Cancellation Deposit Warning

Thanks for posting this information. People must have confidence in this new system but it appears there are accounting procedure decisions that are not benefiting the customers? 

I agree that the new booking system ( we all asked for )is not fit for purpose i have yet to meet anyone who did ask for it !! it`s a shambles. It used to be so easy to book on line but now it takes twice as long to book a site with the most stupid of requests for information not necessary ( it`s much easier we are told ) my first booking on the new system had to be amended due to a canceled and rearranged hospital appointment for my wife,after 30 minutes on line trying to amend it and being told i needed to pay more money ??? i rang the site direct and spoke to a warden who informed me i was the 5th person that day to have a problem.

                                            NOTE TO CLUB

Stop telling us what WE need and if it isn`t broke DON`T fix it

It certainly does not inspire me with any confidence at all to book online, unless it is just for a one or two site stay within a few days of travel, which means that I would be unlikley to be able to take advantage of any mid week, discounts.  All in all, the new booking experience (which I certainly neither asked for nor wanted) is proving to be a disappointment.  Perhaps it will improve over time, but I am not holding my breath!

Sorry to hear about your difficulties Wedgy, and hope they are quickly resolved, both medically and financially. I can assure you that not everyone asked for these changes, and we certainly have no intention of booking anything up front and certainly not parting with a deposit to the Club. Months into the new system, they have yet to prove that the financial side is operating as it should be, and there are still folks getting caught up in a degree of misunderstanding around any amendments, cancellations, etc… and numerous instances of folks posting about not receiving prompt refunds where they are entitled. It’s a case of caveat emptor with us.

Hope things go well for you, and you can get to enjoy the rest of your bookings👍

I booked a site last Thursday and now it's fairly straightforward, I made sure I unticked the box to say I did not want to pay before arrival and the email came through with that on.

Yesterday I added a day all went through well, again I unticked the box, and asked Mrs C to witness that I had yet on the email DPF it says they will take the money out the night before. But it says pay on arrival on the mybooking page.

No real problem but obviously the system still isn't working as it should

I did the same as you last month (added a day to the booking ) and made sure I unticked the box , email confirmation with it on , but when we got to the site the warden said we had paid the night before , I showed him the email , but no real problem as you have to pay anyway , he also said that if there is a queue those that have already paid can jump the queue and find a pitch 

That bit is ok except for the conflicting emails (which should have been sorted by now.)  Wedgy has had his deposit refund added back on to the account which means the multiple advance bookings are not being separately accounted for. If you make multiple bookings and you pay a deposit based on the total there should be a traceable way to account for each deposit and the refund should be allocated not amalgamated....I would hope?! Wedgy is correct in asking for a prompt if you are happy for an individual refund to be retained on a total deposit. He hasn't booked one big holiday, just a group of separate ones.

PS I haven't looked at the T&Cs so I'm just assuming the procedure should be straight forward.

And I had a totally different response when I had to cancel a couple of bookings because of Ros's recent illness.  One - a commercial site - South Lychett Manor near Poole were entitled to retain my deposit plus 70% of the full amount  which I had already paid.  I accepted that since it's in their terms and conditions.  However, in view of the circumstances the lady I spoke to said she's have a word with her manager and ring me back.  I didn't ask her to do that.  Within 5 minutes, she rang back to say that since part of my booking was over the Bank Holiday at the end of this month, they were pretty confident they could re-let my pitch and therefore refunded the full amount for that weekend. At nearly £50 per night, that was a generous gesture.

The second site - a C&CC affiliated one gave me my deposit back for both nights booked without me even asking for it - having accepted that, again, within their T&Cs, it was non-refundable.

I wonder which sites I would be looking to book again in the future?????

"the new improved booking system (which we all asked for)" as several of you have noted is not strictly accurate.

I think what most of us wanted was a way to stop some members blocking out many dates, particularly weekends, up to a year in advance and then cancelling many of them neare the time. Dare I say some people might be booking more dates than needed on the off-chance they might want/use them.  The fact that free cancellation up to three days before the booikg was available allowed this to happen.

Whilst I don't like paying deposits and the 21 day limit I feel it may provide the answer and I will watch with interest to see if this is so.

AA, I recommend you read the New Booking System thread where many points like yours have been made.

https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-together/discussions/sites-touring/uk-sites-touring/new-booking-system/