Willow Pond Camping
South Cave
East Riding of Yorkshire
HU15 2JW
1 Night
We stayed at Willow Ponds, just outside Hull—a lovely little site and a convenient stop before heading to M&C the following morning to have our new habitation door fitted.
We spent the afternoon sitting outside in the glorious sunshine.
But unfortunately, things didn’t go quite according to plan.
We had only just arrived in Hull city centre and started walking around when Andy called my mobile. The replacement door was damaged.
To say I was angry would be putting it mildly, and Andy got the brunt of it. Before our visit, I had been constantly checking that everything was ready—particularly the black decal along the bottom of the door, as I could easily imagine that being forgotten. I had considered asking them to inspect the entire door before we travelled, but in the end I didn’t.
When Andy called, I asked why it hadn’t been properly checked when it arrived. He explained that they didn’t want to completely unwrap it in case it got damaged.
“Well, unwrap it, check it and wrap it up again,” was my angry reply.
This wasn’t a quick trip around the corner. Visiting M&C means a 440-mile round trip for us. Andy said he would speak to Steven about contributing towards our fuel costs, but it isn’t only about the fuel. It’s the time involved, the disruption and having to make another journey that we neither wanted nor planned to do.
We walked almost straight back to M&C and, by the time we arrived, I had calmed down a little. A rather sheepish-looking Andy emerged from their glass-fronted “goldfish bowl” office and took us into the workshop to see the door.
Apparently, it had arrived inside a cardboard box, although we didn’t see that. The door itself was still wrapped in bubble wrap, with polystyrene protecting the edges. Despite all that packaging, one of the top corners was damaged, as though it had taken a fairly hefty knock.
Steven had been in the goldfish bowl when we arrived, but then appeared to vanish into thin air—we never saw him again. Andy, meanwhile, was limping badly after completing a charity walk a few days earlier.
There were lots of apologies from Andy. They didn’t really cut much mustard with me at the time, but what can you do? We are now at their mercy once again, waiting for another replacement door and facing another round of tense M&C frustration.
We would have needed to return at some point anyway, as a split plastic moulding is also due to be replaced under warranty. Even so, that doesn’t make the wasted journey—or the whole frustrating situation—any easier to swallow.
