Sacked staff offer help with refunds
ANDREA LAMBROU
Former Thomas Cook staff are rallying together to help customers claiming refunds after the travel company’s collapse.
Lee Chalmers, who managed East Kilbride’s Plaza and Princes Square stores, has vowed to aid as many holidaymakers as possible who need help starting their claims through the CAA.
Hundreds of Scottish workers lost their jobs and thousands of customers were left out of pocket after Thomas Cook’s sudden collapse.
Around 150,000 tourists were stranded worldwide when the company went bust.
In a Facebook appeal Lee wrote:“As you all know I was the manager for Thomas Cook in East Kilbride.
“It’s now nearly two weeks on since we received the devastating news of the demise of our company and we are all still feeling the pain both for ourselves and our customers.
“We were unfortunately never given the opportunity by Thomas Cook to open our store to help anyone who has lost their holidays. This is something that each and every one of us wanted to do.
“As you are probably well aware, on Monday, October 7, customers will be able to start the process through the CAA to make their claims.
“We are aware this could be a daunting and confusing process for some so as a thank you for all your support over the years my team, Lorna, Fiona, Alison, Nicola and Jackie, would like to volunteer our help.
“Our customers are still really important to us and, with our shopping centre kindly offering a venue, we would like to help you.”
Lee and her team of former staff will be at the customer services area of the Centre West mall in East Kilbride Shopping Centre (top floor near Debenhams) this Friday from noon-4pm to help struggling customers.
She added:“We would love to see you. If you need help with claims, advice regarding any third party bookings or just want to come along and say‘hello’we would be truly honoured and do our best to try and help.
“We won’t be in our uniform but I’m sure you will all recognise us.”
The idea originally came from a group of former employees at the Perth branch, managed by Jackie Sutherland, who planned to help customers who had been left out of pocket.
Staff at the Thomas Cook premises in Ayr and Girvan have offered a similar pledge to their customers.
Direct debit customers will be refunded within 14 days but others will have to wait up to 60 days, with 360,000 customers awaiting payment.
The CAA said this is three times larger than any previous refund programme and today it will launch an online refund system to cope with demand.