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

You have my sympathies we attended something similar with high ropes. It took over an hour to get on due to various issues. Ds had a meltdown and had to come off. I complained there and then. Company offered us a free re try later in the day when it was quieter but said if ds couldn't cope they would refund his. Although not ours as we could have done it! And presumably left the screaming autistic child to watch🙄

I think it's awful that they only got thirty minutes in the treetops. Twenty minutes just isn't long enough to get through it all. Such an waste of time, spending twenty minutes of a briefing for just ten minutes in the trees...

'From our timings it does look like you may have had 90 minutes on the course.'

So this in their email to you is incorrect? You had 50 mins on the course?

I don't actually like the time either at go ape, my children were stuck behind a child for 20 mins who froze once, makes them get annoyed with slow people and not be patient!

Good grief! Is it really worth this aggro? You had the experience you paid for for the time that you were meant to have. You received a grovelling apology and the offer of compensation. The only misery your kids are going to have experienced from this has probably come from you. I'm very happy for you that you have so much time and mental energy left in your life to make this such an issue but geez just give the poor people at go ape a break. They're just people earning a living and trying to get on with their life. What do you actually want from them?? blood??

Totally understand your frustration. These days out are not cheap by any means. And when you've saved for a special day out like that it's upsetting when you don't feel like you got what you paid for.

We had a very similar experience with iFly in Manchester. We travelled down from Glasgow. 3.5hrs. We had booked the full package for my son, 3 rounds of flying with the instructor, extra for a "high fly" and extra again for video footage of the high fly. Booked it maybe 6 weeks in advance. Arrived there, had his 3 go's and they opened the door to let him out.. I questioned when he would do the "high fly" and was told the instructor who does that has a sore shoulder so we have a different instructor standing in for him who isn't qualified to do the high fly, but your son can pick a tshirt instead. 😅😂 He didn't want a tshirt. He wanted to "fly" and they wouldn't budge, had to argue with them to have my money for the high fly and video footage refunded. They tried to fob us off with money off vouchers too, but how likely is it that we would ever make the journey down from Glasgow again? Especially when we now know you don't get the service you have paid for?

Why would you expect a full refund when you had most of the time? It should be proportional to the time you didn't get to spend, if any, since it seems to be different every time you say it.

If you know your party has additional needs then book it earlier in the day, of course it's going to be a rush if they're trying to close up.

Ok 40 minutes in the trees should equal a30% voucher at least and tbh given you were rushed unnecessarily I'd say a 50% voucher is reasonable.

10% is a bit of a joke.

😆

They've told you their offer so take it or leave it. You can't escalate it anywhere so deal with it! Or is there an ombudsman for theme parks?

I'd hate to work anywhere customer facing these days. People love firing off complainty emails for fun because entitlement.

This. You’re being very grabby on insisting on a refund.

No OP. You are being very cheeky and unreasonable.
It is a one hour activity. They say you will be there for two hours to include a safety briefing and for you to put on and remove kit- not for extra time on the activity. It is unfortunate you were unable to complete all courses in an hour. However, they have been extremely kind in offering you a discounted return. Can you imagine Alton Towers offering discounts because you didn’t get in all the rides?

You are being unreasonable.

You got the experience you paid for.

You're now just complaining.

You're not a 'mama bear' - no harm has come to your children.

Their response to your email is fair. Your email is essentially a load of waffle.

Your slot is an hour in the tree's. The two hours is how long they advise you it takes including safety briefing. If you only had 40 minutes in the trees then you need to say that in your email. The staff shouldn't tell you you have till 6.30 and then suddenly close it. I would expect either a partial refund or a voucher for a full session. You shouldnt have to pay more money to get the full experience you paid for in the first place.

The problem is you haven't actually told them you didn't get the full hour.

Mama bear, dear lord.

I can see why you're not completely satisfied with the experience, but in my opinion, a discount and their apologies and promises to speak to staff about handling it better is adequate. A full refund when you completed the majority of the experience and were safe and sound is disproportionate.

We had a similar disappointment with Go Ape. They are terrible at getting people harnessed up and started quickly.

I'd ask for a partial refund instead and see if they will meet you halfway (e.g. £30 back).

The issue is about how long you had in the trees.

It's not a two hour slot in the trees, it's a one hour slot in the trees, with up to an hour for briefing and harnesses.

Exactly how long did you have from first clipping onto the wire to wall up to the first loop?

Was.that an hour or forty minutes?

Although if genuinely you had only had 40minutes I would have said at the "you've only got time for 3 or 4" point that you had another 30 minutes of your slot

A full refund when you experienced close to 100% of the experience is like demanding a refund for a meal because there was a tiny bit of gristle on your steak.

And agree with others that you need to be explicit that you only had 40 minutes.

Therefore you could reasonably ask for a third discount or s reduction of a third for another time

I think their response is very good.
Some people will take longer on activities than others ( that’s just common sense that we don’t all go at exactly the same pace ) but everyone has the same amount of time to complete what they can.

I don’t really understand why you should get a refund when you got what you paid for.
The voucher is extremely generous in the circumstances.

As a parent of SEN children I get the mama bear reaction! I don't think a full refund is fair though, you missed one section of the course so a 25% voucher is fair and with a years date on it go for an earlier session next time so you can reassure your DC that what happened was a mistake and this time they won't be rushed

It's terrible that you only got 30 minutes in the trees (I assume in the time I type this, it will have gone down to 30). Sue them. Go totally ape.