A MUM has revealed her fury after her family's holiday accommodation asked her to pay £20 for the return of her daughter's teddy bear after it was left behind in the flat.

Donna Nevill, 34, says her daughter Summer, 9, relies on the teddy to sleep as she is autistic.

However, the holiday apartment company through which they booked is still insisting that they must pay the fee.

Mrs Nevill, along with Summer's dad Richard and her three children, had gone on holiday from Norfolk to Slough in order to take in some of the London sights nearby.

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The family booked a holiday flat with Onpoint Apartments but decided to leave a day early, on July 1, because they were not satisfied with the state of their accommodation.

Things went from bad to worse as they only discovered upon returning home and tucking young Summer into bed that they had left the all-important teddy behind.

When the family contacted Onpoint they were sent an invoice for £20 to send the comforting toy back, leaving Donna furious.

"I messaged the apartments who said they were sending the cleaners in. The cleaners found it and I was told that if I paid postage they would send it back", she said.

"I told them that they should really send it back for free as a gesture of goodwill as the apartment was shocking – we complained straight away and nothing was done about it. It took me over a week of phoning them every day asking 'what are you going to do about it?'"

"I had an autistic, distressed child who was crying all the time because of it."

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"They eventually sent me the invoice and it was £20. It's just a teddy bear – it does not cost that much to send it back. I am prepared to pay a fiver, maybe a tenner, but not £20."

"The attitude has just been 'we don't care, you're not getting it back unless you pay.'"

She added that the family are struggling with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, meaning she cannot afford to shell out £20 just for a teddy bear to be posted back to the family.

Onpoint have issued a defiant statement, saying: "We detail in our terms of conditions of stay that any items left behind after check out is solely down to the responsibility of the guest."

"With this particular matter, the guest contacted us to advise that she left behind her child’s teddy and needed this item back. We worked with the guest, located the teddy and offered a collection of the item, this was rejected due to the guest living too far away from the property."

"We would like to stress that we are by no means taking any profit from this scenario."

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"As a small business, we employ individuals that charge a call out fee; this includes packaging the item, labelling the item, travelling to and from the post office and the cost to post the item (first class, recorded delivery for tracking purposes). Being a small business, this is not something we can absorb."

The statement finished by laying blame at the Nevill's door: "As the item has a significant importance for her daughter, along with the understanding that this is the guests' error and the factors involved that determine the £20 cost, we would have hoped for a solution from the guest instead of the need to approach a newspaper."

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