HAVEN cancelled children’s holiday

[HavenAreHeartless]

My lovely husband died suddenly leaving me widowed with two young children, understandably this has been an awful time for me and my family.

Before he died he had booked a half term holiday with Haven which was fully paid for. As my husband was the lead guest, I called Haven to amend the booking and their representative told me I was not able to do this and the holiday would have to be cancelled, despite questioning this she was absolutely adamant that the holiday could not go ahead. I was shocked that they thought cancelling my children’s holiday after the death of their Daddy was in any way acceptable, to me it was completely heartless.

After coming off the call I sought advice and called them back a couple of hours later, this time Haven admitted that they could easily amend the booking on seeing the death certificate. I was then informed that the holiday had already been cancelled, I assume by the first representative I spoke to, despite not having gone through any security checks or sending the documentation yet. They then told me that our accommodation had already been resold and therefore they could not reinstate it.

They’ve now spent the past couple of days faffing around and temporarily rebooking us on to a downgraded caravan whilst they try and resolve their error. This has caused me to feel very anxious and distressed so I’ve decided to no longer go and I am looking at booking another holiday far, far away from Haven.

So, am I unreasonable for expecting better from a company aimed at families? And what type of resolution would you be happy with?

Thank-you x

Not the point at all but I confused as to why you needed to amend the booking. Surely if all paid for you’d just turn up, obviously without your poor dh

Exactly, it also seems at odds that they thought I had sufficient authority to cancel but not amend - all before they’d seen a copy of the death certificate or even asked any security questions! I literally could have been anyone calling up as all they took was the holiday reference and my husbands name!

I wanted to make sure there were no problems when I turned up, I also wanted to add another infant on to the booking as my sister was planning on coming with me for support, I never actually got to asking them to do that as she immediately told me it had to be cancelled!

I see, makes sense.
I really hope they sort this for you asap. Have you spoken to someone more senior than the random call centre bod?

What a shower of shits Haven are to do this to you and the kids.

The part that jumps out to me is Haven were somehow able to immediately cancel the holiday and start their absurd refund process without seeing a death certificate.

So literally anyone could phone up and get someone else’s Haven holiday cancelled by saying the person who booked it has died.

What you do about it depends on how much energy you’re willing to spend on holding Haven to account.

Their complaints process is poor in my experience, so if you want results or an apology you’re likely to have to go to media to shame Haven into a reasonable response.

Our complaint was being given a Haven van with no sea view at all after paying the hefty premium for a sea front pitch with “stunning sea view”

What we got was a van set way back, on land way lower than the sea front fence, looking at the legs of dog walkers, and poo bins across a big patch of muddy grass, with the seafront fence blocking everything beyond.

I know this is trivial by comparison - sharing it because there was an obvious demonstrable failure of service but our complaint with Haven got us absolutely nowhere and was handled badly. Think robotic response of “this pitch meets requirements for that grading as there are no vans between that pitch and the sea”

So if you do complain, you can expect to get nothing but frustration at Haven’s stupidity - and to get anywhere it will need to be media after going through Haven’s useless complaints process.

Simon Palethorpe is the CEO. I suggest you write explaining literally what you've said above and ask for a full refund ASAP!

So sorry OP, how appalling, shame on Haven.

Can this thread be linked to Haven's social media? Twitter?

Definitely worth calling You and Yours, Radio 4.

So sorry you’re going through this, OP.

There is a Haven rep who has been emailing, to be honest he’s just going round in circles and can’t seem to resolve the issue, I think because he hasn’t sufficient authority rather than he’s being purposefully difficult, unlike the original person I spoke to! I think I’m going to do as a few people have suggested and attempt to contact their CEO directly.

I am so sorry for your loss. I can’t even begin to imagine how losing this holiday has impacted you. Another vote for radio 4. I hope it’s resolved for you swiftly

This bit also jumped out at me, it’s a terrible policy! Something in writing from the booking email address but not a phone call from someone else.
So literally anyone could phone up and get someone else’s Haven holiday cancelled by saying the person who booked it has died.

This.

So sorry for your loss OP and appalling, insensitive behaviour by Haven. At the very least you need a refund to your account to be actioned today, then an apology and some compensation as well. I'm on X/Twitter and would happily link to this thread if you wanted. In my experience, big companies hate bad publicity so it might spur them into action quickly.

It's time something was done to help bereaved families sort things out easier. Companies seem hell bent on making this time so complicated.

Definitely tweet them. I'm happy to make a post, I bet other Mumsnetters would too.

Along the lines of..

Haven, is it really your policy to cancel the fully paid up holidays of bereaved families due to the lead person dying? Seems a little heartless.

It's obviously not their policy so it would be pretty clear who it refers to.

This baffles me too, if any Mumsnetters are booked with Haven I’d keep your reference
number under lock and key, especially if you’ve got any pranksters in your family!

I’ve spoken to lots of companies recently to either cancel or amend things, none of them could action anything without the death certificate so I don’t know what makes Haven special.

Do say if you want us to mass tweet because we will!

I don’t have a Twitter account and tellingly their FB doesn’t allow posts to their page, I could comment on their posts but don’t think this would have much impact.

I’m just bathing my little urchins then I’m going to explore the mysterious world of Twitter!

I am absolutely fuming on your behalf 🤬
So sorry for your loss , what a shit time you are having with this small pleasure ruined by sheer and utter incompetence
I would def take this as high as I could , papers , radio , twitter
Anyone who will listen and take great pleasure in knowing others will reconsider booking with them in the future 💐

Doesn't look like they use twitter so bit pointless to kick off on there.

They do have Facebook and insta though

Feel free, once I’ve figured it out I’ll be tweeting away!

Christ the comments on their FB posts are all just complaints!

I'm so sorry for your loss OP and the actions of Haven are nothing short of appalling. As others have said if you have it in you go to one of the media's money matters pages - the Daily Mail one ( [email protected] ) always seems to get good results with anything they get involved in and it would at least publicly shame Haven which is completely justified.

There seems to be a 'Haven Holidays Complaints Group' on Facebook - they might have some advice/contacts.

I would create merry hell over this, email the people suggested in the thread and go on socials, twitter, the one show / morning live have a guy who deal with consumer issues and Simon Calder deals a lot with holiday issues.

What a horrible way to treat a family xx

So sorry that you had a bad experience with them too, we work hard for our holidays and when they fall short it is so disappointing! I think I can say with some confidence that I’ll not be booking with Haven ever again, hopefully others will vote with their feet too.