Complaining to Caravan park operator Parkdean

Our holiday review and bad service continued when We complained to Parkdean Customer service and then we tried to speak with the CEO, we spent 11 months of writing letters and emails, firstly to the CEO, although our bad we googled him and because Parkdean had not changed it on Google we sent the letter to the old CEO but surely it would have been past on … No. We then decided to Email as we did not get a response, Finally an email reply, we were told that we had written to the wrong CEO (sorry Parkdean) but for some reason, it had not been forwarded on (really? or did it fall into the bin?).

(Without naming the team at Parkdean) The complaint was read and because the reception team and housekeeping dealt with our many complaints over the 3 days we were offered a 1-day compensation with a 3-month time limit.

A 3 month time limit! We felt that our complaint “would it be OK for you to turn up to your holiday and find your accommodation in such a state?” had not been understood, Also the emails kept going on about their 2-week complaints procedure and we had missed it (by 2 weeks) but their team had also written incorrect information from there investigation and got all the times/dates wrong. We further emailed the Chief Customer Officer, and like the CEO kindly did not bother to write to us but sent us back to the same complaints team, who for one did not know who was dealing with us due to a few confusing emails from a couple of the team.

Now because we were dealing with the customer service Mangers they gave us the standard sorry and we do have high standards and we do not want to make our customers feel undervalued waffle waffle waffle letter… but our other issue with the CO2 decors seemed to go in deaf ears. I spent time finding out all I could on this subject, I wrote to Public Protection Cornwall and to the manufacture and It shocked me that the Customer service team assured us that we were in no danger due to the out of date detectors! These two detectors (as you can see in my picture) we dirty, out of date by 3 years, and clogged up with grease and fat. Now I was worried for my family and others who had used that caravan.

Now in my investigation I found out that CO2 detectors have a 5-7 year life and must be changed due to the effectiveness of detecting leaking CO2 within the manufactures guidance, and that if a holiday park is using CO2 detectors to increase the safety of there customers they have a duty of care to keep these detectors in good working condition and replace when necessary.

With this Evidence, I emailed again to the CEO and the Chief Operations Officer and the Chief Customer Officer the emails that we had received from there customer services team. Under each response from Parkdean customer services I added my evidence for the complaint, I felt that as the customer service team had not answered our complaint in full breaking it down and giving us a fair response, I would break it down for them to see how wrong they had got it.

3 weeks past and we had heard nothing, On Monday 20th July I re-sent the email at 15.32, wow a response on that day at 17:38, then by the evening at 21.07 I had a response from the Chief Operations Officer!! Finally a member of the Executive writing to me, this nightmare can be put to bed…

Once again we received the standard waffle waffle waffle Letter but in it some nuggets of gold from the team:

From Sid, surfing on Church cove beach

“it’s disappointing to read that you have felt insulted and undervalued, and I would like to assure you that this is certainly not our intention and all of your feedback has been taken on board and actioned where necessary waffle

Then the Lizzy kiss

I am confident that the team did all in their power to rectify these in a timely manner. I understand that these issues should not have been present on your arrival,

So what about the complaint?:

Sparkle reminded us

I do want to confirm, that it’s certainly not our intention to make you feel let down by our complaint process, however, I do need to advise that we ask for any complaint to be made within 14 days in order to give the teams on park a fair opportunity of investigating in full.

Sparky being the maintenance operative informed us the CO2 detectors were safe…

I am confident that all necessary checks were conducted, and as mentioned all procedures were followed within the Health and Safety parameters. I do of course, understand why you would feel concerned on noticing the date on the carbon monoxide alarms, however following the investigation, we are confident that there was no risk to the health and safety of your family or any subsequent guests into that particular accommodation.

And Naarky had the last word with his good news
I understand that you continue to feel aggrieved however, I am confident that we have investigated your complaint in full and as previously noted, will not be offering any goodwill in relation to your stay.

Would this be alright for you or your family?

I wrote again my evidence under each section for the COO to fully understand our complaint and receive yet again the photo evidence.

The COO wrote back

It is entirely your right to continue if you wish to send more emails in, however I have instructed the team that this matter is closed from our end and we will not be continuing correspondence on the matter any further 

Thank you Parkdean for your time