Was I being unreasonable to send the following complaint letter, and am I being unreasonable to expect a response even if to say they don't agree?
This is what I emailed;
On visiting Harewood's Santa's Grotto today with my three children I
was most disappointed.
I pre-booked my tickets on-line, at a cost of £22.50, along with £5
parking fee I was spending a hefty £27.50 for my three children to see
Father Christmas.
My older 2 are old enough to be excited and enjoy the experience for
what it is, my youngest at just 13 months however doesn't really have
a clue what it's all about. I only booked her a ticket too as I wanted
to have them all together for a photograph and the website made it
clear I had to pay for any child entering the grotto.
I was astounded when we arrived at the Grotto to see that no
photographs were allowed in an attempt to extort yet more money from
us by selling photographs for nearly £10 a print! Not only is this a
ludicrous amount of money for a photo we could have easily taken
ourselves at no expense, in this day and age most people would much
prefer a digital photo. I later discovered that the price for
photographs had gone up from the previous week, I presume as Harewood
realised they were onto a money maker and decided that ripping off
poor parents who are obviously going to find it hard to turn down a
photo of such a special moment for their children was the way to go.
My main grievance is that NO WHERE when booking on your website does
it state that photography is forbidden and that such extortionate fees
will be charged if you want to buy one. If I had been provided with
this important information at the time of booking I may well have
still booked for my older children but I would most certainly not have
paid out £7.50 for my youngest.
To add to my irritation although we had booked a timeslot, well three
in fact, we were delayed by almost 15 minutes due to a technical
problem with the snowflake dome, so not only did we have to wait with
a very impatient 1yr old we didn't even get to experience the
snowflake dome's full splendour.
Whilst understanding the need for Harewood to make money I find it sad
that you feel the need to do this by misleading your loyal patrons.
Can I suggest in future you at least let your customers know all the
facts at time of booking.
Have yet to receive a reply, is it a bit OTT? Meant to add my older children received a fairly decent present, but my youngest was fobbed off with something of far less value which I felt was off as we paid the same for all three.
Is it normal to have to pay for photographs? I've never had to prior to this occasion.