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Post by dennisn on Sept 19, 2021 6:28:30 GMT
Thanks Woody. Not that I’ll be following directions, I just assumed it would be as visible as the football stadium from the way people talk about going there.
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Post by cariad23 on Sept 19, 2021 7:58:37 GMT
spot on woody. A reason i like studios that do food is if you are shattered or one of you is ill, you can et a meal onsite without walking. Sometimes we have a main meal at midday and just a snack at night
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Post by Woody (Admin) on Sept 19, 2021 8:26:08 GMT
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Post by dennisn on Sept 19, 2021 13:49:48 GMT
How time passes. I thought it was time TUI answered my call for help for Vera for the journey home. I messaged them two days ago asking for assistance and all they’ve done is ask for details of assistance required. I responded with a six point list - journey to JSI because she won’t be able to climb the steps up to the transfer coach, wheelchair and lift into the plane, lift and wheelchair at Bristol when we land, plus letting us take home the Zimmer frame we bought. I felt it wise to do it as a list from 1 to 6 so that there’s no misunderstanding and added an unnumbered item wondering whether she’d be able to make it to our specified seats. At 3:15pm Skiathos time on 17th September the reply was that he had passed the matter to the department concerned and would get back to me when they solved it. Nothing since 48 hours ago.
So I rang the UK helpline and asked what’s going on. Although speaking excellent English, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t his first language (he ended up addressing me as Mr Dennis). Booking reference and my name takes him to somewhere hopefully relevant, where he put me on hold whilst he looked at it. I had originally referred to “my travel partner” and “she” and Vera is obviously listed by name on the booking. But back from hold he asked who would need wheelchair at JSI, then who would need lifting into the plane, then who would need lifting out of the plane at Bristol and who would need wheelchair at Bristol. Finally, who would be carrying the Zimmer frame. More hold then he said he had sent it off to the team and he would call me back in an hour if they got back to him. But if they didn’t, he wouldn’t call me - so if he didn’t call me back, I’d know they haven’t got back to him. Gob smacked doesn’t cover it!!! And that’s how it stands, no call after one and a half hours, so I can feel confident in the knowledge that “they” haven’t got back to him. I suspect that all he did was check my booking reference was valid, then called up the assistance form and filled in each entry whilst on the phone with me, then pressed Submit.
Grrrr. What if we’d been flying home today or tomorrow? Back in 2017 with my leg, all I did was tell the local rep I could probably manage the steps into the transfer coach, but not into the plane. She/they did all the rest, right the way to Birmingham baggage reclaim. With allegedly no local rep, TUI appear to be completely incapable of the job at arm’s length.
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Post by balddave on Sept 19, 2021 18:30:20 GMT
gentle swimming will help with mobility as no stress on the joints, hydrotherapy. i love grapefruit, are you or vera on statins? i don,t know if you are aware you are not supposed to eat grapefruit if you are. The odd one is probably fine but not regulary Glad the pool is warming im a big wuss hate cold water, some pools never seem to get warm depends if its in the sun and depth i suppose. The one at theodora was lovely. i even found the sea in india abit chilly. skiathos has the warmest sea of any greek island i think, samos was freezing and lesbos not much better. A thought could you have a gyros or pizza delivered one night for dinner to save the walk You’re correct Cariad, I have a heart condition having undergone a triple bypass 7 years ago, one of the main no no’s was grapefruit
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Post by dennisn on Sept 19, 2021 19:08:35 GMT
Update on the homeward assistance saga. I waited until 6 hours (and evening meal out) had passed from when the guy said he’d ring me in an hour and phoned the helpline again. Bit grumpy. I had to stop him a couple of times from continuing with the crib sheet and get him focussed on what I had already gone through, another Agent with English as second language. He eventually found my notes and seemed to be reading information which included that we have been shifted to “Welfare seats 1A and 1B”, talk of ambulance and suchlike, all seemed promising. There were a couple of points I wasn’t sure on and he asked if I’d like to hang on whilst he enquired or should he phone me back and I chose to be phoned back out of fear for my roaming minutes. He had a very weird phone number for me so I put that right and hoped he wouldn’t be doing it at 4am. Blow me if he didn’t ring in just 30 minutes! He told me all is sorted and from what he was saying it sounded good. So I congratulated him on being the one who really did a great job and thanked him properly. The displayed incoming phone number was identified as coming from Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands.
so hopefully, all’s well that ends well, although we don’t know how or when they’ll get us to JSI. Apparently people are getting emails with transfer pickup details. If it goes wrong, I wouldn’t like to be the person telling us so - Vera’s reaction will be something to be observed from a safe distance! If I was in the pain she’s suffering, I would be very difficult to put up with and I’m not a patch on Vera. I think TUI have really dropped the ball with no rep visits or contacts - that seems to me the one thing they should have held to strongly, the COVID excuse is really wearing quite thin.
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Post by dennisn on Sept 19, 2021 19:23:13 GMT
Sunday 19th September. We decided on a rest day, so there’s nothing to report. Except we lolled about in our jammies quite late, then moved out to the pool for an hour of teenage playing with our iPads. Then lunch for me from the bar, very limited menu (three choices!), but enough to keep my wolf away, whilst Vera tucked into a packet of marmite flavoured things which filled her up nicely. She offered me a taster, but I declined because they are so more-ish that I’d have accepted another etc. So I settled for beer and chips.
Then we had a swim. It’s an exercise getting her into the pool and out again and I cannot understand how she goes through with it uncomplainingly. From her terribly slow movement she’s obviously in great pain, more than I could put up with quietly. But once in the water she can potter about nicely.
I drove us to Sunrise, all of 500 yards, but pedestrianly difficult. Tsatsiki, beer, tonic, two moussakas and 35Euros including tip. Back at Villa Maria I called as reported above and we could repair to our beds much relieved.
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Post by balddave on Sept 19, 2021 19:29:02 GMT
Fingers crossed Dennis, isn’t it a breath of fresh air when you actually contact someone who does what his/her job description alludes to. I personally feel if Organization actually trained staff properly and vetted during the recruitment process, not only would it increase their customer satisfaction rating but it would also make their own lives a lot easier/simpler with problems being resolved with a single phone call or 2. Here’s hoping all promised assistance comes to fruition.
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Post by dennisn on Sept 19, 2021 19:41:04 GMT
Yes Dave, they’ve really got it wrong. Despite the welcome announcement saying this call may be monitored for training and security, it doesn’t seem to help. They need to welcome you before they go for the crib sheet - Hallo, what the problem? first in the conversation. Then “now let me see if I’ve got the full details, let’s fill in this report form together”. Instead of first before we do anything, what’s your booking ref, lead Booker name, dates, accommodation, etc, etc ad infinitum from a crib sheet before they as what’s up Doc? Yes, it’s not the efficient way and yes they get the odd numpty who isn’t even a TUI customer, but they’ll get a lot more high marks for customer service. I shall tell them so if I get the chance. But certainly selection of call Handlers should be a lot more about service rather than whether somebody speaks and reads English crib sheets.
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Post by cariad23 on Sept 20, 2021 7:34:57 GMT
It’s so frustrating when you ring any call centre and they can barely speak English. If I ring it dept at work we are routed to Delhi ! After 6 calls about a program that no longer worked on my pc and one hour holding on I was screaming down the phone get me someone now who can speak English. I can imagine the frustration of being in another country. Can you imagine if she had broken her hip nightmare.
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Post by cariad23 on Sept 20, 2021 8:13:34 GMT
Dennis meant to say get second opinion when you get home get Vera re x rayed, when I worked in a&e saw so many people told fine abroad with obvious fractures , including a pelvis so badly fractured don’t know how he walked or survived.
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Post by dennisn on Sept 20, 2021 14:11:04 GMT
Thanks Cariad, that’s worth a try. At very least we can take the x-ray they gave us for somebody else to look at. And as for first language, all three TUI call handlers had perfect English, I just knew it wasn’t first. The ones we get calling us about everything Vera curses at and says she’s a pensioner so please stop calling. Fortunately, Vera recognises the scam right away because she doesn’t use card payments, hasn’t got an Amazon account and doesn’t have a computer, not even a rubbish Windows one. But when I get them, I listen for a while then say I didn’t understand, please repeat. And again several times, then I say look, I can’t understand you, please get somebody who speaks English. Sometimes they even do and I give them the same. My attitude is the longer I keep them on to me, the less time they have to try getting lucky with some other more gullible person.
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Post by cariad23 on Sept 20, 2021 16:23:13 GMT
my father in law answers them in welsh, click, gone. ive tried the same in french works well.
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Post by dennisn on Sept 21, 2021 6:13:31 GMT
Monday 20th. Another easy going day. Vera is in enough pain to legislate against going mobile much, so late breakfast, lol about, then drove to Aselinos for an iced tea, exciting or what? Actually, this relative inactivity is a pleasure for both of us. The whole place is wonderfully calm, quiet, peaceful and regenerative, we are left with only half the rooms occupied and all of them by our sort of people now. We returned from Aselinos to our first completely DIY lunch - Vera had some funny breadstick things with Philadelphia cheese and an iced tea, I had beer from the bar and a complete bag of origami crisps - that’s not just keeping these wolf from the door, it’s chasing it back to the hills! And then made our way to the pool. The nice bearded man came to help get Vera in, so I went in front to support, stepped backwards on the steps in and fell backwards into the pool. No harm done, I whooped my celebration of being first in and without doing big girl’s blouse for the first time! We spent quite a long time in the pool, only getting out when Vera started to feel the . We dined at Ratatouille, again taking quite a long time to Zimmer there. No booking of course, we’ve never booked anywhere in Skiathos because we go before the tourists. But there was a big contrast to last time we were in there a few nights ago - then there were only a couple of tables not carrying reserved signs, but last night only a couple signs. Vera had moussaka and I got the portion size right for a change, with chicken à la crème and was able to finish it. Delicious, of course. E34.50 before tip, including starter tsatsiki and drinks, beer and tonic water (not mixed) and complimentary tiny chocolate ice cream lollies.
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Post by dennisn on Sept 21, 2021 6:21:15 GMT
Tuesday 24th, (EDIT oops, 21st) no reporting yet, we have woken to a power failure, only in our room so a nice man will come some time. Doesn’t matter, we only use electrics for brewing up and our lovely cleaner lady took our kettle away and brought it back boiled. In the meantime, here’s an attempt at publishing my photo of the early morning mist on our first morning.
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