Refund of Deposits
On 11th November I booked for a short stay on a Club Site and paid the deposit as per the new procedure. On the morning of the day I was due to arrive, a Saturday, I received a phone call stating that due to a ‘Technical Issue’ they could not accommodate me. I booked an alternative site and they told me that I would have to call their Head Office to claim the refund of the deposit I had paid, but that I would not be able to do this until the Monday morning when the Head Office staff would be back at work. I rang the Head Office on the Monday and explained what had happened and was very pleased to see that my deposit was credited back to my bank on the very same day which I thought was extremely efficient service. Recently I booked another stay on another site and paid the deposit on-line at the time of booking. I will not go into details but again I was due to have this deposit refunded, for legitimate reasons. After waiting for a week my bank account had not been credited with the refund so I once again rang the Head Office to see what was going on, I was told that the refund had been authorised but that it could take up to 14 days for the refund to be credited as the banks sometimes hold on to the money ? Now, a fortnight later, and my account has still not been credited with this refund and so I am wondering whether any other club member has experienced this same issue ?
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Comments
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There might be a subtle difference between the two refunds? The initial one was because the Club could not provide a service which had been partially paid for. The second (we have no details) seemed discretional? On the few occasions I have returned something to a retailer for refund I have received an email saying something to the effect that it could take up to 7 days for it to be processed although inevitably it's actually completed within a day or two. I can only assume that discretional refunds are low priority although 14 days does seem to be on the long side. I think you need to contact the Club to see what is happening.
David
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After contacting the Bank, they confirmed that they had not received this refund but that they would conduct an Investigation. So I rang the Club again as the Bank needed proof of details that it was actually sent, on checking their system the Club then came back and stated that there had been a ‘Computer Glitch’ and that the refund had not actually been processed ? They have now told me that they would process it and I should receive it within the next 48 hours. You would have thought that this ‘Computer Glitch’ would have been discovered when I made my original phone call and not on the third call 🤔
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A court order would do it KJ re a disputed payment or dodgy funds or money washing👍🏻
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Wow😱, that is not a small issue. I’ve come across that with a family member involved & it became a really big deal with Govt authorities overseeing it.
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I was generalising as an answer to fill the gap you had👍🏻
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Okay, let me as the Original Poster of this just clarify. It has now been established that there had been some sort of Computer Error at the Club’s end of things that failed to process the Refund. They are now sorting this for me, thank you for your comments and feedback, I was asking the original question to see wether any other member’s had experienced this themselves not to cast any sort of aspersions on either the Club or the Bank.
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I am currently having problems in getting a refund of deposit. On 28 October, after much difficulty, I booked into Ferry Meadows for 3 days over Christmas and paid the £25 deposit on my Mastercard. On 30 November I had to change our destination so cancelled Ferry Meadows. I had an email from the Club acknowledging the cancellation and confirming return of deposit. This has not yet been received. I phoned the Club and it was agreed that the refund had not been made as I had paid the deposit manually! It was paid as part of the booking procedure. They said it could take up to 14 days to refund - they originally said it should have been done by 5 December. So they can take off deposits immediately but take up to 3 weeks to refund them - this, in my opinion as a member for 30 years, is not acceptable. To date I have still not received the refund and I'm regretting my recent membership renewal due to the appalling new booking system. Until this is sorted out my money will be going to the C & CC (membership £25 as a Veteran Member) or Tranquil Touring Parks.
Anyway my question is: are other members experiencing delays in deposit refunds? If the Club is deliberately adopting this procedure they will be making a considerable income at the expense of their members.
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What we don't know is how many members are cancelling before the 21 day deadline and require a refund? If it's far more than the Club actually estimated for it could be they don't yet have sufficient administration in place to deal with the number of refunds? Obviously not satisfactory but it could explain the delays.
David
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That’s no excuse DK. And I would be wary of the Club putting the delay onus onto the Banks. In my experience, it only takes around 3 working days to get a refund from most organisations. Tesco can do it in under 24 hours.
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+1, 3 days is the max in my experience👍🏻
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You could be right, there were certainly banking problems at the launch of the new booking system and now the deposit refunds are being put to the test. It's important for anyone in this situation to pursue this vigorously. No-one on here can help, best routes are by direct email to the finance dept etc., Trust Pilot and feedback link in the new booking experience section.
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It will be difficult to refund deposits quickly if they have already been spent on something. I doubt they are kept in a "biscuit tin" until the booking becomes a stay.
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Here's the link for the feedback form
https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90487485/Booking-Capability-feedback
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This club is renowned for its lack of communication with members on it seems any thing
I asked the same question to both this club? And the ccc ref disabled facilities on CLs/CSs
The ccc replied the same day with some very useful information
This club replied with the usual auto reply email say because of the volume of emails we are receiving it may take longer than our normall 10days to reply,it took fifteen with a reply saying no they did not you need to contact the CLs in the area/s you are going to
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It will be interesting going into Winter this time next year, if the weather mirrors today’s conditions. Fog, ice, snow, it does make me ponder on how many folks will book ahead for a Winter stay, and risk losing their deposits. Certainly not for us, luckily we can travel as late as on the day once we know forecast.
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Hi,
I'm not sure this is the best place to share my first experience with the new booking system, but here goes....
I booked Littlehampton today for seven nights commencing this Friday 23/12 and paid a deposit of £48.86 on a total of £244.30. All good so far. I popped into my local pub this lunchtime and read a newspaper article informing me that Friday this week is likely to be the worst for road travel. So when I got home, I amended the booking for Thursday to Thursday instead, with an additional charge in the new total of £6.98. Paid this additional amount, only to find out afterwards, when rechecking my booking that it was a cancellation charge, for the Friday, within the 21 day cancellation window of course. I agree totally with the deposit system of booking, as, with this example, I was able to late book the Littlehampton site, probably not likely under the old system. My gripe? Well, if I had realised the extra was a cancellation charge, I would have booked this Thursday as an extra day and stayed for eight days. Just watch out for this one on amendments, if you haven't met it already.
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Another thought: If we are having a good time and really like the site, I have already considered opting to stay the New Year as well. In which case I will have paid a cancellation charge for a night that I will rebook next week! (if it is still available)
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Wow, CAMC are really expanding🤔, I hope it’s better than their last TV exposure that soooo did not end well😂😂
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I might be wrong, but I would have thought it fairly self explanatory. JVB is saying the CC are so fixated in maximising cash inflow and ultimately profits that they have lost focus on this being a members club. That’s of course if they ever had any, which is also arguable.
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