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Contact details for anyone senior and sensible at Esprit?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I recently holidayed with Esprit. I've been with them before and have always been happy, but this time was a real stinker in multiple ways. I was promised a partial refund by a manager who had driven over from another resort to sort problems, but Inghams customer services (who apparently look after this for Esprit) are denying all knowledge of this and essentially calling me a liar.

I am really upset about the aggressive way that this has been handled, and wondered if anyone has any contact details details for someone senior at Esprit who might look into my case to see if lessons can be learned?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Sorry can't help but my experience with Tour Ops is staff on the ground can be all sweetness and light with promises and ressurance but crap when it actually comes to the admin of getting anything through head office. Go as high up the chain at Hotelplan as you can find.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
after a bit of bouncing around google, I believe this is the guy in charge of uk:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul1carter/

Try email first.lastname@hotelplan.com (.co.uk) or variations of initial.lastname etc
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 You need to Login to know who's really who.
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And might be worth posting on their Facebook page, too.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Agreed with @sj1608, postson Esprit visitors post page tend to get a response.

Good luck and really disappointed to read about this.

Is this anything to do with the lost child in Gressoney I read about on their visitors post page? That was rather concerning.
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Yes, we were in Gressoney that week. Luckily it turned out that it wasn't our child that was lost, but it did mean that three of the four of us could not ski that day as they were understandably pulling out all the stops with police etc to find the child.

If it had only been that then we would have chalked it up to experience, but many many other things went wrong. I'm reluctant to discuss details of my complaint on an open forum before they've been resolved, but suffice to say it's a real kick in the teeth to find out that the partial refund I was promised (which was about 15% of the total cost of the holiday) was seemingly a fabrication to get us to stop complaining.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@tccambs, understood and really, really disappointing to read.

Best of luck
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Challenge them on social media, it's all companies listen to or care about nowadays.
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 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
I'm not really sure what challenging them on social media would achieve. What really upsets me is not the money but the aggressive and obstinate way that the guest services team has dealt with this. I am especially disappointed by the insinuation that I am lying about what I was promised by the regional manager. I am a professional person and I value my integrity very highly.

What I really want is to get through to someone senior who can review the recordings of my conversations with guest services and reflect on whether they really reflect the values of a company for which I have previously had great admiration.
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challenging them on their open media is a way of bringing them to the table ... if they care about their public image that is.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
lost child?! That's pretty serious. What happened, and where were the left/found?
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
I'd have thought it's fairly unarguable that all customers must have been put out and inconvenienced in a week when they lost a child. But then you've probably run into call centre numpties trained only with a standard computer says no script.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Not got anything to add with the Esprit thing but to stop us worrying where our son is on holiday we have an old iPhone that we put a pay as you go SIM card in for the holidays, put it in his inside pocket and then use track my iphone to see where he is.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
A quick dig around shows the PR for Inghams listed as
Frankie Gibson PR Executive Tel: 01483 79 10 45. Email: frankie.gibson@inghams.co. uk

Which is part of the group. Get in touch asking for management contact details as you have a serious complaint with Esprit which you would like to resolve without going to the media but can’t find the relevant person to talk to on the web.

That should do it.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Thanks, that looks exactly the kind of contact I'm looking for!
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Alternatively there are a bunch of Hotelplan employees including the CEO and senior marketing folk listed on LinkedIn who you can contact...
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
PRs hate media complaints more than anything - most of the Sunday broadsheets will have travel editors / complaints editors who - if you get no joy - will be more than engaged by a story of sloppy service etc and will take up the cudgels for you. Based on things like their Trustpilot rating and some of the comments on Fbook which they seem to have left unchecked, traditional media might be a better way to get them engaged
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
To be honest I like Esprit and I want to go back with them again so I don't want to burn bridges by going to the media unless absolutely necessary. I just want to flag up the way this has gone wrong for me so that hopefully improvements can be made.
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 You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Yep - giving them the opportunity to sort it out is only fair. As a working PR person I would appreciate the opportunity to try to put things right which is why I would approach it this way. Especially as the customer service team have washed their hands of you
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Hope you get desired response.


However will echo others here, Twitter and Facebook posts seem to get rapid response as they're very public.
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@Boris my view is that social channels are probably monitored by junior folk whose job it is to take things offline ASAP. But not necessarily to escalate. Most companies scoring a 4 on trustpilot will know there’s going to be 20% bad comments and live with it. @tccambs doesn’t want to air grievances in public (which I applaud) so best to go via PR with threat (veild or otherwise) of media engagement. Reading between the lines the story behind this is an embarrassment for them which would be much worse in National press and will then rank high in any future search for the company. Assuming their PR know what they are doing they will be keen to avoid something sticking to every Google search for the brand. Just my opinion.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I'm with @Spin Doctor on this - while not being PR myself, I often work v closely with them. I think @tccambs is being reasonable and sensible, allowing the senior management an opportunity to make good on the situation first is right but I think you will get their attention quickest with a keenly-worded tweet or post.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
I can see from the visitors facebook posts that Esprit responded quite quickly to people in resort that week but, from the OP's post, it would seem they have not lived up to the response once the holiday makers had returned home, presumably that is why he is unhappy to post on Facebook. If he has contact with any of the other visitors that week then perhaps a more concerted facebook or twitter storm might elicit a better response?
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 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
OP, you've already been messed about. And you're finding it tricky to identify who to approach with your issue. So your tweet could justifiably be 'hello esprit, after the grassoney debacle who do I speak to about the promised refund?'
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@tccambs,
Quote:

To be honest I like Esprit and I want to go back with them again so I don't want to burn bridges by going to the media unless absolutely necessary. I just want to flag up the way this has gone wrong for me so that hopefully improvements can be made.

Sorry to learn you had big problems with this company. I think your approach sounds spot on and personally I would save public criticism on big social media channels until later.
I've often recommended Esprit to appropriate forum users, as I know other snowHeads who have replied to your OP have. We had many entirely enjoyable and successful holidays with them.

That said, I'm aware that a friend of a friend had a 'lost child' issue with them quite a few years ago. It was down to a ski instructor and Esprit employee not keeping count and failing to realise a child had separated from their group. Fortunately it ended without disaster, with the help of a kind local, who thought it odd that a young child was wandering alone. But you can imagine what went through the mother's mind when their 6 year old arrived back at her hotel room, having found his way across a couple of fairly busy roads, to the Sapiniere in Chamonix.

However, on that occasion, Esprit subsequently handled the situation very professionally. Both local staff and higher up the company, they bent over backwards to deal with and compensate for the distress.

I know Esprit is now a smallish part of a much larger group. Not too surprising then that a 'Call Centre' tries to fob off complaints in the first instance. I had exactly the same with John Lewis recently, having considered them the model for great customer service all my adult life. I later discovered that their Customer Services call centre has been outsourced to a company I have absolutely no time for. After a frustrating couple of weeks, I got what I wanted, including compensation for inconvenience, through persistence and sending a simple letter, implying legal action. Letter template available on Money Saving Expert and other good consumer rights sites.

Personally, having tried the normal channel, I think I'd:
- try to get a response from that top boss highlighted above
- put a few bits of general information about issues with the holiday on snowHeads, which I imagine their 'Customer Services would soon pick up on'
- get a template ready to send a letter telling them you'll take legal action if they don't resolve to your satisfaction

If any help needed, I'm sure snowHeads, including me, will assist.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Andy Perrin CEO of Hotelplan Group, owners of Ski Esprit, Ski Total, and Inghams
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Thank you all. In the absence of a definite e-mail address for Andy Perrin, I have written to Frankie Gibson in the first instance.

I will let you all know what happens. I really hope that this can be sorted out amicably.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@Spin Doctor, agree it will be junior folk monitoring, however my experience is they are good at escalating to the right people.

I agree it's not worth airing everything in public, but personal experience is Social media is good way to get ball rolling
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