If you're planning to walk the South Downs Way I'd recommend avoiding Moonlight Cottage in Cocking, W Sussex. I was charged for a booking for a date I never even requested! When I queried it I got surly service and a refusal of a refund.
My general advice is when booking B&Bs get confirmation in writing of all bookings and cancellations otherwise it's your word against there's and in this case they couldn't bring themselves to admit they'd made a mistake.
The South Downs Way is fantastic and well worth the effort.
In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] writes
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If you're planning to walk the South Downs Way I'd recommend avoiding Moonlight Cottage in Cocking, W Sussex. I was charged for a booking for a date I never even requested! When I queried it I got surly service and a refusal of a refund.
My general advice is when booking B&Bs get confirmation in writing of all bookings and cancellations otherwise it's your word against there's and in this case they couldn't bring themselves to admit they'd made a mistake.
The South Downs Way is fantastic and well worth the effort.
If I were you I would speak to your credit card company's customer services too - they may decide to refund you and get the B&B's card processor to get the refund from the proprietor.
The South Downs Way is fantastic and well worth the effort.
Glad you enjoyed it, I've been scouting out wild camping sites for when I do it.
Certainly enjoyed it when I walked it over the past couple of years. Living in that part of the world meant that I could do it from home pretty much (with careful train/bus planning!). Didn't walk from one end to the other though - actually finished it at Clayton, by the mills!
Oh, and when in Cocking, be careful to note when there's things going on at Goodwood - I nearly missed my bus by not being able to cross the road back to the south-bound bus stop with the amount of traffic disgorging from the racecourse!
If you're planning to walk the South Downs Way I'd recommend avoiding Moonlight Cottage in Cocking, W Sussex. I was charged for a booking for a date I never even requested! When I queried it I got surly service and a refusal of a refund.
Thanks guys for the advice but making this post and publishing the web page are last resorts. I spoke to the credit card company who were not interested unless I had a 'cancellation code' i.e a confirmation that the booking was cancelled. But I was not given one (when do you ever get one when you cancel a booking at a B&B?) and so it is my word against theirs. The CC company were not prepared to write off the charge either so I've closed my CC account too.
I've lodged a complaint with Sussex Trading Standards (http://www.consumercomplaints.org.uk) who advised me to write to the B&B but I have already done this and got nowhere so I can only hope others complain and an investigation is done.
My advice to anyone booking/cancelling B&Bs is to get confirmation in writing as my experience shows they can charge your card and then they have the upper hand as they've taken your money and it's up to you to convince them to refund it.
My intention is to warn people about how (in my experience) this B&B operates in the hope that they will change their procedures and attitude.
