had booked this ONE YEAR IN ADVANCE!
Of course upon receipt of your WhatsApp I replied by the same method and it was very clear I was absolutely livid, and could not understand this at all.
I don't care whose fault it was I was promised the H10 and didn't get it. I then received a phone call to explain what had happened and that it was H10 's
fault, well was it? Because we spoke to a couple on the EXACT SAME holiday as us and they had been told it was the Catalonia Hotel from the start and
knew nothing about the H10!! The H10 was another thing which attracted us to your package.
Their chap said he had been in both hotels and Catalonia was just as good. We visited the H10 after checking in to our hotel and it's not, they were like chalk and cheese and we felt really insulted and let down. One of the other guests said she also received a text message which was meant for us! Other guests were told the transfer to Monaco was now included, we were not! we received no phone call, or text. The hotels might have both been 4 star but believe me there was no comparison, I asked for an egg omelette and you would have thought I had asked for the moon. The restaurant is not what I would call a restaurant, it was the worst breakfast I have ever experienced! One boiled egg, and two slice of bread, tiny room for the "buffet" and felt as though in the dungeon in the small drab basement.
So back to us turning up at Barcelona airport and looking for the transfer to the hotel, Wham! There it goes again, an issue with Paramount! We are in
the foyer, quite a large number of people looking forward to our luxury holiday and cruise and there it is, we are left there for almost an hour hanging around like a herd of sheep! No explanations, nothing. Eventually we are all escorted along quite a walk outside the airport and put in a mini bus, I sat at the back
and the seatbelt wasn't working! I was honestly losing my patience. I would NEVER use this company ever again, as they really did let us down. We are regular travellers but honestly can say this is the worst customer service we have ever received from a travel agent. They don't seem to know what they are doing. Please trust me everything I say is the truth, and yet I took this case to ABTA because the company said they did nothing wrong!!!!! Abta said because they have refused to agree that they did something wrong, we would need to take to court which we dont want to spend any more cash on this company. This is what they are relying on though people NOT TAKING IT TO COURT.
