‘Global caused us chaos’

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.”