The Hotair Balloon Ride From Hell

I wanted to write this blog post to share my experience because I think it's absolutely unacceptable that companies can get away with giving discussing and disrespectful customer service especially when the customer pays a lot of money and gets nothing out of it. I was looking to buy my fiancée Kieran a balloon flight experience for his birthday back in February. I was having a look on groupon and obviously found the offers they had on there. I decided to email the company direct, Cotswold balloon safaris, and check whether they had any other locations as the groupon deal only had three. I sent an email explaining that we live in Swindon and if there was any flights that are in or near Swindon that I could get for round about the same price. A man called "mike" quickly responded and said that there is a flight taking place in cricklade which is very close to Swindon and that he could give it to me for the same price. Because he had helped me and given me good customer service I was inclined to spend so I bought and inflight photo for £20 and also paid an extra £18 to have the tickets wrapped in a box with a balloon for kieran for his birthday. When I came to booking the flight I found it quite confusing with the different deals, prices and locations which I would have to search through to try and find the exact one that I needed. I then had to wait to see if kieran could book that day off work as the flights were all weekdays.

When I came back to book the original date had been filled up so I had to start the process again and luckily there was another one right at the end. The site was very hard to navigate around and honestly I expected that the flight would be booked in for me as this way it was very easy for people to make mistakes booking. When It came to the date of your flight you would have to keep checking the site to see it the flight was cancelled or not as they would not call or notify you if it wasn't. It felt like honestly you were in charge of everything but flying the balloon itself! Know and behold the flight was cancelled which isn't anyone's fault although Kieran had then booked a day off work for nothing which is quite annoying and if we were notified the day before, he could have gone into work. So because it was cancelled the whole process had to start again although when I went to rebook, the code for the package I bought didn't work. So I had to then email "mike" again explaining the situation thinking that he would help and book it for me he just gave me another code to then that didn't include my inflight photo which I had to email again!

After all this I finally tried booking again and there wasn't any flights for the location I wanted which was a nightmare. So of course I emailed again asking if there was any more dates as the location we specifically wanted and asked for was fully booked. "Mike" replied a few weeks later and said that there would be some more dates up in a few more weeks. So of course had to wait again to rebook it myself. The dates finally came up and yet again all the dates for my location and package were all really fully booked so I thought i would have to settle for a different location in Malmsbury and I had too book it for 4 months in advance which was a nightmare. Then after waiting another 3-4 months, I received no reminder email telling me that my flight was coming up, I just had to remember the date I had booked and where. I thought that my flight was on Thursday 14th September as that had been the flight I originally tried to go for as it was at Cricklade house which is why I chose to book with Cotswold balloon safaris because they had a location close to Swindon which I had discussed in the early emails.

I kept an eye on the site as they also do not inform you if the flight is cancelled and the flight was infact cancelled again. After this I emailed "Mike" the Saturday after explaining to him that I had never received a cancellation email which I had received the day after the previous flights were cancelled. I received no reply so I thought I would have to rebook again! I still heard nothing from them until the morning of Tuesday 19th September when I had a missed called asking where I was for my flight. I immediately called the man back who had left a message, "Nick" who I have never been in contact with before and thought that "mike" would be flying the balloon. When I called back "Nick" I explained to him that I thought our flight was on the thursday before and that I had emailed mike saying I didn't know what had happened and was confused. Nick said to me "don't worry it's not your fault" and he said that he would call me back later that day to sort out what had happened. I waited all day for the call and know and behold I received no call and I had no contact at all until Mike emailed me back a few days later! And then I received the very unprofessional emails from "mike" himself! -

Hi Lara,

Thanks for your email and I am sorry to read you feel that your missed flight is in some way our responsibility. I have to point out that it was you who chose to book onto the 19th, we emailed you 3 times regarding this flight and confirming your booking so for someone who checks their emails regularly did you not think to question any of these emails?

Other than turning up to your house in the morning, waking you up with a cup of tea before driving you to the launch field I’m not sure how much more we could have done. It’s alway desperately unfortunate whenever someone misses a flight through a mistake - we even tried calling you on the morning of the flight and in the end the balloon took off with 2 spaces, that surely would have been filled by other passengers, empty.

I did receive your email questioning the 14th but seeing you were booked on to the 19th AND knowing that it was YOU that had booked it I thought your email was just a mistake on your part. Not least as you were NEVER booked onto the 14th so it’s not as though you could have been confused or were checking your flight date had been moved etc. We try to treat our passengers as responsible adults who are able to handle the booking system and which dates they booked into. And to reinforce that assumption, in the 4 years this company has been operating AND the 15 years I have been a professional pilot, you are FIRST person who has missed their flight for these reasons.

I am sorry but we feel we have acted fairly and responsibly and for these reasons I am not prepared to offer you a refund. My good will gesture of a voucher extension at the cost price of £69.30 still stands should you wish to take this up. We fulfilled YOUR booking, the confirmation emails were sent, the balloon, pilot, crew everything was all there so in short it’s not our fault or responsibility that you were not.

I sincerely hope to meet you on the launch field,

I couldn't believe that this was the email I received back after I had that phone call then tried to email them. I was so annoyed and upset with the company after acting so unprofessionally and not offering me a refund but to then pay more if i still want my flight in which I'd have to book that again anyway! Also after receiving this email and looking up the company further I have found that I'm not the "ONLY" person this has happened to but if fact this has happened to a lot of people. I still have received absolutely no contact from the company and after sending them also a letter to pursue the case further, still nothing and no reply via email. I definitely do not recommend this company and I am still so upset from the awful and unprofessional service I received or didn't receive more like!

#Cotswoldballoonsafaris #balloon #hotairballoon