We booked a holiday with the canalboat company Black Prince for a party of 7 for one week in mid September. We had previously enjoyed a holiday break with Black Prince in 2003 and hoped for a similarly relaxing and enjoyable time.
Our Black Prince boat was called 'Holly' (number: 510377) When we boarded we noticed a damp smell and wet patches at the rear of the boat. We are not boat experts - this was for our party only the first or second time that we had been on a canalboat - and guessed that the wet had been trodden in by cleaners while preparing the boat for us.
The wet worsened by the following day so we rang the Black Prince base at Stoke Prior and mentioned the problem. We were told that there was no problem with the boat and that we couldn't have been emptying the bilge pump properly. This was not the case, but we were discouraged by Black Prince's dismissive attitude.
We decided to monitor the problem. Midway through our holiday we were finally certain that there was a problem with the boat and that it was probably a leak. The water gauge was dropping even when no one aboard was using the facilities. The wet patches and damp were getting worse too. We sent a detailed email to the Black Prince staff at Stoke Prior, including our contact details, but received no response.
There was a shortage of water that became gradually more and more acute as the holiday went on. We couldn't use the shower and we had to make use of bottled water supplies to brush our teeth or flush the toilets. It was particularly disruptive and stressful for myself, as I have Asperger's - a mild form of autism - and for another member of the party who was 74 years of age.
We phoned Black Prince again on Thursday. We were then certain that they were aware of our email and of the leak. We continued to cope as best we could. We were fortunate to receive the assistance of the Viking boat company for mooring close to a water point where we could refill.
On the Saturday we returned the boat to the Black Prince Stoke Prior base. We told the person there of our problems and he only said: 'Thanks for telling us - the people before you didn't say anything.' There was no apology of any kind for the stress and inconvenience caused.
When we had returned home we received an email from the person at the Black Prince base telling us that the leak had been located and fixed and that the boat was back in operation.
We wrote twice to the director of Black Prince, Tim Parker, and received email responses that contradicted the above statements of his staff member at the Stoke Prior base. Black Prince's level of customer care throughout the holiday and afterwards was appalling.
A holiday is meant to be a chance to relax and enjoy your surroundings. Hire of the Black Prince boat for the week cost more than 1100. We had to use public toilets en route, wash minimally, disrupt our travel routes to reach extra water points, waste hours of our holiday on extra water filling and suffer stress, disruption and inconvenience, all as a result of a problem on the boat which had not been picked up by the Black Prince base staff before giving the boat to us, and which was not treated seriously once we had reported it to staff during our holiday.
We will never again use Black Prince holidays and seriously urge everyone who reads this to be very cautious about ever going with the Black Prince company in future.
Daniel
Essex
United Kingdom
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