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 think you should decide what would be acceptable and push for that. You're very unlikely to get a refund but you could get vouchers or a bigger discount. I would be pushing the fact that they say they are hidden-disability friendly but their mishandling of this meant that you didn't get what you paid for (unhurried time to complete the course and given one of your kids was wearing the sunflower lanyard which they claim to respect it should have been obvious this might be longer than usual).

If you keep bugging them you'll probably get it eventually, but I don't know if you'll actually want to go back. If not I'd just drop it for your own sanity (and maybe warm other families with SN about your experience).

From what I can see on their website you have an hour to complete the treetops course, which is for under 10s. So it's a hour on the course (however many levels) and you need to allow an hour for the safety talk and getting out of harnesses at the end - it's not that if you are slow you get extra time; if you are slow you will miss a bit of the course. If you had an hour in the treetops you can't really complain, because you arrived late, since your slot was presumably 16.30 to 17.30. You needed to be there at 16.00, perhaps, or maybe earlier?

But you arrived late, not leaving enough time for the necessary safety talk before your slot started.

I’m so intrigued by why you think she arrived late when she booked for 4.30 to 6.30pm, arrived at 4.15pm and was booted out and back in the car by 6pm!

You and your children clearly experienced most of the available adventures so expecting a full refund is unreasonable. You have an apology and a gift voucher so Go Ape have listened to you and made amends.

Well originally she said she had 70 minutes (90 less 20 safety), then it was 45, then 40, then 50 - so I think it’s fair to assume she did get the whole hour

They are being rubbish. They didn’t, as far as I can tell, give you what you paid for, in terms of time. The only “compensation” they are offering is the “opportunity” to pay them more money to do it again. A discount for next time means you still have to pay them yet more money, and does not make up for the fact that you already paid for something you didn’t fully get. So they need to refund at least the proportion of the cost that matches the time you lost.

You want a full refund for a course you completed 3/4? Don't be daft.

A gift voucher for a discount is not ever “making amends”. Because you can only benefit from it by paying the company again.

their response is reasonable. I wonder if arriving 15 minutes in advance of your start time is enough, given that one of your children obviously needs more help & support.

YABVVVVU to use this phrase. "fighting like a mama bear here in the right." Stop it.

What is the relevance of your son having autism to the complaint?

They're not being unreasonable, you are.

Edited as different age course

Your timings are a bit confusing.

I would look at it that you could have done 4 levels, but they only allowed you to do 3 levels.

I would split the £60 into levels, so it was £15 per level, so they should really give you at most £15.

Their staff gave mixed messages reading your email, so you assumed you could have had longer than you did.

It is sad when you get your child who has a disability to fully join in with something, and it is cut short like this, I know this feeling well.

If you do decide to go back, try an earlier session so there will hopefully not be this rush.

@Stripyseason

It also says on the website that if you have any requirements due to disability you need to contact them to discuss them. You can't use his autism against them if you hadn't informed them beforehand to give them the opportunity to make adjustments. If your son requires extra time or not to feel rushed, they probably would have told you that the last slot of the day would not be suitable.

It's not too late for you because you can ho back at the discounted price!

Book an earlier slot. If your children enjoyed the previous experience, enjoyed levels one and two, then why wouldn't you book again?

I'd have said to mine that the staff only get paid up to a certain time and want to go home. Fair enough.

Just go again!

If you know your child with autism doesn't like to be rushed, why on earth would you choose the last slot?

They specifically state not to arrive more than 15 mins before your start time to avoid crowds!
out of interest how am I VVVVV unreasonable?! And stop it? you sound like a child.

I did tell them on the booking form under special requests. I followed all their guidelines am I’m used to doing when taking my son to actvities.

Because it’s a valid slot, 2 hours, same as every other slot in the day! I don’t make my last work appointment short because I want to get home, my customers would complain if I did!

You have spent more than £60 of your time ranting about this his and emailing them back and forth. It’s a non issue, you complained, you got a discount, move on.

Yes, you get 1 hour of activity, but if the 4 courses can't be completed in that hour because of pacing then you do not get to complete 4 courses. It will be something like the last time you can start a course is at 17:45. The OP didn't finished the third course until 17:50 which meant it was too late to start another.

Guessing you know nothing about neurodiverse behaviours and triggers 🤍

It says to phone them to discuss.