AIBU to think we were miss sold this short break by Haven?

[givemebooks]

I could really do with some advice with how to take this complaint we made to haven holidays forward

Just before the may bank holiday we looked for last minute getaways in the UK and we found a good deal for 4 nights min to fri to Haven Church Farm.

Even more great as we wanted to check the site and look in to buying our own caravan at haven

So i contacted Haven by chat as last year we discovered that both my son and husband were Coeliac so i want to check if the site did any gluten free food

As this was a break to relax!! Quick breakfast at the van but main meals would be at the restaurant while the kids enjoyed the pool and other facilities.

I was assured that they provide gluten free options and could ask for the menu or the allergy list in the restaurant, so we booked

Drove from yorkshire to sussex and arrived van was nice and we were happy we headed to to main complex and had a drink decided to ask about the gluten free menu or allergy list to look over while we settled in with a drink and order later.

The young lad on the bar just said we dont do gluten free stuff sorry!?

I was a bit shocked as so far we had never been anywhere that could not do something?

So i asked a waitress thinking as working more with the food she might know more what i meant! But again was told as they don't have 2 kitchens they don't do allergy food?? They could tell me the ingredients if i wanted but they were not 100% and she said they were very busy and really did not have time for stuff like this!!

I was quite shocked, we had our drinks and drive out to chichester to eat and go to tesco so long story short we spent the whole trip driving around to eat or trying to cook for 5 in the cara an with 1 shelf in the tiny oven!

I was so angry as i would never have booked this break if i had known the issue with the food so i tweeted haven to be given an email to contact customer relations

Not only did the chat service say they provided allergy food, they had a sign in the resturant and it was printed on the menus!! It is also in havens own terms and conditions!! On the website!

I was then told that haven would not respond until 14 days after the end of the trip???

I did mention it to the reception onsite they put notes on my booking but the only option they had for dealing with complaints was resutrant vouchers!! Which was they very thing we could not use!

So it took after much chasing 23 days for haven to FINALLY respond to the complaint

And the stated that they do not provide gluten free food it is a company policy all parks for bourne leisure follow this and they were sorry but that was it!

So AIBU to think i was miss sold my break? And request a full refund!? I replied to haven with all my evidence and its been a week and they have not answered yet!

I expect it will be weeks again!

So i am right? Should i keep going with this??

Also a heads up to ANY food allergy or Coeliacs Haven is a place to avoid!!!!!

I will try and attach pictures of the signs and email!

I cannot believe they didn’t have a steak or gammon streak and a jacket potato , or an omelette and a jacket potato both of which are go to safe meals for coeliacs eating out . You don’t need an allergy book to tell you an egg and a jacket potato are gf .

The problem is that the full cost of the holiday is disproportionate to the inconvenience caused.

I've frequently been to places where one of the play areas has been shut, or one of the pools or the hot tub etc. It wouldn't occur to me that I need my holiday refunded in full because one small optional aspect of the facilities was not available.

OP should get an apology and a goodwill gesture for the poor customer service.

@ProfessorSlocombe does the compensation have to be monetary though. The only thing that the OP could nit do was eat in the on site restaurant. So this may have caused her some stress although there is an on site minimarket type shop so she could have shopped and cooked and there are alternative eating establishments within the area so not a huge inconvenience. So apart from the fact it would be difficult to decide how much stress and inconvenience that actually caused surely Haven could easily say sorry we didnt live up to your expectations here is £20 voucher towards any other stay with us.?

@ProfessorSlocombe does the compensation have to be monetary though.

Is that a question ?

With the caveat I'm not a lawyer (just read a lot of law) then in the small claims/fast track court then yes. Only monetary compensation can be awarded. Which is why it's up to the OP to put a value on the stress, inconvenience and loss of value they feel they suffered and put it to Haven. Personally, I would question the "value" of a voucher offered by Haven for another stay in quite cutting terms, if it were to be made, but that's just my cranky old self.

Higher courts can make non-monetary judgements. But that's the UKs premier level legal service ....

You don’t need an allergy book to tell you an egg and a jacket potato are gf .

Actually, you do. Especially in places where food is likely to be pre prepared and reheated. Potatoes often have some sort of coating on them that contains wheat flour. An omelette might have a seasoning in it that isn't gluten free. If you're just intolerant to gluten you might take the risk, but a coeliac can't.

There's a bit of a terminology issue here - they cannot state their food is guaranteed 100% gluten free for obvious reasons - but there would have been things on the menu that did not contain gluten. They should be able to tell you which things they are, and if they couldn't, I think that is illegal.
Presumably if you normally do eat out, the allergy isn't so severe it's life threatening, so it should have been possible for them to provide you with something if they were willing to make the effort to do so.
Things like chips, eggs, steak, fruit, veg, salad should be ok?
Surely an adult coeliac should be able to look at the menu themselves and choose things that are ok - I mean if you shop in a supermarket most things won't specifically be labelled as gluten free - you'd have to use your judgement.
The restaurant staff sound pretty rubbish but TBH I've tried to eat out with someone who couldn't have dairy or soya in a chain restaurant and it was a bit of an effort to get hold of the allergen list and the staff basically didn't have a clue - surprised you haven't come across these issues before when eating out!

Actually chips often aren't gluten free - many get tossed in flour before frying; and even if they're not the fryer will likely be used for other things that are cooked in flour (batter fish etc).
A friend is coeliac and its a PITA for them eating out.

I don’t understand how there couldn’t have been any suitable meal at all for a coeliac?!

I eat out lots of places that don’t do a specific gluten free menu, you just have to use a bit of common sense and if necessary ask if the gravy made with flour or corn flour, that type of thing.

I cannot imagine having to drive miles to find a Tesco when there must’ve been other options.

It does seem a little bit like you were flouncing tbh.

The restaurant staff sound pretty rubbish

Not if they weren't being paid for their detailed knowledge of dietary provisions, but just to ping and fling food from microwave to table.

I think people are also thinking a Coeliac is like being allergic to nuts, it’s not.

It isn’t good for you obviously and can make you pretty poorly but having trace amounts from say using the same gloves that has handled non gluten free bread would be fine.
It’s an auto immune disease so prolonged eating of gluten then your cells will start to attack themselves and obviously cutting gluten from your diet to then have a sudden meal with gluten in it is probably going to make you pretty sick but it will not kill you like say a nut allergy could.

Being allergic to wheat/gluten as you are nuts etc is a different thing to being a coeliac.

I cannot believe they didn’t have a steak or gammon streak and a jacket potato , or an omelette and a jacket potato both of which are go to safe meals for coeliacs eating out .

They're not safe if prepared in the same kitchen as wheat/gluten containing foods because of cross contamination risk.
When I was first diagnosed celiac I didn't have a clue, went to a wedding and was assured there'd be a good choice of gluten free food. So I ate the so-called gluten free options.
Never again, I was too ill to drive home and had to stay in a hotel, took me weeks to get over it.
That's why 2 kitchens are needed.

You do know that any restaurant that sells non gluten free items cannot guarantee ‘available for coeliacs’ which is different from gluten free, which is why they said what they said.

It sucks, from a fellow coeliac!

My daughter can tell immediately if she’s been contaminated and we’ve never had issues with jacket potato’s anywhere , and with an omelette is easy to say it’s for a coeliac so only use egg / salt / pepper , it’s hardly rocket science . For example we have a local very nice harvester where we lunch and dd just tells them she is gf and they do her chips on foil in the oven - simple . If the staff member didn’t seem to be aware of what she was doing then ask to speak to a member of staff who does .

They're not safe if prepared in the same kitchen as wheat/gluten containing foods because of cross contamination risk , then obviously you never eat out . We have one coeliac in our home and except for pasta and flour the rest of us have gluten options we’ve managed for 10 years without killing dd and only having one kitchen .

On the online chat did you ask about that specific site or just a general does haven offer GF foods?

They're not safe if prepared in the same kitchen as wheat/gluten containing foods because of cross contamination risk

same kitchen is fine, using same spoon or same chopping boards isn't.

The problem is that it's not an allergy with immediate effects, but it's a nasty autoimmune condition which ends up in things like cancer. Ignoring it has very bad consequences long term.

Advertising gluten free means not only the food is gluten free, but it's prepared in a gluten free environment. Some people can't understand that - a gluten free dish served with the communal dish is a no go.

Idiots in buffets who use the same spoon in various dishes cross-contaminate food and make it unusable for anyone with an allergy or food intolerance.

It seems bizarre to me that you would ask for a full refund, as presumably you could cook in your caravan? Or if food was supposed to be included, just ask for half the cost of the holiday back.

Hello all and thank you for the opinions and advice

I am not daft i do know that no place is ever 100% and we do eat out a lot and i have never had an issue toby carvery, nandos, harvester, brewer fayre all fantastic

As i said before i did ask 2 people the last lady was the highest level i could ask that day

I did suggest meals but i was dismissed and told they were to busy anyway not only was the knowledge lacking as they all said no, she was very rude and i am not a person who can keep pushing, i hate confrontation i end up embarrassed and the one apologising!!

So we left, i did check with the site manager who said much of the same

On our chat i did mention the park by name so they knew which one and had me hold on while they double checked!

I have the screen shots

Is there a reason i cannot post pics?? The app will not let me?

Floralnomad sorry I was unclear. Of course people don't need 2 kitchens if a family member is celiac .
Restaurants, however, do need a completely separate preparation and cooking area in order to state their food is safe for people with celiac disease.
We manage with one kitchen because everyone in the family knows how to avoid cross contamination, although we do have separate toasters.

Trying pics on the desktop site!!

Next part of chat and pic of sign

I was able to choose gluten free options at Haven as they provided me with ingredient lists for the menu. Was this not an option for you?

It's misleading but I think you'll be hard pressed to push as midsold as they said they offer gluten free but didn't clarify. They might have not understood what GF actually means and assumed that jacket spuds, fruit, veg, chips, omelette, steak, whatever was ok.

@sangradafamilier they did not have an allergy book or ingredients she said she could do her best to tell me!? But the were to busy!