Golf holiday ruined, please read this..
May 2023
Ref: Booking 8000583
Conclusion from recent trip to Vilamoura
Having spent 1 year organising this golfing holiday with GolfDirectholidays, 3 rounds (laguna,Pinhal,vale do lobo) inc golf buggies.
We arrived and over the holiday we found you hadn't booked or paid for the buggies and to top it off our main event Sunday 11.am tee off at Vale do lobo, hadn't been booked that's the golf and buggies, so 12 months in planning and the whole trip ruined.
Friday arrive at laguna spent 1 hour constantly phoning you guys and discussing with there club house, I ended up having to pay for buggies myself, as we where with the same organisation on Saturday Pinhal they informed us no buggies in place for Saturday so again same issue.
I was phoning golf direct and emailing, shocking lack/non help/assistance and no return calls made
Sunday went to hotel reception to arrange shuttle bus to vale do lobo all guys at the door ready and buzzing, then bang no golf booked at the course and no tees available as course was full, absolute nightmare, on the phone over 30 calls made no response from golf direct.
I worked with hotel reception and we found a course so we could at least have a game.
Joe (ghd MD) sent an email to me on the 19/05 trying to explain buggies were not included however he was looking at an old email quote so I sent him the quote showing prices with buggies included and all was on our voucher tickets/emails etc etc. So no excuses please..
Joe sent email on the 22nd asking how much buggies were, didn't even know about no golf at vale do lobo, so not sure who or how your communication works there as emails, phoning, leaving messages doesn't seem to help you people.
So as you can see and you must agree our holiday and especially mine was ruined, on the phone,emailing etc totally stressed out!!
so I returned on the 23/05 and the next day sent you the costs for buggy hire x 3rounds and 8 players on the course we managed to play on the Sunday,
I spent 1 week chasing your company for payment, which I received on 31/05 total received £1440.00, I informed you my visa bill was £1469.49 which was 1644 euros, so again you don't even square me up and blame your accounts rather than do the right thing.
you then offer a voucher discount as compensation if we book another trip... so I inform our group and we agree to explore this thinking we get something out of the mess your company put us through.
You offer a weekend at Oulton Hall 1 night B&B evening meal + 2 rounds for £225 each, I looked on there website and they offer this with a free drink for £189.00, so again this is not compensation its just a whole joke with you.
As in the email below I mentioned putting a review on Trustpilot, which you said was threating and not something you wouldn't dream of!
You say its a one off mistake well maybe you should look through your reviews from the past, and address your errors and treat people with respect rather than disappointment, and don't even return my money correctly or compensate us correctly,
On Friday 23/05 I was informed by Golf direct my vouchers where cancelled due to advising them i will put a review on and there MD was on the phone shouting at me saying there really busy and to stop emailing them he hung up before I could respond.
apparently UK's largest Golf holiday company, that states we will lead you every step of the way to meet your requirements,
well you failed by 100%