Champneys, Theft took place - not a relaxing experience!!

Loustevo

My mum and I recently visited Champneys Forest Mere resort for a nice relaxing day as a treat for my mum's 60th.

What was supposed to be relaxing turned out to be a dreadful day as items were stolen from one of our lockers, both of which had been opened. It was made known to us subsequently that there have been problems with the locks on these lockers and we were also told that there is a default code to open them, which is widely known to staff members.

When we returned from shopping in the onsite shop, we placed our purchases in their carrier bag in one of our lockers. This was approx 13.45. Our next treatment was at 15.00. At approx 14.45 we returned to the locker room and found that both our locker doors were ajar and our bag of purchases was missing. We know we locked the locker doors.

We gathered all our belongings together and went to the office. A lady called Margaret came back to the locker room with us and she checked the locks and stated that they were faulty. Whilst there, another lady came in and found her locker door open even though she had locked it.

As we had treatments booked for 15.00 and we obviously did not want to leave our belongings in the locker room, Margaret agreed to take them into the office for safe-keeping and to take steps to ensure that the problem was dealt with. We worried throughout our treatment sessions that other possessions may have been taken from our bags as we had not had time to check them.

When we went to the office after our treatment, we were told that Margaret had left for the day and no-one knew were our belongings were. A young girl helped us and pointed to a stairwell and said "Is that them down there!". They were strewn all over the floor, not in the office at all, and accessible to the general public. We were appalled.

We asked to speak to the manager and were told she was not there. The reception manager (Mavis) was sent to us. She apologised for what had happened and arranged for my purchases to be replaced. I showed her the offending locker locks and she said she would call maintenance and I suggested she put up a notice informing guests not to use them (I was surprised this hadn't been done immediately when we first reported the theft).

When we pointed out to her that our day had been ruined, she (Mavis) flippantly said, "Why has it been ruined, you enjoyed your treatments didn't you?" We certainly didn't enjoy the last ones and it most certainly did ruin what was supposed to be a special day out.

Before we checked out, we returned to the same locker room to change, and there was still no notice warning people not to use the lockers. We noticed another locker door ajar and the locker was in use. Such negligence is totally unacceptable.

There is undoubtedly a thief operating within the premises.

We also reported this incident to the police.

While we understand there is a disclaimer that they are not liable for any loss or damage to personal property belonging to guests, there is clearly an ongoing issue known to them. Having had one theft from these lockers, no action was taken at all to protect other guests. This is negligent. We had nowhere safe to leave my purchase which I bought on the premises.

Although crime cannot be stamped out, it would appear that Champneys not only has an ambivalent attitude towards it but also some of Champneys' staff seem to be sadly defficient in dealing with such incidents and the distress that it causes. This is not what one would expect from a premiere, quality establishment of any kind.

Champneys response??
I am sorry you are not satisfied with the responses that I have given.Just constantly fobbed us off As a company we have tried to rectify a situation with a goodwill gesture in replacing your lost property too right. We are of course sorry the incident marred the end of your stay and as stated do appreciate the disappointment suffered and can only offer our sincere apologies that the incident occurred.

A refund will not be given in these circumstances. not for the goods - for our day that was ruined The property you lost was replaced, a robbery did not take place. really so what else would you call it? Stuff was taken - that's robbery plain and simple (robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property).
Once again thank you for taking the time to bring these matters to our attention

So beware - if you go to Champneys do not use their lockers!!!

Has anyone else had the same experience?

Loustevo

Just found another thread where someone's bag was stolen whilst at Champneys - totally unacceptable :mad:

Type in Champneys theft in the search box (as I can't post the link)

sarahg1969

Champneys are right. It was not robbery. It was theft. Your definition if the definition of theft, not robbery. If the thief had taken your belongings from your person by force, that would have been robbery.

Loustevo

Robbery was their choice of words hence theft in my title, either way some of our propery was taken by another person and it will happen to other people if they don't sort out the lockers - they are not taking responsiblity hence why I wanted to let other people know.