Go Ape refusing refund

[Stripyseason]

I can’t work out of I’m being unreasonable or fighting like a mama bear here in the right.
took my kids to Go Ape on Sunday as a treat as it’s expensive (£60 for all of us). I’ll pop my original complaint email in as it explains it all thoroughly. Emails have been back and forth since then with them apologising and offering a discounted voucher for us to return and “give it another go”. I’ve said we don’t want to return as the left in tears feeling like they’d been rushed and the last thing they want is to go back! I just want a refund but 12 emails back and forth are going nowhere. They have said they shouldn’t have been rushed but they don’t do refunds and theyd like us to come back with a discount. Do I just leave it and chalk it up to experience? Or do I keep going and if so how? TIA.

Dear customer services,

Im just writing after quite a disappointing experience at X Go Ape today. It was myself and my 2 children, 8 and 11, one of whom has autism. 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. We were told we would have the chance to do 4 levels if we wished. We started off great and were enjoying it until we finished level 2 and my son heard some instructors saying we were “over time”. When we went to wait at #3 an instructor said we were running behind with time and as they were closing soon we likely wouldn’t have time to do course 4 if we did 3 so we felt pushed to do 4. This wasn’t helpful as it felt a big step up from course 2 and my son felt rushed and was worried saying they’re closing, so we hurried as much as we could. It ended in a bit of a downer sadly with the kids just feeling like they’d “taken too long” on courses 1&2 despite being told in the safety briefing that we could take as much time as we needed on the levels.

I’m disappointed because we arrived in good time and if the last slot was always going to be rushed I think that should have been made clear at point of booking. We had to miss out a whole level which we had paid for. It was a lot of money as a treat and we all just left
A bit downhearted after a good start.

I’ve been to Go Ape before and had a really
Positive experience so this felt quite disappointing sadly and I’d appreciate a gesture of a refund and to let the very nice staff know that rushing us didn’t feel fair given we had paid for a slot so feel we should have been given the same time as everyone else who booked for earlier.

Many thanks etc

And this is one of many responses from GoApe- we are both continuing to say the same thing in our emails with no real movement.

Hi X,
I hope you are doing okay. I have spoken with the manager this morning regarding your complaint to get a better understanding of what happened on the day.

The manager hasn't managed to speak to the instructor but he would like to send his apologies for the error in the information your were given. Our Adventure lasts for 1 hour but we allow up to 2 hours for the harnessing, safety brief, 1 hour activity, removal of the harness and collection of the certificate.

I am sorry you were told you would be able to complete all 4 loops. It is possible to complete all 4 loops in the hour but if customers are moving more slowly then average then all 4 loops may not be completed within the hour. I can confirm Loop 4 is generally deemed easier than loop 3 so going straight to loop 4 from loop 2 is deemed by us as less of a leap than going from 2 to 3. Loop 4 is also the wow loop, so the instructors may have suggested you do this loop instead so you got the most from the experience.

We pride ourselves on creating adventures which are accessible to all and quite often help people to conquer their fears. It is not acceptable that you felt pressured and I am sorry about this. The manager will be speaking with the team at site to remind them of the great customer service we strive to provide. The manager will also be speaking to the instructors to remind them of the correct timings we are advising to ensure we are not disappointing our customers.

From our timings it does look like you may have had 90 minutes on the course but I can appreciate how disappointing it must have been when you were not able to complete all 4 loops when you were told this would happen.

Myself and the manager feel terrible to hear how disappointed you left us and very much would like to invite you back for another discounted adventure on us. so I have arranged for a gift voucher to be emailed over to you so that you can put this towards a future discounted adventure with us. This voucher is valid for one year and can be used at any of our sites and towards any of our activities

Honestly, I think their response is fair enough.

They have apologised and explained, and you've had good experiences there before, and you completed most of it, so a voucher for a discount is a good outcome, you'll just know to book a different time next time if you're a wee bit slower doing the courses.

I also think their response is perfectly reasonable.

I do think you're being a bit unreasonable depending on how big the gift voucher it and if it's a set amount or 10% off (for example). I think a £20 gift voucher would be sufficient.

I think I’m struggling because we were the last slot and were kept waiting for 20 mins for someone to do the safety briefing. I was ok with this but we actually had time to complete all the levels as we left the site a whole 35 mins before our 2 hour slot ended! we felt rushed and that never works well with autism, especially when plans change which they suddenly did when we were told to miss level 3. It frankly felt like they were rushing us to close early and it was a lot of money.

Did you have 1 hour in the tree tops? Assuming you paid for the Treetop Adventure then that is how long you get, it’s clear on the website etc. I’d say a voucher is fair enough.

I mean it sounds to me like you were a bit slow, they were closing and you only had time for level 3 or 4 so they gave you the choice. What should they have done?

In my experience with Go Ape, if you are quick they often let you go round again. If you are slow and they are closing, there's not much that they can do.

I would accept the discount.

Our Go Ape has three levels, but we’ve only ever done the first two levels. Level one is £16 each, Level 2 is £21 and Level 3 is £36. If you’ve paid for the highest level and only done the first two, I think you should get a refund on the difference between the two levels.

Their response is fair, just go again but not at the last slot of the day.

Sorry one last fact to add - they pride themselves on hidden disability and the sunflower lanyard and it just felt like they didn’t take this into account. They have acknowledged this and said the site manager will go over it with his team again. Just too late for us ☹️

I don’t think you should’ve got a refund as you didn’t complete it all. It’s a bit like a theme park, if you don’t do all the rides because the lines are long or you don’t like the fast thrill rides, you don’t get your money back. You are paying for the experience and you take it at your own pace.

I think if you got the expected time then you are being unreasonable. If them running late meant you were given less time than you should have been then they should refund. It's not very clear from your post whether they were running late to start and still finished on time (which isn't reasonable on their part). However, I would expect them to refund the portion of time you were short, not the whole thing. It's completely reasonable to say that the way it was handled means money off for future trips are unusable with an asd child who has had a very negative experience.

Yes, but we actually were out a whole half hour early as had been made to skip 3! By then there was only us and level 3 was closed and we left at 6, half an hour before our allocated 2 hour slot

It’s a bit confusing but for me
boils down to two questions.

How long is each slot i.e how long are you meant to have?

And how long did you actually have?

What's the discount they're offering?

Rather than focusing on what levels you did, did you spend an hour on the activity? If yes, then I think you’re being unreasonable and their response is fair. If you do go back, take an earlier slot.

It’s not a 2 hour slot in the trees though, it’s 1 hour. So as long as you got your hour, that’s fine

Not exactly relevant to this complaint but in general I do think Go Ape’s timeslots are too short and I wish they would give you lots more time. We went to a similar place in France where you could stay as long as you wanted and it made it all so much more fun and relaxed.

sorry I agree it’s confusing

1. you are meant to complete each “stage” in around 15 mins but they have a buffer of a 2 hour slot to allow for safety briefing and handing back harness. We had 90 mins but 20 of those taken up waiting for safety briefing

I think their response is reasonable.

Sounds like you paid for an hour in the trees, which is what you got. Your party progressed too slowly to complete all parts of the course within the hour, so it was suggested that you miss one stage.

I think a refund would be ridiculous, and a voucher is generous. Maybe don’t choose a late slot for a slow party in the future.

We didn’t get the hour and their terms say you have a a lot up to 2 hours if needed ☹️

OP, you've posted some of your replies on someone else's thread. I think that's why this looks confusing. I can't remember the thread now sorry, but it's about someone else wanting a refund for an activity

I think a refund wouldnt be right, you did get to experience 3 of the levels, they've been apologetic and offered a discount for any future things id say that's pretty good, its not what you want but what you're hoping for seems unreasonable.

But surely all slots should have the same times? As it’s priced the same? If they had a note saying last slot may be cut short that would be different but that’s not the case