A caravan salesman has come clean on trade secrets and “horror tactics” used to “fleece more money” out of buyers.
Holiday parks across the UK are home to thousands of proud caravaners; however, it’s not as pleasant as it may seem.
George, not his real name, who spent a large part of his career as a salesman at these locations, is now exposing the truth.
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According to the former dealer, customers have been “taken advantage of” for decades.
He alleges that the main aim for holiday park owners is to sell a caravan, externally finance the buyer and then make the park conditions “unbearable” to force a sale.
Despite the locations making an income from customers’ rent, the real profit is made when they give up their memberships, reports Need To Know.
To help force the sale, parks can raise the price of furniture, decking and bills to entice the customer to leave.
George claims: “Ok, let’s say I sell you a caravan for £70,000.
“The park gets paid, I get paid.
“When you decide you no longer want to pay the increasing ground rent and other expenses, we will offer you a tiny amount like £10,000 to £15,000 for it.
“And the next day we will sell it to another customer for £70,000 again.
“That’s up to £60,000 profit every time we turn the unit over.
“You wouldn’t want anyone you know or care about getting involved with these places.”
George was encouraged to get involved after discovering how easy it was to make money in comparison to other big-ticket direct sales industries.
According to the former salesman, in many other equivalent businesses, you are not allowed to take a deposit on the day.
However, during his time at these parks, he claims to have been encouraged to get the money on the day to secure the sale.
In other transactions, the salesperson by law has to be clear with the buyer that they have 14 days to cancel, entitling them to a full refund.
These periods are not legal requirements at holiday parks, despite some having ‘cooling off periods’ which George rarely informed buyers about.
The former salesman made the shock revelation after contacting the European Consumer Claims.
Greg Wilson, CEO of ECC, said: “George’s revelations certainly made sense of some otherwise difficult to decipher holiday park behaviour.
“The information George has provided confirms suspicions that we were already beginning to form after thousands of conversations with holiday park clients.
“We imagine there will be a lot of ‘pennies dropping’ around the UK among holiday park lodge owners who did not previously understand the parks’ strategy in dealing with them.
“People who feel themselves to have been subjected to the kind of treatment that George describes are advised to seek expert advice. In many cases, they could be eligible for financial compensation.”
