Euro Campers, bed bugs and the incredible handling of this incident

Update May 23, 2017: This story has been taken up by New Zealand media. There is an article in stuff.co.nz and a full cover TV story on New Zealand consumer rights show Fair Go.

What is this about?

Starting January 2017 we travelled for two months in a motorhome from Euro Campers, a New Zealand based rental company. Right from the beginning we suffered from very nasty insect bites, which we attributed to the infamous New Zealand sand flies. Unfortunately only close to the end of our rental period we found out who really was to blame: bed bugs! And they were in the motorhome before us. We found another customer that had the same experience. And their infested motorhome was exactly the one Euro Campers gave to us.

This was a very bad experience already, but things got worse by the way Euro Campers dealt with the situation.

Note: We surely are frustrated by the way we were treated and the damages (financial, physical and emotional) we suffered. Nonetheless we do our best to be as objective as possible. It is not our intent to "let it all out" and bash Euro Campers in an unfair way. But we want to warn potential customers of the risks of bed bugs in motorhomes in general and of dealing with Euro Campers in particular.

Update April 21, 2017: We have been approached by other Euro Campers customers who read our story. And they have similar experiences. One customer "inherited" a bed bug infested camper van from the other and Euro Campers didn't take appropriate measures apart from minimum damage control. This shows that our case is not one of the rare few (they pretend each time that this is a new topic for them and that this has never happened before). Their misconduct contributes to the spread of the bed bug epidemic and must be stopped.

What happened? The short story.

• We got a bed bug infested motorhome from Euro Campers in which we travelled in for 54 days and suffered from nasty bites and sleepless nights until we discovered what was going on. As we just found out, Euro Campers was fully aware of the infestation since another customer of the exact same motorhome complained about it. But they obviously didn't take appropriate action to counter it.
• While Euro Campers treated their motorhome (albeit insufficiently) they didn't care about the infestation of our belongings. We had to organise and pay for that on our own and invest nearly two weeks doing that on the road.
• Euro Campers management was not available to deal with the incident on the spot. They were on holiday and weren't to be disturbed - they needed to relax!
• We have paid our motorhome for 11 more days that we didn't use it (for details see the long story).
• While paying for our motorhome we also paid for alternative accommodation as well as a rental car (for details see the long story).
• We paid a specialist nearly 500 NZD for a cryonite (cold) treatment for our belongings.
• We lost substantial part of our belongings in the process of decontamination.
• Besides the financial and immediate physical damages we as well as our little children still suffer emotionally from this traumatic event.
• Euro Campers paid for one night in a motel and offered a car for three days. Other than that we got NO REFUND OR COMPENSATION. They did offer a replacement three days after we returned the motorhome. See the long story why we declined.

What happened? The long story.

Discovering the bed bugs

On February 27, 2017, 54 days into our journey and after many sleepless hours due to very irritating and painful bites, we caught what turned out to be a bed bug in our motorhome (Google search turned a hunch into certainty). Utterly disgusted and shocked we took watch in turns to protect our two young children (then 20 months and 4 years). We killed a total of 13 bed bugs that night and educated ourselves about bed bugs online.

The bed bugs were there before us

Only with the knowledge about the bed bugs we made sense of the signs we missed before. The supposed sand fly bites (pretty common in NZ) were actually bed bug bites which often follow the pattern of a line (the bed bug tries to find a blood vessel and bites until they find one).

The stain in the curtains which we recognised on day one but thought to be a sign of wear (since the motorhome was 6 years old and did show that overall) was actually bed bug poo. Besides we have been travelling as customers of Euro Campers in two other vehicles since November 2016, and have not been bitten before entering this motorhome in January 2017.

Update: We managed to contact the customer who complained about bed bugs on the platform Rankers. They confirmed that their infested motorhome had the same registration as ours. So Euro Campers blatantly lied about this fact since we specifically asked whether that was the case. And it also shows undoubtedly that Euro Campers doesn't take appropriate actions to deal with the infestation.

Euro Campers crisis (mis)management part one

Dealing with the motorhome (Tuesday, February 28, 2017)

The next morning we called the service hotline of Euro Campers. Since we were close we were called to come to their Auckland branch. Arriving at the Auckland branch Euro Campers made a first offer, how to deal with the situation: A pest management service company was to treat the motorhome with pesticides. After a night to wear off we could move back in after we cleaned the motorhome ourselves. They generously offered cleaning tools (excuse the sarcasm). We declined.

_{(The pesticide treatment alone is not sufficient.} Scientific American_{: " No single technique can eliminate bed bugs - combinations of approaches are essential to getting the job done." Also with the recent experience of the bed bugs in the motorhome we just couldn't stomach to go into one especially since we knew how carelessly Euro Campers handled the matter. Off the record even the pest manager advised us not to go back in. Euro Campers offered to change the upholstery which leaves you with the question where the old one would go. Probably in another motorhome possibly spreading the infestation there.)}

Anyway we had to spend the night somewhere. They offered to organise a motel but initially refused to pay for it, which made us upset. After discussing the matter internally they agreed to pay for it.

While being overwhelmed with the situation and initially trying to deflect, the staff member that dealt with us directly tried to help us within the confines of not being empowered to make relevant decisions. She said that has never happened before. Either that was a lie or the internal knowledge sharing is non existent. A quick Google search reveals a review on Rankers which states another recent bed bug infestation and the irresponsible handling by Euro Campers. Overall we were not satisfied how Euro Campers handled the situation and we wanted to talk to the general manager. Our request was denied. The reason: the general manager was on holiday and was not to be disturbed since he needed the recreation. We were stunned by how the priorities were set by Euro Campers. Clearly the recreation of the paying customer is not a top priority. In the end there simply was nobody who took ownership and could make any substantial decisions.

Also the owner of Euro Campers, who was personally very present in the sales and handing over process at which he was having lunch with us, completely disappeared and refused any involvement leaving the impression that he is only interested in the sale but not the customer.

Update: We found Yu Ching Poh online and she confirmed that their motorhome had the same registration as ours. We got their infested motorhome!

Dealing with our belongings (Wednesday, March 1, 2017)

Euro Campers cared about their motorhome only. What they completely ignored were our belongings. Their statements as well as their actions make us believe they have little to no knowledge about the severity of as well the treatment of an bed bug infestation (if you want to know more read here or here). The big problem is, that any item in the motorhome was potentially infested with live bed bugs or even eggs, which are extremely difficult to detect.

We rushed because we had to empty all our belongings from the motorhome so the pesticide treatment of their vehicle could take place. We put all our stuff in open carts or bags or simply build heaps in a corner of their workshop.

_{(That actually is a big mistake if you want to treat a bed bug infestation as we later learned. You need to put everything in airtight sealed bags to prevent any live bed bug from running away. So you can only wonder what happened that night in the Euro Campers workshop.)}

Upon our request the staff member dealing with us washed and dried our clothes. Of course we couldn't treat all of our clothes that way especially the merino clothes, which we had a lot of.

_{(Hot washing and drying is an effective treatment to kill bed bugs as well as their eggs but cannot be applied to clothes of wool, silk or the likes. Also you can't treat suit cases, electronic equipment, books, toys, food, etc. like that. So we had a lot of work ahead of us and needed different methods.)}

We were given a car until Friday March 3 in order to be able to move. We went to The Warehouse and bought a set of "emergency clothes", since we didn't have anything left to change.

After a night at the motel we organised another pest control management company that used the cryonite method to kill bed bugs with cold. That way we could treat bags, electronic equipment, toys and the clothes we couldn't treat with heat. So there was still a substantial part of our belongings that wasn't sufficiently treated.

_{(This method is a good complement to heat because it's effects are immediate, leave no residue and are environmentally friendly. There are limitations though. The dried ice only works on surfaces and won't help against bed bugs hidden in deeper layers of materials or areas that can't be reached directly.)}

Euro Campers refused to pay for the treatment.

We now had to organise accommodation for the following nights as well as a rental car since we had to return the car on Friday March 3. Euro Campers refused to pay for any accommodation. They offered another motorhome from Friday March 3 though, which we declined.

_{(Again: With the recent experience of the bed bugs in the motorhome we just couldn't stomach to go into one especially since we knew how carelessly Euro Campers handled the matter. Also we still hadn't managed to treat all of our belongings. So we needed more space and different tools to do the job. At that stage thinking of holidays was just not possible).}

Finishing the treatment (until Sunday, March 12, 2017)

We used ovens, freezers, hot dryers, and manual cleaning with alcohol and systematically checked and individually treated all of our items (some multiple times with various methods) until we could be as certain as possible that no bed bugs of any stage were in our belongings. Some didn't survive the process and we had to get rid of quite a few things.

_{(To describe all of that would be a long and boring list of details. But it was a lot of hard work and no fun at all to organize while keeping our two young ones happy.)}

Euro Campers crisis (mis)management part two

Since we couldn't talk to the general manager when we dealt with the incident initially we wrote an email explaining in detail what happened and gave a lot of background information on the severity of the bed bug infestation and why we think their actions were insufficient. The response by the general manager was again very disappointing. He was not taking responsibility and claimed that hiring the pest control was a fully sufficient response by which they fulfilled their duty. After three emails of back and forth and no sign of constructive dialog we gave up. We simply weren't taken seriously.

Another NZ based rental company handled the case differently and offered a full refund - see here. And also a bed bug case with Hilton Hotels was handled differently - see here.

Conclusion

To this day Euro Campers does not take responsibility for the incident. They argue that they did everything after they received notice of the infestation, that is treating the vehicle with pesticides and offering to return it the next day. They completely ignore the impact on our belongings and show no understanding of the severity of a bed bug infestation and shortcoming of their actions. With the recent confirmation that we got an infested vehicle we now have the proof for this.

We will now take legal action and update this website accordingly.

Customer expectations missed by a mile

First of all we expected to receive a pest free motorhome. We know that a bed bug infestation can occur anywhere, but there need to be competent staff and processes to recognise an infestation and deal with it appropriately. For instance the cleaning crew should have recognised the stains in the curtains and interpreted them correctly as they should be experts and aware of problem. Instead of attaching fragrant sacs they should take appropriate precautions to prevent an infestation like this. For NZD 333 per day this shouldn't be too much to ask for.

Dealing with an incident like this we expect predefined processes to be in place. Euro Campers should have taken the lead and produce a sustainable overall solution also dealing with the impact on the customer. We as customers were forced to do research overnight on bed bug infestation and treatment, evaluate appropriate counter measures and orchestrate the implementation for our belongings. We felt completely left alone, not taken seriously and treated as a pain that needed to go away as quickly and painless (for Euro Campers) as possible. We surely didn't feel like customers who just spent over 20000 Euros but are now left with financial damages in the thousands and ruined holidays and have to deal with the aftermath and legal action.

Update: It is even worse than we thought. Euro Campers didn't need an expert to discover the bed bugs. Another customer told them. Whatever they did in response obviously wasn't enough. They deceived us about this interconnection and lied to us from the beginning. Probably hoping that we would let it go as the other customer did.

_{(Note: Euro Campers is another brand of Global Campers, they also appear as Eurocamper / Eurocampers / Globalcampers or via the brand Heron Campers)}