Skiing Europe/Chris Reynard - Children's ski holiday left in ruins.

A snowHead

Sure, I see how it matters what names Reynard trades under, but I still don't see the relevance of what names PGL trades under. But it doesn't matter. There is plenty not to understand so what is another little piece. Laughing

A snowHead

Bode Swiller, only position 8. Must try harder.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Shimmy Alcott, the innuendo queen.

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I wonder how much money he's taken in deposits for next year. He was ringing round party leaders in desperation last year, offering them free trips to Antigua with his Westward Holidays, if they booked for 2012!

After all it is free

skigirl35, offering bribes to school teacher party leaders Puzzled

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skigirl35,

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Yes I was. He called me and offered me a week in Antigua partly as a 'thank you' if I booked with him for 2012, but also to check out what Westward Holidays could offer to schools. Needless to say, I declined.
I know I wasn't the only one as I talked to another party leader who'd had a similar call.

You know it makes sense.

skigirl35, thanks. That sets your earlier post in context.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

seleaks wrote

A snowHead

daveyladboy, daveyladboy,
Ok, the telephone numbers of the schools might help to identify them then, but we need somebody from the schools themselves to come forward and tells us what happened. Or would an interested headmaster or a solicitor working for an affected school call them and find out? The word is that only Chinthurst went to resort at Easter. NONE of the others managed it! Sad

WELLACRE 01617 485 011
QUINTON KYNASTON 0207586 8473
EDGBARROW 01344 772 658
WELLINGTON 01823 668 800
MANOR SCHOOL 01235 858 458
CARDINAL HEENAN 01512 283 472
OLIVER BULLOCK 01984 623 483
KING EDWARD V1 01790 753 260
QUEENS COLLEGE 01823 272 990
HOCKERILL 01279 658 451
CHARLTON 01952 386 800

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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

seleaks
Nice one! Wonder why posh Chinthurst got away....

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seleaks
Chinthursts website has no mention of an Easter ski trip, but does mention a Feb one, to Interlaken, and that Mr Thorpe, the head had been for an inspection visit...

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Interesting note from the head of Tavistock - www.tavistockcollege.devon.sch.uk/blog/archives/2011/04/entry_6.html

Worryingly he's taken deposits for 2012 from at least one party
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/p/470614/6687995.aspx

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daveyladboy, Sad

at least they seem to be aware and will hopefully proceed with caution

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

daveyladboy, the inspection trip was reported on 23rd April 2010, so does that mean that the hotel was booked at that time ? which seems to conflict with reports on here that the Interlaken hotels had never been booked by SE Puzzled

After all it is free

daveyladboy,
Sorry daveyladboy, I made a mistake. Part of Chinthurst went to Interlaken in February. Most of the kids decided it was too risky and could not afford to pay again for the hotel accommodation. The rest, 10 or 11 I believe, went and paid again.
The only school that went at Easter was Wellington. Don't know if they had to pay again or if everything was provided by SE. Wellington should be removed from the list in my previous posting.

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snowjoe
Spot on! They were booked to go to Meiringen in early April. Glad the kids got away...

seleaks no worries, Chinturst added to the list...

The skiing europe/Chris Reynard totaliser now stands at:
February Half Term
Reading Grammar School - 100 children - £90,000 (www.getreading.co.uk)
Tavistock College - 120 children - £90,000 (BBC News)
Tonbridge Grammar School - 33 children - c£27,000? (www.thisiskent.co.uk)
Alcester Grammar School - ? children - c£20,000 (this thread)
Easter Hols
Meole Brace School - 52 children - £41,000 (www.shropshirestar.com)
Mount Grace School - c120 children? - c£90,000? (this thread)
Beechwood Park School - c38 children? - c£35,000? (this thread)
Purbeck - 42 children - £33,600 (BBC News)
Ferndown - c28 children? - c£22,400 (BBC News/This thread)
St Helena School, Colchester £12,000 (http://teachersupport.info)
Girvan Academy - ?
Salisbury Cathedral School - ?
Wellacre - ?
Quinton Kynaston - ?
Edgbarrow - ?
Cardinal Heenan - ?
Queen's College - ?
Oliver Bullock - ?
King Edward VI - ?
Hockerill - ?
Charlton - ?
Chinthurst Prep, Surrey - ?
The Manor Prep, Abingdon - ? - approx 20 people? C£18,000
Then factor in unpaid staff, coach companies, lift passes, ski hire & hotels from the trips that did get away.
Approx (at least) £469,000 and counting...
It's been recently reported that 18 schools have 'had problems with accomodation'- if you know of any schools missing from the list, please post some details.

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daveyladboy, WELLACRE did have a trip booked, I don't know any more details, other than the fact I was due to be one of the instructors on that trip, so they must have had a booking.

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Hey Guys Sorry to But in, but I noticed this thread after working for one of the companies that were driving for Ski-ing Europe.

The company I work for is based in the Midlands and were approached by Skiing Europe as quite a last minute thing, roughly 4 weeks before departure, I do believe he booked 9 or so Coaches to Visit Switzerland, Austria, Italy and France. The company took on these jobs before knowing what SE were like.

The deposit for all coaches were never payed after repeatedly contacting SE warning of cancellation, One of the schools that we were taking was Alcester Grammer School, and because of them not wanting to dissapoint the children, they offered to pay our Coach company direct which was around £12,000 for 3 coaches. First of all I believe they had trouble (they were ok for the first few nights) the hotel then told the school they were going to kick them out as the bill was nto settled by SE, so that was more money the school had to PERSONALLY pay out.

The rest of the coaches were due to depart in and around the 18th and 19th of February, Some of them travelling on the 18th were finally payed on the 18th after the Coach Company cancelled the bookings. I was the driver on one of the Coaches picking a school up near Cambridge to go to St. Johann in Tirol. (Unsure whether to disclose the name of the school as its not on your list yet).

This is where the story begins, the coach was cancelled by the Coach Company but then payed for the day of departure which is pretty bad organisation!.

Obviously we were all ready and set (with maps etc) for St. Johann, we just about the bored the ferry when the 'Organising Teacher' gets a phone call informing a change of hotel, all we were told was go to IMST. The Teachers and Us drivers were both sceptical about this. Also while we were in Dover we picked up a Ski Representative and a Ski Instructor which we were not aware of. Everythign was dandy on the journey there and we finally found our hotel which they did phone and tell us about when we hit Germany (almost 7 hours into the Journey).

The hotel was not as SE promised the school as there were shared bathrooms and food was not what was asked for. We do believe the price of the hotel was 25€ PPPN including food where as the other hotel was more uprated with private ensuites... We also found it funny how the hotel we stayed in was empty and could accomodate nearly 30 children booked the night before... APPARENTLY!!

Next obstacle we hit was Ski Passes for the Ski Lifts. We spent the first day at Hoch Imst where they got all there equiptment and ski passes, the next day we took a trip to Hochzieger which was 20KM away from Hoch Imst to find out that some of the passes wasnt accepted, us and the Ski Rep had to take a trip back to Hoch Imst (in the coach which isnt cheap) spent a good 4hours trying to sort out passes while she (the rep) was on the phone to Chris Reynard. He just wasnt interested. We finally made it back to Hochzieger and everything started runnign smoothly again.

As the hotel was different, all the activities and nights out had been cancelled so times were tough to try and entertain 30 children. This was all out of one of the teachers PERSONAL credit cards.

Our last and main obstical was the day we spent an hour shopping in Imst to find the coach surrounded by angree Ski hire employee's who also got the police involved. Skiing Europe had payed for the hire of the ski equiptment by cheque which bounced back, we were told that the coach was not alowed to move due to being in transit of so called Stolen Goods, 2 of the Teachers, the Ski Rep and ourselves (the drivers) had to attend the police station for questions. The Ski Rep bein a young girl who was very good got told she was to blame and that the coach cant get anywhere unless she pays 300€ up front. She obviously was in tears and could not physically pay and after trying to contact Chris Reynard again, it seems all the lines were dead and he was ignoring everything.

This finally got resolved by the teacher, yet again using hit OWN PERSONAL credit card.

The day we left for home we dreading hitting the Ferry Port just encase the ferrys weren't payed for but luckily this was pre-sorted.

The whole trip was a disaster for the school, especially when the teachers had to make some stories up about being in the police station and were begged not to mension it to the parents which I believe is wrong as SE was to blame.

I am now with the Ski Rep (as sparks flew) and she has still yet to be paid for a trip, she has been told she wont get her £500+ that she is owed due to SE being no longer as staff were made redundant etc..

She has also just done an interview at BBC Radio 4 in Brighton which im not sure when will be broadcasted but will let you know.

Sorry about the essay!

if you remember skiinglegals, wrote

You know it makes sense.

On the contrary - many thanks for the essay!.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

RandomCoachDriver, thanks for all the information. I'm glad you found us, hopefully more people will too and wont give Chris Reynard or Skiing Europe another penny.

You say you are now with the ski rep...as in being a couple?? If so snowHead

A snowHead

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=76413&highlight= Shocked

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sunnbuel, just a newbie not knowing the ropes.

Please all, can we be gentle with the newbie? Very Happy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Shimmy Alcott, hopefully, and thats why he got a Laughing

But seriously it is good to hear a genuine example of just what havoc folk like SE cause and the lengths to which the good guys have to go to mop up the mess left behind.

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RandomCoachDriver
Thank you for your post.

You've confirmed what many of us suspected, which is that many of the schools adversely affected by all of this are simply too embarrassed to make themselves known to a wider audience.

The incidents that you mention were reported earlier - it's great to get a first-hand perspective of events.

How much do you think the school/staff etc were out of pocket?

I'd prefer to think that you're right about the company going bust - but skiing europe/Chris Reynard are taking deposits for next year.

According to the Head of Tavistock College the matter is not being dealt with by Devon Trading Standards, but by the police as they believe there is a criminal case of fraud to answer. In this case I'd suggest you, your company, the school/staff involved and the rep make statements to them, sooner rather than later.

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After all it is free

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RandomCoachDriver, from what I can gather, Chris Reynard and Skiing Europe are not bankrupt though he has made his staff redundant.

Help!!

Skiing Europe/Chris Reynard - Children's ski holiday left in ruins.

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