To have expected a refund or next visit free voucher

[Arkwright]

We went to the zoo for the day. Paid the extortionate entry fees for the 4 of us. Ten minutes inside the zoo my Dd was very sick. There was no warning of this she was absolutely fine before. We left straight away as she looked awful and still felt sick. My husband took her to the car and cleaned her up. I went to the desk and explained and asked if we could have a refund or a voucher to come again another day. They refused and offered us 10% off another visit. I even wrote in and received the same answer. So we paid a whole days charge for a 10 minute visit. So were the zoo being unreasonable?

YANBU.

They might also have expected a 10 year old to actually speak up and say she felt ill before buying the tickets. 10 minutes is a ridiculously short window.

I think people just enjoy telling other posters how 'entitled' they are, tbh.

It's not bloody entitled to not want to pay 70 quid for nothing.

Yes exactly Koala.

Gosh there are some goady posters on today. YANBU. Of course they are not obliged to give you tickets for another day, but it would have been good customer service to do so, especially as you could prove you had only been in 10 mins.

I would be seriously pissed off too.

I'm amazed at all the " suck it up" posters too. It's no different to taking something back to a shop because you don't need it anymore or it doesn't fit.
There's no legal obligation for them to do it but it's standard practise and really helpful for them and us.

£7 off your next ticket is rubbish. Hope you posted a ( well constructed non emotional) review on tripadvisor.

WHICH ZOO WAS IT?

I think it was poor customer service not to offer free tickets for a return visit but they were under no obligation to do so.
DH, DS & I went to a venue last Summer where they did a 2 hr guided tour. 45 mins into the tour, DS fainted (for no apparent reason). They immediately got assistance and a bottle of water for him (even though there were no catering facilities on the premises). He came round quickly and they offered us the option to carry on with the tour, if DS felt up to it, or to leave and go on their website, choose another date and time for a tour and to e-mail them our chosen date, whereupon they would send us free tickets for our new date. We didn't even have to ask for that - they just offered it (although we were dealing with the main man) and this was in a popular venue where only 30 people were able to book at a time.

If you think that's good service DrSeth given everything the soap has said you have low expectations. It was something but it doesn't bolster good customer relations. I'd rather nothing than a fob off.

I think the zoo were unreasonable and very short sighted here. I wouldn't expect a refund but a voucher to come a different day would have cost them nothing and will almost definitely make them more money when you visit next time and potentially repeat visits. Honestly I think it is stupid of them not to give you a credit note for another visit.

However, I am of the "buy spare t shirt and get on with it" camp. Happened to us at Legoland, DS vomited on the floor literally about 2 metres through the gate. Staff were awesome, sat him down and gave him water, I bought the cheapest (pah!) t shirt in the gift shop, mopped him down, got him changed and carried on.

Am also at all the "suck it up YABU" responses on here. And one person blaming the OPs kid for daring to be sick without forewarning anyone!?

I think that they could easily have swapped your tickets for another day, they really don't lose out on anything, are guaranteed your custom and get some good word of mouth. It's just mean spirited to not do so. There are plenty of times when a business doesn't legally need to do something but will do anyway as a show of goodwill. Have you never seen someone in a cafe for example dropping their tray of drinks accidentally. Surely they 'legally' aren't required to be replaced, but it's a nice goodwill gesture. And although coffees don't equate to £70, a cafe actually has to pay for tea/coffee/milk etc. An entrance fee would cost the zoo nothing more than the paper the ticket is printed on.

Nope, YANBU.

But if I couldn't get money back, I would have sent DD home with one parent (or to a nearby town to get a new top?) and stayed at the zoo with the other. It makes no sense to lose all four tickets when you could have reasonably used two. Maybe that's why they refused to refund - it might have been different if you didn't have another adult to take the sick child home.

I hope your DD is okay, though.

Sorry we have been out all day. I don't want to name the zoo but it is in the top 10 of UK zoos. It is not Banham zoo to the poster that asked. It is a big attraction locally and not a small place like a farm park. We could have bought her a new t-shirt and carried on but she was continually sick throughout the day until about tea time.

I wouldn't have asked as I wouldn't expect it. Although wouldn't have paid £70 for a day out in the first place.

If they give money back for that you'll have the people wanting it back because they're bored after an hour, it's raining (yes I have heard that one on several occasions) they've got an urgent call from work, they didn't get to see everything there so are entitled to come back of course, and the family that turn up and claim that's happened and sneak back in with the original tickets, or claim the others have gone back to the car when in fact they haven't. The latter did get caught when the dad was spotted instead of going back to the car, settling down with his laptop in the cafe at the entrance. He was pretty unpleasant when challenged too.

It's Chester zoo isn't it

Oh sorry arkwright I had assumed it was a travel sickness type thing as she went from OK to vomit - that's what we think happened with my son at Legoland as he was fine afte the one vomit hence we carried on. If she was continually being sick of course you were right to take her home.