To Pay or Not To Pay?

bagalag
bagalag Forum Participant Posts: 1
edited July 2012 in Your stories #1
Hi

 

I would like your thoughts on this matter:

 

Last Thursday after having all this wet weather I e-mailed the site we were

due to arrive at the next day to see if they were still open and how the

ground was, as we had been told that some sites had closed due to the ground

being so wet.

 

I had a phone call back from the owner to say not to go onto the site

without checking it out first as he didn't want the ground churned up as we

have a motorhome, and that if it was too wet we could stay on his yard but

there were no toilet emptying facilities, but he had water and electric. We

agreed to this as it was only for 3 nights for us to explore Exeter.

 

On arrival on Friday the 13th we stopped in the entrance, took our tow car

off the motorhome and examined the field, which was very boggy, another

caravanner already on the site said it was bad and thought we shouldn't

attempt it. The site owner's Daughter had a Bistro next door and she came

out to look with us and told us where her father lived around the corner.

 

We arrived at his yard to find it full of vehicles (tractors, jeep, boat and

a tractor with a low level grass cuter on it. The owner moved one jeep out

of the yard and reversed a tractor for us to move onto the yard dodging the

vehicles left there, but the underneath of the motorhome went over the low

grass cutter and smashed the trim below the door, this on a brand new

motorhome of only 8 weeks old ! My husband has high blood pressure and this

on a new van made him feel quite ill. He had to lay down and I made a cup

of tea for him and after a couple of hours he felt better and said he wanted

to go home to get the motorhome repaired. The offending tractor and grass

cutter was then moved for us to reverse out of the yard and attach the car

back onto the motorhome, we said good- by to the site owner who in return

said "aren't you going to pay me"? I said but we haven't stayed a night, he

said "but you had booked in and now not staying" So he wanted £20 which my

husband paid him in utter disbelief !

 

We can't get this out of our heads that he charged us for staying on a

different site to which we had booked and we were doing him a favour for not

churning up his lawn. Was he in the right to charge us or not? We now have

the cost of repairing the motorhome too.

Comments

  • Griffo
    Griffo Forum Participant Posts: 1
    edited July 2012 #2

    I wouldn't have paid.

  • Inali
    Inali Forum Participant Posts: 224
    edited July 2012 #3

    Nor me- if I had been offered to stay on a yard I would expect there to be sufficient room to manoeuvre and park my outfit, not have to squeeze between machinery and then get my outfit damaged.

  • Stevieboy
    Stevieboy Forum Participant Posts: 4
    edited July 2012 #4

    I would object to paying as the site you booked had been changed to a farm yard which sounds totally unsuitableFrown

  • Grumpy1
    Grumpy1 Forum Participant Posts: 7
    edited July 2012 #5

    I would not pay to stay in a farm yard, No way............

     

  • OldPaultonian2
    OldPaultonian2 Forum Participant Posts: 2
    edited July 2012 #6

    I think it's a cautionary tale.  If we stay on privately owned sites, we research them well.  But it brings home the point that caravan club sites are always high standard.  Would I have payed? No, i wouldn't have stayed.

  • marjill
    marjill Forum Participant Posts: 6
    edited July 2012 #7

    I want to know what site this was so I can avoid it, also the club needs to know so sanctions can be taken. Marjill