A member for over 9 years? You're in for a treat!
My wife and I have been members of the C&C Club for 10 years, and in acknowledgement of this fact the Director General, Mr Lomas, sent me a piece of plastic which measures less than five inches by less than 3 inches: a horrid little sticker with the club logo and the legend “10 years membership” printed on it. I guess I’m supposed to display it on my windscreen.
With this enclosure is a brief letter in which Mr L. assures me that “we really appreciate your loyalty.”
Pathetic. Surely the Club can do better than this to show appreciation for the loyalty of its members. I would have thought that a £10 voucher for a night’s stay at one of the Club’s sites would be a more suitable and meaningful reward. However, if he’s are not feeling that generous, I suggest that Mr Lomas just lets the tenth anniversaries pass unacknowledged.
I can’t wait to see what he’s going to send me in ten years time!
Sorry to be so grumpy, but really! A sticker?
Cheers,
Steve.
Comments
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I thought you were talking about C&CC at first but you mean CAMC. 👍🏻
Just chuck it in the bin as so many of us have before you, NUN, and concentrate on enjoying your vanning. Life's too short to bother about it and, after all, there was surely no expectation of recognition so nothing's lost.
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I believe that the reason for not sending you a £10 voucher is that they would have to do the same or all members who had been members for 10 years......which could easily be 100,000 members.
So a cost of £1million.
Also, it would be a reward worth about 2.5% of the total membership fee you have paid over those 10 years. I doubt that many / any organisations offers such a high 'reward'.
Hope that helps.
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I suppose the the alternative is to do nothing and let anniversaries come and go without acknowledgement. I was happy to get my 35 year sticker and had no expectations of any financially connected reward. What do people want? A gold watch
David
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No DK, but they do expect respect! I am due my 25 year sticker but actually its nearer 40 years, because there was a gap 1985 - 1993 when i bought my first house & couldn't afford to keep up my membership. The CC would never record the lost years ! (I still will never recognise the new name).
By respect I mean the courtesy of consulting members before wasting thousands of pounds sterling before changing the name of a club that had existed over many many years!
I am in my last few weeks of membership. I will not renew membership of a club that simply does not exist anymore. Luckily I am still a member of the C&CC, and it is with that friendly club that i will continue my membership.
TF
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We joined the club because we wanted to use their sites. Others join for access to the CL network, insurance and cheaper ferry crossings. I certainly did not join with the expectation of getting a reward at regular intervals. 3 years ago a CC Deal with Nissan saved us £4000 on our tow car. So I already felt my membership was well worth taking out, even before our 10 year sticker arrived. What folk need to remember is any in house loyalty reward needs to be funded. If the Club hand out site night vouchers the cost of these will be added to membership and site fees.
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The vouchers can only be used against membership fee or as payment on site so they are a loss of potential revenue rather than an actual loss of real money. I think they could hand out a voucher but maybe not for ten years.
The stickers are a bit silly. I'd never put one in my window and it would be joining the car stickers in my bin.
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I didn't know they could be used against membership fee instead of site nights. However, either way they do result in a loss of real money, as you just hand over the voucher rather than it coming off your credit card. Also folk tend to utilise them at peak, we certainly did, so the loss is maximised.
As an example we went to Baltic Wharf for the Balloon festival last August, we had three site night vouchers, which saved us £90. If these had been in house (loyalty gifts) rather than funded by the credit card scheme, that would have resulted in a net loss. We would still have gone without the vouchers, just paid more for the privilege.
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Nothing in that at all, happens whenever something familiar is replaced. The local pub down here is still know to us old timers by its old name when we arrange to meet there, and its name was changed 5 years ago. The drinks are the same, and as long as we keep going there the landlord doesn't mind. I still call a marathon bar a marathon bar.
If you're happy with a product why stop using it just because it has changed it's name?
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The club loses potential revenue but in real cost it loses little more than running costs.
The actual cost to the club is not much. The potential loss is more.
I still think they could afford to give longstanding members a £10 voucher. It's hard to put a value on good will but it really works.
I won't be getting a long service sticker because I'm back to square one since my account had to be reset (IT failure) and I'm not hanging around much longer but for those that have paid subs for 20 years I don't think a tenner back is unreasonable.
If they can afford a rebrand they can afford to reward members who are potentially their greatest advertising asset
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made to make your mouth water
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If they can afford a rebrand they can afford to reward members who are potentially their greatest advertising asset
I am not sure a £10 voucher, or even the odd site night voucher would make me any more, or less, likely to recommend the CAMC to a friend. Similarly getting one every 10 years or so is hardly a big selling point. To make them effective you need to be able to dish them with the frequency that was possible with the credit card scheme. Sadly those days are long gone.☹️
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When I am 82 I will get free membership. Dunno what I will do with it it by then !
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Cornersteady & HD. I fully accept what you are saying, & indeed I would add that we still refer to our SEBO as a Hoover.
But I'm afraid that you are missing my point. I object strongly as a long term and previously very supportive member, that I was never consulted about such a major change! At the end of the day, its no big deal.
The CC in all its wisdom decided that its older members were of no account, and did not need to be consulted about such a major change. Thats ok, thats their privilege. My freedom is to say, "OK CC if that's a reflection of your attitude towards older members, then its time that I said goodbye!"
Thats it! Iv'e not much longer to enjoy our way of life but thats how it goes. In a perfect world I would have wanted it to be with the CC, but it seems that my days have been discarded !
See you around!
TF
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On re reading my post above I realise that in my haste I made a couple of errors, but sadly the edit facility has now gone.
In the second Para please read it as "We were", not I was, There is absolutely no reason why I in particular should have been consulted.
In the two following para's I used the term "Older members' when I actually meant "Long Term" But actually even that was wrong, for actually I meant all members, even new ones!
TF
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I will always consider this organisation to be "THE Caravan Club", even after the next and subsequent rebrands. No reason why any of the other paying subscribers, both current and former, should not do the same.
I just wish they had picked something less obscene for the basis of the (current) logo.
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We have been caravaning for a number of years but only joined the caravan club 10 years ago so we also recieved a sticker this year that is proudly lay in a cupboard somewhere I don't need vouchers but I suspect some of the family members the present club are trying to attract will do looking at the high season pitch fees.
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Having graduated from tent camping on commercial sites where we very quickly learned how sound travels on a camping field at night
On purchasing our first caravan we discounted joining the C&CC for this very reason ( we wanted to get away from the canvas brigade ). So we joined the CARAVAN Club - Unfortunately in what appears to be simply a way of increasing it's revenue the CC has become the caravan, motorhome, tent & pod club ! It now has only two saving graces for us. 1, the guaranteed quality of the sites.2, the ability to book anything from 1 night upwards, even at bank holiday weekends.
As for the rebrand - pointless IMHO.
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As I write this I am on site at the National, an unpaid volunteer, we pay the same fee as everyone else to be here, now that is what I call supporting the club, not just being a long-standing member (we do have a new logo 30 year sticker up in the front of our van too), I am amazed at the 'vocally supportive' members who consider they should be rewarded just for being members for any length of time. when the call goes out for volunteers these days for events like this sadly the first response is often 'what is in it for me?' and when the answer is nothing but the opportunity to help the club - too many say 'sorry, I'm busy then'
Alison
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I have been a member for over 28 years and have had some stickers. It is a club so I do not see why it needs to pay members to stay with it but some acknowledgement of your loyalty in the form of the badge is reasonable. I am not sure that 10 years is long enough though and think possibly 20 would be a better starting point. I am thinking more of giving them to those with a long record of supporting the club.
Possibly the bad point of the badges is as soon as you stick it up some joker next door has one for even longer. After sticking my 25 year sticker up I was next but one to a caravan with a 35 year one.
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