Club Vouchers
As they are advertising I’d thought I’d get some BUT chose not to as they only post them & charge £2;50 -WHY? - Just a thought as this is How to make caravanning cheaper why are they not e-vouchers - like every where else - come on Club!
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Be aware the T&Cs have changed and they now bear an expiry date. See the numerous other threads on the subject.
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Rowena did explain the reasoning. I think it was in UK Sites.
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Must had marketing lessons from the operators of the previous fuel card.
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It may not be morally right but it is correct.
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We have just had a discussion here. Our renewal is due end of this month. We won’t be going anywhere for at least another three months as far as I am concerned, so in the light of this we have made a business orientated decision, and have terminated our Membership until some semblance of what is going to be the new normal is in place. Our primary use has been and remains the CL network and the occasional Club Site. We don’t use anything else the Club offers, nor are we likely to for the foreseeable future.
Its not a decision taken lightly, we have been loyal members of what used to be a very nice, helpful touring organisation, offering great sites often at cheap prices in lovely locations. But each year for at least the last five or six years has seen us questioning the move away from being that Club, the loss of some lovely sites, some business decisions undertaken without much reference to Club Members, the ever increasing Summer Site fees way above what we want to pay, the acquisition of sites we will never use (Scarborough #2), the unhelpful drive to make CLs mini Club Site clones, and now over the last couple of months the fiasco over keeping sites open and the misinformation about the so called discount voucher offer. We have enough experience and site contacts to be able to still get out there and enjoy our touring should the current pipe dream happen, and certainly don’t rely on the Club for anything.
So, for us, it is a self determined break, we can get the value we want by renewing as and when we need to, but there’s no way we want to be propping up the six figure salaries of one or two individuals who haven’t covered themselves in glory these past few weeks. Our respect and thanks to the staff at the shop face remains unreserved.
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Didn't realise that. As the mag is put together ages before we get it. It would seem that was always the intention and the no expiry date in the online T&C's a mistake. Any responsible company would be admitting the mistake and offering to buy back the vouchers, also refunding initial postage and the cost of getting then back by a secure means.
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I quite understand your "concerns?"but as for CLs becoming "club site clones" i would think is more down to the requirements, it seems ,of what is expected going by posts of newer members ,it is as some others say ,to bring them up to date for members
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It might be that people will need to use the sites earlier rather than later so that might encourage others to do so? I presume it's going to be quite difficult to get people back onto sites and get the cash flow going.
I haven't considered the vouchers at all as just now it's rather like giving someone £100 and they give you £20 back but you still haven't got anything! Had the vouchers been released later when the sites start to open they would no doubt have been a good incentive.
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Two things spring to mind....There was bound to be price increases, (there always is), but I suspect that when they come out for next year they'll be well above those that were projected by the club before the vouchers were thought about and issued and that will eat heavily into any saving made by getting the vouchers now.
Secondly I foresee the club introducing a joining fee over and above the annual membership fee, as a way to increase income especially from those that have postponed their renewal as they are not using their units at the moment.
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We have been members for all but 40 years and have no intention of jumping ship unless we decide to give up completely. Personally I don't think the Club has changed that much during that period beyond refreshing itself as the years have gone along. You mention Cayton Village. To my mind this is exactly the sort of site the Club should be buying. Its an excellent location with good transport links which suits both caravanners and motorhomers. With regard to CL's I expect they are just following a trend demanded by the majority of members most of whom don't want to sit in a fied with a tap and a hole in the ground. Things have moved on, whilst that might not suit your requirements it does for many members which is often illustrated by the popularity of many of the things you seem to dislike. I am not sure why people obsess about salaries. For one thing I expect you don't know what senior people in the club earn and because of that you won't know how that compares with similar sized organisations which is probably what such wages are based on. For those giving up their membership for a few months and then rejoining to me seems like an empty gesture. The personal administration of cancelling and rejoining is not worth the tiny amount of money saved, is it?
David
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David for some it certainly won't be about the money that they will save but as an obvious protest against those actions that the club have and haven't made during this epidemic.
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Many have said as much, Nellie.
I think TDA's mistake was in expressing her views so eloquently which has made her a target for a few arrows.
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If thats the way you want to look at things ,then need you need to broaden your outlook , To the very many problems that the vast majority of companies and governments are trying to get their heads around, With this very new problem that is affecting the world
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I took my blinkers off a long time ago with regards to the club.
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And you seem to have a very blinkered of your beloved club. I agree 100% with TtDA, the money side of not renewing our membership didn't enter into it ... I'll be paying half the club's membership to the National Trust while in lockdown, the option by the CC to defer fees, like the other club, would have been nice.
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It’s a personal choice, been coming for a while to be honest, simply because we make financial decisions based upon value for money. At the moment we cannot use our touring outfits, so why pay now for something we are not going to get any value from? In four, five months time, we might review the decision, depends on how we choose to tour, what the future is going to look like. We rejoin, we get a full twelve months of membership for our money. We no longer think of that payment as a membership fee, it’s purely a business transaction that buys us access to a list of Sites. It’s just a convenient moment to take a break, take stock of how and where we want to tour. It’s as simple as that. The Club is now a big business, we are treating it as such, and we don’t need the services at this moment. We expected no loyalty from it, they are getting none from us. We don’t spend our holidays in a field with a hole in the ground, but nor do we require much of what others want and are willing to pay ever increasing prices to have. We have found wonderful small sites that give so much more than the big Club Sites do at greater value for money. The Club doesn’t have Sites in some of our favourite places, so that’s another reason to have a break.
I won’t deny that I don’t think the Club has handled some of its actions and decisions over this period in the best light possible, and for us every year brings less of the things we joined for, we have lots of CL owning friends and what they provide is becoming harder and harder year on year to maintain and operate. Some have closed, some have moved on and out of the Club network. Many now operate a small private section alongside their CL, at the same price, so we know we can still visit a good few of our favourite places, and we are quite happy using small private sites.
So yes, a stand on principal to a certain degree, as I say, got nothing but total respect and admiration for the staff at the shop front who cheerfully deliver whatever is asked of them, they are good people, who don’t earn that much for what they do. The top salaries of those who make the decisions are not hidden, out there for all to see.
It really is as simple as that. We are taking a break, see how our touring goes when we can resume, we might or might not rejoin. All depends on what we want to do, where we want to go, and exploring new options has always been part of our touring way of life. Like the Club, we evolve, move on, keep our options open. The loss of income from us is tiny anyway.
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Well, needs must at times like this. 😜😎
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I must admit that I did ponder on why you liked DKs post AD, as I know you don’t consider Club to be anything other than a business. Not criticising the fact that you have though. But I think you might be mistaken in thinking that we have been faithful Club acolytes, it’s certainly a means to an end for us, we have never been “Club” types, never been on a rally, wouldn’t think of visiting Club stand if we ever found ourselves at a Show, we pay purely for access to CLs and the occasional Club Site. Happy to say how nice some of the Club Sites are, and what good value some are at certain times of the year. But the Club is losing some of our favourite places at an increasing rate, it’s not choosing to widen its network to under represented areas such as Essex and Hadrians Wall, and our renewal was up. Hence, we went with having a break at a time convenient to us. We shall see what the future holds. 😎
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I think those that refer to the Club as purely a business don't want to have any emotional involvement with the organisation and want to be free, without obligation, to be as critical as they want. There are probably a fair slice of the membership that have a much more emotional attachment to the Club. If it were a true business it would probably ditch CL's as beyond providing an element of membership they don't add to the bottom line because the people that use them tend not use other Club sites or services so what is the point unless the organisation is something more than a business? Any business would certainly not keep open some of the smaller sites that probably make a loss but a Club would. To me it's a funny kind of business that ignores key business priorities. Perhaps the use of the word Club is a bit old fashioned and perhaps a Member Organisation would be a more fitting description.
David
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I expect there are a lot of members out there who do regard CAMC as a club and they are the ralliers who will be missing not just the holidays at the moment but the social side of things. CT is another social side too so the club means different things to different people. I think the club could have kept more people on board by extending their membership, this is the sticking point for me even though I've just renewed.
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I respect both DKs and your choice Brue, it’s what it means to you both, and we are all different and get different things from the Club. I am sure that a lot of folks will feel the same as you do, especially those who rally. Our heart has always been on the CLs, the dwindling number of smaller sites.🙂
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