david lloyd Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 Well we have been looking forward to this for months. We have benn attending Warners shows at York, Peterborough, Lincoln, Malvern but as this is a new venue (first time last year) it looked like one we should try out. Coming onto the site was the usual well organised affair - we arrived around 2p.m. Today (Thursday) and were pitched up within the hour. The weather has been great in the area for the last few days and the sun is still shining. We can make out the trade stand area which looks quite large so can't wait for tomorrow. So far so good. However, a huge cloud has been cast over our visit and will certainly lead us to think twice about future shows we attend. Our Granddaughter works not too far from Norwich (although she does sometimes manage to get back up to North Yorkshire every couple of months or so) which means we don't get to see too much of her. As we are in the area we had arranged for her to come over after work and spend an hour with us. We asked at the entrance gate if that would be possible and were initially told that should be alright although she may have to pay a deposit of £15 for a wristband - refundable when she leaves. Seemed reasonable to us so we arranged to return to the gate when she was due to arrive at 6.30. When we went back we were told she would have to pay a non refundable £15 entrance fee - even though it was just for an hours visit! Couldn't believe it. In the end we sat on the grass outside the entrance gate to chat with her whilst we had a perfectly good Motorhome on the site where we could have made her a cup of tea. After she left an hour later we asked at the entrance gate who made the decision and a chap called David readily claimed responsibility. When asked if he thought it fair he adamantly defended the decision (in preference to simply putting a £15 deposit on a wristband for the duration of the visit) claiming that he was protecting everyone who had paid their entrance fee and that no one should be allowed to cross the entrance line without paying - irrespective of the duration of their visit. No amount of reasoning with him would change his mind and none of the other 6 or so stewards in the group offered a view either way. We can well understand that there are those people who will always want to abuse the entrance fee system but here we have a situation where firstly the show is not even open yet, second our granddaughter was only coming to visit us for an hour or so and finally, we would have been happy to place a £15 deposit on a wristband for her to be able to sit with us in comfort for a chat and a cup of tea. As it is, Warners may well loose our future custom for the sake of what appears to be a greed driven policy to take money for someone visiting us rather than the show. The David responsible at the gate was totally unwilling to consider any other option and was adamant that it was in the interest in every camper that he took the £15. Warners - we thought you were better than this. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 You could of course have left the Show Site yourselves to meet your granddaughter for a cup of tea and she wouldn't have needed to pay an entrance fee, or did that not occur to you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 I doubt if Warners ( or any other show operators ) have any systems in place which cover people popping into a showground for an hour for a cup of tea - and I doubt if the people on the gate are allowed much discretion so I think that was the reason for this rather unfortunate happening - I wouldn't assume it was necessarily a " greed driven policy " :-| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david lloyd Posted July 22, 2016 Author Share Posted July 22, 2016 StuartO - 2016-07-22 8:18 AMYou could of course have left the Show Site yourselves to meet your granddaughter for a cup of tea and she wouldn't have needed to pay an entrance fee, or did that not occur to you?Yes, that is precisely what we would have done had we known at the outset that an entrance fee of £15 would be payable irrespective of the fact that the visitor was not camping, staying over night or attending the show. That the charge was, in fact, for crossing over the entry line - not my words those of 'David' the rally manager at the gate.But the whole point is, we we asked respectfully on entry whether it would be possible for our granddaughter to visit us on site last evening. The reply then was yes but a deposit of £15 would be payable for a wristband which would be returned when she left. That seemed perfectly reasonable to us, given the abuse sometimes that occurs at such events.By 6.30 when our visitor arrived on her way home after a full 12 hour day at work she, like the rest of us who work (or used to) just wanted to relax with her grandma and granddad for an hour or so before returning home before supper and bed ready for the next day, not to have to now shuttle us into Norwich with two dogs in tow to find a suitable eatery then drop us off at our comfy Motorhome where we had all the facilities on offer to have conducted the short visit.'David's' uncompromising stand was based on his assertion that he was protecting everyone else on the site who had paid their £15 to be there. Really? He also stated that once she had paid the fee she could attend the whole weekend (impossible I replied, even if she was remotely interested in doing so, as she was leaving after work on Friday to travel back to North Yorkshire to see her mum and the rest of the family) but we, like everyone else in the site, had paid considerably more than £15 to be allowed free access all weekend. Letting someone in for the whole weekend for £15 doesn't seem quite fair to me - but what do I know about running a Motorhome show?David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 You were told initially at the gate that it "should be alright", so you didn't get anything like a firm offer from a person authorised to make one, then when you asked the bloke in charge you got a different answer, so you decided to sit on the grass outside to chat to your daughter rather than pay the fee for her to enter the Show compound or go somewhere else for a cup of tea. So your expectations were raised by an uncertain indication and then disappointed when you asked properly - and now you think we should all be outraged about what you regard as meanness by the Show organisers because they would let your daughter into their restricted area free of charge. I had arranged to meet up with my wife at Tatton Park Flower Show yesterday afternoon to collect her and I had to buy an at-the-gate ticket costing £28 for the privilege of going in. (Her ticket was pre-booked and cost £17.) I could have waited outside for her in the car but chose not to do so. Inside I paid £7.50 for a french baton with tough old over-cooked shredded beef in it, which I regretted because it was pretty tasteless. I then wandered among the plant displays carrying the big plant wife had bought and paid £6 for a small plastic glass of Pimms but it did come with a free straw and a small segment of strawberry. By this time it was raining so I also started getting wet. My wife had a blister on her toe and I was required to put a plaster on, which was such an awkward job involving such contortions by both of us that people on adjacent park benches all started laughing at us and applauding. We left at 3.30pm to drive home and dried out in the car. If you don't want to spend money, don't go anywhere near Motorhome Shows or Flower Shows and you should certainly not expect to be able to negotiate your own exceptional terms for free admission! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david lloyd Posted July 22, 2016 Author Share Posted July 22, 2016 OK StuartO I give in - you have a much harder life than me. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 The 2016 Camping Terms and Conditions for Warners Shows can be viewed on-line. The first three conditions are as follows: - Vehicle passes & Wristbands are non refundable/transferable. If lost will not be re-issued, a second must be purchased. - Vehicle passes are valid for one unit and number of people stated. It will not gain entry into the entertainment. - Your camping fee depends on the day of arrival and is based on two adults. Additional adults (17+) will be charged at £15.00 per person – including entry to the exhibition area during opening times. While it will undoubtedly be galling to be asked to pay £15 for an ‘additional adult’ who will only be present at a Show for an hour, there’s no latitude in the conditions that would permit a lower fee to be charged or for a wristband to be issued on a deposit basis. Worth taking up with the team behind the Shows perhaps. Contact details here: https://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/shows/contact-us/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david lloyd Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 Derek, thank you once again for your comprehensive and precise reply and information. We thoroughly enjoyed the show and hope this venue becomes a regular feature. If the traders do as well as they seemed to have done this year then it may well grow to be one of the largest Warners show. My intention in posting our account of the experience that greeted us was not to expect other members to be 'enraged' as has been implied but to bring the situation to the attention of Warners directly as clearly we were unable to resolve the issue on site. However, I have followed your sensible advice and contacted the correct person at Warners to at least appeal for a review of such individual circumstances as they occur in future. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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