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

I don't think OP is a troll and not genuine. As @HollyKnight said, they took longer to complete the course than average expectations and couldn't finish it before closing time, and she is disappointed because of that, she seems to believe they should have given her family as much time as they needed to do all 4 courses, even if it interfered with them closing up.

I don't think she is faking this, but I do think she's grifting demanding a whole ass refund. 25% would be fair, as they did 3/4 courses and it seems Go Ape have accepted they didn't communicate as well as they could have done. Perhaps they didn't realise the implications of telling an autistic child (with the best of intentions to encourage him) they'd be able to do all 4 courses in the time when they didn't know if he would actually be able to. That's a point they could improve on and they have apologised to OP.

As a parent of autistic children, I know that it's also my responsibility to know my kids and set correct expectations. I would have been stepping in there and saying "let's see how you feel when we're on the course and how long it takes, the most important thing is we take our time and be safe". I read the T's and C's of any activity we went to do when they were younger like a hawk, and clarified anything that isn't crystal clear before we set foot in there. Go Ape's literature is very clear they don't guarantee you can do the full course if you are slower. And there is no way in hell I'd have taken my two to the last slot of the day before closing time. OP also made things worse by contradicting the instructors after they said they wouldn't have time to do both courses 3 and 4 - she then decided to see if they could hurry course 4 and go back and do 3, which they were already told they couldn't. She contributed to that situation, escalated it and made it more confusing and upsetting for her kid, instead of managing the disappointment when they were told there wouldn't be enough time to do them all before they closed. If she had done that, left after 3 courses and then complained that they didn't set expectations properly, I'd have more sympathy, but she made things worse and is blaming them for their bad experience when that was partly caused by her own poor reaction and management of the situation.

Bottom line, I don't leave managing my child's expectations to strangers who have done a 10 minute safety briefing and then demand a refund because they didn't do it right. They don't know my kid, they're not autism experts and nor should they have to be on minimum wage.

OP you are being unreasonable!

These things happen!

A discount is fine.

Why should they refund the whole thing , when you did three levels.

I think the problem us that you can't do half a loop, so if you aren't going to be able to complete a loop, you can't start it.

Also not "Mama Bear" (vom) more like entitled parent!

As a parent of autistic children, I know that it's also my responsibility to know my kids and set correct expectations

Exactly @CrazyGoatLady . Autism is such a wide and diverse condition. A place saying they are autism aware doesn't mean they can possibly know your particular child and how best to explain things to them.

I would expect an autism aware activity to be sensitive to meltdowns/swimming etc not to have to take over every element of parenting.

However, reading op's posts I wonder if she is also autistic hence her struggles to comprehend the variations in an activity like this.

Thanks for your concern but I’m not autistic. Go ape certainly didn’t take over all parenting for 2 hours (I wish!) they’ve admitted their fault with setting false expectations and promises that I didn’t argue with as seemed logical to me that we could do all 4 levels as promised 🤷‍♀️and have assured us the manager doesn’t think his staff are as up to speed as they need to be working with neurodiverse children and will be retraining them. that’s one + out of this. As for posts sounding confused that’s simply down to caring responsilities for my dad, working full time and looking after kids! Makes me type too fast as I never expected so many responses, most of which I value.

So you’ve now got the minimum wage staff in trouble OP, well good for you, all you need to do is keep on hounding them for your full refund, I presume you’ve never worked in customer services, customers like you are just awful, you see your target and keep gunning for them, changing your story, hounding, railroading through people until you leave a pile of people in trouble, triumphant with your refund and the fact they backed down after doing no wrong, but it’s ok, you won!

@crazygoatlady is totally correct.

@Stripyseason , the reason people think you are confusing is you haven't acknowledged that it took, on average, over 15 minutes on each course. If you did course 3, you would have been over time, as you weren't ready to start until 47 minutes in.

Is it your view that even if it took you to 1 hour and ten minutes, for example, so over the hour slot promised, you should have had all four because that's what the man said?

I think you are putting too much into your emails to them, and I can't see anywhere if you've been clear to them about what you want.

The core of the issue is you got 47min on the course instead of 60min guaranteed, and therefore you want a 25% refund for the experience you paid for but did not get.

If they insist on a voucher, then ask for 50% discount. Keep it brief.

Obviously it is good that you raise your concerns about how they address hidden disabilities etc, but it kind of muddle the water a little bit in terms of what you want from them.
You could also look for contact of head office to escalate your complaint, or try X / trustpilot / Facebook. I found that some companies escalate automatically when feedback is left on Social Media.

OP your response email that you finally produced is just a carbon copy of the original email with 47 minutes substituted for 90 minutes. Of course it's possible that the person writing the email did use the exact same phrasing or it's more possible that you just substituted a shorter tome in there after frequently changing your account and being told that YABU. I'm out. Let Go Ape deal with this not MN. I think you're lucky that they are being as polite to you as they are tbh. Their customer service seems excellent. I must remember to go there some time.

Kindly, with your level of family/work commitments and presuming yesterday afternoon was a non-work day - maybe your time off would be better spent on self care, rather than pursuing a lost cause.

You’ve already sent 12 (I think) emails to them too, and now you’re going to start up on other social media. If you are hurrying posts and misrepresenting Go Ape publicly as a result - that’s probably not a sensible idea.

I’d be interested to know if they have the usual email disclaimer about contents being for recipient only too.

Their response seems reasonable. You aren’t in any case due 100% of a refund, given you did at least 75% of the course.

YABU.

It doesn’t sound like they did anything wrong really. They are only capitulating to make you go away.

The one thing I can see from this thread is that Go Ape are missing a trick here. It probably would be a good idea for them to put on some smaller group sessions that are specifically geared towards SEN families or those who are anxious/nervous and likely to take longer doing the course. It could remove the pressure of being in a mixed ability group and give people more time to complete, more time for briefings, explanations, individual attention. Of course it might have an increased cost attached, but many families might well pay that to have a more relaxed experience for SEN children and more instructor support.

(And obviously not put those sessions at the end of the day!)

I also think when they said you would be able to do all 4 courses, they meant all 4 courses were open and available to you. But you still only have an hour to complete them.

...have assured us the manager doesn’t think his staff are as up to speed as they need to be working with neurodiverse children and will be retraining them

*Neurodivergent children

My bet here is that this "retraining" will consist of a brief conversation during a staff meeting that goes something like

"Hey guys, please make sure you don't tell any kids that they'll get to do all 4 courses, because otherwise if they're too slow to finish them all in an hour, we'll get more entitled parents like this one harassing us over email for days at a time for refunds and it's a ball ache to deal with"

This behaviour honestly gives SEN parents a bad name.

OP, I get where you're coming from and agree you had a bad experience.

I'm going to say this next bit as someone with ND kids, who is prone to getting drawn into these kind of things...

I don't think GoApe is worth the stress or headspace you are giving it. You have enough battles in your life. Your time and mental health are more valuable.

I think it would be ok at this stage to reframe it and potentially model to the kids: "We had some fun there, it's a shame about what happened at the end. I've let them know that was unfair and really difficult for you and they have apologised."

Honestly OP I wouldn’t let this drop. I would push for either a refund of 33% of your costs, since you lost a third of your hour. Or for a 50% discount on a future visit. 10% is a piss take. And I don’t think having an autistic child is the main issue here, although clearly it made the situation harder to manage.

The fact is, they short changed you, and they should compensate you for that. It’s like booking a table in a restaurant, paying for 3 courses, being kept waiting to sit down, then being asked to leave after your second course.

If they’d started the session at the correct time, you could have had your full hour. They started late, so they were running out of time and moved you on before your hour was completed. It’s their mistake and for them to rectify.

This isn’t a small independent business struggling to make ends meet. Go Ape is massive. They can afford to make this right.

They have short changed her if the latest version of her very fickle account is correct. It's a shame that they don't have CCTV to verify and it's a shame that companies don't do more to take action against people when they go to the media with downright lies tbh. The slander could still be very damaging to the business however big or small it is.

Also, I don't agree with calling people this, but the staff are almost certainly calling you a Karen and are simply trying to make you go away by talking about "training". Is it your aim to get the minimum wage staff who are probably teenagers in trouble?

OP you are totally over reacting.

You do not look good in this, sending them loads of long emails.

They've already apologised.

Christ almighty.

You didn't get to do one loop!

You did three!

She also (claims to have) cut and pasted an email from them saying she had 90 minutes on the course. Why are you choosing to believe in the one she posted after 10+ pages of being told to let it go?

It’s not a lost cause (yet!) these days out mean a lot as they cost a lot, so with respect me trying to be reimbursed seems a good use of time. 12 emails between us so 6 each 🤷‍♀️no disclaimer at end of their emails?