Thomson to look at price checks

THOMSON is to overhaul internal price checking mechanisms after the operator sold a discounted holiday at a higher price than quoted in its main brochure.

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld a customer complaint after an unnamed man was charged more for a holiday from its discounted Winter Price Breakers brochure, which states ‘save ££££’s on the Thomson Winter 2002/03 Holidays’, than the standard Winter 2002/03 Holidays brochure. The customer spotted a seven-night package at a hotel in Limassol, Cyprus, for £319 in the operator’s cut-price brochure. But when he requested the holiday at an agency, it had gone up to £416 – £87 more than the £329 in the main brochure. When Thomson was made aware of the mistake, it immediately honoured the booking at the £329 rate.

The ASA described the Price Breakers title of the brochure as “misleading” and said the statement “prices may go up or down” did not remove the operator’s responsibility.

A Thomson spokeswoman called the incident a “blip” but said pricing processes would be “tightened up to ensure it does not happen again”.

“There will be changes to the price-checking process and the way pricing is done,” she said. “More frequent checks will be made from the discount brochure against the main brochure.”