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Original poster

Feather Down Farm - last minute group split... Advice

461 replies

Nicky1234 · 02/08/2011 17:37

A group of 5 families has booked early in the year to stay with feather down farm and were advised that we would all be together. Now 2 weeks before our stay we have been advised that in actual fact we are being split up because a group of 2 wants specific tents and so it makes that field too small for us.
Anyone been to one of these farms and do you think it will be a problem, we have 10 kids between us, 6 and under, so I am worried that they'll disturb other guests (rather than all being together they'll have to find each other). Also though there is a brook between the 2 fields so we're going to have to shepherd them about and it seems such a shame they cant just roam a little free (poor loves get no freedom). Selfishly the adults won't be able to hang out in the evenings either...
Im also really upset that we have to split up as seems unnecessary and unfair...
Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions to put my mind at ease.
Thanks

OP posts:
Geordieminx · 05/08/2011 16:48

Can't believe they have offered you a babysitter. Have you been given any details of this? My bets is that it'll be some teenager that they have roped in to sit outside your tent for a few hours.

Disgusted in your Feather Down Farm of Dorset

feelingvfrazzled · 05/08/2011 17:14

My friend organised and is happy to use with her children. I think it's sn agency.... They have said that they will reimburse her.

LisMcA · 05/08/2011 17:21

So your friend has to pay more money out. I'm really sorry but that is just a farce. If that's what she's happy with then fine. But for me that would be it. I'd be looking for a full refund and compensation for the holiday being ruined. Have you had any kind of explanation as to why this other booking is more important than yours? Really bad customer service and totally clueless pr from featherdown farmsAngry

virgiltracey · 05/08/2011 17:22

This is rubbish I agree. We have been there recently and had other issues but i won't go into that.... However, whilst it is rubbish, there would really be no problem in letting the children all bed down in one tent and carying them back. Its a very short distance and it is NOT over a brook. The wooded area is only a few metres of trees, its not a wood. One field (the top one with the shower block) is about the size of a football field with a big open area. The other field is right next to it (through the trees).

Blu · 05/08/2011 17:22

OK - maybe time to get on with looking forward to your holiday, OP.

It's been a bad do - all businesses do make a right mess sometimes - I bet you will have a fab time whatever prevails.

I hope you can all come to a good arrangement with FDF.

Quite a lot of places have pre-erected Bell tents now - some are v good value. You can check UK Campsites specialised search list under Glamping!

I hope you do all have a great time. It's v unnerving when well made plans go awry.

Blu · 05/08/2011 17:25

On VirgilTracy's description it does sound as if the tents will be v close indeed.
I would carry a sleeping toddler home along a route VT describes. We used to cart sleeping DS around a campsite in one of those red 'Radio Flyer' wagons when he was tiny!

LIZS · 05/08/2011 17:50

Feel sorry for your friend though,offering to take the hit. Would have thought they could at least offer that family a discount Hmm

bagelmonkey · 05/08/2011 18:41

The outcast family should get a full refund!

feelingvfrazzled · 05/08/2011 18:43

FDF have said they will reimburse her for the babysitter but have offered us no other compensation for this trip. 20% off of a future trip is just laughable, if they had said off of this trip then we would have taken it happily, would still now in fairness.
Anyway this time next week (yes we had that much notice!) we'll be on the farm, relaxing hopefully.

Ceolas · 05/08/2011 18:49

Hope it all works out, frazzled and you have a great time :)

TheSkiingGardener · 05/08/2011 22:30

I think feather down farms of Dorset have just demonstrated how not to treat customers. What an appalling mess.

Hope you do have a good time OP. Pack a few custard pies to lob at any FDF employees won't you.

oranges123 · 06/08/2011 11:52

I know I said this a while back up the thread but has anyone put this on Twitter or Facebook? Twitter for one gives FDF some very positive comments and has a very wide circulation. Letting people know exactly how FDF treats its customers when something goes wrong would be a very good thing, I would have thought.

ReshapeWhileDamp · 06/08/2011 23:33

OP, have you tried Sal's suggestion - to insist that you keep to your original agreement with Featherdown Farms (as, of course, you wouldn't have booked if you couldn't be in together), and that they go back to the other group booking and offer them the smaller field with a substantial discount? They are surely legally bound to keep to an agreement they made with you. I bet a spot of bribery (a good whack off the price) would shift the other group. Why should the other lot get their way just because they're the only ones shouting at the moment?

Sorry, this must be v stressful for you - not least, having the full ire of MN breathing down your neck, insisting that you fight your corner! Grin I can't believe how appalling Featherdown Farm's PR is, if they don't even have the good grace to rectify an overbooking mistake that they made. I'd never heard of them before this thread, and looking at the webpage, I have to admit it's lush-looking (though am sniggering at the chutzpah of hiring your tame chickens or bunnies for a week. Would be tempted to do a rabbit stew on that woodburner...) but I've been put off considerably. It's interesting to know that Other Glampy Farm Experiences exist... (Country House hideout, etc)

ReshapeWhileDamp · 06/08/2011 23:40

I just had another look at Country House Hideaway and it's staggering how alike the tents are! Both Featherdown Farm and the competition have identical layouts, down to the position of the stove and the cupboard bed. But Country House Hideaways also have a rather nifty 'discovery tent' (microscopes, etc, for nature study) and a covered mobile woodburner for outdoors, which sort of puts the edge on them, really.

AitchTwoOh · 06/08/2011 23:55

wow i am really, really shocked by this, it's so bonkers, makes no sense at all... that featherdown think that a babysitting service is a suitable compensation is just bizarre. some pals of mine had talked of booking a local featherdown for a 40th birthday weekend, but we just couldn't if it wasn't guaranteed that it would be together. what's the point?

hope this gets sorted, fvf, i do wonder what on earth the other people have been told, and how they will behave? i'd be fuming at them the whole time, i think, despite it being a featherdown farm probably, really.

levantine · 07/08/2011 07:14

What appalling publicity for Featherdown Farm. I had always really liked the look of them but this has really put me off.

By way of comparison we were locked out of our hut villa at centerparcs for a couple of hours and without us really making much of a fuss the manager rang us up and gave us an £80 voucher which we spent on an Indian takeaway.

Country House Hideaway sounds good, will check it out.

feelingvfrazzled · 07/08/2011 08:58

Lots of suggestions to look at Country House Hideaway but sadly when I googled to look to see if they had any availability they are sister company to FDF! Oops...

And yes AitchTwoOh the whole thing IS completely bonkers, so easily rectified. But no, instead we have had days of stress and no compensation.

The babysitting has only been agreed to at my friends suggestion because it was basically the ONLY way we could think that we could go and refused to break our kids hearts by cancelling. Still no offer of compensation by FDF unless we want to go again - er...

Oh well I'm sure the farmer will be lovely, the farm beautiful and we'll have a great time - its just a shame the administration is incompetent and shambolic. The farmer has nothing to do with that after all, which is the biggest shame.

LIZS · 07/08/2011 09:16

As a last ditch attempt to resolve this I would try to arrive as early as you can on the day and see if you can negotiate with the other group and farmer - unless of course they are starting their holiday sooner. Hope you all manage to have a good time in spite of this.

AitchTwoOh · 07/08/2011 09:21

sorry, yes, i notice that i wrote feather down farm probably, when i meant it was a featherdown farm problem.

good spot on the country house hideaway company btw, couldn't risk that either.

the babysitting service idea, i am sorry, is not a good one. THEY should know that, even if your poor friend was desperately scrabbling around for a way of saving her holiday.

the whole POINT of their holidays is glamorous self-sufficiency and freedom. having some babysitter march round the tents keeping a check on the children is hardly in the spirit of that. (and tbh my children go to bed when they drop to the ground when we are camping, so it's just a load of bedtime hassle that you might otherwise avoid. will you have to tell the babysitter to come at 7pm? because if my children are anything to go by, 11pm would be more like it).

i really resent them having that MN recommendation now to use for their marketing, tbh.

ChaosTrulyReigns · 07/08/2011 09:32

Do you know what I think is the Icing on the TakingThePissCake?

The fact that they're going to reimburse you for the babysitter.

Shock

Erm, no, the Frazzled Party should not be paying upfront.

I wouldn't be content with that solution btw, but can see that you now need to be looking forward to the holiday, and moving away from the unacceptable kerfuffle that this has been.

MollieO · 07/08/2011 10:21

I thought Featherdown Farm was supposed to be posh camping. They sound unbelievably inept. I'd planned to do a weekend with them with ds as I fancied the idea of camping without the hassle of packing up the car, putting up the tent etc. I won't bother after reading this debacle. I cannot believe that the best they can offer is the reimbursement of a babysitter. I wouldn't feel happy going on holiday and leaving my dc with a babysitter foisted on me as a solution for a booking cock up that has nothing to do with me.

I would be asking for a 50% refund for whomever is dumped away from the main group as a minimum. I'd also be writing to the Telegraph holiday section to complain about the appalling service.

gapants · 07/08/2011 10:31

God they sound totally shit, i have been lusting for a FDF holiday for ages and have badgered my Dh to take us there. Having read the whole thread--no way.

They sound shocking. I would pull out. Kids will be upset for a hour or 2 but there is no way I could be on the farm knowing how shit they had treated me. I would also be contacting my travel insurance company about taking them to task over this. Full refund, nothing less. They sound like wankers. Terrible customer service.

Jolly Days looks great--have you contacted them to see if there is availability?

ReshapeWhileDamp · 07/08/2011 10:46

Ha - if CountryHouse Hideaway are an associated company then that would explain the idential tents! Grin

On an entirely tangential note, I've been lusting looking at the tents and wondering if they were made by Tortuga Tents, who do a range like that? I'm fascinated by the entire Glamping industry that's somehow mushroomed out of nowhere in the last few years. Can't imagine it ten years ago. But as others have said, there's a lot of choice out there, so bad customer service isn't just inexcusable, it's inexplicable.

MJHASLEFTTHEBUILDING · 07/08/2011 10:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

AitchTwoOh · 07/08/2011 11:37

agree, mine can close their eyes for thirty bloody seconds in the car and that's it, a complete recharge of batteries and hell on wheels for the rest of the night.