Refund request due to bad customer service

Fridge03

Hi all,

So the weekend just gone the below happened with the Snow Centre in Hemel Hempsted.

On Thursday 18th Jan I booked 2 x 2 hour lift passes for Saturday 20th morning at 8:30. Late Friday afternoon, I found out that my partner was required to work due to an emergency. I called up at 715pm and spoke to a lady who I explained the situation to. She kindly agreed to move us to Sunday at the same time and confirmed that over the phone.

Whilst driving up to the Snow Centre on Sunday morning, we were unfortunately involved in a collision with a pothole causing damage to my vehicle which required a change of two wheels. Fortunately we managed to get this sorted and continued our journey up but would not arrive till 930am. We tried several times to contact the Snow Centre to explain the situation fully aware that we didn’t want to miss our time slot especially at this busy time of year. We tried numerous times to get hold of someone but for some bizarre reason they do not open their phone lines till 9am, despite obviously having staff in from 7am on a Sunday to allow the centre to be open.
When we finally got hold of someone (a lady called Georgina) who didn’t take any of our details but advised us that the earliest we could ski on the Sunday would have been 430pm. We then rang back and spoke to a lady called Hannah who advised that our booking had not been changed in the first place and couldn’t find any record of that request. However “on this occasion” she would credit our account for future use. The use of the phrase “on this occasion” was patronising and not professional.
We explained that we were driving up from over 70 miles away and that the 430pm that was offered would mean we would have to wait for over 7 hours. The credit will be of no use to use to us as we had been wanting to have a practice before our trip next week and would not use the credit within the year it lasts for.

What makes this worse is that had we not had called due to the delay from the accident and had arrived at our scheduled time we thought we were booked in for we would have been told about the mistake and would have to wait till 430.

I hope people agree that the whole situation was not handled well and a clear mistake was made by the Snow Centre in the first place with the re-booking. I get that they have tried to be helpful but I just feel the level of service I received has been really poor.

So they have offered me the credit to use within a year, but we won't make use of this in the time as it's not on our doorstep and also this mess up has left a sour taste in the mouth.

I'm pushing for a refund, but on their website they have a no refund policy if an activity is cancelled by a participant. Even if the event of a serious injury of illness, they offer a credit instead.

Is there any thing I can throw at them to help push for a refund?

theonlywayisup

You booked for a set time/date yet did not attend. You managed to change the initial booking to a second and did not attend. The venue offered a third appointment.

The palaver about the change or 'non change' is immaterial, you didn't make either appointment that I can see.

[Deleted User]

Their customer service sounds extremely good. You've got a very good result with the credit.

agrinnall

They've offered you a credit, use it in almost 12 months time before next year's holiday. You're making a ski hill out of a snowflake.

theonlywayisup

agrinnall wrote: »

They've offered you a credit, use it in almost 12 months time before next year's holiday. You're making a ski hill out of a snowflake.

I wish I'd pulled the snowflake quote!

Fridge03

But they didn't change my booking did they?

Had I arrived on time on the Sunday, I would have been left waiting 7 hours. Which I'm sure people will agree is unreasonable.

munchpot

Wow! Sorry to say that I agree with everyone else.

You booked for a specific time which you failed to attend. You changed that time (Whether they actually did or not doesn't actually matter) and you failed to turn up for that.

As a gesture of goodwill they offered you a credit for 12 months. I think that's pretty amazing customer service.

I've always found their customer service excellent and you description above of what hapened does nothing to change my opnion of that

k3lvc

Fridge03 wrote: »

But they didn't change my booking did they?

Had I arrived on time on the Sunday, I would have been left waiting 7 hours. Which I'm sure people will agree is unreasonable.

But neither did you arrive so you can't pull that card


Who knows what would have happened if you'd been stood in reception at 9am - unfortunately you don't as you weren't there


Move on and use the credit when you can (or donate it to someone who doesn't have a sour taste in their mouth)

Money_maker

Presumably they were fully booked so why would it be unreasonable for you to be offered the earliest option? Or do you think they should have kicked out another customer because they lived closer?

munchpot

Fridge03 wrote: »

But they didn't change my booking did they?

Had I arrived on time on the Sunday, I would have been left waiting 7 hours. Which I'm sure people will agree is unreasonable.

But you didn't.

They offered to move you booking to a time when there was space (they didn't need to do this)

If they had let you on and the piste was over crowded would you have complained about the excessive queue times for the lifts?

There's a reason they only let a certain number on the piste at a time, unless you feel you deserve different treatment from the rest of us?

Fridge03

Money_maker wrote: »

Presumably they were fully booked so why would it be unreasonable for you to be offered the earliest option? Or do you think they should have kicked out another customer because they lived closer?

Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted. Or what would have been an example of brilliant customer service was for them to be sympathetic to the situation, rather than rude on the phone. Adknowledge the mistake they made with the re-booking and offer a refund when I explained that we won't use the credit within a year.

k3lvc wrote: »

But neither did you arrive so you can't pull that card


Who knows what would have happened if you'd been stood in reception at 9am - unfortunately you don't as you weren't there


Move on and use the credit when you can (or donate it to someone who doesn't have a sour taste in their mouth)

We turned around and went home after talking to them on the phone. We had just driven 60 miles and changed two tyres on the car but sure, I'll finish the journey on the hope that if I'm stood there it'll change their mind.....
Great advice.