Comments for Confessions of a brit abroad

Comment on Splash down by glen

glen — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:17:56 +0000

Mysteriously my account is unblocked. No apology or in fact contact of any sort from them…

Comment on Splash down by glen

glen — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:46:19 +0000

End of Wednesday…. Still nothing… wonder if they’ll ignore my lawyer asking for a refund?

Comment on Splash down by glen

glen — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:33:12 +0000

As of 15:30 today (Tuesday) still no contact from Theo

Comment on Thalys by The complete Wi-Fi railway report: Europe

The complete Wi-Fi railway report: Europe — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:26:30 +0000

[...] is trying to revolutionize the web by severely limiting connectivity. Glen had to resort to an Amex charge-back when Thalys refused to refund him promptly for the Wi-Fi he paid for and never received. Jonathan [...]

Comment on Thalys by glen

glen — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:14:35 +0000

I had the following response next;

Dear Sir,

You have submitted additional feedback to the customer service of ThalysNet.
ThalysNet is the wifi internet service aboard the Thalys trains.

You have requested a refund instead of receiving an alternative full trip voucher with a value of €13.
We would like to inform you that our services have blocked the provided voucher to be able to fulfill your request.
To retrieve a refund from our services I recommend you to fill in the attached document and send it back via e-mail to helpdesk.wifi@thalys.com.

Please take note that the estimated time to receive your requested refund can take up to 45 days.
A refund directly onto a credit card is not possible due technical limitations.

While I hope to have given a solution to your request, I remain at your disposal for information.
We hope to welcome you soon again on our Thalys trains.

Met vriendelijke groeten,

Olivier
Helpdesk ThalysNet

As you can imagine I didn’t have a great joy at reading this – why would I spend my time filling in his form, only to get a (non-credit card) refund 45 days later?!?! The form asks for all of my personal information such as my address, phone number, bank account details etc.

I sent the following response;

Dear Olivier

This is not acceptable at all. Why should I fill in a form to request a refund that will take 45 days when you took the payment over the internet by credit card in minutes? It’s totally ridiculous.

I have informed Amex, who have immediately processed the charge-back and will be contacting you for the refund. As you probably know the cost to Thalys for a charge-back is significantly higher than the cost to process a refund, so you have just cost your organization money.

This is one more reason why I will never travel by Thalys again.

With no kind regards

Glen

Comment on Thalys by glen

glen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:28:28 +0000

I finally had a reply from Thalys today;

Dear Sir

First of all my apologies for the late reply, but we received a massive amount of e-mails in the past weeks and deal with them by incoming date.

Your message has been forwarded to the services of TELENET, who is the provider of WIFI-services on our trains. They will reply to you directly.

I also wish to apologise for the uncivil behaviour of our Train staff, and I have brought this to the attention of our On Board Staff Manager, who will no doubt intervene Albert on this matter.

Sorry for the inconvenience,
Most kind regards,

Guy Paenen
Thalys Customer Services

Thalys International scrl/cvba
PB 14 – B-1050 Brussel 5

Belgium : Tel.070/66 77 88
France : Tel.0825.84 25 97
Fax.02/504 05 00
http://www.thalys.com

Not quite the solution I expected, but I’ll see what the other company come back to me with…

Comment on Sinterklaas… Sweet dutch tradition or racial issue? by glen

glen — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:04:46 +0000

Hi Dutchy. I was at a ‘borrel’ this evening, and none of the dutch people there had heard of your ‘dark vs light’ theory of Sint and Piet either – I feel much better knowing that this was nothing to do with my inabilty to integrate, or my limited knowledge of my new country’s culture – it seems that this is a very little known theory (perhaps only known to you? )

Comment on Sinterklaas… Sweet dutch tradition or racial issue? by Sinterklaas borrel « Confessions of a brit abroad

Sinterklaas borrel « Confessions of a brit abroad — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:02:20 +0000

[...] word meaning sit around drinking and chatting) for Sinterklaas. As mentioned in my previous post this is a Dutch celebration mainly for children, so the drink was really just an opportunity to get [...]

Comment on Sinterklaas… Sweet dutch tradition or racial issue? by glen

glen — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:55:11 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Dutchy – I’m pretty integrated, but some of the nuances of tradition still elude me

Comment on Sinterklaas… Sweet dutch tradition or racial issue? by Dutchy

Dutchy — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:15:36 +0000

You’ve not been well informed about Sinterklaas.
Or you just don’t want to integrate well =)
In America anything is a reason for a lawsuit.. discrimination etc.

The colour of Zwarte Piet has nothing to do with his skin colour…
It’s about the opposites… the black of Zwarte Piet and the White of Sinterklaas… It’s Dark and Light, Summer and Winter, Good and Evil.

Zwarte Piet is the Dark… the Evil…
But he listens to Sint now… and only does funny tricks… to make you laugh…

Hope you’ll have a nice Pakjesavond!