I am Australian and I returned to Australia for a holiday with my German girlfriend and our 6 month old son at the end of November 2012. We rented a campervan from Calypso Capervans from Dec 1st 2012 until Dec 22nd 2012 and we drove it from Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road then back along the coast and up to Sydney.
The price was great and the van was everything we expected. The operator/owner Adam showed us around the van in their Melbourne (Ringwood) office.
He is a very friendly guy and was great in explaining the van set up and the function of everything in the van. It was 37 degrees in the Melbourne when we rented the van and we asked him about cooling and heating the van. He mentioned that the van had air conditioning and where the upper windows were located for cooling the van and that there was a fan heater located in the upper left hand back corner of the van but we would not need it. He did not show us how to use it or how it worked.
After leaving Melbourne, we drove along the Great Ocean Road to Warmambol and then started back. It weather turned bad and overnight the temperatures started to drop below 10 degrees. So instead of free camping in the Great Otway National Park, we decided to start using caravan parks, so that we could use the heater Adam had told us about and paid for a powered camp site in Marengo, as we were concerned about the temperature and our child.
After connecting to the power at the camp site, it took us a while to work out how to use the heater. After turning it on and letting it run for about 3 – 4 minutes, we worked out that it was not a heater but a fan. So we were a bit upset.
We called Adam at Calypso and told him about our problem. At first he was not very helpful, but at the end of our conversation and us stating that he had told us it was a heater and turned out to be a fan. He offered to pay for our nights caravan park fees and we could also buy a heater the following day for the van, as long as we sent him the receipts and left the heater in the van when we returned it in Sydney. He told us that he would refund the money to our credit card.
We agreed and were happy with this deal, bought a heater the next day then sent him the receipts from Lakes Entrance via Australian Post to his postal address stated on his website below;
Calypso Campervan Rentals
PO Box 2344
RINGWOOD NORTH, Victoria 3134
AUSTRALIA
It is only 300 kilometres away. Included in the envelope was a letter referring to our conversation and our rental contract number and the vehicle’s registration number.
After returning the van to the Sydney depot and leaving the heater in the van. We enjoyed a great Christmas with my family.
In February, we were doing some online banking and checked to see if the money had been refunded as promised by Adam. To our dismay it had not been.
We then rang Adam up, on a Wednesday, to clarify the situation and to find out why he had not refunded the money that he had promised to do so. He told us that he vaguely remembered our problem (how many people does he have ringing up about heaters in their vans because their baby is cold at night?) and that he could not remember receiving any letter or receipts from us via post. He stated that he would check his post and papers and get back to us on Friday as he was not in the office.
Friday went and past, then Saturday and Sunday. It was Monday afternoon and we had had enough so we contacted him again. He told us that he had not received any receipts or post from us. This may or may not be the case, but we are talking about Australia and not some third world country where post goes missing and Lakes Entrance is only 300 kilometres away from Ringwood. He then told us that he did not remember saying that he would pay for our night’s caravan park fees.
He told us he would refund the cost for the heater, which he has since done so. We are very disappointed with Adam and Calypso Campers, firstly by providing us with false information about the function of equipment in their campers, then promising us something and not delivering and finally stating that he had not received the post and only paying up for half of the agreed upon amount.
They used to say that one satisfied customer told 5 to 6 other people about there happy customer experience and that a dissatisfied customer told between 11 to 13 other people. Today is the internet is only a fingertip away and a dissatisfied customer can sometimes tell up to 1 million people about their bad customer experience.
We would not rent from Calypso again! And would suggest; that maybe some staff need to be retrained about the equipment within Calypso vans so that they can inform their customers properly about their functions.
