Keep your campsite receipts

[malc d]

Another thread reminds people to make sure they get the right ACSI card ( or Carnet or Passport ) back when they leave a site.

 

It reminded me of a time when I was glad I kept a site receipt.

 

I have mentioned this before on this forum but I think it's worth repeating.

 

I had spent 4 nights on a site in Portugal - but when I went to check out they insisted that I had been there 6 nights. They had entered the wrong arrival date on the computer, and, as we all know, if it's on a computer, it must be right.

No one there spoke English - and I don't speak Portugese - so it was a bit of an impasse.

 

Fortunately I was able to produce a receipt from the last site indicating the day I had left there - and this was accepted.

 

 

;-)

[AlanS]

I keep the receipts and I keep a holiday log showing dates, times, costs, etc.. for everything (yes, anorak I know !).

 

The same thing happened to us in France in June this year and the lady on reception insisted we had stayed 2 nights where we had only stayed one (and that was enough !).She said that her computer was correct and I was wrong and I argued in my 'bestest' French that I was right. I produced both the receipts for the night before and my holiday log book but she didn't believe me and refused to raise the exit barrier.

 

When we booked in I spoke at length with the man on reception so I insisted that she get that man to verify when we arrived. She said she couldn't or wouldn't and he was not there. So impass and we wanted to be on our way. I then got very loud and everyone who came into reception to collect their bread heard my complaint. In the end she phoned the man I dealt with, who happened to be her husband, and he verified that we were there only one night. She did not apologise and said it was a computer error. I told her that no it wasn't as computers do not make errors, only people who input data do and told her that the site would be given a very poor report which we think it deserved.

 

So yes, keeping receipts is essential but in our case this woman was a disbeliever.

 

Alan

[StuartO]

There are traders who are cheats of course, and occasionally that will include campsite owners trying to overcharge in this way - fortunately we have never encountered it. But my wife did buy some pet food once and tendered a £20 note, to be handed change for a £10 note, so she pointed that out and was promptly (and apologetically) given the extra £10 in change. She went to the same shop again a few months later and exactly the same thing happened - so it was clealry a deliberate try-on by the shop owner. She was given the proper change again when she mentioned the error again but she never shopped there again of course.

 

So what a good idea to hang on to your last campsite receipt. It's not foolproof, for example it won't cover all situations, like using a free aire where you don't get a receipt to show, but if you get one hang on to it. That's easy enough to do.

[HymerVan]

In 2010 We went to Acquilea a World Heritage site and a very interesting place with a Roman Fluvial Harbour.. We did a small shop and on checking our receipt after we got back to the van found we had been charged for (but not purchased) an extra box of hankies (about £1). This were few main local shops so next day we hoped again but kept a running total of both the cost of our purchases and the number of items. So when the bill was presented we were able immediately to identify that there were 14 billed items not 13 and quickly work out that the extra item was a double charge for the most expensive item a 5 euro bottle of wine. Fortunately there was a caribinieri officer in the shop. The owner tried to say that we were wrong but we simply persisted and did not move and he eventually agreed and gave us a very insincere apology.

I spoke to the charming and helpful owner of our site. She made no comment about the honesty or otherwise of the shopowner (he could after all have made the same mistake two days running) but what she did say was that Acquilea is place where few British tourists go and she was sad to say that there are a handful of Italians who think they are fair game to rip off. Oddly enough the other two occasions where we can identify attempted rip-offs were also in Italy one where items we didn't have were added to our restaurant bill and one where a completely different price was applied to the (single) item we had. In both cases we simply refused to pay and eventually they backed down.