to try and get my Jubilee Family Festival ticket money refunded?

[cityangel]

We had to queue for 45 minutes to get in. Once in we had to queue 30 minutes for the toilet with one disabled baby change toilet and then 30 minutes for sausages that were £5 each and 25 mins for fish & chips. The only activity you could get anywhere near was morris dancing and a band. Everywhere was packed with screaming kids and pissed off parents. There was no queue management or shade to queue for Thomas, Fireman Sam or the Disney tent that all had 1 hour + waits. There were no characters walking about, no free stuff to see while waiting and the whole things was a big advertising drive.

Should I just accept that my mistake should cost me £52 + £20 food + £15 parking? I am 8 months pregnant and this was supposed to be my last family big trip out before the birth. I was expecting something like Lollibop but this was a truly terrible day out.

City Angel...check out the Sainsburys Facebook page, you are not alone. It sounds hideous and Sainsburys should be held accountable for this, as it is a ticketed event they knew what to expect. It doesn't sound as if it were organised or managed at all!

I went too. It was awful. And don't say 'you should have expected it' because it was far far worse than that! A complete con, nothing for the kids to do, no way of getting refreshments at less than a 1hr wait, bugger all going on on the stages. Will be asking for a refund.

What a shame for you all that had awful times.

I would get on their facebook and start tweeting so you get your money a back.

We went yesterday. The kids tent was fairly grim, and I was shocked by the length of the queues. OTOH the acts on the Commonwealth Stage were well worth seeing, and the Disney show was quite exciting. Take as much of your own food as yoy can carry!

I think you should complain - worth a try.

But I NEVER understand why people go to these 'family festivals' in London. They look horrendous. A picnic at the park would be more fun.

When you're complaining you might want to refer to these reviews on Time Out they are not good.

www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/contact_us/contact_us.jsp

They are referring all vistors to Hyde Park to the above where you
can provide feedback and hopefully receive a refund.

well we went

got there early - no queue to get in. Got straight in to see Fireman Sam (which was shit but DS enjoyed it). Then watched some of the military displays and the commonwealth stage. It wasn't that busy today so don't think we can complain.

DH and I did have a good laugh at the nurofen stand - who comes up with this rubbish!

Went home when the rain started to get heavy so we could watch the flotilla. BBC coverage was awful!!

I don't think you are being unreasonable. The organisers promised you a fun family day out and then, from what you say, failed utterly to keep the bargain. If you don't get what you paid for that's breach of contract. It can even leave organisers in the criminal courts: Winter Wonderland, anyone?

We went too. Managed to enjoy ourselves in the end by lucking out with our choice of food stall (not too expensive and queued for a mere half an hour) and also, crucially, getting into the Thomas the Tank Engine show.

It was terribly organised though, from the huge, unstewarded queues to get in, to the early shut down of some parts of the festival and the toddlers I saw in tears because they couldn't get in to see Bob the Builder or Thomas.

However, I think it should be Harvey Goldsmith that get bashed over this, not Sainsburys, they are supposed to be the experts at this and presumably took a fat fee.

An empty goody bag? how absolutely lousy.

Thank you for the links to the Sainsbury's Facebook Page and Time Out reviews. At least now I know I am not alone in having expected more. Will be requesting a refund.

YANBU. My complaint letter has gone to Sainbury's. We paid £60 for 3 adults, my aunt was visiting from Australia, I have 2 DSs under 3. My DS wanted to see Thomas, Sam and Mike. After waiting ages my aunt went in with him and he only managed to see Mike. Thomas was plastered over their advertising of the event, and you had to queue up, for some they were in the queue 2 hours. I didn't go inside so did not see how many the tent held, maybe 1000 max?, and there were 50,000 people there each day, mostly with young kids. Disgusting.

It sounds awful. My boys are older but I know how excited they get when they think they are going to see something exciting. What a swizz.

So they are mailing out £20 Sainsbury's vouchers to everybody that sends in a complaint, so they know they have served up a steaming pile of turd to everyone that attended and ruined our Jubilee weekends.

A £20 voucher is a bit of an insult when it cost us £60, and my poor aunt spent £5 on what they described as a programme, and what I would describe as a book of advertisements. She bought this because no other schedule of events for the day was available, so don't tell me IABU because programmes are always full of adverts, this was especially bad.

I have even heard that those that got there at the start of the day were waiting for an hour or more as they advertised the gates would open at 10:30 and they didn't open till 11!

They are not asking for any proof you attended, to even if you didn't go just send in a complaint on email and hope for a £20 voucher, ok it is dishonest, but Sainbury's have been completely dishonest taking £65 of our money for that event.

One disabled toilet, shared with the baby changing, is absolutely not good enough at a family event where there are going to be lots of babies. I hate that the two share cubicles as I think that disabled toilets should be just that, for the disabled people.

Were the goodie bags really empty?

That's such a swizz!

SO even for that one thing, I do not think you would be unreasonable to complain. The rest sounds just awful, I can't imagine how gutted you must be for your children, I hate to see disappointed children.

They are not asking for any proof you attended, to even if you didn't go just send in a complaint on email and hope for a £20 voucher, ok it is dishonest, but Sainbury's have been completely dishonest taking £65 of our money for that event

I hope Sainsburys wise up to this. No problem at all with genuine cases but I'm not a fan of dishonesty

Jins, fair point I am just feeling angry about it right now, I would much prefer if Sainsbury's refunded the whole amount to people who have proof of ticket purchase, rather than a voucher for a fraction of the amount spent. We did not get what we paid for.

fapl - I have emailed them as DS was gutted to miss so much. It was such a rubbish event.

The corporate stands were awful too. I was there yesterday to watch the flypast and all the corporate stands were giving out freebies which they didn't do at the festival

I rejected the £20 voucher and they have apparently dispatched additional vouchers to cover the full ticket amount. Still out of pocket for the travel, but at least they recognise they got it so wrong. Hopefully other events will think twice before trying to cut corners. I pointed out that my 3 year old could have come up with better entertainment ideas. I have never felt so justified in getting a refund.

I haven't had a reply from them yet

i complained got there automated apology email that they are sending to every1, offer of £20 gift voucher which is an insult...anyway i ranted a bit more refusing them to fob me off with £20 to spend in their store so i have been promised a full refund, they asked for ticket numbers so now i am waiting....better come quick

this was the worst event ever....acceptable is it would have been free but not with a hefty price tag

their is an article in the evening standard today calling it a ROYAL RIP OFF

www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/london/royal-ripoff-angry-families-vent-over-sainsburys-hyde-park-jubilee-event-7826894.html