Adam

Review of South Bay Holiday Camp

South Bay - Brixham

South Bay - Brixham
Disgusting caravan, disgraceful head office response, now ignoring me!

I went with my wife for the Aug bank holiday weekend and my brother and his wife drove down separately to join us. On arrival we found the van in a disgusting unkempt state (inside and out). It was a build-up of years of neglected maintenance issues.

I went to reception to explain and asked to me moved. The lady was very friendly and apologetic, but explained that the site was fully booked with no opportunity to move anywhere. My brother arrived, saw the place, and decided to leave the next morning all the way back to Birmingham. As we d travelled so far in 5hr holiday traffic and made plans to meet friends in Paignton, we decide to stay and luckily we slept over at friends for one night.

Obviously we were very upset, but after a couple of months of calming down decided to write a review. Before doing so, I read some similar bad reviews on here and couldn t believe some of the responses, with management claiming that they could have moved people if they d known (when they couldn t move me) and suggesting that some people maybe scammers! Fortunately, with 120 reviews under my belt, none showing that I m in dispute, I can t be accused of scamming.

Grime on outside of van, on rough weedy ground, last years leaf fall, paper, sticks etc around steps, in-ground sticky grime with insects around floor, skirting and ceiling, missing edging strips on furniture (including a wet smelling sink up-stand), rusty hinges, finish or kitchen and bathroom cabinets peeling off, radiator tops with more rust than paint, cobwebs all over, light fittings full of insects, fraying & falling curtains & nets, missing window lock/handles, and windows that don t close properly. Grease around cooker, dirty plates & cutlery, the list goes on...

I took many photos and compiled a presentation that I emailed over to John Fowler on the 3rd Nov. What followed was an exchange of requests for info proving that they had not read my email or looked at the pictures that contained all the booking reference, van number etc incompetent!

For nearly 4 weeks of chasing, they blamed delays in response due to sickness and holidays. Their final response was that they had no record of the complaint made at the time and I said that I d refused help when I made the complaint (somewhat contradiction)! They said that they offered a re-clean (which they didn t), but the van required a weekend re-fit team anyway!

They claimed that because I had endured the stay without leaving early and that my emailed complaint was more than 28 days later than my stay, they can t do anything about it! They completely ignore the fact that the pictures are a snapshot of the condition at the time (which they say the manager checked) and the customer has the right to expect accommodation of a satisfactory standard, whatever their policy.

John Fowler you really need to think about how you handle genuine and justified complaints like this. Why is it so difficult for you to say sorry, admit responsibility and compensate genuine victims for your poor control of cleaning & maintenance? Why are you letting vans get into such poor state of repair and not taking proactive action? If other customers are not complaining, it doesn t mean that everything is ok, it just means that they either accept poor standards or can t be bothered to waste time with such a disgraceful company. I expect that you have a range of vans and you've simply let the older ones fall below and acceptable standard. I have been very reasonable and given you 7 weeks to resolve my complaint before leaving this 100% honest review.

Your strategy seems to be a mix of blame the customer and discredit or bring doubt to genuine complaints, rather than simply doing the right thing shame on you! Don't claim that you are unable to verify me. You know who I am and my booking ref is SBB0002242 23/8/19 South Bay.