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

How long did you get in the trees - this is the important point.

You have said in a previous reply that you did get an hour? 90 mins - 20 for the briefing is 70 mins, so more than the hour.

Their website is very clear that it is 1 hour in the trees but slots are 2 hours to account for briefings etc, you’re never guaranteed more than 1 hour in the trees so once your hour is done you are done

Great response from them. Sounds like you were Abit slow but practice makes perfect and you got the discount for next time. Win win

We were a half hour short of the full 2 hours which didn’t sit well with me, nor how it was handled.

The two hours is made up of an hour in the trees, and up to an hour for briefings, harnessing etc.

So the half hour you 'missed' was for the preparation etc. I think they've been quite fair in offering you a discount. I don't see why it should be free.

My and my family completed an escape room in 27 minutes. We had up to an hour.. Should I complain to get it half price?

But the 2 hours is irrelevant as long as you got your hour in the trees, which you say you did.

The 2 hour slot is purely to account for briefings and harness etc, the website is really clear about this, it is only ever 1 hour in the trees

We had similar at Go Ape on the more advanced course. We completed 3 sections, the queue for no. 4 was really long so we were advised to skip to no.5. We tried to return to no.4 but again queue still too long & we wouldn't have all got around before closing. I emailed them & they very kindly sent me a voucher for a free visit for the 4 of us. I gladly accepted it, went back & had a great time. I think you should accept the voucher, it should be valid for about a year & make sure you book an early slot

No because 20 mins were taken up waiting for the safety briefing, so we only had 45 mins in the trees in the end. they said at the start you have until we close at 18:30 To do all of them and hand back the harnesses

How long were you actually in the trees? So from safety harness on to safety harness off?

How much was the voucher?

But you completed it! We were told despite having 30 mins left of our slot and 20 mins of treetop time we couldn’t do level 3 as it was now shut!

Your response here was that you had a full hour in the treetops.

Now, because it's not going your way, you are saying it's 45 minutes.

I think the issue is how feasible the voucher makes it for you to go back and try it again. Ideally it would be a voucher for a full go round (I have a kid with ASD and saying the whole experience was ruined is not going to be an exaggeration), but if it isn't can you afford to go back with the voucher? Would you in fact go back if you were sure to have the allotted time?

Your timings don't make sense. They normally write on your wristband what time you start. What time was written on the wristband and then what time did you actually leave the rope course. If that genuinely was only 45 mins then I agree you are entitled to at least a partial refund.

OK, so let’s say they time it as 20mins for a safety briefing, an hour in the trees and let’s assume 10mins to hand back the harness, leaving 30mins contingency for delays on any of the above.

You had 20mins safety briefing, an hour and ten minutes in the trees and assume 10mins to hand back the harness. So 20mins left to spare, which you could technically have spent on the course if they hadn’t been rushing you.

You're not making sense. You said before you had an hour in the trees and now you've changed it to you didn't have an hour. Which is it. The two hour slot is irrelevant as that is time that's set aside for safety briefings etc

if you had 45 in the trees, you only missed out on 15 mins of time? its not great but what they're offering to make up for that is reasonable.

They’ve offered a 10% discount.
slot was 16:30. We arrived at 16:15 to check in.
hardnesses on by 16:40 but then had to wait for safety briefing so didn’t start level 1 until 5:10. Finished level 4 at 5:50 and were told level 3 now closed and were back in car by 6:02 despite the website saying allow 2 hours from start to finish. Which they didn’t give us.

Exactly this

You are just changing the truth as you go along you had 70 minutes in the trees. Because people aren't agreeing with you you are know saying it's 45 mins. Just accept you misunderstood and it's not a 2 hour slot and be grateful for the voucher.

The two hour slot is so that GoApe can make sure they have adequate time to get everyone safely up, around and out, so it doesn't get overcrowded. It will take into account people that need longer to get ready, and people that ask a lot of questions. That's the maximum time you should expect to be there.

A 10% discount for an organisation that claims to be disability friendly but didn't follow the procedures that make things disability friendly is an insult. People can quibble about time in the trees all they want, but the fact is the experience is not what you were expecting because it wasn't as advertised and the experience was not worth £60. Presumably you won't be going back for £54 either.

I think you’re being unreasonable - at our last session it was really clear that your time started once you’d had the safety briefing and you had one hour however quick or not you were. There was never a guarantee re how much of the course you’d get through.

So how much time did you have because its been an hour, 45 minutes, and now 40 minutes?

Is it? Because you’re saying now it was 40mins and not 70mins.

So now are you saying you only had 40 mins in the trees?