Center Parcs - Numerous Complaints - Unsatisfactory Reply

[TC-Lover]

Apologies in advance as this may be long.

 

My family and I went on a midweek break to CenterParcs in September and there was a catalogue of minor disasters. On our return I sent the following letter:

 

"Dear Sirs

RE: STAY DATED 25/09/2006 – 29/09/2006 IN VILLA # 917

I am writing regarding our recent stay at the Longleat Holiday Village (dates above). Our party included myself and my husband, our two boys (aged 6yrs & 8yrs) and my parents-in-law.

All-in-all our holiday was pleasant but I feel the need to write regarding several matters that marred our stay.

I’ll start with the most serious matters.

On the morning of Weds 27th Sept I reached down close to the bedside table in our Executive Villa and caught my thumb on it. Imagine my horror to discover that I had the biggest splinter imaginable from the table going under my thumbnail and into my nail bed. The splinter was approx 1.5” long x 1/8” wide (photo # 1 enclosed complete with bloodstain!!). A tiny end protruded from my nail and I screamed for my husband who was able to pull the splinter out from under my nail. Needless to say this was agony!!

I felt shaken and a little faint and proceeded directly to the Medical Centre where the nurse applied a Mag Sulph poultice and advised I took painkillers.

I spent the whole day unable to swim due to the poultice (in fact, I didn’t swim again as I was afraid of getting an infection in the area) and in considerable pain – today (five days later) the area is still sore and inflamed (see photo #2). Obviously this spoilt things somewhat.

The nurse telephoned the relevant department whilst we were present and requested that the offending table be removed from the villa. This never happened.

I feel very disappointed that the furniture was not checked for rough edges before it was placed in the villa and am just thankful that it was I that got the splinter and not one of my two small sons. Not only that, but I am also cross that despite the nurse requesting the table be removed this was ignored.

Another serious complaint is that upon shopping in the ParcMarket on our first day I was browsing the chilled section. I was dismayed to discover not one but numerous items of chilled foods, (Greek Salad containing soft cheese) several days out of date!! I called to a young member of staff and handed him all the offending items – this numbered about 8 pots.

My 6yr old then asked if he could have some of his favourite Bernard Matthews “Dinosaur Ham” – due to the dates on the previous items I checked before putting it in the trolley and once again was horrified to discover that the cold meat was several days out of date!! I checked the rest and approximately 90% of the ham was well past its use by date. This time I requested to see the manager and told him in no uncertain terms what I thought about a store that was obviously very slack on checking dates and removing old stock!! The manager seemed bemused but apologetic.

I really am at a loss as to how it was the case that in a busy supermarket where you have a captive audience (being the only grocery store on the site) that such lapses could occur. Many people don’t check use by dates being confident that what they buy is ACTUALLY IN DATE – what if someone had gone on to eat these products and become ill? It is more alarming that one of the off products was a cold meat item targeted at children. I have to say that I am disgusted.

Other irritations that occurred were as follows:

• Upon arrival in our villa we lacked several items of bed linen – despite being in an Executive villa and these being included. I had to mess about trying to find a phone number to call (why aren’t the numbers by the phones in the villas?) in order to inform information.

• The retainer that holds milk, etc in the fridge door kept falling off making it impossible to stand bottles up in the fridge.

• The DVD player was not working; my husband had to fix it before the children could watch.

• The included maid service was mediocre at best – all she seemed to do was empty the dishwasher and move things round on the coffee table. We have paid extra in the past for maid service and it has always been very good. Sadly, this time we were disappointed.

• We asked for extra towels and had to wait 48hrs for them to materialise – and then they were just seemingly slung through the front door.

• The pillows were horrendous. After our first night we had to adventure to Asda in Frome to buy more.

• We had to wait over ¾ hour for our lunch order in the Sports Café – upon investigating were told they had “lost us”.

We have holidayed with CenterParcs 3 times in all now (once before in Longleat, once in Sherwood Forest) and never before have we had such a catalogue of problems and mishaps to report. We paid a lot this time to have a “special” villa and were looking forward to it a great deal.

Unfortunately, our holiday was distinctly spoilt. I will admit we had a pretty good time despite the setbacks, but without those it could have been a WONDERFUL holiday.

I feel particularly strongly regarding the splinter and the fact the request by the nurse to have the table removed was ignored, as well as by the Parcmarket selling dangerously out-of-date perishable foodstuffs.

I look forward to hearing your comments – you can contact me by Snail Mail at the address on the front of this letter or alternatively by e-mail:"

I sent with the letter a picture of my injured thumb and a picture of the splinter next to a 5p for scale.

They finally got back to me last week with a letter saying all the relevant dept.s had been spoken to and with an offer of £60 off a further break with them (big deal).

I am not happy with this. Since writing the first letter my thumbnail has started to lift and it looks as though I am going to lose it:

What approach should I use in my reply?

[demon_x_slash]

I'm really shocked at htis. Centerparcs is 'our family' holiday destination - been there almost on the year every year since I was about seven, to all except Whinfell, and we've always had a magical time.

 

Ah, however, now I think of it...

 

...we went to Elveden last year after a gap of two and noticed it had become a lot more noisy, with a lot more 18-25yr groups rather than families with children...

...and were discussing this with **** the super cool archery guru and he commented that there's a lot more official 'corporate' and unofficial stag/hen parties than there were two/three years ago...perhaps, I am horrified to say, that this is part of the wonderful Centerparcs' decline...

[rosiecotton]

You're absolutely right to hold out for cash compensation, in my opinion, although you won't be entitled to a large refund of the holiday cost as you would (presumably) still have had some benefit from the holiday and facilities.

 

One thing I would say though is to report the food issue to the Trading Standards service which would cover the Longleat area. I think it would be Wiltshire Trading Standards. Selling food past the "Use By" date is an offence.

 

NB, this only applies to Use By and not Best Before, but the type of food you are describing seems likely to have a Use By date.

[TC-Lover]

Ok, have written the following letter - what do you reckon?:

 

"I appreciate you taking seriously my complaints and I am glad that all members of staff concerned have been rebriefed on correct procedure.

As you are aware my main concern was the injury I suffered whilst staying in the villa. Since writing to you my nail which was damaged by a splinter from one of your items of furniture has gone brown and begun to lift (picture enclosed) – it seems that I will lose the nail entirely which I am none too pleased about as you can imagine.

It is going to take many, many months for my nail to grow back normally due to the damage done to the nail bed by the splinter.

I feel that due to the long term nature of this problem that has been caused by furniture in your accommodation (and that was not even removed after I reported it, despite assurances to the contrary) that some sort of compensation is necessary and I feel the offer you made of £60 off a further break with Center Parcs is unsatisfactory.

I hope that we can settle this matter satisfactorily but I feel it is only fair to make you aware that I will not hesitate to seek legal advice should that become necessary.

I look forward to hearing from you."

[rosiecotton]

I think that sounds a reasonable enough first letter, if you don't get a favourable response to that you'd need to start throwing in terms like "duty of care", but no harm in sending a nice polite letter to try and resolve it amicably first.

 

I doubt they will offer you anything earthshaking, as you still got enjoyment from the holiday, but I think in the very least you should be offered some form of cash compensation rather than a holiday voucher.

[Sandieh]

My family wen to Centre Parcs Longleat on 9th Feb for a three day break and we were booked into a comfort plus 4 bed villa. Yes we had had some snow but we managed a 3 hour trip to get there. On arival we were advised we would have to make our own beds - we was ok - we had to go back as they forgot to give us the towels as well. On arival at the villa - it was dirty - kitchen area filthy - bin overflowing onto the floor, empty bottles on the work surfaces - washing up in the drainer. Beds had to be stripped before I could remake them. bathrooms were horrible and it had not been hoovered. The best bit was the sharps bin on the dinning room table - lovely. I compalined but was told because it was approx 9pm there was noothing they could do but to pop into guest services the next day.

 

I cleaned for at least 2 hours to make it bearable and made the beds for the children.

 

The next day we made our way to guest services and saw a manager to complain - all he did was smile and apologise - he could not even guarentee it would be cleaned. He said a letter and vouchers would be delivered to our villa, but we would have to complain to head office. We left on Sunday afternoon - a day early - and no the villa was never cleaned whilst we were there. But because we had complained about other things as well - cupboard doors being unsafe and other bits missing - they managed to find staff to stick notices on all cars that needed to be returned to the carpark, sent a maintainence man to sort out problems, and 2 people to deliver the letters and voucher - I saw red and demanded these people removed the dirty laundrey and rubbish. All in all I would never go to Centre parc again - as they ruined what could have been a wonderful holiday, for my children and my husband and myself who had booked to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

[phead]

These southern parks, you just cannot get the staff Should have gone to sherwood...Where errr, I have worked in the dim and distant past, and had some dealing with guest complaints

 

The original thread is a bit old, for info the original complaint is far too winey, in a complaint you concentrate on the main points, the trivial bits water down the complaint.

 

As for Sandieh's post, did you get a photo of the sharp's bin on the table? or even better a nice video to upload to youtube! That would make a great complaint letter, hints of national press etc, free holidays do happen, and I think your complaint if played nice could be worthy. A letter to the CEO is you first point of call. (Don't deal with guest complaints, monkey organ grinder etc)

[paulasian1]

I was burgled 2 night ago at Elvedon, they broke inin the night and stole numerous items, the thief was caught and my iphone and daughters ds recovered but my kids are terrified now and a lot of things including chikldrens purses and sentimental stuff of theirs is gone.. What compensation am I entitled to? they offered the equivalent discount of another holiday of £390 which is what I paid but my children are now 11 and 7 and I would have to go peak time because of schooling, this was a one off holiday due to taking them lut of school. I thought it was a reasonable offer but I wondered if I should ask for more or just a money back on the cost of my holiday?

[Kraken1]

Not sure how burglary is really their fault. Ax such the offer seems extremely generous.

[danaschmidt]

I have heart quite some bad reviews about the Center Parcs but so far my experiences with them have been quite good. We were with our family in the Center Parcs Bispingen (Germany) and the Center Parcs Port Zelande in the Netherlands and had a great time in both of them. Service and Accomodation was great so I can recommend them (at least from my point of view).