Section 75 claim help - Sykes cottages - eligibility?

waitpatiently

Thanks for the constructive comments and thoughts. I am reading them but haven’t got round to replying to all. 

But please: I’ve already acknowledged 60% I originally asked for is high so let’s stop asking me how I justified it 😆!

It is hanging over my head so need to make a decision about what to do with it. 

In reading comments, there are those who sympathise with lack of a working fridge at a holiday cottage essential and the consequences of poor efforts to resolve causing major detriment to our enjoyment so not unreasonable for me to complain. We tried to not let it ruin our time and evidenced the life out of our time to deal with it afterwards (the pain is real now!). We were giving Sykes a chance to help us vs just walking away and expecting the worst.

I don’t find hindsight comments too helpful (Maybe I should have moved accommodation at the start of the holiday, better yet maybe I shouldn’t have booked with Sykes, maybe I shouldn’t have booked a holiday at all 😆, maybe I shouldn’t have had children so I could have less food to store and could holiday more frequently more cheaply!).  

The option to move accommodation with two young children and a disabled person isn’t an easy decision to make on night 1, nor is it easy to can the whole thing and drive home. I wouldn’t have had confidence or certainty I’d get any compo  back if I did that and would also have given up on the holiday itself. After trying Sykes until midnight on their phone line and messaging centre again and again, for them not to call us back and ignored us, bed just seemed the best thing after a long drive there and a clear head the next day to try again with Sykes. The next day, they dropped off a second mini fridge in the afternoon (still hardly any additional capacity at all) which actually turned out to be a freezer. We wrecked some fruit in there too in the process and crossed our fingers eating the rest. I think we coped really well! But it doesn’t take away how frustrating the recovery efforts were when they interrupted us the whole time. (At home, yes, is go on Which? and research fridges and get a new one promptly but it’s not my property and it’s a holiday) The value of leaving part way through the holiday also diminishes and looks less attractive than Sykes promising the engineer would be along in the next day, only for that not to be fulfilled and again at our expense. 

We holiday on average once every three years. and would not ordinarily pay this much for a cottage as it was a one off trip (taking my mum away on holiday for the first time in our lives! So she’s not had the best experience!)
The kids picked up on our stress, and I’ve never had to be so organised with my food shops in my life 🤣 it might be easy for others to walk away because their next holiday is next year or in a few months but we might not get the chance again. The property otherwise was nice! We didn’t really want to downgrade - there weren’t many alternatives in the immediate area for a party of 5 (3 bed) and the location was sentimental and quite special. I suppose I was averse to any secondary risks of being moved to stay elsewhere when I’d so carefully picked our property (and failed clearly)? 

We already had cool shopping bags with us and some defrosting ice packs inside. They’re only good for a couple of hours and we did not have enough of those really. I think it’s hard to understand until you really are faced with it. I’m grateful to those who have tried to see it from our side. I suppose it’s not really money saving in my eyes to impulsively buy a ton of cool boxes and my own fridge to use temporarily to take matters into my own hands and leave at the end of the trip. I’m sure Amazon would have loved it though. 

Sorry for the rant, forumites. Part of sharing here was also because i don’t feel listened to by Sykes and I can’t contact the owner directly so I have felt heard here. Thank you. 

waitpatiently

Largs said:

I have never dealt with Sykes but when I complained to Parkdean Resorts about similar experience on holiday, it was 15% refund I got.  I just wanted to draw a line and accepted.  A working fridge on a self catering holiday is essential in my book, especially as it was in a remote location and hope you get a resolution to this.

Would be satisfied with this if I could get this. In the same place - looking to conclude this now

Money_Grabber13579

waitpatiently said:

Thanks for the constructive comments and thoughts. I am reading them but haven’t got round to replying to all. 

But please: I’ve already acknowledged 60% I originally asked for is high so let’s stop asking me how I justified it 😆!

It is hanging over my head so need to make a decision about what to do with it. 

In reading comments, there are those who sympathise with lack of a working fridge at a holiday cottage essential and the consequences of poor efforts to resolve causing major detriment to our enjoyment so not unreasonable for me to complain. We tried to not let it ruin our time and evidenced the life out of our time to deal with it afterwards (the pain is real now!). We were giving Sykes a chance to help us vs just walking away and expecting the worst.

I don’t find hindsight comments too helpful (Maybe I should have moved accommodation at the start of the holiday, better yet maybe I shouldn’t have booked with Sykes, maybe I shouldn’t have booked a holiday at all 😆, maybe I shouldn’t have had children so I could have less food to store and could holiday more frequently more cheaply!).  

The option to move accommodation with two young children and a disabled person isn’t an easy decision to make on night 1, nor is it easy to can the whole thing and drive home. I wouldn’t have had confidence or certainty I’d get any compo  back if I did that and would also have given up on the holiday itself. After trying Sykes until midnight on their phone line and messaging centre again and again, for them not to call us back and ignored us, bed just seemed the best thing after a long drive there and a clear head the next day to try again with Sykes. The next day, they dropped off a second mini fridge in the afternoon (still hardly any additional capacity at all) which actually turned out to be a freezer. We wrecked some fruit in there too in the process and crossed our fingers eating the rest. I think we coped really well! But it doesn’t take away how frustrating the recovery efforts were when they interrupted us the whole time. (At home, yes, is go on Which? and research fridges and get a new one promptly but it’s not my property and it’s a holiday) The value of leaving part way through the holiday also diminishes and looks less attractive than Sykes promising the engineer would be along in the next day, only for that not to be fulfilled and again at our expense. 

We holiday on average once every three years. and would not ordinarily pay this much for a cottage as it was a one off trip (taking my mum away on holiday for the first time in our lives! So she’s not had the best experience!)
The kids picked up on our stress, and I’ve never had to be so organised with my food shops in my life 🤣 it might be easy for others to walk away because their next holiday is next year or in a few months but we might not get the chance again. The property otherwise was nice! We didn’t really want to downgrade - there weren’t many alternatives in the immediate area for a party of 5 (3 bed) and the location was sentimental and quite special. I suppose I was averse to any secondary risks of being moved to stay elsewhere when I’d so carefully picked our property (and failed clearly)? 

We already had cool shopping bags with us and some defrosting ice packs inside. They’re only good for a couple of hours and we did not have enough of those really. I think it’s hard to understand until you really are faced with it. I’m grateful to those who have tried to see it from our side. I suppose it’s not really money saving in my eyes to impulsively buy a ton of cool boxes and my own fridge to use temporarily to take matters into my own hands and leave at the end of the trip. I’m sure Amazon would have loved it though. 

Sorry for the rant, forumites. Part of sharing here was also because i don’t feel listened to by Sykes and I can’t contact the owner directly so I have felt heard here. Thank you. 

Sorry, I understand your frustration and as someone who is currently in a holiday cottage, I’d be equally as annoyed if there was no working fridge.

It wasn’t my intention to list things you could have done as a way of saying that you should have done those things - I agree it’s hard to make those decisions especially when the owner is continually saying they’ll quickly put things right (but then don’t). All I was trying to say was that with the alternative options that did exist, all would have come at a significant cost to the owner and I don’t see why they should get a free pass just because you decided to suffer instead (although, from your latest post, perhaps the inconvenience wasn’t overly significant, which perhaps changes things somewhat as to what a realistic refund could be).

waitpatiently

Money_Grabber13579 said:

waitpatiently said:

Thanks for the constructive comments and thoughts. I am reading them but haven’t got round to replying to all. 

But please: I’ve already acknowledged 60% I originally asked for is high so let’s stop asking me how I justified it 😆!

It is hanging over my head so need to make a decision about what to do with it. 

In reading comments, there are those who sympathise with lack of a working fridge at a holiday cottage essential and the consequences of poor efforts to resolve causing major detriment to our enjoyment so not unreasonable for me to complain. We tried to not let it ruin our time and evidenced the life out of our time to deal with it afterwards (the pain is real now!). We were giving Sykes a chance to help us vs just walking away and expecting the worst.

I don’t find hindsight comments too helpful (Maybe I should have moved accommodation at the start of the holiday, better yet maybe I shouldn’t have booked with Sykes, maybe I shouldn’t have booked a holiday at all 😆, maybe I shouldn’t have had children so I could have less food to store and could holiday more frequently more cheaply!).  

The option to move accommodation with two young children and a disabled person isn’t an easy decision to make on night 1, nor is it easy to can the whole thing and drive home. I wouldn’t have had confidence or certainty I’d get any compo  back if I did that and would also have given up on the holiday itself. After trying Sykes until midnight on their phone line and messaging centre again and again, for them not to call us back and ignored us, bed just seemed the best thing after a long drive there and a clear head the next day to try again with Sykes. The next day, they dropped off a second mini fridge in the afternoon (still hardly any additional capacity at all) which actually turned out to be a freezer. We wrecked some fruit in there too in the process and crossed our fingers eating the rest. I think we coped really well! But it doesn’t take away how frustrating the recovery efforts were when they interrupted us the whole time. (At home, yes, is go on Which? and research fridges and get a new one promptly but it’s not my property and it’s a holiday) The value of leaving part way through the holiday also diminishes and looks less attractive than Sykes promising the engineer would be along in the next day, only for that not to be fulfilled and again at our expense. 

We holiday on average once every three years. and would not ordinarily pay this much for a cottage as it was a one off trip (taking my mum away on holiday for the first time in our lives! So she’s not had the best experience!)
The kids picked up on our stress, and I’ve never had to be so organised with my food shops in my life 🤣 it might be easy for others to walk away because their next holiday is next year or in a few months but we might not get the chance again. The property otherwise was nice! We didn’t really want to downgrade - there weren’t many alternatives in the immediate area for a party of 5 (3 bed) and the location was sentimental and quite special. I suppose I was averse to any secondary risks of being moved to stay elsewhere when I’d so carefully picked our property (and failed clearly)? 

We already had cool shopping bags with us and some defrosting ice packs inside. They’re only good for a couple of hours and we did not have enough of those really. I think it’s hard to understand until you really are faced with it. I’m grateful to those who have tried to see it from our side. I suppose it’s not really money saving in my eyes to impulsively buy a ton of cool boxes and my own fridge to use temporarily to take matters into my own hands and leave at the end of the trip. I’m sure Amazon would have loved it though. 

Sorry for the rant, forumites. Part of sharing here was also because i don’t feel listened to by Sykes and I can’t contact the owner directly so I have felt heard here. Thank you. 

Sorry, I understand your frustration and as someone who is currently in a holiday cottage, I’d be equally as annoyed if there was no working fridge.

It wasn’t my intention to list things you could have done as a way of saying that you should have done those things - I agree it’s hard to make those decisions especially when the owner is continually saying they’ll quickly put things right (but then don’t). All I was trying to say was that with the alternative options that did exist, all would have come at a significant cost to the owner and I don’t see why they should get a free pass just because you decided to suffer instead (although, from your latest post, perhaps the inconvenience wasn’t overly significant, which perhaps changes things somewhat as to what a realistic refund could be).

Oh money grabber, it wasn’t directed at you - don’t worry 😊 ! Just airing general frustration and spouting. I thought your comments have been balanced and I’m grateful for your comments and reading my long thread. I’ve got to remember not everybody was there and has all the detail. I’m so embroiled in it it’s all consuming and sometimes I forget that others can’t read my mind. (But there have been some silly comments I’ve had to just look past, not becAuse they’re not what I don’t want to hear but seem to miss the point) thanks again and enjoy your holiday

born_again

I thing I have found & we always stop in holiday cottages as we have dogs.
Is to book direct with owners. 
Often is you find a place on the likes of the big groups, a google search can find a direct way to book. 👍
Or in the case of the one we are going to this year, which is through east ruston cottages is a company that also offers lets we have used before, recommended by the actual owners where we have stayed & having met the owner of the company several times. 
They have a good facebook group as well.

No fridge would be a nightmare, but you would think that any decent owner would have sorted the issue straight away, rather than relying on these companies to sort..

waitpatiently

born_again said:

I thing I have found & we always stop in holiday cottages as we have dogs.
Is to book direct with owners. 
Often is you find a place on the likes of the big groups, a google search can find a direct way to book. 👍
Or in the case of the one we are going to this year, which is through east ruston cottages is a company that also offers lets we have used before, recommended by the actual owners where we have stayed & having met the owner of the company several times. 
They have a good facebook group as well.

No fridge would be a nightmare, but you would think that any decent owner would have sorted the issue straight away, rather than relying on these companies to sort..

Thank you for the tip. If I ruled out these agents in future, I know I’m limiting a lot of properties as options which is a shame. I think word of mouth recommendations are worth paying special attention to. 

Jumblebumble

Grumpy_chap said:

Jumblebumble said:

Grumpy_chap said:

waitpatiently said:

MobileSaver said:

waitpatiently said:

Sykes rushed in with a menial and insulting 5% goodwill gesture. ... I accept that 60% is high

As others have said, percentages aren't very helpful in this instance, roughly how much did you pay for the week in the cottage?

£1700+
Is it reasonable to expect a fridge freezer as we deliberately paid more for a nice property to feed my family by cooking for a week. 

As my original expectations for what we should get back are too high, what would seem more reasonable?

You paid £1.7k for the week's use of the holiday cottage.
You had no fridge.
You have been offered 5% refund = £85
You want 60% refund = £1k
Cheapest fridge freezers on Curry's website are under £150.

I would suggest the £85, which is half the cost of a fridge freezer is more than generous.

I am genuinely curious as to what relevance either the fact that your company  can supply a fridge on presumably long term hire for £1.00 per week or how much a fridge costs in Currys to the OPS situation
If I am renting a cottage I have no reason at all to be concerned with  the cost of a fridge from Currys I just want what I have paid for
I do agree that 1K refund is a no goer but to call 5% more than generous is not in my view true

The OP needs to bring some metric to the quantifiable losses they have suffered.
(I note the elements around loss of enjoyment are separate.)

If not related to the direct costs of the failed item - the fridge - then what metric for the quantifiable losses?
This could be built up, for example, intent to buy 4 pints of milk at £1.50 to last the whole week but, with no fridge, had to buy one pint every day at £1 per pint so £7 total because the milk went off every night.

I think references to the percentage of the hire are irrelevant in this situation.
The OP paid £1.7k (100%) to hire a complete holiday cottage with all the stuff in that the holiday cottage should have.  Value of cottage with all the stuff in, say £250k.  Value of the part that was not there / broken, say £250.  A percentage of 0.001 would be proportional so will the OP be happy with £1.70 back?

You have said the 5% (£85) is insufficient but not what you think would be sufficient or how that would be determined.

I would think that somewhere between £250 and £300 would be fair
This is in the ballpark of what is  awarded if a short haul flight is delayed by more than 4 hours and what the financial ombudsman awards for  an impact that  cause either some distress, inconvenience, disappointment or loss of expectation which I think describes the OPs situation perfectly
A large bank paid this type of figure to us when they sent a redemption statement to a random set of solicitors

DullGreyGuy

Jumblebumble said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Jumblebumble said:

Grumpy_chap said:

waitpatiently said:

MobileSaver said:

waitpatiently said:

Sykes rushed in with a menial and insulting 5% goodwill gesture. ... I accept that 60% is high

As others have said, percentages aren't very helpful in this instance, roughly how much did you pay for the week in the cottage?

£1700+
Is it reasonable to expect a fridge freezer as we deliberately paid more for a nice property to feed my family by cooking for a week. 

As my original expectations for what we should get back are too high, what would seem more reasonable?

You paid £1.7k for the week's use of the holiday cottage.
You had no fridge.
You have been offered 5% refund = £85
You want 60% refund = £1k
Cheapest fridge freezers on Curry's website are under £150.

I would suggest the £85, which is half the cost of a fridge freezer is more than generous.

I am genuinely curious as to what relevance either the fact that your company  can supply a fridge on presumably long term hire for £1.00 per week or how much a fridge costs in Currys to the OPS situation
If I am renting a cottage I have no reason at all to be concerned with  the cost of a fridge from Currys I just want what I have paid for
I do agree that 1K refund is a no goer but to call 5% more than generous is not in my view true

The OP needs to bring some metric to the quantifiable losses they have suffered.
(I note the elements around loss of enjoyment are separate.)

If not related to the direct costs of the failed item - the fridge - then what metric for the quantifiable losses?
This could be built up, for example, intent to buy 4 pints of milk at £1.50 to last the whole week but, with no fridge, had to buy one pint every day at £1 per pint so £7 total because the milk went off every night.

I think references to the percentage of the hire are irrelevant in this situation.
The OP paid £1.7k (100%) to hire a complete holiday cottage with all the stuff in that the holiday cottage should have.  Value of cottage with all the stuff in, say £250k.  Value of the part that was not there / broken, say £250.  A percentage of 0.001 would be proportional so will the OP be happy with £1.70 back?

You have said the 5% (£85) is insufficient but not what you think would be sufficient or how that would be determined.

I would think that somewhere between £250 and £300 would be fair
This is in the ballpark of what is  awarded if a short haul flight is delayed by more than 4 hours and what the financial ombudsman awards for  an impact that  cause either some distress, inconvenience, disappointment or loss of expectation which I think describes the OPs situation perfectly
A large bank paid this type of figure to us when they sent a redemption statement to a random set of solicitors

The FOS says up to £100 for a one off problem with modest inconvenience. £100-£300 is for repeated problems or a significant issue with significant impact. The example they give of a £300 compensation is where someone's twin sister asked for their account to be closed but the bank somehow managed to close the complainers account instead and struggled to understand how the mistake had happened blaming them initially when the complaint was registered. 

For being under the threat of being sacked for wrong information spread by an FS company for over 3 months (at point of escalation to the FOS) it was deemed £200 was appropriate. 

Skiddaw1

OP, just wanted to say that I'd have been seriously !!!!!! off had it been me. We've stayed at many holiday cottages over the years (thankfully, now we've relocated to Cumbria we rarely feel the need these days ) and whilst we've had some fairly spectacular experiences (some of which I prefer to forget!) we always at least had a working fridge and some form of cooking appliance.

I really hope you do recieve a better compensation offer. Good luck.

Grumpy_chap

Jumblebumble said:

Grumpy_chap said:

You have said the 5% (£85) is insufficient but not what you think would be sufficient or how that would be determined.

I would think that somewhere between £250 and £300 would be fair
This is in the ballpark of what is  awarded if a short haul flight is delayed by more than 4 hours and what the financial ombudsman awards for  an impact that  cause either some distress, inconvenience, disappointment or loss of expectation which I think describes the OPs situation perfectly
A large bank paid this type of figure to us when they sent a redemption statement to a random set of solicitors

Thank you - that is a rational way of assessing things.
Others, including myself, have offered up alternative, but still rational, ways of assessing things.
The real value of all this discussion and the expression of varied opinion is that it allows the OP to consider how this might be approached and what level might be acceptable to them between the "5% (£85) is miserly" through to "I want a Grand" and then set themselves a realistic level to aim for and a level they will accept to settle at.