Eurocmp - watch out for corporate customer services

dillydilly

2010-09-19 18:20:54

We've been many years with the various european campsite operators and have been increasingly irritated with the move to a more corporate, less customer sympathetic approach from Eurocamp/Keycamp, yet my latest experience with them ensures I'll never deal with them again. On leaving my accommodation, for which we'd paid over £1600 for two weeks in August, I realised I'd left the contents of my wallet in the bedroom cupboard - five credit cards and some british cash. I called Eurocamp CS on my return home and asked if they could ask the couriers to check the location. The rep refused to do this and insisted instead I complete a lost property form and I would be advised in 28 days if anything is handed in. On pointing out this was cash and credit cards and not an umbrella, the response from the supervisor was "we have thousands of campsites, we cannot possibly ring them"... well yes actually, you can - in this day of mobile phones I think that's called "customer service"...
Even two letters to the CEO of Holidaybreak.plc, the parent company, were merely passed back to customers services for them to send out a 'copy/paste' standard response - a complaint about the Customer Services is passed the the Customer Services dept to address ? hmmm...
14 days later I receive a generic letter saying nothing had been handed in - given the property was left in Eurocamp's secure property either the courier or the subsequent customer will hence know there whereabouts of the cash, and I doubt the holiday makers would pocket the property...
I just hope the likes of Canvas stick with their friendly customer service that I'm used to - a simple call immediately to the reps would have sorted my problem. Holidaybreak CEO - if you ever do get to read this, can I suggest you may do better moving to the banking system where such an approach to customers is more tolerated, sadly.

SMa

2010-09-20 08:31:16

Re: Eurocmp - watch out for corporate customer services

given the property was left in Eurocamp's secure property either the courier or the subsequent customer will hence know there whereabouts of the cash, and I doubt the holiday makers would pocket the property...

I don't think that you can make that sort of assumption - you have no evidence to back up the idea that the staff are less honest than the customers. There are honest people and dishonest people in all walks of life - even dishonest people who live by the rule of 'finders keepers' go on holidays at times. That's no excuse for poor customer service on the part of Eurocamp but insinuating that their staff took your wallet isn't going to help your case.

Have you pursued this with your insurance company yet for claiming for the lost cash? What was there response - hopefully you'll be covered? I assume that the moment you realised what had happened that you cancelled the cards?

SM

steve8482

2010-09-20 15:21:54

Re: Eurocmp - watch out for corporate customer services

I've heard the same allegation made against train cleaners. The fact is that a busy cleaner will simply shove everything into the sack on automatic pilot and not even register what he's just picked up unless it's too heavy/gooey to pick up. If they do notice they've found credit cards standard practise is to cut them in half and not bother to trace the owner - they are paid very little to clean and nothing at all to chase around after forgetful people.

If they had been left in a safe at reception you would have been entitled more service - although you might not have got it.

dillydilly

2010-09-21 17:49:17

Re: Eurocmp - watch out for corporate customer services

not claimed, I assume there'd be an excess. Not concerned about the cash or CCs, which I did cancel yes, I get frustrated at the attitude of the customer services policy not to personally handle my issue. If I ran a restaurant, and a customer rang up in the morning and said they left a jacket on a hook with their wallet in, would I say "can you please fill in a form and we'll let you know within 28 days " ? Only difference in this case is I spend over £1500 each year on a holiday, not just £100 on a meal, and from the amount of Eurocamp literature I get through my door I assume they rank customer loyalty high up their list of priorities. Sadly their customer services policy has lost them another 20 years of custom.

SM - fair point, though the courier should have cleaned the place before the new customers arrived so at some point someone's thought "hmm, credit cards, identity cards and cash, I wonder what I'll do with them...". A customer services rep doing the job right would have removed the need for suspicion.

SMa

2010-09-22 12:31:47

Re: Eurocmp - watch out for corporate customer services

SM - fair point, though the courier should have cleaned the place before the new customers arrived so at some point someone's thought "hmm, credit cards, identity cards and cash, I wonder what I'll do with them...". A customer services rep doing the job right would have removed the need for suspicion.

I would have expected a courier or customer services rep to have checked the accommodation after it was cleaned to confirm that it was ready for the next guests, not to be doing the cleaning themselves. I haven't used Eurocamp myself so don't know what their routines are but have always assumed that they have fixed changeover days in order to maximise lettings? In which case the cleaning is probably done by an outside contractor's team who descend en masse on changeover day with a very tight turnaround time and the scenario that steve8482 describes is the likely turn of events. Having worked as a 'temp' at a conference centre in my student days this is what we were instructed to do and the booking terms made it clear that the management took no responsibility for anything left in the rooms after guests checked out.

The policy re bank and credit cards was based on the general advice from the issuers was that if found or left behind, regardless of the circumstances, cards should be destroyed and not returned because it was too big a risk to send signed cards back through the post in case they were intercepted nor could one ever be absolutely certain that the cards really were the property of whoever was phoning up anyway.

SM

SM

Sunaddict

2010-09-22 14:40:01

Re: Eurocmp - watch out for corporate customer services

I doubt the insurance would pay out anyway. It usually states that belongings have to be locked away in either a safe or locked bag etc. and that you take reasonable care to safeguard them.

dillydilly

2010-09-23 11:36:36

Re: Eurocmp - watch out for corporate customer services

the 'couriers' on site for Eurocamp/Keycamp spend around 30% of their time welcoming customers and sorting isues and the rest cleaning the accomodation ready for the next customers. There is no changeover day, this happens every day. There are no contract cleaners.

dillydilly

2010-09-23 11:39:01

Re: Eurocmp - watch out for corporate customer services

regards security, the property was in a locked mobile home, key to which was held by the couriers.

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