AN AGENT claims his business has been thrown into
administrative chaos since leaving the Global Travel Group to join rival
consortium Midconsort Travel Group.
Ross and Brown Travel in Sutton Coldfield
says it has received telephone calls from 10 operators and had viewdata
passwords cancelled by others because they thought the agency had ceased
trading after leaving Global’s Independent Options.
Managing director Ian Ross, who switched to Midconsort
in March, said: “It’s sheer chaos. We feel our reputation has been tarnished.”
He blamed an e-mail sent by Independent Options to
operators which said Ross and Brown Travel “has served notice to terminate its
membership with Independent Options and shall cease trading with effect from
June 24 2004”.
Ross said operators were under the impression his
agency had ceased trading completely rather than leaving Independent Options.
Global has since sent out a clarification, but Ross
added: “We’re still getting three to four calls a day from operators confused
about what is going on.”
Global operations director Andrew Botterill said the
same wording was used for all agents leaving the group and operators had not
misinterpreted the meaning before.
“If he is worried, we’re happy to help. If there is an
administrative error, which is not proven, we apologise unreservedly. But there
is nothing malicious and it would be an honest mistake.”
Colin Matthews, managing director of Travel Economy in
Birmingham, who switched to Midconsort last November, claimed a similar
situation had occurred. “Some operators cut us off their viewdata systems and
said they were told we had ceased trading. It was a bit of a performance,” he
said.
Midconsort chief executive
Charles Eftichiou, who said 13 agents had joined from Global in the past five
months, said: “It’s annoying and damaging for the agent.”