Go Ballooning Avoid

Swoodh

dealer_wins wrote: »

Anyone who slags off a company but doesnt have at least 3 months membership and 20+ posts is a stooge!!!

Thankfully the same doesn't apply to the real world :-)

Sooler

Swoodh wrote: »

"Why Grandma Hilda didn't Go Ballooning"

Is it because "In August 2010 I purchased two tickets for £210 to take my dear grandma flying" ... "and Grandma Hilda is now the sole proprietor of two worthless vouchers -unless she pays £100 to extend them." :think:

twiglet80

I run an independant family run hot air balloon business and Go Ballooning have an appalling reputation in the industry. My advice would be that you get what you pay for, they sell stupidly cheap vouchers for a reason!! Having said that, in there defence, ballooning is weather dependant and it is industry standard to ask customers to book 5 dates in a year in order to get a free extension if the weather has not allowed them to fly. As an industry we get a really hard time wij regards to the weather, people have a totally unrealistic expectation that the British weather will be perfect on the first date they book and off they go, realistically this doesn't always happen, but think about the amount of rain and wind we have had over the past few weeks. That said, my company always has space to rebook within a 1 to 2 week window as we are not greedy and do not take on more business than we can handle. Go Ballooning sell dirt shrapnel vouchers by the bucket load and as such have far too many passengers waiting to fly, this is the real issue. We can't control the weather and passengers need to understand that they need to make a commitment to booking a
Balloon flight and as such need to be available, if that doesn't suit then don't buy the voucher!! And remember, you get what you pay for, if you want better service and more flexible conditions then book with a small local business that will look after you as an individual not as a number or a profit margin!!! I beleive that Go Ballooning are unscrupulous as a business and they are damaging the ballooning industry as a whole, before they came along we had a good reputation!!

twiglet80

Sorry that should have read dirt cheap not dirt shrapnel, damn you auto correct!!!!

twiglet80

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Two further quotes from their websites: "If, despite attempts by you, we have been unable to provide your flight on four or more occasions within the original voucher validity will be extended by three months, and provided at least two attempts are made every three months thereafter, we will continue to give such extensions in the event of further cancelations."

On the booking page: "Dates are scheduled out 4-8 weeks ahead." (Without a voucher I can't check the actual dates available).

So in a three month extension period, you must schedule two flights. But flight dates may be scheduled 8 weeks ahead. It doesn't fit - yet this means you'll lose your voucher.

This means that they release their schedules for the following 4-8 weeks, ie, you can't book further ahead than that. The reason they do so is as they claim to fly from 100 different sites, but actually they don't have 100 balloons and 100 Pilots so each balloon and Pilot will cover 4-5 different areas so your chance of getting a flight in your chosen area is considerably reduced!!! You also risk having to travel outside of your preferred area to take your flight as they won't have dates available to you in your preferred area! Again, book with a local company that covers your local area. They may e more expensive but it will be worth it..... after all it's your safety and money at risk!!!!

twiglet80

Swoodh wrote: »

No not a competitor and if you find a ballooning company with my involvement let me know, I would be keen to apply for a dividend.

You are welcome to a dividend in my company bit it's not worth much!! More about lifestyle than money. We are passionate about what we do but there isn't a huge proft in ballooning as the overheads are massive!! The same applies to any locally based business, we do it because we love it not to be rich!!! However in Go balloonings case it's a different story!! Sell dirt cheap vouchers to masses of people, cheese them off with bad customer service and lack of flight availability, don't fulfil their voucher, keep there money = pure profit!!! Genuis!!! However I can sleep at night knowing I run a honest business! What goes around comes around!!!

mum2one

unfortunately for me, our local ballon company got brought out by go balloning - our only other option was £250 pp with Virgin!! unfortunatly I din;t have a bottemless wallet...
It does certainly seem cheap for vouchers we pd £85 each for a morning flight, - whereas 3 yrs ago with our then local company it was £140 pp

ThumbRemote

mum2one wrote: »

The company has now been brought out by go balloning, we have had one flight cancelled due to bad weather, but to date I can not fault their customer service, I would rather be delayed a dozen times, then risk flying when its not safe.

I said nothing about safety, I quite agree and would have no complaint if a flight were cancelled due to safety.

What I would complain about is their terms and conditions. If you cannot book onto a flight with them due to their lack of availability, your voucher can expire. That is blatantly an unfair contract term.

transient

dealer_wins wrote: »

Anyone who slags off a company but doesnt have at least 3 months membership and 20+ posts is a stooge!!!

Think you will find that incorrect and a stupid statement. Have been on many sites for years and seen stooges with far more longevity on sites than you state.

sharnad

Same applies with virgin ballonning canclled lots of times - it can take a lot of petrol for cancelled trips before you get to go on one