Holiday Complaints

Do you have a holiday complaint? For help and advice post in here.
Reply
Check your contract with regards them debiting your credit card as sometimes it is stated that such a credit card is used as a guarantee for damages during your stay.

With the benefit of hindsight you should have reported the state the accommodation was in when you first entered it. It would have solved the predicament you find yourself in now. Hopefully those reading your post will bear this in mind if they find themselves in your situation on entering unclean/damaged accommodation.

Mark :)
Reply
Get onto the credit card company to inform them of the dispute and make sure they know the park is no longer authorised to make further withdrawals. At least you can then claim it straight back from the CC company if it subsequently gets put through.

Hindsight is a fantastic gift to have, but we have been to so many caravans and chalets where they have not had the right equipment and on raising a query, been sent somewhere else to just pick what was needed with no audit checks, it can lead to a very lax attitude towards raising complaints. Why bother if the lack of the item does not affect you? Again, like you, if a caravan was been moderately dirty, my wife would probably clean it and say no more, however if the bedding etc was dirty or, unfortunately, furniture was broken, different matter. Mind you we had a nasty customer service experience with a Somerset caravan park in our early days which has probably shaped our complaints procedure.

I shall start being stringent again.
One thing I learnt recently was that if they take you to small claims court, the process you have to follow is to immediately return ALL the court envelopes unopened. That way they are "never served" and there is apparently nothing anyone can do! ie it saves all the slanging matches and it can't go to court and result in a CJ against you. Best to check with a real solicitor before you rely on that one though.

Meanwhile, good luck and hopefully they will see sense and back off.
Reply
mickstokie

Sorry but I can't offer advice on this problem. The only thing I will say is that returning court forms unopened will not work as a means of trying to get out of court (if they go down that route). The following paragraph has been copied from the HM Courts website.

"If the defendant's copy of your claim form and the response pack is returned to the court, the court will send you Form N216 (Notice of returned document). The claim form will nevertheless be treated as having been served if the address of the defendant given on the claim form is the correct address as required by the court rules (the ‘Civil Procedure Rules'). That might be, for example, the usual or last known residence of the defendant".

Hope this helps.
Reply
Thanks for the quick clarification sunaddict, can't remember where I picked that gen up from but it was a shout from someone unable to process their claim due to court system refusing to proceed.
As per normal it looks like our UK legal system is confusing even to those that work within it.

Mick, not sure if your park was like ours but the weather at the beginning of November was so bad there were swamps around every caravan on our site(Burnham).
There was no way of getting to the caravan without ending up covered in mud and as a consequence the carpet was filthy when we arrived - and when we left, even though my wife cleaned it daily. As we stayed in the same caravan at the same time last year it was interesting to see how much the whole caravan had degraded from posh the previous year! Put me off ever buying one to rent.

Keep your correspondence to the park clear concise and pleasant, just stating the facts as they were and reiterating the fact that, where you previously thought they were lackadaisical in their cleaning effort, it is now obvious they were remiss in not actually cleaning the caravan prior to your arrival at which point they would have detected the damaged furniture, and you have no liability as the furniture was already damaged when you arrived and the caravan was cleaner when you left than it was when you arrived.

Do you have any indoor photos from the caravan showing the state?

You could always check with Ros's team, who will let you know how you stand legally.
Reply
Thanks To all, your comments are appreceated and very helpfull
Reply
Holiday Truths Forum

Post a Reply

Please sign in or register an account to reply to this post.

Sign in / Register

Holiday Truths Forum Ship image

Get the best deals!

from our cruise, ski and holiday partners

You can change your email preferences at any time.

Yes, I want to save money by receiving personalised travel emails with awesome deals from Holiday Truths group companies which are hotholidays.co.uk,getrcuising.co.uk and getskiing.co.uk. By subscribing I agree to the Privacy Policy

No, thank you.