Go Ape refusing refund

Yep, I back you up in this and ALL others who have worked in customer service will as well, managers actually don’t answer their phone to staff looking for them, they also mostly avoid customers like this and leave it to the lower pay grades to deal with, customer services get bullied by the public relentlessly and I don’t even mean with shouting and swearing, I mean with this relentless wearing down of them with call after call or email after email, until they get what they want, which is always a FULL REFUND PLUS MORE MONETARY COMPENSATION, when that’s not what they deserve.

That is the fault of the business. They should not be putting people on the front line without any recourse to someone else or power to actually do anything. Additionally, complaining and abusing are not the same thing. I do get people can be utter arses but the OP is not one of those, she is just standing up for herself & kids.

Always someone higher to take over?

That's rubbish.

I dealt with all the customers myself.

If a customer asked to speak to a manager , I was told by my manager to tell the customer that

"the manager has said that she will say the exact same thing to you that I did."

Managers won't just come on a phone, just because a customer is insisting on talking to a manager.

Yes I saw my colleagues extremely upset every single day, after taking abuse from customers.

I myself left the job because I couldn't take the abuse from customers anymore.

Customers are unrealistic, and never think that they did anything wrong themselves.

How is you getting a refund because you were cheated of 13 minutes climbing going to help your son? I think it seems odd to claim this is all about your son because children don’t tend to be moved by refunds issued to their parents.

What nonsense. I've worked in customer service too and there's always someone higher than you who can take over. If not, again, it's the company's fault. Crying over emails indeed. I mean sure if she's making personal attacks. Otherwise you know as well as I do they will be rolling their eyes and bitching about her at worst. If not they need to toughen up like these autistic kids had to.

This, are other posters saying if people come and spend 1hr on stage 1, they should be refunded and get to come back and do stage 2, then again for 3 and 4 separately?

FWIW I completely agree with you. You didn’t get what you paid for. Them offering you 10% off a future visit (£6!) is so little as to be actually offensive. They are NOT demonstrating awareness of hidden disabilities and NOT showing any fairness.

At the very least, I’d expect a 50% refund or a free future visit. It wouldn’t even put a dent in their profits. Very bad form from them.

Yes I think the reply is sufficient. They've given you a gesture because they didn't communicate the time you had accurately. But you did get to do the activity.

Also I'm not really sure what you mean about hidden disabilities? What does being hidden disability/sunflower lanyard friendly mean in this instance?

Not trying to be goady just genuinely don't get what you mean.

We were told we would have the chance to do 4 levels if we wished.

You did have the chance, but you were too slow? They didn’t say anything wrong.

If you're going to make a complaint that you didn't get the experience you wanted because it started late, then you need to include this information.

As you haven't, and, as per your email, just put, "We booked for the only available slot left which was 16:30 and arrived by 16:15 to be in plenty of time.
We had to wait for a while for the safety briefing which was fine, and we got started" then they're not going to know that it's the driving factor for your complaint.

What they've offered seems fair; because what you've complained about is not that you were kept waiting and therefore lost half an hour of your slot!

Sorry this is on you. You've sent a woolly waffling email not clearly outlining what the issue was and what you want as a response.

For the future, that's how you get what you want. "I paid for a 2 hour slot and we only got 1.5 hours due to your instructor arriving late for the safety briefing. I would appreciate a refund of a quarter of what I paid to make up for this disappointing experience".

The manager will be going to whichever poor sod did the introduction and asking them why they told the customer they would definitely be doing all 4 courses. He/she will say "I didn't! I said they had the chance to do 4 courses," and they will be told, "Well next time make sure the customer understands that doesn't mean they are guaranteed to do 4 courses. They've been complaining for nearly a week now because of you."

We have empathy.

Its young people who work in those activity centres.

I know that one of those young people will be crying and upset, having to go through the OPs many aggressive emails.

I've worked in customer service. I've had to comfort colleagues wo had to deal with customers like her.

These places do their best. They are busy.

She isn't being rude she's behaving suspiciously like somebody who's being dishonest and people are within their right to voice that opinion. People who've been on the other side have also tried to explain how distressing it is when they get a customer like this who is like a dog with a bone, changes their story to fit their narritive and who just can't be appeased no matter what. Honestly nobody gets paid enough for that shit

I'd still ask for a full refund.

Some posters are incredible spiteful on this thread. Even if you disagree with the OP I don't understand why some posters have to be so snide and catty. It's pathetic. It's not hard to set out why you disagree with the OP without the sad little comments.
The OP hasn't been rude. She has been confusing but not rude.

I was just reading this thread and thinking "thank god I don't workbin customer service anymore, and I don't have to deal with people like the OP ever again".

An apology is never enough for those kind of people. They will go on and on, sending five page emails.

Someone will very upset at having to deal with you OP

Mistakes do happen and the staff I'm sure meant well.

But Go Ape is a profit making company not a charity, and one of the ways it tries to expand its clientele and therefore profit is by advertising how friendly it is for people with hidden disabilities, so that parents of children with hidden disabilities cough up the entry fee. If Go Ape's staff training falls short and means that they are unable to provide an experience in line with that they should be offering proportional refunds.

Obviously you try to teach your children resilience and coping mechanisms for this stuff. Their whole lives feel like a series of coping mechanisms sometimes. But that doesn't mean you should accept an ND tax when somebody is making money off you. That is quite a separate thing. If this were an outdoor pursuit charity or something it would be quite different (but you can guarantee a charity would train its staff better).

You are being very precious and pushy. You knew that extra time might be useful, so you should have booked further in advance to secure an appropriate slot. You used Go Ape's site and their staff, so why should you get away with paying nothing? Are you for real?

Maybe she's teaching them that if a business makes a mistake that results in the customer losing part of a service they've paid for the onus should be on the business to cover the cost, not the customer.

I do agree with you that often people do kick off when it is unnecessary/inappropriate, my undiagnosed ASD father was terrible for this, but going home and writing an email is not the same as kicking off in front of your children. Discrimination doesn't appear to be the cause in this case either, just staff wanting to get home faster!

This is one of the best posts I've ever seen 👏

You only got to do 75% of the course so they should refund you 25% plus a little for the inconvenience/time/travel/etc. a 10% discount voucher is an insult. We'd like to show we're sorry by inviting you to add more of your hard earned cash to bolster our profits!

Ask for a 50% refund.

I absolutely love Go Ape and have always found them incredibly good with my son who has ADHD.

I think it’s fine to speak to companies if you have a concern but I do think in this case a full refund is unjustified

Hi OP, I posted earlier in the thread encouraging you to ask for a proportionate refund.

However as the thread as evolved I've reconsidered. Go Ape will probably say "you could have spent longer on stage 4 and spent a full hour in the trees. It's on this basis we're not refunding you".

It seems like it was your choice to rush stage 4. You never would have had the time to do stage 3 too in the time remaining but you could have spent longer on stage 4 than you did.

With the other stresses in your life just let this go. If you otherwise enjoyed the experience try Wild Wood or other Go Ape type things that aren't Go Ape...

I think Go Ape should rebrand as “Go Apeshit” judging by this thread.