Anyone paid this much for electric hookup........................ (1 Viewer)

Mar 21, 2009
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We've just stayed at The Riverside Holiday Village near Wallasea Island Nr Southend.
We booked in for the first night & i paid the pitch fee of £24. When I got back top the van Tony asked why it was £24 when their web site says £16. The only thing I could think of was that I had said yest to electric hook up as thought it would only be a couple of quid.
We decided to stay another night so when I went back to the office to pay I asked how much the hook up was and was told............ £8 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I told the receptionist that in all my travels around the UK and abroad this was the most extortionate price for electric hookup I'd ever come across. She said "well it's our standard charge".
Ok I said , then we won't have hook up tonight (we've got solar panels anyway & I'd already had an earful from Tony for paying for electric when we didn't need it!).
Fine she says, but you'll have to move to a different field.
Now as the huge field we were on had three vans on it (see photos) and at least 40 empty hookup points and we had everything set up I asked (very politely) would it be possible to just unhook the cable for tonight?
She replied "NO and if you don't want to move then you can leave the site".
Very reluctantly I paid the £8 but left a review of their customer service on UK Campsite!
 

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Tootles

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Was a newbie, now a Middie.
Very reluctantly I paid the £8 but left a review of their customer service on UK Campsite!

Good for you! That is disgusting, and sheer profiteering. :eek:
 
Nov 30, 2009
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Since 2009 with motorhomes several caravans then tents before that.
I would be very happy if I got an £8 discount for not being on hook up. (y)
It's usually only a couple of quid. In our experience.
When you don't need to use hook up, as your well prepared with solar and traction batteries it's annoying. We've got webasto diesel heating, a fridge that's gas/electric and a gas cooker.

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scotjimland

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Jul 25, 2007
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You could in theory use more than £8 per 24hrs on a 16A EHU .. which can supply 3.68kw

calculated at 15p per unit.

3kw x 24hrs x £0.15 = £10.80

You may think unlikely, most will not use or abuse the supply.. but some do.. we have all seen it .. eg.. 3kw fan heater in an awning..

Modern vans have a lot more lecy items now than they did 20 years ago, .. cookers have electric hot plates, electric space and water heating,

I'm not defending profiteering, and £8 does seem excessive.. but merely pointing out that it is possible to use that amount.

Perhaps this site owner had his fingers burned with the huge leccy bill and thought enough is enough..
it happened to our friends who have a CL .. had to borrow money to pay the bill.. so they installed meters.. best way forward for both supplier and consumer.

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Emmit

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Aug 14, 2009
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Greetings,

When the law was introduced several years ago to prevent the overcharging of electricity to third parties, (as in this case) I thought that both of the big clubs would embrace the spirit of the law and install meters on their posts.
How wrong could I be.
Isn't it the case that all sites have to have their supply checked for safety and I would have thought that at such a time it would be an ideal opportunity to change over but not many sites have.

Even the big clubs, who have bought and upgraded quite a few sites in the last few years have carried on as before and installed the 'One size fits all' supply and to hell with the consequences, raking in vast profits from their members (and non members alike)
 
Jul 1, 2012
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Their website is very clear that pitch with EHU costs £24. Perhaps the cheaper non EHU area is less attractively sited?
 

dryad

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Apr 25, 2010
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quite a few years now, and loving every minute..
as scotjimland says, some motorhomes can take a massive draw from the leccy, but that's not the most expensive i've seen for ehu, there's a pub in britstops that allows overnighting for free but charges a tenner for leccy if you need it, still cheap though for a safe overnight stop..
i personally only use hookup for charging my scooter/powerchair batteries and phone and camera if needed, at home it costs less than 10p for an overnight charge, but as the scooter etc is so important for my mobility i have no choice but to pay for that peace of mind..
meters are the way to go i guess, but of course that means an outlay for the sites to change them and i'm assuming, rightly or wrongly that maybe after their initial outlay on all the facilities that we expect to get on a modern day campsite, they feel they've done enough, or just maybe if it's a smaller site they may just not have the funds to do so, and where they may lose out from the bigger users, they gain from the smaller users, swings and roundabouts, they break even in the end..

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Last edited:

Whatton

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Apr 30, 2009
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I stopped at a site in Germany with meters on the EHU, in the usual language confusion at check-in I didn't realise it was done on trust, and I had to supply start and finish readings when leaving. The guy on reception said it wasn't a problem and to give him 2 euros as that was what it normally worked out at. Seemed a fair way of doing it.
 
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jaygee
Mar 21, 2009
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What I couldn'r understand was that the 8E applied to caravan, motorhome, trailer or small tent but if you had a 5man tent then EHU was only £5:confused:
 

ourcampersbeentrashed

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Actually Jaygee I can completely understand it. Over the last two years when staying at sites in the summer I have seen caravanners and motorhomers who have not only brought a washing machine with them but a tumbledryer too. One particular caravanning family came to mind. They arrived on the first week of the school holidays last year, grandfather grandmother and two grandchildren. When we returned 3 weeks later, they had all their children and their childrens children on a total of 4 different pitches across the site and no they were not "travellers". The washing machine was used every single day we were there. I was quite shocked at the number of larger motorhomes I have seen with washing machines in them in the last two years too but then I might just be niaive.

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Nov 6, 2013
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Good luck leaving a bad review on UKCampsite. You can expect the review to disappear as quickly as you posted it.
 

dryad

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quite a few years now, and loving every minute..
Actually Jaygee I can completely understand it. Over the last two years when staying at sites in the summer I have seen caravanners and motorhomers who have not only brought a washing machine with them but a tumbledryer too. One particular caravanning family came to mind. They arrived on the first week of the school holidays last year, grandfather grandmother and two grandchildren. When we returned 3 weeks later, they had all their children and their childrens children on a total of 4 different pitches across the site and no they were not "travellers". The washing machine was used every single day we were there. I was quite shocked at the number of larger motorhomes I have seen with washing machines in them in the last two years too but then I might just be niaive.

that really is taking the piss, and no doubt why ehu charges are getting higher then..

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May 12, 2011
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Off to Silverstone for the Formula 1 GP, hook up is £60 for the weekend, at the 'Classic' later in July, about the same price, this covers 4 nights regardless of if you are there 1 night or 4. With the pitches, they charge per person per pitch, so anyone on their own is not penalised, but if there are 4 of you in the van, it gets expensive.
 
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jaygee
Mar 21, 2009
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Actually Jaygee I can completely understand it. Over the last two years when staying at sites in the summer I have seen caravanners and motorhomers who have not only brought a washing machine with them but a tumbledryer too. One particular caravanning family came to mind. They arrived on the first week of the school holidays last year, grandfather grandmother and two grandchildren. When we returned 3 weeks later, they had all their children and their childrens children on a total of 4 different pitches across the site and no they were not "travellers". The washing machine was used every single day we were there. I was quite shocked at the number of larger motorhomes I have seen with washing machines in them in the last two years too but then I might just be niaive.

Surely this must be an exception not the norm? Even if my machine was running constantly I don't think it would use £8 of electricity...but I expect there will be someone who will tell me it will :)

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ourcampersbeentrashed

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what with the washing machine telly, internet/laptop mobile phone charging, lights etc etc that kids use too I am sure it all adds up but some sites are very high on their electric charges
 
Jan 28, 2008
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we nearly went to riverside this weekend but went to aldeburgh instead which was even dearer £30 quid a night with ehu

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ourcampersbeentrashed

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Having just looked at the riverside website, it would actually cost us more to go there than to go to Searles. We would have to pay extra for the two teenagers and the dog every night and nowhere near the facilities that Searles provides.
 
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jaygee
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Having just looked at the riverside website, it would actually cost us more to go there than to go to Searles. We would have to pay extra for the two teenagers and the dog every night and nowhere near the facilities that Searles provides.
Just looked at that site & looks good - have you been there before? quite costly but lots of facilities if you want that sort of thing.

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ourcampersbeentrashed

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I love the Searles site, so much to do but I have been going there since I was a little girl and know the staff well. My aunt who passed away earlier this year in her 90s was one of the first passengers on the wash monster
 

Puddleduck

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Strawberry Hill (Durham) has meters and we only paid 50p for overnight. Dalton Piercy (Hartlepool) charged £2.50 overnight on a card meter - same stuff running so it just shows.....
 
Nov 30, 2009
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Since 2009 with motorhomes several caravans then tents before that.
Yes we're all for metering. We hate being charged only £ 2 or £3 less for not having hook up. It's not fair imo.
Especially when you see awnings with heaters in, all the gadgets going like ourcampersbeentrashed says etc.
We have no need for hook up, but know if we have to go somewhere in the winter. We take electric heaters. We don't use our webasto. We put the fridge on leccy too.
The only thing we have to watch is the fact we have power assist.

If the campsite only has 4 amps and we're using 8 amps for eg the victron inverter will kick in. So we're using our own power off the trojans. Either that or its tripping every pair of plates. Unless we remember to set to the campsites amperage.

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eddie

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This argument has been around for years. Meters are a nuisance. If you arrive after hours, who reads the meters? If you want to pay say Friday afternoon, so you can leave early Saturday morning before the office is opened, you'll have no electricity for the night once the meter is read.

Coin operated? They'll be broken into, or someone will jam the machine up trying to use foreign coins.

Tokens? Great idea, where do you get them from when you arrive after hours?

Five people in reception, all wanting to pay their bill, so that's five meters that have to be read, it's pee'ing down and blowing a gale, you've paid upfront for your pitch, and now you and the wardens are going to get soaked, just to pay/read a meter.

We loose money on electricity in the winter, when the site is busy, due to the demand. Electric water heaters, heaters and cooking jobs, electric toasters, electric kettles, TV's, satellite boxes, laptops, hair dryers, electric curling tongs, oil fired radiators, electric fan heaters, electric blankets

At Scotland Jim's £0.15 a unit, running a 2 kilowatt heater running at half power, will be 15p an hour, just for that heater. That's £1.50 for 10 hours, that's £3.60 for the day!

Plus the fridge in on mains, as is the water heater, and the built in meter! 15 minutes making toast? 2000 watts toaster 30p a hour, so another 7.5p plus another 5p for boiling the kettle before and after.

Having run our campsite before and after a several hundred thousand investment to upgrade it, we get a tiny handful of people moaning that all our pitches have hook up, in comparison to nearly 100% of our customers pre 2005 when the site opened after a major overhaul disappointed that there was no hook up.

On our own Motorhome, we run 3 x130 watt solar panels with a massive bank of leisure batteries and certainly don't need hook up. But, I would always take it if offered during the winter, and if I am on a pitch with hook up in the Summer would invariably plug in.

As for the lady asking you to move to a different field, as the OP didn't want hook up, I would expect that over the years there have been instances where vans get plugged straight back in once the office is closed ;-)
 
Apr 9, 2013
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This argument has been around for years. Meters are a nuisance. If you arrive after hours, who reads the meters?
<snip>

We loose money on electricity in the winter, when the site is busy, due to the demand. Electric water heaters, heaters and cooking jobs, electric toasters, electric kettles, TV's, satellite boxes, laptops, hair dryers, electric curling tongs, oil fired radiators, electric fan heaters, electric blankets

Just a quick Q, if you lose money in winter why not have a winter rate for hook-ups?

Agree with everything you've said about the downsides of metering.

Tim
 

Theonlysue

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Not long enough!
I try and use the small 5 van sites cheap and no hook up.
With 160w solar more than ok.
In winter with gas heating, hot water and fridge am just careful.
Have found that switching panel off when I'm out the batteries charge up more quickly.
On electric, I have seen folk just waste it cos they can. Ie heater in awning sometimes will make such a minimal difference to the temperature.
There are caravans that need hook up as even the hob is electric.
I have met campers who couldn't possibly camp without but when you go through everything being off hook up isn't so daunting.
And I have also seen charges of £8 per night for electric !

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