Refund request due to bad customer service

POPPYOSCAR

Yes they were very busy sunday.

Someone I know could only get a late afternoon time slot.

I think you were lucky to be given a credit and customer service has been good in the circumstances.

Fridge03

Wow, when did this place turn into a home for patronising know it all's on their high horses?
I hope none of you have a crap customer service experience.

Mistakes were made by them involving bookings. I was told something by a member of staff which was incorrect. Was spoken to rudely and abruptly over the phone.
But I guess the qualifies as tip-top customer service.

pinkshoes

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.

Ok, that is slightly annoying, BUT... they did let you change the date when they didn't have to at all!

Personally I would have just gone out to lunch, done some shopping, gone to visit something else in the area then come back at 4.30pm.

They have done beyond what they needed to do, so their customer service sounds good to me.

BorisThomson

Fridge03 wrote: »

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?

Fridge03 wrote: »

Wow, when did this place turn into a home for patronising know it all's on their high horses?
I hope none of you have a crap customer service experience.

Mistakes were made by them involving bookings. I was told something by a member of staff which was incorrect. Was spoken to rudely and abruptly over the phone.
But I guess the qualifies as tip-top customer service.

Someone didn't like the answers they got!

theonlywayisup

Fridge03 wrote: »

Wow, when did this place turn into a home for patronising know it all's on their high horses?
I hope none of you have a crap customer service experience.

Mistakes were made by them involving bookings. I was told something by a member of staff which was incorrect. Was spoken to rudely and abruptly over the phone.
But I guess the qualifies as tip-top customer service.

The issue isn't patronising responses, it's responses you don't want to hear.

Even if you forget the 'non change' of your initial booking, you failed to turn up to the very first appointment. They didn't need to rebook but they did (or didn't whichever way you want to look at it). And yet, despite that, they have offered you a credit with a year long date.

Take your emotions and all the superfluous bits about your pot hole etc and look at the facts. That's all we are doing.

[Deleted User]

Fridge03 wrote: »

I hope none of you have a crap customer service experience.

If we do, it doesn't sound as if it will be at the Snow Centre, Hemel Hempstead.

Fridge03

Great. Thanks everyone for the amazing advice and help!

:money:

POPPYOSCAR

Just seen your post about claiming for the damage caused by the pothole.

Your expectations seem to be a lot higher than most.

Wanting to claim for two tyres because your mechanic advised you to change the other one as well ,although not damaged, and to claim for your "non-refundable" booking that you missed.

Good luck with that!

steampowered

I think the centre have been very accommodating in letting you re-book to a different time or giving credit.

It is unfortunate that the centre was fully booked until 4:30pm, but there isn't much they could have done to change that.

I don't think it is reasonable to expect a refund because you couldn't make the appointment (twice).

theonlywayisup

Fridge03 wrote: »

Great. Thanks everyone for the amazing advice and help!

:money:

What happened to you were a series of misfortunate events, nothing to do with the venue. They've gone beyond what could be expected. You can't live in the 'what might have happened' scenario otherwise you may have been posting about how someone you were with broke their leg on the slope....

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 it isn't unreasonable. It isn't unreasonable because it didn't happen.