Our Published Reviews of Greenmount Caravan and Motorhome Storage
Address: Greenmount Storage, Preston New Road, Freckleton, Preston PR4 1TU Lancashire
Manager/Owner/Director: Brian Dixon
Date of our First and Only Meeting: 14 December 2023
Date of £400 Advance Payment for 12 months' Storage: 15 December 2023
Date of Termination of Intention to Bring a Motorhome: 14 January 2024
Date of Refusal to Return £144 (36%) of Advance Storage Payment: 14 Janaury 2024
Manager/Owner/Director: Brian Dixon
Date of our First and Only Meeting: 14 December 2023
Date of £400 Advance Payment for 12 months' Storage: 15 December 2023
Date of Termination of Intention to Bring a Motorhome: 14 January 2024
Date of Refusal to Return £144 (36%) of Advance Storage Payment: 14 Janaury 2024
The 18 emails exchanged between ourselves and the storage site owner between 15 December 2023 and 5 February 2024 (some 5,051 words yet to no avail) are attached here.
The burden of the review and complaint is that Greenmount Storage holds £144 of our money in the accounts of its limited company, Bremholdings. BR is Brian and Em is Emma, two of four family shareholders in the usual sort of company with £100 of shares - Br £52, Em £16.
Following the rushed semi-completion of a 7-page, 2,500-word contract, and the promise that it would not apply until we brought our motorhome in, the contract was used incorrectly (even if it had applied) to justify treating a large part of our advance payment as a non-returnable deposit. Hence the disappearing £144.
No amount of rational argument has changed a situation that has been made worse by the owner shredding the contract to eliminate any evidence of malfeasance. We never saw the contract after leaving it on that first day; we never did know to what extent the owner completed it; and in any case we didn't agree to it and it didn't apply anyway.
And all this just to park a motorhome in a field with an expensive gate? Up to 150 people apparently had no other choice. 150 x £400 = £60,000: a nice little earner for very little work, but apparently not quite enough!
The burden of the review and complaint is that Greenmount Storage holds £144 of our money in the accounts of its limited company, Bremholdings. BR is Brian and Em is Emma, two of four family shareholders in the usual sort of company with £100 of shares - Br £52, Em £16.
Following the rushed semi-completion of a 7-page, 2,500-word contract, and the promise that it would not apply until we brought our motorhome in, the contract was used incorrectly (even if it had applied) to justify treating a large part of our advance payment as a non-returnable deposit. Hence the disappearing £144.
No amount of rational argument has changed a situation that has been made worse by the owner shredding the contract to eliminate any evidence of malfeasance. We never saw the contract after leaving it on that first day; we never did know to what extent the owner completed it; and in any case we didn't agree to it and it didn't apply anyway.
And all this just to park a motorhome in a field with an expensive gate? Up to 150 people apparently had no other choice. 150 x £400 = £60,000: a nice little earner for very little work, but apparently not quite enough!
The 4,000-character Review Published in Google and Elsewhere
"We are a retired couple with a combined age of 160 years who visited Greenmount Storage on a cold December afternoon seeking a storage location for our 9-year-old motorhome. We met Brian, the site owner who explained that there was a high demand for storage. We were interested and he gave us a scrap of paper measuring 4 inches by 4 inches on which he wrote that storage was £400 for 12 months, plus £10 for a ‘code’ and £35 deposit for a fob. This we took to be an invoice payable in advance. Standing outside in the cold open air, he also gave us a 7-page contract on a clipboard to read, complete, sign and return. Margaret volunteered, sheltering in her car, while Barry and the owner waited out in the open. The first two pages required completion with 45 items of personal data, followed by 5 pages containing 43 numbered paragraphs (2,232 words) of the contract itself, the gist of which was to absolve the site owner of liability for almost every eventuality
The period of the contract (the start date and end date) could not be completed, as it wasn’t known and had not been agreed. However, the site owner, both verbally and in handwriting on the back of the above 16 square inches of paper, stated that our contract would begin on the day that we brought the motorhome. This friendly informality of all this was reinforced when he simply signed this note “Brian”.
"We are a retired couple with a combined age of 160 years who visited Greenmount Storage on a cold December afternoon seeking a storage location for our 9-year-old motorhome. We met Brian, the site owner who explained that there was a high demand for storage. We were interested and he gave us a scrap of paper measuring 4 inches by 4 inches on which he wrote that storage was £400 for 12 months, plus £10 for a ‘code’ and £35 deposit for a fob. This we took to be an invoice payable in advance. Standing outside in the cold open air, he also gave us a 7-page contract on a clipboard to read, complete, sign and return. Margaret volunteered, sheltering in her car, while Barry and the owner waited out in the open. The first two pages required completion with 45 items of personal data, followed by 5 pages containing 43 numbered paragraphs (2,232 words) of the contract itself, the gist of which was to absolve the site owner of liability for almost every eventuality
The period of the contract (the start date and end date) could not be completed, as it wasn’t known and had not been agreed. However, the site owner, both verbally and in handwriting on the back of the above 16 square inches of paper, stated that our contract would begin on the day that we brought the motorhome. This friendly informality of all this was reinforced when he simply signed this note “Brian”.
Undated, but given to us during our first and only meeting on 14 December 2023, this scrap of paper is all we had as an invoice. We paid £445 into the business account of Bremholdings Ltd the following day.
Ultimately, the £35 deposit was repaid to us but £144 was retained in the accounts of Bremholdings Ltd through a series of illicit pretexts oulined in these documents.
Ultimately, the £35 deposit was repaid to us but £144 was retained in the accounts of Bremholdings Ltd through a series of illicit pretexts oulined in these documents.
Supporting his spoken words, this is the formal written promise made to us by site owner Brian Dixon at our first and only meeting on 14 December 2023. "Your contract will begin on the day that you bring your m/home."
We never brought the motorhome and so the contract never began.
And yet, in an email dated 17 January2024, he wrote: "You visited and signed the contract on 15th December 2023 which is agreed. This is the date the contract began."
And the meeting was the on 14 December 2023.
We never brought the motorhome and so the contract never began.
And yet, in an email dated 17 January2024, he wrote: "You visited and signed the contract on 15th December 2023 which is agreed. This is the date the contract began."
And the meeting was the on 14 December 2023.
Margaret (who is not the owner of the motorhome) signed the contract and we never saw the signature of the owner; in fact we never saw the contract again. Given the relaxed atmosphere, the site owner said he would complete all the missing data on the contract (even though one of us had already signed it) and we agreed to immediately pay £445 in advance to a company called Bremholdings Ltd. £400 of this was for 12 months’ storage. Next day Brian (who later emerged as the controlling director of that company) emailed to acknowledge receipt, saying how nice it had been to meet us.
Due to a change of personal circumstances in the New Year, and within 4 weeks of the meeting, we informed the site owner that we were unable to take up the storage and that Bremholdings Ltd should use our account to return the money. The site owner immediately replied that he would retain £33 for storage during the 4 weeks since we met (?), plus £66 for 2 months’ storage in lieu of notice (?), plus £10 for the ‘code’ (?) and £35 for administrative costs (?): a total of £144 or 36% of the £400 we had paid for 12 months’ storage.
He incorrectly claimed that all this was justified by the terms of the contract but it was invalid from its incomplete, haphazard and hurried inception, the lack of valid signatures, missing data, the absence of an agreed start date and the owner’s own written statement that the “contract will begin on the day that you bring your m/home”. Despite requests we never saw the semi-completed contract again and later the owner shredded it for no given reason. When advance payment is demanded for any date-bound future service – campsites, hotels, ferries, hire cars, flights, holidays – invariably the contract defines the penalties that apply for amending or cancelling the booking prior to its start date. There was no such provision at any stage or in any form at Greenmount Storage.
Bremholdings Ltd does not have a complaints procedure but after sending six fruitless emails, we reached the end of the first stage in our attempts to retrieve out money. The next stage of any sound complaints procedure is independent arbitration but the vehicle storage sector, like regular camping and static caravan sites, is unregulated. There are no codes of practice or oversight by statutory bodies, so we must appeal to the court of public opinion. The owner’s motivation must be intrinsic, given that a comfortable living is being made from perhaps 150 caravans and motorhomes being parked in what would otherwise be an empty field! So why keep our money with no justification?"
(700 words)
Due to a change of personal circumstances in the New Year, and within 4 weeks of the meeting, we informed the site owner that we were unable to take up the storage and that Bremholdings Ltd should use our account to return the money. The site owner immediately replied that he would retain £33 for storage during the 4 weeks since we met (?), plus £66 for 2 months’ storage in lieu of notice (?), plus £10 for the ‘code’ (?) and £35 for administrative costs (?): a total of £144 or 36% of the £400 we had paid for 12 months’ storage.
He incorrectly claimed that all this was justified by the terms of the contract but it was invalid from its incomplete, haphazard and hurried inception, the lack of valid signatures, missing data, the absence of an agreed start date and the owner’s own written statement that the “contract will begin on the day that you bring your m/home”. Despite requests we never saw the semi-completed contract again and later the owner shredded it for no given reason. When advance payment is demanded for any date-bound future service – campsites, hotels, ferries, hire cars, flights, holidays – invariably the contract defines the penalties that apply for amending or cancelling the booking prior to its start date. There was no such provision at any stage or in any form at Greenmount Storage.
Bremholdings Ltd does not have a complaints procedure but after sending six fruitless emails, we reached the end of the first stage in our attempts to retrieve out money. The next stage of any sound complaints procedure is independent arbitration but the vehicle storage sector, like regular camping and static caravan sites, is unregulated. There are no codes of practice or oversight by statutory bodies, so we must appeal to the court of public opinion. The owner’s motivation must be intrinsic, given that a comfortable living is being made from perhaps 150 caravans and motorhomes being parked in what would otherwise be an empty field! So why keep our money with no justification?"
(700 words)
The 900-character Review Published in Birdeye and Elsewhere
On 14 December 2023 we paid £400 in advance for 12 months’ motorhome storage which for personal reasons we couldn’t begin. The site owner kept £144 (36%), giving spurious reasons based on the inapplicable and invalid CaSSOA contract: 7 pages, 2 of them requiring 47 items of data and 5 of them with 43 paragraphs (over 2000 words), all absolving the site owner of any responsibility. Presented on a clipboard outdoors on a cold December afternoon, with no time to read let alone query the terms and conditions. Only some of the data could be completed and the period of the contract was left blank. Neither the motorhome owner nor the site owner signed it and we never saw the contract again. Later, when we asked for a copy, the site owner had shredded it. No proper invoice or receipt, just a 4”x4” scrap of paper on which the site owner had written that the contract would not begin until we brought the motorhome!
(164 words)
On 14 December 2023 we paid £400 in advance for 12 months’ motorhome storage which for personal reasons we couldn’t begin. The site owner kept £144 (36%), giving spurious reasons based on the inapplicable and invalid CaSSOA contract: 7 pages, 2 of them requiring 47 items of data and 5 of them with 43 paragraphs (over 2000 words), all absolving the site owner of any responsibility. Presented on a clipboard outdoors on a cold December afternoon, with no time to read let alone query the terms and conditions. Only some of the data could be completed and the period of the contract was left blank. Neither the motorhome owner nor the site owner signed it and we never saw the contract again. Later, when we asked for a copy, the site owner had shredded it. No proper invoice or receipt, just a 4”x4” scrap of paper on which the site owner had written that the contract would not begin until we brought the motorhome!
(164 words)