Club prices getting silly
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It’s perhaps better (as long as they answer the phones) than a certain insurance company I tried to call. They just don’t answer the phone and bombard you with messages saying your call will answered as soon as possible and it’s much easier to use their online portal. Although updating your credit card isn’t available on it.
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Yes, I don't really understand this, when the customer does all the work themselves👎....unless it's just for the money???
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One of the classic excuses that is given when trying to contact companies by phone these days "we are experiancing an unusually High level of calls " followed by what ever spin they decide is todays excuse,
Which either means
1. there is not enough staff in their call centre?
2. more likely its a poor company
3 even more so its a combination of both, and most of the calls are complaints about them or their services /products
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And as I posted , I very much doubt. that many companies who employ staff on the national min wage had calculated in their 2022 pricing that size increase,
Also as I posted, to now keep costs down it will mean those staff possibly having their hours reduced , or less staff employed, what ever way employers go, it will be the end user ,who will notice even poorer services
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+1, they’ll be using the old Covid chestnut for years & years😊
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The worst I have found is-‘administration fee’ when back in the day admin-yes👍🏻. Now we’re all e-commerce, press a key, what admin we fill in the boxes ourselves🤷🏻♂️.
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A classic example is experience freedom. I bought online, a gift voucher from them recently as a present. Although e voucher was mentioned, when it charged me £2.50 postage and packing, labelled as such on the invoice, I assumed they were sending physical vouchers. Nothing arrived after a few days so I phoned. No physical vouchers, the £2.50 was for administration and wrongly labelled. I found the vouchers in my Spam folder. Even worse, after explaining it was a present and I would have to use my printer ink, I asked if they could send a brochure that I could include with it. No go on that, we don’t do brochures it’s all on line. Thought it a bit rich given how much CC related junk mail I get. Excellent customer service.😂
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It happens all over, why should my daughter's insurance charge an admin fee for changing her address over the phone on their files?
A change of caravan at my Storage will incur an admin fee but putting new reg plates won't, even though both will take the same amount of time.
It is just for the money!
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My take on admin charges ,is a result of most organisations /companies, Outsourcing much of the work originally carried out by directly employed staff,, which saves? their own payroll costs and then shifts the costs on to the customer with "admin fees"
This club is a Good? example with much of the maintainance that in the past was carried out by site staff , is now outsourced as only their staff are "qualified?"to do the work in case of litigation if carried out by others , hence as some reviews about lights out/weeds/trees ,as a callout fee is usually envolved,so they are called for several problems?
In the past, on site Equipment Mini tractors/ mowers etc, 1st year assistants were shown how it worked at their induction or/and, by usually the Warden
I understand there are "qualified" club staff who do what is called Lantra? training for all site staff to ensure they can operate equipment safely , and much equipment that was on sites to make grounds maintenance quicker and much better has been withdrawn
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Going back OT, I've noticed that a SP there is an extra £4.90 (and there are about 20 of them) and during June to September a full week on them is not possible, only two consecutive days are available in June and five/six days during the rest.
Funnily enough this is one site where you can book grass pitches but it's really futile as there are only five of them.
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We have recently got back into caravanning and the fees can seem expensive when compared to C&CC, however it's been over 10 years since we last stayed at a C&CC and I remember them being terrible compared to C&MC sites, they usually had very small pitches quite close to the next and poor facilities. I think C&MC fees reflect the high quality of sites and I'm happy to that bit extra
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I think that’s a bit harsh on C&CC. In my experience sites are sometimes better, sometimes worse, but always very acceptable. Chertsey next week works out at less than £20 for EHU and hard standing with ACR.
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I have a slightly different take on increasing the NMW.
Companies who employ at this level seldom demonstrate decent commitment towards staff, nor reward skills and loyalty. Hence they often have problems with staff retention, quality of staff. For some businesses, paying cheap rates for labour might mean survival, initially. They are in a difficult position. However, there are some very big, very profitable businesses that still milk every drop of blood from some employees, yet rake in vast profits. Companies such as Next have long paid wages so poor that staff apply for Government top ups to their wages, but still pay out huge money to shareholders. So in essence, we, the tax payers, are subsidising such companies🤷♀️
Somewhere like the Club, which provides services highly dependent upon front of house staff, pays slightly above the NMW, but possibly it still doesn’t reflect the range of difficulties and requirements faced with dealing with thousands of visitors, and the multiple skills required for managing a Club Site.
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I agree Bill. Although we tend to use CL and CS's more than either of the Club's sites, those of the C&CC that we have stayed on have been very bit as good and sometimes much better than CAMC sites - for a fraction of the price (with ACR).
I have watched this discussion develop - with interest, but I do think that some people are missing my point - or perhaps I didn't make it clear enough. I fully accept that there are pressures on all businesses - be it from wage increases, utility costs etc etc. and that these will have to be met, either sooner or later. But how is it that this Club can charge what I regard as almost extortionate levels when others do not, given that they all must be subject to the same pressures? The two weeks at the C&CC site at Dartmouth is costing £22 p.n. for what is essentially the same service and facilities, for which this Club is charging almost double that rate.
I am not a person to moan about having to pay the going rate for something but I do get annoyed if I feel I'm being taken advantage of, as I do in this case. In fact, I have recently persuaded a CS owner whom we now know very well and stay on his site regularly, to increase his prices because I thought he was under-selling himself!
As it's turned out - and thanks to help from here - I have booked a small commercial site for the stopovers - at a rate of £24 p.n. I understand it's a new business, so perhaps they may have to adjust their rates in the future with the benefit of experience. We will see.
Either this Club's business model is flawed, or they are simply exploiting the current situation and I fear that if it's the latter, they are going to lose an awful lot of goodwill and, ultimately, 'customers, in the long term.
I'm not going to 'throw my teddy in the corner', however. I still greatly value the provision of CLs through the Club and will continue my membership if only for this wonderful facility.
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Had a quick look at the club annual accounts and very roughly staff costs are just under 40% of annual expenditure, so increases in staff pay and other costs will have a significant impact on total expenditure. Income is mainly from site and membership fees so as costs increase then either fees go up or reductions in overhead costs will need to be made.
As a result site and membership fees will not go down!
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From conversations it seems assistant managers are this year starting at £9.00\per hour
Which with the announced rates in NMW from April will mean they will be on about £9.60per hour?
Then managers will need to be on a similar salary gap
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I won’t comment on current rates of pay. One of the first little jobs I did in 1980, as a student, I earned in excess of £20 per hour. It did not carry anything like the responsibility and skills required of an assistant manager.
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I'm with you there Takethedogalong.
I took a temporary job at Tesco, Christmas lasted for 4 years 🤣, when the children were younger and I didn't want to use childcare. The NMW came in then or not long before, I said at the time the tax payer is allowing Tesco to profit, even then those on the shopfloor on full-time hours qualified, the shareholders did very nicely. Granted staff were given shares as part of a pay rise - don't know if they still are, I left 20 years ago. It was a labour government who bought it in......... I don't want to get political. Shares are nice if you can afford to hang onto them or sell them without cost, BUT they aren't much help paying the leccy bill.
Despite all the shouting etc it still allows companies to pay staff poorly for their skills. Unless of course you are in the financial sector.....
Yes it's usually the companies or employers who want to maximise profit not invest in their staff....
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Generous pay in the finance sector is not universal. Unless things have changed significantly since I retired, You got a lot of guff about staff being highly valued but it never reached the pay packet.
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Many jobs and their requirements are misunderstood, and often undervalued, across all sectors of employment. Along the walk of life, you never know who doing what is going to be of immense value. 👍
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Hard to define really AD, but the one thing about UK is that almost everything seems to be driven by profit nowadays. Even our essential services are in thrall to big business and shareholders, that’s of course if they aren’t being provided by other countries🤷♀️ I do feel that there’s a lot of friends of influential friends being very well looked after as well in terms of bidding for supplier contracts. I hesitate to use the word corrupt, but I suspect some deals done wouldn’t come out well if robustly investigated.
It’s a way of life in this country now, no one really asks questions, most folks just keep their heads down, check they have enough to get by on, and keep quiet. There’s little accountability, and even less holding to promises or standards of fairness☹️ Rather sad really.
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"But how is it that this Club can charge what I regard as almost extortionate levels when others do not, given that they all must be subject to the same pressures? The two weeks at the C&CC site at Dartmouth is costing £22 p.n. for what is essentially the same service"
Richard - obviously it doesn't affect us any more and, like you, we used club sites less and less over the last couple of years of our membership. But I do think you're being a little unfair in comparing site prices at Broadway, where there are few alternatives within walking distance of the village (and on a "peak" weekend, albeit technically after the bank holiday) with site prices at Dartmouth where there are many comparable sites nearby. Out of interest, I just looked up the prices for Ramslade which, for your fortnight work out just under £28 per night. Still more, agreed, but not to the extent you mentioned. (BTW, does your price at Dartmouth include the ACR?)
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Not flaming likely! With tow cars and MHs being hit with the turn against ICE and fossil fuels, energy prices soaring, wages rising and taxes likely to follow suit, only a complete idiot would make a new investment into a touring site.😱
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