Termdates.co.uk - word of caution

[cittigirl]

Check and double check before believing their verified dates. I've booked a holiday after looking at their published dates and it turns out they were incorrect. They've not had the courtesy of replying to my calls or emails either!

I'm not expecting any replies, this is just a word of warning.

[user1472882241]

Hi 'Cittigirl'. Firstly, just a quick message to confirm receipt of your message. We do not reply to communication from parents and never have done. This is a particularly busy time of year for us helping Schools verify their dates. We operate an award winning website to help parents easily find the term dates and school holidays for any school across the UK. Out of 1000's of websites across the UK, we were included in the 'Best New Websites' category by Web User magazine. There are 3 levels of verification (Awaiting Verification, LEA Verified, and then Verified by our own verification team or the School). Whilst dates can be Verified, with more than 30,000 schools on our website, human error and mistakes do happen. Just to give you an idea, we have identified mistakes with the dates published on more than 20 School websites in the last two weeks alone.

We also make a recommendation in our Terms of Use that you check the dates with the dates published by your School or Local Education Authority.

Please be rest assured that we are passionate about the product we have developed and the service we provide parents. Kind Regards Jason

[ladygracie]

What a lovely advert for your website there Jason. But no acknowledgment that there is an error. I hope you have now resolved it.
Cittigitl - how annoying. Any chance of being authorised the time off if you explain?

[Chickydoo]

Hi Op
Term dates were wrong for my DS school too! Like you almost booked a trip, thank God I phoned the school first. I think that using a site like Term dates is pointless if they can't be trusted to get it right

[ladygracie]

Actually I've just checked the school I work in & those are wrong too. They say verified but are definitely incorrect.

[regularbutpanickingabit]

Yep, wrong for all 3 of our schools too. Definitely not to be relied on.

[user1472882241]

Can you please confirm what schools please and I will personally check the dates now. Thank you. Kind Regards Jason

[Scarydinosaurs]

Yup, wrong for my school too. 100% pointless website clearly just out for advertising revenue and doesn't realise people expect accuracy.

[Scarydinosaurs]

Jason- so now you do respond to parents?? Might be good to ask parents on your website to flag up when things are wrong instead of saying you're too busy and ignoring them.

[LadyPenelope68]

Totally wrong for my children's school and the one I work at! To be honest, why would you use a website like that, just contact the school!!

[poweredbytoast]

Wrong here too...

[SolomanDaisy]

Hey Jason, you've forgotten to use the word sorry or acknowledge that your customer has had a bad experience! Good to hear you're passionate about the product though. Presumably not so much about those pesky people trying to use it.

[user1472882241]

I do care. And I will take that on board and discuss with our team next week to see if we can provide a simple contact form so parents can let us know is the dates are incorrect. Thanks! Jason

[bittapitta]

Jason this is not a free customer service forum! Respond on the appropriate channels ie the OP said she emailed you. Rude. Pointless website anyway to be honest, just check on the school's own website.

[Sirzy]

I think the best approach with this is to stick to checking with the school itself rather than relying on any business to tell you.

[Chickydoo]

Actually, no I won't give you my DS school, why should I do the research that you should have already done!
I will simply say, outer London. By the way the school know you have the dates wrong too, they are not happy.

[Goingtobeawesome]

What an odd business idea.

[anorakgirl]

Just checked ours and both wrong (in the South, one secondary one primary.) I don't see the point in using a website if you're then told to double check with the school, surely it's easier just to go straight to the school or am I missing something?

[RustyBear]

This is a particularly busy time of year for us helping Schools verify their dates. You mean schools helping you verify your dates.

This is a particularly busy time of year for schools too, so if you are one of the many 'service providers' who ring our school office to 'check our information', don't expect us to have time to do your job as well as ours, especially if you ring at the start or end of the school day.

Of course, you could always look on our website, where the dates for our school are correct, unlike those on the termdates site.

[user1472882241]

Alot of small primary Schools do not actually have a website or if they do they do not have a CMS system in place to add the school holidays and term dates. They use our website to keep parents informed. Hope this helps.

[Diamogs]

So other than to raise advertising revenue for Jason, what is the point of the site?

Most schools publish their term dates on their website if not then they are on the LA site.

[Thingvellir]

Don't people just check their local council website for this? Our LEA (a London borough) publishes dates 2 years in advance. Don't get the point of a middleman website...

[IDismyname]

Well, what a complete waste of time! A website called 'Term dates' full of unreliable and incorrect dates, and the guy running it cannot bring himself to say sorry!

Jason... You have no idea how many people are reading this.

Everyone else - just contact the school of check the LEA websites before booking holidays.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Wrong for our local secondary schools too.

[Sirzy]

If a school doesn't have a website then you do the old fashioned thing of going to the office and saying "do you have a list of holidays" - hardly rocket science!