Advise please - UPDATED

chrissycn

I purchased an Annual Family Merlin pass whilst it was in the January sale. After finding a brilliant post on here giving the phone number of a Sea Life Centre that sold the pass via phone and sends a voucher in the post I went ahead and purchased. All was well at this stage.

We decided to redeem the voucher at Alton Towers and this is where it all went very wrong. We took the voucher to the pre-paid window and it was processed as 4 white tickets that got us through the entrance, we were sent to the box office and the 4 white tickets were processed as 1 pass. We assumed it was a family pass for 4.

On our next visit to Alton Towers we are refused entry because we had a pass for 1 person. It turned very nasty, they refused us any real help and treated us like scum. Security were brought in to get rid of us!! My kids are only 5 and 7 and they were gutted, my 5 year old wet himself when we made him get back into the car to go home. We spent the rest of the day on the phone trying to find a manager who would help.

When we eventually found some help we were made to wait a week and a half for them to investigate (they had a copy of our reciept).

They still won't admit its their fault and they have blamed the Sea Life, we have not even had an apology. They have offered us 3 extra months on our pass and a fastrack gold. The fastrack gold is a queue jumper for the big rides that are not suitable for small kids so its no use to us. Do you think I am being unreasonable requesting an alternative? After all its my children I want to gain from this not me.

*manda*

What would you prefer? They have given an extra 3 months as well...

Do you have premium or standard passes as you could push for a premium upgrade otherwise which saves parking costs and can be used any time?

Or they have offered free drink promotions before where you get a refillable bottle which you top up as often as want for the year?

Or you could push for free tickets for relatives instead of the fast track? Could you "sell" or give away the fast track element? I have never bothered so don't know how this works?

You need to have an idea of what you want really, then try to negotiate that as an alternative. Don't forget to acknowledge their offer though, as they are more likely to be flexible if you remain pleasant with them.

Blackpool_Saver

The trick is to calm down and write a formal pleasant letter to head office explaining ALL the events and requesting what you consider to be an acceptable compromise, plus a little something for inconvenience, then when they offer less they think they have "won" and you have what you want ;-)

chrissycn

Thanks for the advice Blackpool_Saver and Manda. We have tried to negotiate with a manager on the phone but he didn't want to budge. I think your right a formal letter to head office is the best route. We have a standard pass so yes an upgrade and/or an extra 6 months on our pass would be good. Giving us extra time on our pass won't even cost them anything - plus we spend a fair amount every visit.

I have no idea if the fastrack could be sold, but thats well worth looking into because it would be worth £200 for the 4 of us (what a rip off).

I posted about this on facebook and have been ripped to shreds by the biased fans.

susancs

What an awful experience, it must have been very upsetting for you all. In regard to the gold fastrack I don't know if you realise but if your 5 and 7 year old are average heights they can go on on quite a few of the fast track rides such Congo River Rapids, runaway mine train, the flume, maurauders mayhem, battle galleons, Charlie, hex, enterprise, heave ho. These fast passes would be very handy should you plan to go in the busy school holiday period and they seem to usually cost £200 for a family of four. We have Merlin passes and I must admit that I hate the queues in the school holidays.

Like others have said you really need to consider what you will find reasonable in the way of a goodwill gesture from the theme park. I emailed once to complain about a pre-season Merlin pass holder day at Thorpe Park which was overcrowded, with few food or drink outlets open, several of the rides broke down and few toilets were open, resulting in huge queues and no staff to clean them. Passholders could bring a guest for £10 and the children had a friend each with them. We were sent two free entry tickets for the friends to come again and when we went to the theme park we were given a 50% off food voucher and a few fast track tickets for some rides.

chrissycn

Susancs my boys would only go on the rapids and possibly the mine train, my youngest found the mine train a bit too fast and won't go on dark rides. So we are stuck with mainly baby rides.

It is very interesting to hear what happened about your complaint.

susancs

chrissycn wrote: »

Susancs my boys would only go on the rapids and possibly the mine train, my youngest found the mine train a bit too fast and won't go on dark rides. So we are stuck with mainly baby rides.

It is very interesting to hear what happened about your complaint.

I emailed the CEO [EMAIL="nick.varney@merlinentertainments.biz"]nick.varney@merlinentertainments.biz[/EMAIL] and copied it in to the thorpe park general manager. It might be worth you doing the same in regard to your complaint. Maybe something alone the lines of:

Dear Mr Varney,

I regret that I have to contact you further to my recent complaint which I have discussed with x on the telephone.

I purchased a voucher for a family pass at x sealife centre for myself, my husband and our two children aged 5 and 7. I redeemed it at Alton Towers on x. However on arrival for a family day out at Alton Towers on X, we were refused entry as we did not have four passes, just the one pass issued, which we thought was for a family. The staff were very unhelpful and we were escorted out of the park by security staff. The incident was embarassing and very distressing for the whole family.

I contacted Alton towers by telephone and after being passed around to several different members of staff, I finally found someone who was willing to help. I waited ten days for an investigation to be completed and was contacted to be told I would be issued with new passes which would be extended by three months and given a gold fast track pass as a goodwill gesture. I am disappointed that I did not receive an apology at any point and also that the member of staff dealing with my complaint would not accept that a gold fast track pass would not be of any benefit to our family due to the fact our young children would not go on the rides the fast pass would give them access to. I realise a £200 gold pass for a family of four might be a generous goodwill gesture if it would be used by us, however as this is not the case, we would obviously rather a goodwill gesture of similar value that we can use, along with an apology for the way we have been treated.

Thank you in anticipation of your reply.

chrissycn

Susancs thanks for the email address and draft email - that was very kind of you!! Oddly enough I have received a letter today offering a great resolution - an extra 3 months on our passes (worth approx £107), the gold fastrack (worth £200) plus the all day dining package (worth £100). My 7 year old can't wait to stuff his face with the limitless food.

susancs

chrissycn wrote: »

Susancs thanks for the email address and draft email - that was very kind of you!! Oddly enough I have received a letter today offering a great resolution - an extra 3 months on our passes (worth approx £107), the gold fastrack (worth £200) plus the all day dining package (worth £100). My 7 year old can't wait to stuff his face with the limitless food.

That is fab news. The all day dinning sounds great and a bit of a treat to help make up for the awful time you all had on your previous visit.

mum26

That does sound like a fair deal, will you still use the fastpasses yourselves on the big rides (with the new rollercoaster opening later this month I imagine it will be a busy summer!) while the other parent and children wait? (We use the single rider lines or the parent swap pass so we can get onto the big ones). I hope you all have a really good return trip, it must have been upsetting, especially with Alton Towers being in the middle of nowhere, not like you can just pop off somewhere else!

chrissycn

Mum26 I'm too scared to go on the big rides by myself but my OH might, its rather a waste really,

Does anyone know if Hex is ok for little kids?