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

If they were slow (I'm assuming nervous?) there's no way they would have completed the more challenging routes. I don't know which course OP was at or how old the kids are, but there's a massive difference in challenge between route 1 and 4 at the course my DS goes to.

OP, you need to succinctly explain that as you only had 40 minutes in the trees, and were rushed as well, that a 10% discount to return is unacceptable.

Ask them outright to consider a 33% refund. If they refuse ask them on what grounds are they refusing and ask them why a 10% future discount is appropriate. Then cut and paste relevant assertions from their website that state minimum of 1 hour on the course.

She hasn’t changed how long she said they had in the trees. She has expressed herself badly and quoted silly little bits of correspondence, but you have actively chosen to count clarifications as changes in story. You get to the Go Ape course when you check in with them, not when you have already climbed into the trees. You leave the course when you have returned all your equipment and checked out. They rushed her out in 90 minutes unnecessarily, short changing her by about 20 minutes in the trees in the process, which was probably enough time to have done level 3, and certainly enough time not to have felt rushed through level 4.

Agree. I and most of my family have autism. It's deeply embarrassing to see it used by people like this.

You only got 40 minutes in the trees, which is two thirds of what you should have got. So that's a 33% refund for a start. Plus your inconvenience, disappointment, and time spent emailing them warrants a 50% refund. That's what I'd be pushing for, and I wouldn't give up till I got it. They'll pay it in the end.

🤣🤣

It doesn't sound worth the aggro, but you could try one final email, saying that as they've acknowledged you had 40 mins in the trees and therefore only 66% of the experience you paid for, you'd like to request a refund of 33% the total paid. But places are often quite strict on giving actual refunds!

Go Apes email back to you is excellent, however an apology of a 10% discount for next time is very poor.

Personally I think you should get £20-30 refund but I also think they're digging their heels in as much as you are.

I suppose it's a lesson learned to make sure you get a better slot next time, if there is a next time.

My children and I; my team and I 🤣

Well this thread has been entertaining.

I've got two autistic DS. If your kids don't like being rushed, why would you choose the last slot of the day?

Trying to cut through the noise here - it sounds like based on the time taken to complete courses 1 and 2, the instructors estimated that you'd only have time to complete 3 or 4, not both. But I guess your son had gained some confidence and you completed 4 faster than expected. However, thinking that you were not going to complete both courses, they they shut course 3 down, and because they were closing at 6:30, there wouldn't have been time to open it up again and you complete it. It sounds unfortunate but not deliberately designed to deprive your son. No reason to go "mama bear" here, nobody was harmed, just disappointed. I too am autistic, and can assure you disappointment is not life threatening.

As for being "rushed" off site, well if you were the last people there and you were done in the trees, why did you need to hang about?

The decision making of the instructors on the day sounds fair and reasonable and it is entirely unreasonable to request a full refund because you did 3/4 courses. The fact that you couldn't get the full hour was an unfortunate combination of you being in the last group of the day and having been slower to complete the first two courses.

I would think a 25% discount off another visit would be fair in the circumstances as you missed out on 25% of the course. But I don't think it was anyone's fault really, so I don't think you have any right to be in such high dudgeon with them. In fact, if I was them, I'd probably be digging my heels in and not want to give you anything else because you've been rather demanding and dramatic about it all, and made it about them not accommodating your son's autism when it really isn't. If any group were slow to complete, they would have done the same thing. And there's a disclaimer that says if you don't complete in the time you may not be able to do the full course. Nothing to see here.

I think this is probably spot on. Nobody can have exactly an hour of tree top time, as they'll have to cut off at some point (ie. if course 3 takes 20 minutes and you get to it with five minutes to go then you wouldn't have time to complete within the hour.)

That said, if you only had 40 minutes to do 3 of the 4 then it sounds like there probably should have been time for the last one. And if you started late because of the delay their end, then that's on them too.

But I'm having trouble believing that's fully the case. Their email to you is apologetic - offering a 10% discount if you only had 40 minutes on the course and there should have been time for the last one, then a partial refund (25% or so) - or a bigger discount off a return trip should be offered. The fact that you're 12 emails in and they're holding fast suggests they don't agree with your recollections of the timings or the events as you describe them.

Be good, as others have said, if you can post their email reply where they acknowledge you only had 40 minutes of time on the course.

So it was very poor management of expectations - telling someone there’s no rush, then that there is actually a need to rush, then failing to advise them they didn’t actually need to rush that much, because they had loads of time now for level four given that they had closed level 3 as soon as they bypassed it, leaving no option to return to it even if they did in fact have time to complete it.

I'm autistic & have 2 autistic DC & to be honest I think you're playing the disability card here. I don't know what reasonable adjustments they could have made?! I've always found go ape to be really good & accessible to autistic DC. Alot of similar activities refuse or limit autistic kids due to safety concerns.

The slot is 1 hour on the course. That's clear from the website & their response. They say 'allow up to 2 hours' so that people don't get annoyed if they have to wait or if it over runs.

Be good, as others have said, if you can post their email reply where they acknowledge you only had 40 minutes of time on the course.

I'm beginning to believe that no such email from Go Ape exists otherwise it would have been posted by now to clear up the confusion regarding timings.

Also sure that Go Ape's Terms and Conditions which the OP will have read and agreed to cover the eventualities in the OP's case and that Go Ape have given the apology and offered the discount in a spirit of good faith and not because they were at fault.

I'm autistic too and inclined to agree. It doesn't seem like OP's autistic child became particularly upset or triggered to a meltdown or I feel OP would have said that. Disappointment etc. is something all kids can potentially experience on attractions like this and happens all the time, so if that's all that was caused I don't think that's really a disability discrimination issue.

This has been a very triggering experience giving me flashbacks to when I worked in customer services and all the people who would just trample over us to get what they wanted, which was always a full refund plus MORE money for something they didn’t deserve it for. Like here they wouldn’t take any reasonable offers, they knew what they wanted and would keep changing the narrative until they achieved that.

Yes that's what it is. It's like sorry to hear that here's an explaination and a voucher. Oh what now your story has MORE detail you decided not to give us at the very start of your complaint.

They don't want to rush or they'll injure themselves

From our timings it does look like you may have had 90 minutes on the course but I can appreciate how disappointing it must have been when you were not able to complete all 4 loops when you were told this would happen.

I don't see how this can be interpreted as anything other than the group got 90 minutes on the course, not to put gear on, not to watch safety videos but on the course The staff at go ape clearly believe that the group were given 90 minutes on the course. I'm far more inclined to believe them than OP because a) her story keeps changing and b) I work in a customer facing role and know full well that 'customers' frequently talk absolute bullshit.

It looks like the management believed that OP had half an hour Longer than the minimum contracted time on the course and yet they've still been incredibly gracious and compensated her whilst being very polite about it. OP sorry but you are the reason that people don't want to work with the public. What you don't realise if you've never been on the other side is that the lies and pedanticness are so incredibly dehumanising and demoralising sometimes. Just let it go and don't go there again if it was that disappointing. Nobody deserves to be snipped and snipped at and lied to especially when they essentially provided the service that you paid for

I think the think is that people with autism aren't all the same person so it might be helpful to explain to go ape what exactly the behaviours or triggers mean. For example did you make clear you would require longer on the course? That your child would be wearing earplugs? That they can't eat certain textures of food?

I think it's pretty obvious from the wording and the tone of the email that the responder thinks that they had 90 minutes of time on the course. They're basically saying 'from our records it looks like you had more than enough time on the course but we realise you're disappointed you couldn't do all 4' It's a polite way of calling OP out on her crap without being confrontational about it.

Except they do not have timers up in the trees - you clock in when you arrive and clock out when you leave…

I'm going to guess that anyone employed at go ape is just as capable of telling time and looking at a clock/watch as OP is....