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Turkey has thousands
of hotels, restaurants, tour operators,
travel agencies and
other travel businesses. Each year
most of them provide good to
excellent service to
millions upon millions of travelers
both Turkish and foreign, which is
why Turkey is now among the top ten
travel destinations in the world.
But of course no place on earth is
perfect, and there are bound to be
a few services, companies and people
that do not measure up to expectations.
Here's how to handle them:
1. You may wish to choose
a travel agency from among those
that I know and trust. Whatever
you do, be sure to use a registered TÜRSAB travel
agency or tour operator. More...
2. Contact
the main office of
the agency or operator right away, as
soon as possible after you experience
the bad service.
Perhaps the agency can fix the problem
right away. For example, if you are
dissatisfied with the guide, the
vehicle or the accommodations on
a guided tour after the first
day
or
two,
call
the main
office, explain the problem, and
give them the opportunity to satisfy
you. Yes, it's a bummer that your
trip did not go exactly as you had
envisioned it, but travel is rarely
perfect.
3. If you are not
satisfied with the company's response,
you can send a
report of the incident to TÜRSAB,
the Association of Turkish
Travel Agencies,
and/or TUROB, the Touristic
Hotel & Investors Association, and
ask for their help in rectification.
Association
of Turkish Travel Agencies
Dikilitas Asik Kerem Sokak No: 55-1
Besiktas 80690 Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +90 (212) 259 84 04
Fax: +90 (212) 259 06 56, 236 39 78
tursab@tursab.org.tr
foreignrelations@tursab.org.tr
Touristic
Hotels & Investors Association
Cumhuriyet
Cad. Pak Apt. Kat 6 D: 12
Harbiye (Divan Oteli Yani)
34437 Sisli - Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +90 (212) 296 08 80 (pbx)
Fax:
+90 (212) 343 84 36
info@turob.com
4. You can also contact the Turkish
Ministry of Culture and Tourism:
TC
Kultur ve Turizm Bakanligi
Atatürk Bulvari No:29
06050 Opera, Ankara - Turkey
kultur@kultur.gov.tr
Tel: +90 (312) 309 08 50
Fax: +90 (312) 312 43 59
Be patient: receiving a response from
these large and somewhat bureaucratic
organizations may take awhile.
5. In extreme cases, you may want
to contact your credit card
company and
file a complaint, especially if you
have already paid by credit card for
services you never received.
If you
have received some services and these
are not in dispute, tell this to
your credit card company so that the
dispute
can be limited to just the services
in question. Your credit card company
will carry out an investigation and
may help you and the company come
to a settlement.
(Keep in mind that
credit
card companies receive complaints
from both companies and individual
travelers,
and may rely on complaint histories
and other records in coming to
a decision.)
By the way, your nation's consulate and/or embassy can probably NOT do
too much to help you with a local complaint
unless it involves criminal
behavior or a serious
threat to your health
or well-being.
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