Pre-arrival texts
Comments
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We have recently had phone calls from club sites the day before arriving to say the arrival time is 1 one call from Yellowcraig North Berwick and the other from Hillhead in Brixham. At Hillhead they were turning away arrivals before 1 and getting them to go down towards the ferry and turn at the bus stop at the bottom. We did arrive last year at Blackpool at 12.54 and the gate was closed so we had to go back out and down to Morrison’s to turn and go back up when we then arrived at 1.03 the gate was open
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Mmm, I saw that. They seem to have booked when arrival time was 1200.
Why on earth the club hasn’t sent membership emails to all regarding the change, I don’t know.
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Although I sympathise with the problem it is entirely up to the club to communicate properly with all the membership, making sure everyone receives the update, emails should be of the "acknowledge on receipt" variety. Turning arrivals into a battle is rotten customer service and not good for staff or visitor morale. I know some staff might feel ok about getting "tough" but some won't and that's not what holidays are about for any of us.
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You’re not unique, JV. Many of us have made the same suggestion but it falls on stony ground.
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I can certainly understand the member in the review being annoyed. I just checked through our up and coming booking confirmations and several have estimated arrival 12 / 14:00 and are now 13:00. If I didn’t use CT and had not received any later communication and I turned up at 12 noon, I wouldn’t expect to be told go away and come back later.
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The earliest arrival time at most campsites is now 1pm.
This is to allow our site teams to get your pitch ready and avoid congestion for members leaving their pitch.So what has changed since the 12 o clock arrival time. Or do they want to mow the grass and rake the gravel. As ED said up thread it was covid but covid is no longer the threat it was.
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The reasoning behind 12 versus 13:00 is another argument entirely. The club has decided on a uniform 13:00 and that really is an end of it. However, they do need to communicate it to members, who may have little interaction with the web site other than booking. As I stated several of our bookings made almost a year ago have an ETA of 12/14:00. That’s OK if everyone is getting updated on the change, but as has been shown on several threads this is not happening. Many don’t get the update emails and even more don’t even open the magazine. It could have been easily covered by a snail mail notification in large type to all members, but the CC has chosen not to do that.
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It is what it is, so the obvious thing is if you don't like it go to somewhere else where they allow an arrival time that suits you. Simples.😁
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Brue
I read that review earlier, I was horrified. Unlike many reviewers in a similar situation the member seemed to give a calm description of what happened. It seems to me that we will all have to start wearing body cams to make sure our side of the situation is accurately recorded? Personally I don't think a member of the site team has the authority to rescind membership, they may well be able to start the process running but surely it would be HQ who make the final decision and hopefully they wouldn't do that without giving the accused a fair hearing?
David
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It does benefit all members as there is a common arrival time across the whole of the network ( with a small number of exceptions) so in the main there is no excuse for early arrivals. Why should rule abiding members be disadvantaged by cheating members turning up early to try and bag what they think is the best pitch? We all know that if we have a booking a pitch will be available. It is no fault of the club that some members are using the excuse of we don’t read the magazine, read e-mails sent or now saying we do not read text messages and they therefore only have themselves to blame when arriving early and then being turned away. All of the pre arrival emails I have received this year clearly state that the earliest arrival time is 1.00 pm. Perhaps this should also include a reminder that early arrivals will be turned away. I for one am completely in agreement with earlier arrivals being turned away so that we all have an equal choice of pitches when all arriving after 1.00 pm. We recently travelled 250 miles ( 7 hours) to the New Forest Site and managed to time our arrival for 1.10 pm. Whatever arrival time was set, there still would be people who would come up with lame excuses for turning up early
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But why should the club decide to impose a rule that is obviously not popular?
IMHO it is an assumption that it is not popular until a poll of all members is done where they can answer yes or no to the arrival time change to 1pm. It would need all members to take part in order to get a reliable verifiable answer. Unfortunately to the best of my knowledge CAMC does not ballot its members.
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I don’t find it that unbelievable PD. Just witness those on TV news programmes turning up at railway stations last week, totally unaware there was a strike, despite huge coverage by all media. I don’t find it particularly hard to believe that someone who only books their annual get away a year ahead, at a site they know and doesn’t get the emails, would be unaware. As has been mentioned, several CT contributors are not getting them despite being signed up. Given how small a sample CT is, that could equate to a large number of members.
A few years ago we turned up at Berwick at 12:30. We had booked it the year before and it was a site we new, so no need to check the web site. Apparently it had changed to 1 pm since our booking. As the site directory had been updated that year that was correct, as was the website, if I had bothered to check either. It was also the first year of the enjoy your holiday emails sent just before. Unfortunately that showed arrivals from 12pm.
Basically the CAMC are very, very poor at communication.
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Even some site staff' are not at times aware of what is going on ,but then as said to me some managers seem incapable of communicating information to their assistants
The hope is that with the 1300 arrival on most sites the managers also stick to it ,and not use as happened with the1200 arrival their "descretion" by allowing LVs on site at earlier times ,which then had a ripple effect with members who then would use that as an excuse for arriving at other sites early
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Morning
I would have thought as a moderator, you would see that firstly that was not a site review and secondly it's just one persons account of what allegedly went on. You know we as staff don't have the right to reply but I do know that "review" didn't quite happen like that. It's easy to act all judge and jury on social media.
Just for information, site staff do have the authority to take action when needed. It is a last resort if a situation can't be resolved amicably.
Everyone who has a booking and who owns a phone will have had that sms text. I also know the site mentioned above phones everyone two days before arrival.
On a sites web page when you book, just adjacent to the pitch types is a bit that says "before you travel". That takes you to a page giving updates on roads etc. At the top of that in red it clearly states that arrival times at all sites is 13.00
JK
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I am sure we all agree that members should not turn earlier than the official arrival time. However the point is that some are clearly turning up at the wrong time because when they thought midday was the correct time, because that is what they have on their booking. That arrival time has been changed to 1.00pm but there seems to be a lack of communication from the Club. In normal circumstances when you make a booking for anything you are entering into a contract with the person providing the service. If the T&C's change between the time of booking and arrival time the person providing the service has a duty to inform you personally of those changes which gives you the opportunity to accept or cancel. So, I would have thought all those that booked believing that arrival time was midday should have had an individual communication from the Club informing them of the change of time which they then had to acknowledge as received. Is that too much to ask?
David
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So is a phone call to the individual two days prior to arrival and a text message to a persons personal phone the day before a booking is due not an individual communication then Dave?
JK
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It's the acknowledgement receipt which is important so that there can be no doubt about the change of arrival timing and this should also include the information about being turned away if this is to become normal practice.
For ourselves we have received no emails or texts and nearly missed the phone call had I not rung the site back. We appreciated the call even though we were already aware from CT about the new times. Many will never look at CT or the web site in general.
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I’m now convinced that some folk will deliberately do all they possibly can to ‘avoid’ this well communicated information. They do this in order to carry on doing their own thing and then plead ignorance. They then blame others for them not knowing and place site staff in difficult and potentially confrontational situations.
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An old fashioned mail shot perhaps? A communication through the letter box with a snappy heading telling of the new arrival time gives no one an excuse not to read it.
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