Park Resorts Ltd WARNING

gla.ssfp · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 3

I would just like to warn anyone thinking about buying a static caravan from Park Resorts Ltd to avoid doing so !!

I purchased a caravan in October 2006 for £23000 and was told that if I sold it back to them after one year I would get almost all my money back. After one year I was told they were not in a position to buy it back.

I eventually sold it on ebay for £4495 !!

My buyer has just been to site and they have told him that for that price he can have the caravan but he will have to take it off site. The site have rang me and told me that they will give me £4495 for it instead !!

I sold the caravan in good faith to my buyer because Park Resorts tolf me they were not in a position to buy it !!

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riiverbelle · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 25 Location: The Island

Completely agree with you. Park resorts are criminal in the way they run their business. Anyone thinking of buying a static caravan should consider the super-high charges this company impose for the season.

Lets compare........Below is the costs for a full year to keep your caravan at Whitecliff Bay, Sandhills Park & Park Resorts including Site Fees - Electric - Water - Insurance - Council Rates......

Whitecliff Bay - £2700 All In
Sandhill Park - £2800 All In
Lower Hyde (Park Resorts) - £5300 All In

You can shop around on the Island but you will find that Park Resorts are by far the most expensive to be found.

You can also compare their prices just for a holiday as well and again they are the most expensive.

For anyone thinking of buying a caravan because they have seen the Park Resorts advert on TV or in the paper should think again and read this thread.......

To the poster - If you have still not sold your caravan by the time you read this post please e-mail me and we will do our best to help you resolve.

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 184

Yes,, Park Resorts do leave a lot to be desired. We currently have a caravan on Thorness Bay and the charges increase dramatically year on year - and really for what?

We are thinking of moving site but we do like our caravan and like the first poster stated Park Resorts aren't very keen on buying back the older caravans (ours is a 2004 model) but they ARE keen on trying to sell you their NEW caravans.

There are quite a number of owner/occupiers who actually live on the site, but the new manager doesn't seem to like this at all and is actively discouraging people from living there and only seems to want people who will use their caravans to let (preferably of course through Park Resorts!). She also seems to want a very bland park as she continually sends out letters about people making their site look pretty with flowers etc - she doesn't like it!

We are currently looking around the Island for a better site, so if anyone can recommend one then all suggestions would be welcomed.

gla.ssfp · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 3

Well it is now over 2 month's since my origonal post and I am almost at the end of this nightmare !! Sad

I will end up with less than £2000 as we now have to pay park resorts site fees for 6 months which you would expect to be half of 1 years site fees but no you guessed it, its more than half !! Crying or Very sad

We have not used the caravan at all this year as we had originally sold the caravan before the season started. Park Resorts at Thorness Bay have just made the whole procedure as difficult as they could.

so in less than 2 years I have lost over £20000 !!

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 184

What a nightmare for you! Sorry to hear about your loss. It is certainly a warning for other people thinking of buying.

I must admit when I see people looking round the caravans and are enquiring about buying one, I do feel very tempted to tell them not to bother and to go elsewhere. I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone to buy a caravan off Park Resorts.

riiverbelle · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 25 Location: The Island

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 184

Thanks for the link Riverbelle.

Will have a look into that.

gla.ssfp · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 3

Well I thought my nightmare was almost over but Park Resorts refuse to let our buyer complete the sale and now say they have disconnected our caravan and are going to sell it to a trader to recover the cost of the site fees for 2008 !!

I have again sent a leeter of complaint to both Thornes Bay and also Park Resorts head office.
I have also reported them to Office of Fair Trading who have added my complaint to there investigations regarding Park Resorts !!

I can not believe a company can be allowed to operate in this manner !!

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 184

Leftovers · Joined: 20 Feb 2009 Posts: 1

I had a very similar problem with Park Resorts Ltd but in another park. I parted with £33,000 for a caravan and financed £27,000 of it.

3 years of inflation-busting costs increases and concealed charges I handed my van back owing £24,000 in unpaid finance.

Park Resorts Ltd sent me a letter saying they sold my van for £9600 and passed the £24,000 to debt collectors. I went to the park and knocked the door of the van, I asked the new owner how much they paid it - £17,500.

It was a shame Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 wasn't on the statute book at the time, but it wrote off the £24,000 debt on one sweep.

sunflower · Joined: 05 Mar 2009 Posts: 1

I could not agree more with the above message, park resorts do not really care about any of their owners and are only in it for the money.

I have made such a mistake in the past by actually applying for a job there a year or two ago. I was shocked at all aspects of way things were run and that includes the way the interviews are run, the gossip about staff and the customer care service.

I have come from a very fair and proper background and was appalled to only find out all of this information after i had started.
The above post was right about continuity, they simply do not want to pay for the staff so change them every season as it's cost effective.

I have found that everything on the park is a con. Not only are they ripping customers off by miles they are also ripping off staff as i found when i finally left. No commission was ever paid and wages were cut short even if overtime occured. So i'm guessing that if this company can treat their staff in such a manner i'm sure customers will get no respect at all. As stated above it's just targets and money they are interested in.

I'm hoping that by writing this post those of you who are considering buying a caravan with them will think again. You WILL lose money and you will not be treated with value unlike other parks on the island who are very helpful and polite and a pleasure to be around.

There are many other things i could write about the appalling behaviour of park resorts infact the list is possibly endless.

I believe in working hard and did everything i could for that company including going out of my way for the customers and owners (which didn't go down too well with the bosses and managers) thinking the the rewards for my hard work would pay off. Unfortunately not.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. and be warned.

IOWformer owner · Joined: 07 Mar 2009 Posts: 3

DO NOT BUY FROM SHARK RESORTS! We got paid a pittance to get shot of our van on Nodes Point (or should it be No Point!) last year. We were ripped off from the minute we brought the van and the only good purpose it served was as somewhere to stay whilst we did up our bungalow over here prior to moving in.

People of a nervous disposition stop reading there.

Our friend from the mainland came over yesterday to open up her van for the coming season. We had helped her prepare it for the winter by disconnecting the water etc and know it was clean and left tidy.

One of her children walked into the bedroom to find a USED CONDOM on the floor. The van was locked and the alarm was set so the only people with access (supposedly) were site staff. The water had been reconnected and turned on and the pipe had obviously been botched up where the frost had got it and the tap was broken so they had turned it off with a screw! They also found a used cotton bud in the childrens bedrooms.

She is going to take the items to the office when she feels better (poorly today unsurprisingly!) and I've told her to take photo's and complain to other authorities too as they (PR) will just take it and bin it and deny all knowledge of it, fortunately hubby and I are witnesses so will back her up.

This is gross, I'm so glad we got out even if we only got 1/10 of what we paid for it after just 2 years.

This company is the Scum of the earth, do not buy or book with them! WARN EVERYONE, am tempted to get car stickers printed with the sentiment on. Evil or Very Mad

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 184

I think Park Resorts must be having a lot of problems at the moment. I can only comment on the park at Thorness Bay but I think the credit crunch must be starting to hit them. Normally at this time of the year the camping part of the resort is quite full and the overspill is. This year there seems to not be as many there as normal at this time of the year. Also where we have our caravan we have counted the unused pitches and we have counted 18 just around by our caravan and I am sure that there must be loads more further down the park. They have even put at the side of our caravan (which we are not happy about at all) a wrecked caravan - there is no lock on the door, the inside is completely trashed and it is very old. We cannot think why they would put such a rundown, old caravan onto a pitch unless it was just that they didn't want two pitches side by side looking empty!

They have started putting in the lodges for their new Signature range but who in their right mind wants to spend over £100,000 on a lodge that is going to depreciate. I just cannot see them selling any of them and the actual area they are putting them on isn't even in a nice part of the complex anyway (well not as far as I'm concerned). And they will be wanting nearly £5,000 a year in site fees as far as I am aware.

They have also got this nasty habit of charging "admin" fees for everything. I am sure there have been more "admin" fees on things this year than there has ever been - suppose they have to make their money somehow.

Ripped Off · Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 1

Hi everyone,
I own a caravan at great yarmouth, which was a lovely park
untill park resorts took over, we used to have garden competitions
and their was only one sales person, and you had to join a a waiting
list if you wanted to buy a static, people used to regulaly put notes on
our van asking if we wanted too sell, and then ;;Shark resorts took over

The whole atmosphere changed, they employed a manager, who strutted
around the park, his people skills put the gestapo to shame,
we got a letter through the post saying we were in breach of our lisence
because we had a garden,, hello;;;we had yearly garden competitions
the bully boy antics continued ,simply because they wanted us owners off
the site so that they could double the ground rent, they sold a caravan to
an elderly couple on the next plot to me, on the promiss they could rent it
out and make loads of money, to cover ground rent etc, they struggled
to cover cost,s in their first year sold it the next year and lost £16,000
they now employ 6 sales people on the site , you are frightend to pop your
head out in case you get pounced on to upgrade etc, the site has now got
many ,empty pitches, some friends of us bought their van on a guaranteed
rental scheme, within 3 months they had sufferd so much damage, torn
curtains, ripped upholstory , fag burns etc, they learned a lesson

My advice to anyone is do not buy unless, you have read
the terms and conditions inside out, take a walk around the park
talk to a few owners first.
beware of the saleamans pitch, they are all on a small basic wage ,
plus commision ,they are under pressure to sell or they are out of the door
on our site we have had 9 new managers in the last 2 years that must tell
you something.
And remember if you buy, once your funds are clear, you are on your own

mrright · Joined: 20 Aug 2009 Posts: 3 Location: UK

Please be aware that once you have entered into a contract with park resorts ad you have purchased your caravan, Park resorts will take advantage of there position in knowing that they will either make more money by buying the caravan from you at the lowest trade market price they can, otr you have to agree with them and be on your marry way.

We are urging all owners or want to be owner to visit www.parkresorts.blogspot.com to send us your stories and to read others. We are currently looking to put a case together against the company and are looking for as much support as we can find.