New Site Booking System
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So are my HA and I Bluetooth them to my smartphone for convenience of hearing incoming alerts and speech and set the frequencies via the app.
Said phone costs me £8 p/m to run but I might change to the £6 tariff next time. That sounds much better value than your £5 p/m for basic service tbh🤷🏻♂️
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I do. I use my phone for a lot more things than just making payments and most of these things require a decent signal.
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That’s a self imposed number of sites you won’t be visiting then (although Clumber is the only one I can think of with no signal). So being able to make a payment is academic🤷♀️
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Yep.
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I am almost surprised that it isn't against the law to pay for works over a certain amount in cash? If someone demands cash for any work over say £100 you do have to question whether it is going through the books. But that is a different discussion. However according to JK some people do rock up at a campsite with a bundle of cash, not up to us to cast aspersions but one does wonder.
David
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As far as I understand it, the payment Apps works exactly the same as a contactless card.. The phone does not need an internet connection. Twice lately I have gone out without money or cards but I have had my phone. It would be useful in that respect to pay for goods so think I will give Google Pay a try. I too always have some cash on me, before COVID it was to pay for small items of expenditure but following COVID I have been using cards much more. It could become a habit.
peedee
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After I posted I did go online and have a look to see how it worked. The unlocking would put me off a bit. My phone is in a leather cover so I always keep a credit card and a fiver in cash in the cover so I can cope with most situations without needing an payment App on my phone. Things may change in time.
David
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I use apple pay quite a lot. My phone is in a leather "book" style case and combined with having to use a fingerprint to authorise the payment it is sometimes awkward, especially if carrying bags and the card reader is behind the Perspex screens that most payment tills now have.
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DK posted
"As far as payment on site is concerned I am not sure the Club should encourage members to pay the balance on arrival as it will just lead to delays."
absolutely right, David....with commercial sites it's extremely likely that the balance will be requested a bit before arrival and this will be by electronic means of some sort..
I can't see the difference in not paying the Club the night before (or earlier if convenient) arrival..all payments then completed.
im sure the site managers😉 are all wonderful folk but the only reason we go into the office is to pay...we don't need a barrier key (but if we do I'll go and get one...but let's have ANPR anyway....), a toilet/shower code can be given as part of a booking conformation, even if I ask for best cycling routes the site managers don't ever cycle anywhere ....or if walking info they don't walk....why would they?
however, unless someone comes to greet you at your vehicle on arrival then you'll still have to go into the office...do we really still want/need to do this?
let's just get the payment sorted prior to arrival, open the barrier on ANPR and then pitch up...
do we really need telling which colour we've booked and paid for?
do we really need to be told over and over how to park the van to the peg?
I don't mind telling the site manager the pitch number soon after...but we could tick a box on the form to say we know the peg colour and how to pitch...just let us in😉
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I haven't paid with cash in a taxi for years, although the window cleaner still prefers cash
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When we bought my wife's last car the maximum amount of cash the main dealer was allowed to accept was £5,000
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Just a bit of information regarding how some rural businesses, holiday let’s, etc.... are coping without the usual method of broadband connections....
https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/guides/satellite-broadband/
The cottage we used for a fortnight in the Borders (no phone signal whatsoever, no landline in the cottage) had a satellite system installed, and it was rather good. We could download, watch films, email, connect our phones to it, etc......
So in practice, there should be very very few few places that have no connectivity whatsoever. I am sure the office at Clumber gets it’s messages and bookings updates by some method other than carrier pigeon.😁
We have had numerous holidays deeply hidden away on Dartmoor as well, again no hint of a phone signal, but the broadband speed was superb.
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Good link PD. This was the bit that did it for us, it’s simply safer than using a card, because it has an extra authenticity layer....
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/03/why-apple-pay-and-google-pay-are-the-safest-ways-to-spend/
It’s part of a choice of ways to pay, and just something we have adopted because it is so very easy, and a lot safer.😁
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White Water did have locks on the toilet facilitates the last time we were there, and they also have barriers at the site access.
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There are still lots of CLs that want cash payments, and plenty that take cheques, our preferred way of payment, as we struggle with bank transfer with our BS account. There will be lots of older members who have difficult with electronic payment systems I would think.
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not up to us to cast aspersions but one does wonder.
But that surely, by that statement alone, is just what you are doing David.
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My point is not for 'speed' per se but to remove the unnecessary delay at reception (where the main function is payment) while we are changing the system and moving towards electronic payment and (hopefully) entry procedures.
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Given that even our market traders have adopted card readers over the time of Covid, it should not be beyond the wit of the Club to have a seamless and remote system. Maybe payment taken the night before is the default and you would have to actively opt out of that to pay on the day.
Re cheques - havent used cheques in ages, tradespeople normally being paid by direct transfer, or what ever it is called. I cant do that easily on my account so OH has to pay those bills! But recently had some decorating done - preferred payment was by cheque (as we had done for the deposit). He no longer used card machine and he told us that cheques were now easier to use than they had been!
CLs we always find out when booking how we can pay - so know if we need cash.
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There are some people who are unable to handle their own funds. For them a credit/debit card or a bank account is a disaster as they cannot cope with the concept of limitless ability to spend. The most productive way of helping them is to encourage (and even supervise) them dividing up their incoming funds as cash into different "pots" for different things - rent, council tax, fuel, food, holidays, etc - though usually it is actually envelopes they use.
So when going about with their caravan they would have a certain amount of cash already allocated to pay site fees in one envelope, and perhaps another for road fuel, and another for meals out. This allows them to live a normal life as they can see in each envelope what funds are available for each activity, and not overspend as when the notes are gone, they are gone.
I do hope the new booking system is not going to effectivly exclude them from Caravan Club sites because of their inability to handle imaginary money. Not all disabilities are obvious.
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I don’t see any easy answer to such a problem Nav. The club currently say that it will still be possible to pay the balance on arrival with cash. Therefore that aspect is taken care of. However, deposits are definitely coming, and without at least a bank account it is going to be difficult to pay those.
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+1, I don’t see a persons oddities as anything to do with a provider nor should they think of how to micro manage a system to ensure every individual is catered for it is for the majority. Ones who put themselves into difficult situations it is for them to decide what course of action to take.
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There must be a degree on fiscal management by owning an LV-if you don’t pay the bills/taxes you don’t holiday🤷🏻♂️
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In the main I agree with Nellie’s post.
“There are still lots of CLs that want cash payments, and plenty that take cheques, our preferred way of payment, as we struggle with bank transfer with our BS account. There will be lots of older members who have difficult with electronic payment systems I would think.”
Personally, I prefer to keep my money in my bank account for as long as possible and am happy to pay a deposit by Credit Card and balance on arrival again with a Credit Card in reception. If it causes a queue so be it as it is my preferred choice. How I pay for my pitch with CAMC hopefully will continue to be my choice.
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