Pontin's Good afternoon, Pontin's.
Mktg Hi, I'm trying to save money on a friend's stag do. We wanted to go in the UK, and we thought Pontin's might be a good idea.
Pontin's Unfortunately, we don't accept stag dos or hen parties.
Mktg Oh, OK, we're quite reserved people, it's not going to be a big one.
Pontin's Unfortunately, there's no exceptions, I'm afraid.
Mktg What if we booked separately?
Pontin's How many of you are there?
Mktg There are six of us.
Pontin's And how old are you all?
Mktg All of us are 24.
Pontin's Usually they don't accept single-sex groups and one of you needs to be over 26.
Mktg We want something low-key.
Pontin's Where would you be looking to be going to?
Mktg Well, we're in London. Where's the closest Pontin's?
Pontin's The only thing I can do is put you through to the centre at Camber Sands in Sussex.
Mktg OK, thanks.
Pontin's I'll just put you through.
Mktg (Mktg holds.)
Pontin's Pontin's Camber Sands.
Mktg Hi, I've just been speaking to your head office. Myself and five friends are looking to book Pontin's for a stag. We're 24, but didn't want something crazy, just fun and cheap. She said it wasn't possible, but I want to know if there's any way around it.
Pontin's Is it for a stag do?
Mktg Yes, I don't want to lie, but she said one of us needs to be over 26, but you don't accept single-sex groups. I'm slightly confused.
Pontin's You need to be 25 or over.
Mktg Well one of us will be 25 then.
Pontin's OK, what did she say about single sex?
Mktg That you don't accept single-sex parties.
Pontin's OK, no, we can't do stag dos. We have older people here who get quite fussy about noise.
Mktg We don't want a big one. I've seen the ad about Pontin's being cheaper than Butlins.
Pontin's We'd definitely be cheaper than Butlins, but I don't know whether they accept stags.
Mktg OK, well I'll give them a call.
VERDICT
Both call-handlers made the policy seem confusing. The first explained that Pontin's didn't accept stag dos but still wanted to know our ages and how many of us there were.
The second thought the age was different and was very slow in understanding anything I said.
Although one can accept the reasoning behind the policy, the fact that there was leeway, and it was up to the individual site's discretion, complicated the whole phone call.
SCORE 3/10.