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

Again - how long did you have on the actual course (as your account keeps changing) and can you cut and paste the email where they apparently accepted you had less than one hour.

But all the other factors are irrelevant to the actual complaint.

The complaint is that you had 40 minutes on the course instead of an hour.

All the other information is probably confusing the person in customer service, particularly as the time wasn't included in the first email.

Maybe send one more email, really clearly explaining that you only had 40 minutes of a one hour session and would therefore like a third refund.

You didn’t book a 2 hour slot though- you booked an arrival time. If you’re going to get anywhere with them you need to drop the fixation with the 2 hour slot.

Hi, what is the hidden disabilities act? I've not heard of that before.

And do Go Ape really encourage the use of a neck lanyard on a high rope course? That can't be safe can it?

Yeah I can't tell what's what now. I hope you were clearer in the email complaint

It's also about the quality of the experience. If I go to a cafe 30 minutes before closing and I sit there, peaceably drinking my coffee, then I've had my nice 30 min. If the cafe sells me a coffee with 30 minutes drink up but starts cleaning under my table, sighing and rushing me out and I'm out 25 minutes later, not only have I not had my allotted time, I have also had a rushed and unpleasant experience. Why should you be grateful you had 2/3rds of the thing you paid for in that situation? It's unpleasant all round.

Booking a slot from 4.3-=6.30 on the website and having them out the door by 6.02 isn't ok.

Saying you get an hour on the trees and giving 40 min isn't ok.

Rushing people out isn't ok. It is NOT the client's responsibility to go faster as everyone wants to go home, it's their responsibility to put the right information on the website and stick to those timings in real-life.

OP,
You are NOT being unreasonable at all. You paid for a fun and not-rushed experience and you didn't get it. They should give you a full refund. They didn't provide you with the experience they promised. The fact you did a portion of the experience isn't that relevant in this case.
Their offer of 10% voucher is rubbish.
I'd push for a full refund. Mention the Consumer Rights Act ( have a Google)

Did you pay by credit card? If so, you could try a section 75 with your bank. Make sure you have exhausted the complaints procedure with GoApe.

Keep the wording of your complaints more simple. You are including too much irrelevant info. You paid for a service and they didn't provide it. That's what's relevant. If you have it in writing that their 'adventure lasts an hour' but that they admit you only had 40 mins then I don't think they have a leg to stand on.

Good luck and please don't be influenced by posters calling you grabby etc. Some people get a kick out of being nasty.

I sound like a child? i am not the one using ridiculous phrases like "mama bear" and "myself" in written communication.

Everyone here has pretty much told you that you are expecting too much. I get that you're upset, but tbh booking the last slot and then getting rushed was probably not a good move - which you would only know in hindsigt

If they were closing of course you are being unreasonable. You had your fair time and didn’t get everything done. Briefings and harnesses always take a while. When I go to our local indoor ski place I don’t ask for a refund because my kids are better than me so I don’t do as much as them

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!

They probably estimated that you would take longer than that to complete level 3 based on how long you had taken to complete the other levels.

However, if you really only had 40 minutes of treetop time instead of 60 minutes, I think they should give you a discount of more than 10% on a future visit.
I don't see why you should get a full refund though because you did have the experience.

You explained the issue phenomenally badly at the start. Why not just say you paid for a one hour session in the trees and only got 45 minutes, were unnecessarily rushed so that you left nearly 30 minutes before the site was supposed to close, which was the same amount of time before your 2-hour time slot ran out, and you were made to wait an unacceptably long time for the safety briefing? Then it would be easier to understand why you want your money back, or at least a partial refund (although after going on about the nice bits of the experience, it comes across as a bit odd you don’t want to go back and give it another chance?).

And I did, and they said they had all the info I needed from the form. But thanks

There may have been a delay in getting through the safety procedures (I’m not sure if OP is right about this though - these always seem to take quite a long time!).

The original post very much admitted that she and her children were running slowly through the course as well as this original delay.

I think Op had got fixated on the idea of a “2 hour slot” which doesn’t really seem to have been the case.

So do I.

It's how most activities work. There will be a time when they will accept no more people. If the activity ends at 18:00 they're not going to let someone start it at 17:50 when it takes at least 15 mins to complete. The day is probably meant to look like 16:30-17:00 prep and safety briefing, 17:00-1800 on the course, 18:00-1830 whatever needs to be done on the way out. Their mistake was taking until 17:10 to let them start the course when they stop letting people start courses before 17:50.

We don't know how long it took them to do the first 2 courses. If they were fast/efficient they might have let them do all 4 courses even if it meant overrunning slightly. But if the pace was slow, that wasn't going to be possible. Staff want to get closed up and go home.

Agree with most others - it boils down to whether you had 40 mins or the full hour in the trees. The 2 hour slot is irrelevant. If you didn’t get the full hour, I think the 10% is a bit stingy but personally I couldn’t get worked up about it since they have genuinely apologised.

I'm confused what the relevance of your child's autism is here. I think you would need to explain his specific issue to go ape as autism presents in many different ways. DH and I and two of our DC have autism but I cant think what special treatment we would need at Go Ape. So if there is something particular then you do need to explain that not expect them to be mind readers

Yes, exactly this. The ONLY relevant thing to mention in your complaint is how much activity “treetop” time you got compared to the expected hour. I can’t tell from your various messagings on timings how long you actually had on the activity, but if you had less than an hour that’s all you need to highlight. Especially as they seem to think you had 90 mins.

And I strongly agree with the post below too:

You didn’t book a 2 hour slot though- you booked an arrival time. If you’re going to get anywhere with them you need to drop the fixation with the 2 hour slot.

The two hour thing is “your one hour activity will take place within this two hour window”. Not “you should expect to be on site for a 2 hour window and if you were there for less, you’ve been cheated”.

They were cheated if they had 20 minutes left of their hour in the treetops and it was still actually another 30 minutes until the official closing time.

Yes, like I said, the only thing that matters is how long they had in the treetops compared to one hour.

Well It would have been generous if they offered you a full refund but I don't think you can really expect it. You had quite a while there. Maybe it would be better if they specified a maximum amount of time you can take.

Not the only thing - it is also relevant that the rushing them was not even necessary, given they ended up leaving 30 minutes before closing time, which is exceptionally poor customer service when they have been made specifically aware of the customers’s special needs and advertise to the world that they are able to cater for people with such needs.

Our Go Ape has a one hour policy and it’s really infuriating when stuck behind someone who stops moving and needs help, because then everyone just misses out.