this is a copy of letter i have just sent to them outlining issues what are my rights and what should i do next i.e how long to give them to reply >?>>>>

Haven & British Holidays

PO Box 127

1 Park Lane

Hemel Hempstead

Herts

HP2 4ZX

23 June 2006

Dear Sirs

RE: Complaint regarding holiday at Caister

I am writing further to our recent visit to your site at Caister. Our holiday was from 16 - 19 June 2006, booked through the Sun Holidays Promotion.

On arrival at the site we collected the keys to Chalets 32/33, chalet 32 was inaccessible due to the key not fitting, and chalet 33 was inhabitable for a family with 2 small children. The chalet smelt damp and musty, the fridge smelt of mould, the drawer fronts we hanging off in the bedroom and the smoke alarm was hanging from the ceiling, in no way was this chalet safe or pleasant accommodation. We went back to the Welcome Centre where we were told we could be moved to another Chalet of the same standard but without the broken drawer and smoke alarm, we felt that the standard of accommodation was substandard and we were not willing to do this, our only option then was to pay an extra £50 for a silver caravan which under the circumstances, we had between us 4 children 2 of which were under 1 and by this point we were just wanting to start our holiday. We did fill in a complaint form whilst we were there but unfortunately the Receptionist was inundated with people requesting transfers of accommodation so we didn’t receive full attention or even an apology.

On arrival at our new caravans Ramworth 18/20 we were pleased with the standard and thought we could begin to enjoy our holiday. Unfortunately the caravan was not very clean and I spent an hour hovering and mopping the floors before we could let the children crawl around. Over the course of the weekend we were disappointed to find you have no family changing facilities in your swimming complex, and you state in your brochure ‘direct beach access’ however it does not state you have to climb through railings to access the beach and that if, like us you have pushchairs it will turn in to a mammoth task.

Despite these issues we did proceed to enjoy our holiday, however we are absolutely appalled to discover on our return home that our bedding which we took with us, to avoid your linen charge, is now home to fleas. Our duvets and pillows have had to be cleaned at the laundrette and bedding duly boiled. This is in no way acceptable, the inconvenience this has caused us not to mention the bites which are not pleasant is not the lasting reminders we want of what was to supposed to be a pleasant family holiday.

I hope you will look in to the issues raised in my letter and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully

I would give them 14days, then tell them you will be taking them to court if they dont compensate you!

right, although I know very little about British camp parks, I've worked abroad on European ones and have come across various complaints over the years.

The quality of accommodation is unacceptable. Fair enough.

The sun promotion is interesting. On my campsites, we used to get all the 'Sun people' in at the end of August. They paid £9.50 for their holidays (or whatever price it was) yet other people who had booked ages ago were staying in the same accommodation at the same time and paid hundreds. A good money saving deal by you, but there are others who have paid lots more.

Beach access - on campsites people get drunk then go to the beach. They leave glass on the beach etc. People who aren't on the campsite go to the beach, get drunk, and then try to get into the campsite. Sometimes it is necessary to limit access to and from the beach otherwise your campsite becomes a free for all.

With family changing, if that is a facility you wanted you should have checked with the site first. The site is 100 years old and the plumbing of it all is probably set up for a male and female area. I've never seen a family changing area on a campsite.

I hate to say you get what you pay for, but the holidays are 9.50 for a reason. Not many people book through the brochure, so they get lots of people in cheaply and hope that you will spend £££ in the restaurants and bars.

I hardly think that's fair comment at all TBH.

Caister on Sea holiday camp is hyped as a friendly holiday park ergo I think that you can have an expectation that the swimming pool would have family changing areas, it's not a difficult thing to do and they mention on the website that the pool is wheelchair friendly so in that case there should be larger changing rooms for the disabled visitors so there should therefore be some for families too - A family changing area is nothing to do with plumbing its just a larger changing room.

Also this isn't a campsite its a HOLIDAY PARK - big big difference

I have to also say do you not think that the site may just have had a few renovations in 100 years so the plumbing is nowhere near 100 years old lol.

You've obviously never been to Caister, its a relatively sleepy place about 3 miles from Gt Yarmouth. There wouldn't really be anyone on the beach in that area as the car park for the "public" beach area is a long way from this area so I doubt you would have many visitors who aren't at the camp "getting drunk" it's just not that sort of place.

As they state on their website about being wheelchair friendly I would be very worried if you had to climb through railings to get to the beach, are you sure that was the only way down and there wasnt another way somewhere else?

I have to say that i've heard similar stories from that park i'm afraid with people complaining about damp etc and being moved. I do wonder whether they stick the freebie people in the crappy accomodation to try and screw £50 out of you for an upgrade.

Go back and complain to The Sun about it too.

Good luck

Oh another thought write an email to the evening daily press (local rag)

EDP24 - Eastern Daily Press - Norfolk news, sport, homes, jobs, cars

They love a good story, have a look for the contacts page there's email addresses on there.

I just returned yesterday from my holiday at Wild Duck haven park in Great Yarmouth. My husband seem'd to get on quite well with the security guards of the park and was told alot about the caister park, as my husband and I were thinking of going there next for a holiday. We were informed that is not a good place to visit. Apparently 3 days ago a guest was stabbed and a security guard from the park in hospital due to being jumped on the head.

I dont think I will be holidaying with Haven again... I didn't have the best time on my holiday at Wild Duck either. Infact i had simlar problems with our 1st caravan and had to pay for an upgrade to escape being put into another squat!

This was me and my wifes xpereance with this company

Merton Mere Blackpool 14th October 2010

I had been on Holiday in the Lake District for a week and decided to end our holiday by visiting your camp site in Blackpool .When we saw the touring pitch we were very disappointed as we had spent a week in 2 lovely sites. I went to the office to see if we could book the premiere pitch (although not much better) but unfortunately they were all taken so we finally found a space that had the most level ground for the awning.

When we went over to the toilet blocks we were welcomed by a group of really irate people moaning about the condition of the toilets and shower blocks when we looked in side we could see why, you could smell the toilets from outside and in one of the showers there was a human stool not a good start. We did not expect it to be as good as the previous sites that we had just left as we paid between £20 and £30 per night for them but we did expect it to be clean.

We decided to go into Blackpool as that was what we were there for, we got the bus that run from the camp. When we returned we tried to have a shower to get ready to go to the club, my husband gave up as the smell was too bad and there was no where to put his clothes where they would not get wet. I managed to hang my clothes on the door but once in the shower I found out that the water only run for a minute at the time I gave up in the end and got changed and went back to our van.

We then went to the club where we enjoying a few drinks and the show we left there about 11ish and went straight back to our van my husband was sitting in the front of our van listening to his radio a plain car drove past slowed right down staring at my husband which made us feel very uneasy as we did not know who they were, then they drove away then about 10 -15 mins later they returned the big one got out and come up to the window and asked my husband what was his problem in an aggressive manner, then said that he was the security manager and he had 5 complaints 1st he said about loud music then when we said the radio was not loud he said he had complaints that my husband had been going round the site threatening people this was totally untrue as my husband told them, and as my husband felt threatened and insulted he replied “what are you a thick neck plastic policeman your just coming across to me as a thug”.

We had been to the club then straight back to the van. My husband was baffled and asked them what they were on about as he had not threatened anyone he had not even spoke to anyone apart from the one opposite who he had to shout out STOP! From inside the van earlier in the day as he nearly flattened our awning when he/she reversed out. The security manager’s reply to this was to call my husband a “DICK” the security Manager had to restrain his side kick at this point as he said my husband was winding him up now and come towards the van in an aggressive manner. The security manager told his side kick to calm down, as he could not control him self.

With this the security manager said he wanted us of the site knowing my husband had had to much to drink and was unable to drive so we refused as we had done nothing wrong apart from listening to a radio and refusing to summit to the harassment from your security operative’s, so he then called the police. God knows what lies he told the police as they turned up mob handed in 2 vans and 1 plain car. The police spoke to the security Manager and then to my husband and my self they told us to get our head down so we could leave in the morning as we told them that we did not want to stay there anymore anyway as it is the worst site we have ever stayed on. One of the police officers said he did not blame us and that he would not stay on that site either so this site has blatantly got a reputation, Here is the incident number is (*******************) it is best that you contact the police because they were very professional and understanding of our predicament. Even a couple of hours after the police left the security operatives followed my husband to the toilets; my husband locked himself in the toilets and pretended to be on the phone till they went as by their earlier “mindset” he thought he was going to get a hiding.

This whole incident ruined our whole holiday which until we booked at your site cost us in a reign of £900 so as you can see we did not book with you because you were cheap but so we could visit Blackpoll tower as we were in the location wish we had never bothered.

We intend to contact your local environmental health department and trading standards as this site seriously needs looking into. We have been to other sites over the last year including Wild Duck, Thorpe Park, Burnham on sea and Combe Haven these were all nice, clean and friendly This Blackpool site has lots of problems including some of the staff the receptions answer to the state of the showers was she can not stop people using the toilets and showers. Everybody knows its only people using them that makes them dirty but most sites have cleaners to make sure they are clean enough to use.

Awaiting to hear from you in the mean time we will making enquiries about taking legal action because we are not willing to accepts this appalling treatment lightly as it also ruined our whole holiday which we work very hard for. I.e. me 12 hour shifts as a support worker my husband long hard days as a furniture removal business even though he is in pain most of the time with arthritis. We also want these security operatives license numbers so that we can inform the S.I.A. who we have already contacted but they need the relative number from you.

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