My complaint:
We arrived at our static caravan at Newquay Parkdean site on Monday 25 April 2022 to find that the grill door was missing on our cooker. We questioned it at Reception and were advised that it had fallen off and shattered while a young woman was staying with 2 young children; a replacement had been ordered. No date was offered. I expressed concern that as owners we had not be informed.
On 26 April 2022 we went back to reception for more information but were told the same thing by a different receptionist. We explained that we needed to have the details of the incident, and also to what was ordered, but no one could anything.
On 27 April 2022, still waiting for contact from the owner experience manager, we went back down to the Reception and saw him by chance. He advised that he had been present when the lady came to Reception on 23 April 2022 to say that the door had come loose and she had put it on the side. Somehow that had fallen off and smashed before the technician arrived to put it back. Further he said that no one had ordered a replacement yet and indeed no one knew what to do ; the two staff had made a mistake saying that it had been ordered. I asked for a copy of the written report but he said all that was written was door has come off grill. No photos were taken as maintenance needed to safeguard the renter by cleaning up all the mess. Nothing had been kept (eg hinges and brackets)
As owners, we had started looking at sourcing a grill door ourselves. Some companies were not taking phone calls only emails. Some only deal with trade
we contacted Atlas Leisure , as that is our caravan manufacturer….
Caravan Warehouse ,
leisurespares.com
caravan and motor home accessories
Jackson leisure,
leisureshopdirect.com .
Kernow Mobile caravan services,
Cornwall caravan centre.
Another local large caravan park to ask where they accessed their spare parts
0n 28 April the maintenance technician on site offered to make some contacts himself including Arleigh, who only respond to trade. This was the first contact and to our knowledge the only one made by Park staff to try resolve our problem
We established that the colour of the door ( cream) was now obsolete, so looked at whether we could, by having a new oven door as well, have a black replacement. There is no stock in this country and orders from abroad are delayed for up to 6 weeks or more. There is no guarantee of delivery.
BY the time we had established this through our own efforts, already a week had passed since the incident.
Our insurance company has only agreed to pay for a grill door, and apparently this is common practice for caravan insurance , that they will only replace the damaged part of a whole item. I have contacted other insurers to this. The policy will allow for me to have a non matching door for the grill ( which I would be paying for anyway as the excess for damage caused by rentals is increased to £250). The additional oven door is seen as optional therefore not relevant to the claim. I do not believe that Parkdean would wish us to have random doors on cookers when they advise what colour equipment we should have in order to streamline and maintain standards on the Park.
In addition to this situation we find ourselves loosing rental income from being unable to rent the caravan which is covered on our policy. However the caravan has been pulled from rental while the cooker is sorted and so there is no evidence of bookings, but also Head office were unable to tell us the costings of what the caravan had been booked for, until after the rental was completed !! So we have no means of claiming for weeks lost.
Our cooker is costing £839 including delivery and will now be delivered on 13 may hopefully but we then rely on the Park inspecting it and fitting within 24 hrs as if there are any issues with it , these will not be accepted by the supplier unless they are reported immediately
Suggested solution:
We feel that the Parkdean should compensate us for
1) failing to inform us of the incident
2) failing to provide information about how the situation could be resolved
3) failing to have information available to staff which would have enabled them to inform us of our options at an early stage
4) failing to assist us by making calls to suppliers they should have easily accessible
4) failing to be aware of the limitations of their own recommended insurance
5) failing to be able to provide information about rental loss
The general manager acknowledged that they had lots of new staff who didnt have enough support , or knowledge about issues for owner rentals. He was unaware of the restrictions on insurance policies which leads owners to be potentially significantly disadvantaged when making a claim. He was further unaware of the fact that we cannot access information about rental, as referred to above, so cannot claim from the insurance.
This situation was very stressful throughout our 2 week stay at our caravan as we were left to try to sort something which should have been easily addressed at a well established Park with owner rentals.
It has highlighted customer support issues that I believe that company should address, re damage to property and also loss of rental
In the circumstances I feel that they should compensate us for now having to replace the cooker as the quickest way of getting the caravan rentable again, and for the rental that we have lost as a consequence of delay in dealing with this incident ly.
