WHATS UP with #Bachcare

And why do they continually ignore emails?

Background:

Our daughter and 4 friends booked accommodation for a stay at Opito Bay Holiday Cottage between Sunday 8th January thru to Thursday 12th January 2023.

They were all looking forward to this break away together, but the weather had other plans.?

When it became clear the weather was going to get nasty on these booked dates, an email request dated 5 January @ 10.40am was sent to enquire about options or to cancel the stay because of this upcoming weather event and the availability of road access due to slips, flooding in the Coromandel area.?

Civil Defence and the NZ Police were advising travellers to rethink their travel plans as this storm was meant to last 5 days.? An old family friend who lives in the Coromandel also strongly suggested the girls change their plans as well.

A number of us parents were pleased the girls took on this advice not to travel, as we were all concerned about the upcoming weather and their safety.?

Now back to the correspondence between the girls and Bachcare.

It was stated in the email dated the 5 January:?"We don't want to risk traveling up from Wellington on Sunday, 8 January, unable to get to our destination.??We are frustrated with this current situation regarding the weather, but our safety comes first. What options do we have."

A generic email response was received stating: "If on the day of your booking the property is inaccessible due to road closure, we would consider other options."???

The girls sent a responding email saying while they acknowledged Bachcare's email, they found their response unacceptable.??They stated:?"This is putting us all at risk due to heavy rain (water levels rapidly rising) - this causing surface flooding, slips and driving conditions to be hazardous."

They also quoted the T&C section 12:??Events Outside Our or Owner's Reasonable Control which includes?“act of God, flood, adverse weather conditions or other natural disasters, or any other event of any nature which prevents or is likely to prevent."?

Their email continued. "We have tried multiple times to be fair and reasonable as shown below:

???Email sent on 5 January [email protected]?at 10.40AM.

???Email sent on 5 January [email protected]?at 8.36PM. (No response).

???Phone call at 8.51PM. Requesting for a member of staff to call on 6 January. (No response).?

???Phone call on 6 January at 3.53PM.??Ask to arrange for date change, but was declined.??Only option: "Try our luck on the day". But cancelling their booking meant they would not get a refund.?

? Online request for date change - declined.?

The girls then went on to ask: "We kindly request that our full payment of $1,530.30 to be refunded into account number ‘XXX’ within 7 days and this would be appreciated. As this clearly demonstrates a breach of the Fair-Trading Act as this weather condition is an “act of god”.?

"We look forward to an acknowledgement of my email and a positive result of a refund of $1,530.30 within 7 days of this email."

A further email was sent on 18 January requesting a response by 20?January which stated “We look forward to a positive response and outcome.”?

Now it is Tuesday, 7 February, and still no response!! Bachcare are still holding onto a full payment of $1,530.30 direct credited into their bank account on 3rd December 2022.

Therefore, I would very much value your feedback on:

? Has anybody else had this sort of treatment by Bachcare?

? If so, were you able to resolve the issues you had?

? Do you have any suggestions on what further actions we can take?

I look forward to hearing your feedback and feel free to share this post.?