Welcome Cottages - letter of complaint

Dear Welcome Cottages,

CUSTOMER COMPLAINT - PROPERTY REFERENCE xxxxxxx 3 JUN 06 – 10 JUN 06

My family and I have holidayed with your company for quite a few years now and the reason we always go back to you is the excellent descriptions and images of your properties which enable us to make an informed choice of holiday suitable to our needs.

Making a choice of holiday suitable to our needs is very, very important to us as both my wife and I work and arranging time off together is a logistical nightmare! This coupled with the fact we have 2 children both under two years of age means that we select our holidays very carefully to ensure we have the best time possible; something we have always found possible with Welcome Cottages. Unfortunately on this occasion what we thought would be a perfect holiday cottage, during our stay there, we realised this was not the case.

The property in question is:

Property reference - xxxxxxx. Holiday dates - 3 JUN 06 – 10 JUN 06. Booking reference xxxxxx.

Your brochure advertised:

a. “Garage” – Although a garage was present, there was no means of securing it. Both the remote control was broken and the key, although which fit the lock, did not engage the locking mechanism. My plan was to keep my Sat Nav, mobile phone etc in the vehicle and also to load the vehicle each night, when the children were sleeping, for the following day’s adventure safe in the knowledge that the vehicle and its contents were secure. We were unable to do so and so each morning was a mad rush and tears and tantrums, from both children and parents, getting everything ready when this so easily could have been avoided.

b. “2 colour TV's, video” – This means to me 2 x TV’s and 1 x video. This was not the case, there was 1 x TV in the living area and a 1 x portable TV and video combo in an upstairs bedroom. The plan was for my wife and I to enjoy a meal and drink while the children watched the video cassettes we had brought for them. Although this problem was partially rectified by transporting the combo unit to the living room. Not my preferred solution when I was expecting them to able to view on a full screen TV.

c. “Garden furniture” – This was most important to us, to allow the children to play in the garden whilst under supervision. Also we were so looking forward to nights sat on the patio eating a meal, enjoying a drink etc; there was no garden furniture.

In accordance with your instructions, on the 10 Jun 06, I contacted the cottage point of contact and informed them of the concerns. I spoke to a female; I did not get her name, who appeared to be the care home/cottage manager. The lady informed me of the situation with regards to the garage and the broken remote control and advised me that a new one was on order as a previous guest had broken it and provided me with a manual key (which I later found out did not engage the lock). The video concern, although she apologised, she stated nothing else could be done. However, the garden furniture problem she stated that a few weeks prior there was terrible weather and some of it had been destroyed. I asked where the remainder was and she stated she had removed it to her property for her personal use!

On 11 Jun 06, I then contacted the cottage owner Mr xxxxx and informed him of the concerns. Mr xxxx arrived at the property within the hour and again confirmed about the garage and video. However, he stated that he was unaware that the garden furniture was missing and agreed that as holiday makers we should have garden furniture as advertised. He asked the lady where the furniture was and she stated that it had all being destroyed in a recent storm. Mr Barton promised me that by the latest the following day he would bring a new set of garden furniture to the cottage for our use; unfortunately we waited and waited and it never arrived.

I appreciate items get destroyed/damaged. However, perusing the cottage visitor guest book I noted that on 6 Apr 06, a guest had entered “”Some garden chairs and a table would be a useful addition” and on 25 May 06 another guest had commented “Garden furniture would have been lovely for the lovely summer evenings”. It appears that there has been no garden furniture present for at least two months.

I have attached images of the guest’s comments and also photos of our ‘make-shift’ garden furniture, which you hopefully agree is not the standard you would expect; it certainly is not the standard I expect.

Up until now we have been extremely happy with our holidays with Welcome Cottages. However, this holiday has been a serious let down. I have followed your complaint procedure and still nothing was rectified; I would have thought that common courtesy and rectifying problems asap was a priority. I have been patient and polite throughout therefore I feel I have no other option but to put my complaint in writing to you.

I hope I have explained myself fully. If you do have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours an aggrieved customer,






Mr xxxxxxx

Enclosures:

Image of extract from visitor guest book dated 6 Apr 06.
Image of extract from visitor guest book dated 27 May 06.
Image of ‘make-shift’ garden furniture.