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Daily Express �10 Cruise
Has anyone out there actually booked a Daily Express �10 Cruise yet? I know that there are one or two other websites that have dialogue about this on them but I want to reach a wider audience. I have been offered a booking in June but the company, Rise Travel, have yet to confirm it.
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I and two friends collected the Daily Express for weeks to get the �10 cruise offer. All three of us were given dates and cruises. However, at no surprise, two of us who were awarded Mediterranean Cruises have been contacted and told there is no availability until 2006!. We were offered a number of alternatives including a city break and �500 voucher off a cruise. What substitute is that? They were asking for �1100 to take a friend with you, so in fact they are only offering a half price cruise! What a con. I will be writing to watchdog and the ASA but hold no hope. Has anyone gone on a crusie on there own yet? I would like to know if they have.
The name that is mentioned on a number of consumer complaint forums these days is Harry Cichy he was the person that lead the litigation against Hoover over the free flight promtion. He might be the person to talk to. His email is widley available on the net. He was also mentioned in the recent Guardian article & Daily Mail.
Using all of the information on the www.holidaytruths.co.uk website I got on a med cruise in a single cabin for the �10 leaving May, my flights etc have been confirmed by Rise Travel. People still seem to be having trouble but for me I really didn't have many problems after mailing the Head of Marketing at the Daily Express. The website has a topic under cruises for the contact numbers/addresses but it's worth looking at the latest (118,000) postings.
The Daily Express cruise story is going to be featured on Watchdog next Tuesday. It already has been featured on Working Lunch and several local radio stations. The Holiday Truths forum is now up to 220 pages. Some people have managed to get a cruise but many more are reporting cancellations. Does this look like another Hoover Free Flights fiasco?
The same company organising this promotion ( MKM / Rise Travel ) were also involved in free flights offers from BT Broadband , Earnst Gallo Wines and Little Chef . In all cases things have not gone well and Rise have been censured by the ASA for not being able to deliver the things that were promised in the promotion.
The same company organising this promotion ( MKM / Rise Travel ) were also involved in free flights offers from BT Broadband , Earnst Gallo Wines and Little Chef . In all cases things have not gone well and Rise have been censured by the ASA for not being able to deliver the things that were promised in the promotion.
Daily Express �10 cruise offer, having followed all the instructions to the letter and having received notification that my cruise would be on the 4th June 2005 and having replied as requested to rise travel, I can report that I heard nothing. As the due date pssed I contacted Rise Travel to see what was happening I was told that they had not received my confirmation although I had sent it to them by special delivery. On contacting the Royal mail they confirmed letterd was delivered, however no signature found. Rise Travel are saying that without a signature the cruise confirmation is of no value. I suspect that if my letter was as they claim not signed for the are several sack loads of letters suffering the same fate???? Anyone had same problem???? where do we go from here????
Things have now moved on. Because they have made such a mess of the whole promotion the whole thing has been taken out of the hands of Rise Travel /MKM and is now being managed directly by the Daily Express. Your best bet is to contact the DE . According to a press statement put out by the newspaper there are still over 2,000 waiting to get a cruise. They said that everyone would get one but it could be 2006 or later. The "good" news is that Rise are now in deep financial trouble . Their shares have dropped from 38p to 4p and two executives have had to put in nearly �500, 000 of their own money to keep the company going. I don't think that the Express or any other company would trust Rise to handle another promotion in the future. If you log onto the Holiday Truths web-site you can get much more information about this whole fiasco.
Somebody on the Holiday Truths web-site has just received a letter from the daily Express. It states that cruises will only be available in "late 2006 or early 2007" . This is two years after the original promotion. The letter went on to say that alternative holidays, or a cash payment might me offered in lieu of the cruise. But even so, this is not the best planned newspaper promotion in history and I doubt that the Express will ever run anything like this again. It must be hurting their reputation (if they ever had one !) to have been involved in a scheme such as this.
After chasing both Rise and DE several times, I received letters advising that one or the other would be in touch. Of course this never happened, so last year I chased the DE, as they had avised on a web site that they had taken over the handling of the fiasco. I received a letter last September advising that I would soon be receiving news of my cruise details, or a cash alternative. Again, nothing.
Last month I sent a copy of the DE letter back to the DE, asking what was going on.
This morning I have received a letter advising that even though I had collected the tokens, and been promised a cruise or cash alternative, it was not binding. Therefore the DE refuses to correspond with me any further.
As with the DVD player promotion from early last year, the DE does not honour it's promises. Best to read a proper newspaper, and forget about this trash.
Last month I sent a copy of the DE letter back to the DE, asking what was going on.
This morning I have received a letter advising that even though I had collected the tokens, and been promised a cruise or cash alternative, it was not binding. Therefore the DE refuses to correspond with me any further.
As with the DVD player promotion from early last year, the DE does not honour it's promises. Best to read a proper newspaper, and forget about this trash.
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