Private caravan - owner cancelled, no refund

pollie67

We booked and paid for a private caravan at a site in Wales. 2 days before we were due to go the owner informed us we could no longer have the caravan as he was in dispute with the caravan park (he told us this was a problem for all the private owners and it was the park's fault - have since contacted the park and this is completely untrue, they are only in dispute with this particular owner) The owner promised us a refund but it has been over a month now and no refund arrived. He does not answer his phone or mobile. The site where the caravan was advertised have pulled his advert as they have had several complaints. What is my next step in getting my money back. Do I report the owner to the police? Unfortunately we paid the full amount by cheque.

JustBe_2

Hi Pollie

I don`t know how you would go about getting a refund but hopefully someone will be along soon with advice.

Just wanted to say.. what a lousy thing to do to someone.

Hope you get it resolved..

Justbe

greenface

Name and shame him here & site someone may know . (I have a caravan in wales) ? small claims court do you have a home address(yes you sent a cheque sorry !) Keep the site sweet they may help you more too. Was it much (not that it matters just it maybe more trouble to small claims it for a few quid)You have his/her address a letter or knock on their door.

pollie67

Owner's name is Phillip Douglas. He lives in Wrexham, Wales. Caravan was advertised on UKcaravans4hire site. To be fair to the caravan site (Lyons Robin Hood) they offered us chalet accommodation, and said they would match his price. We declined as had heard their chalets were not too good. They also spoke to Mr Douglas on our behalf and he assured them he would be sending us a refund so they said there was not much else they could do. We have since heard that Mr Douglas runs the ice cream van on the site but not sure if this is true!

vikingaero

Send a Letter Before Action giving him 14 days to pay up. Then on day 15 issue a Court Summons online via Moneyclaimonline:

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

greenface

moneyclaimonline do you need to have phillips email address ? . Chalets at robin hood /lyons are a bit naff but so are some of the caravans . My brother lived on lyons for over at rhyl end and its occupied with long term DSS single familys p1ss heads (like my brother)Getting a refund could be the best result here.NOTE to say not all of robin hood /lyons is cr4p its not fair . There are decent caravan lets trying hard to make ends meet there too and robin hood has a very good entertainment staff and good bands on , Brother doesnt know ice cream man but will try to find out his name & if anyones going to robin hood this year can you ask . Good luck with your fight.

snookey

Hi go to the papers.

deedee1966

A few years ago there was a seller on Ebay that let people down and didn't refund their money for their booked static caravan holidays. Most of the people who booked with him contacted the police and kept pushing it. In the end he was taken to court. (there is a forum on it somewhere) Not sure if people got their money back. I would firstly write to him at the address you sent the cheque to give him 14 days to refund the monies, notifying him you will be going to the police.

Its sad because these people give us genuine owners who their hire their private caravans out a bad name. If we ever had to cancel someones holiday its in our Terms and Conditions that we will give them a full refund and we would straight away none of this waiting.

Just out of interest how did he notify you your holiday had been cancelled, email, letter, text or phone call.

pollie67

Thanks for all the replies. I will try writing to him giving him the 14 day notice to pay up or we take it further. He didn't notify us of the cancellation, we had to phone him as we had not heard from him about collecting keys etc. On the Wednesday (we were due to go on the Saturday) he said there might be a problem but he would phone us back on Thursday to let us know for sure. He did not phone us back and we finally got through to him on the Thursday night when he quite matter of factly told us we couldn't have the van. No apology - even when I told him our 6 year-old would be devastated as he was so looking forward to his holiday. He just blamed the site and said it wasn't his fault but we would get a refund "in a week or so" then hung up on me!

1jim

agree, letter before action is needed in this case followed by small claims court action
to be honest you could probably look to booking an equivelent caravan on same/similar site and charge this to the caravan owner who cancelled booking- look to small claims court to enforce.

lauraj87

How rude of this man, I hope he pays up for you