Activity Superstore
Reviews and Complaints

Waiting on a response to my emails…
Waiting on a response to my emails sent as reads below for you all to see...

Find attached the series of emails sent in seeking resolution.

From: myself
Date: Monday, 9 September 2019
Subject: Complaint

Spoke with Amanda following my complaint regarding cross infection and allergy issues at getting personal who gave me your details to follow up on the complaint. Order noxxxxxxxxx. Sent in on 7th September 2019

Below is my complaint sent in to getting personal:-

I am really sorry to complain but after our visit to bell beauty and deardon photography studio today I felt that I should advise you on the problems we encountered. The site was over two sites where you go for makeup first and then 10 mins away for photo shoot. Which wasnt what I was expecting and would have thought it would be on one site but that was not the issue. The makeup lady was lovely but the room in which she provided the make over had lots of childrens toys and books all over the floor and childrens prams and scooters plastic toys scattered everywhere on the floor for her little girl to play with as she was occupied whilst mum worked. We did arrive early aand her little girl was due to be collected by her dad at the time of our appointment and she was a Beautiful little girl but not what you expect to find on a pamper day... there was a drink spilt on the table and sweets stuck in the sofa and teddys on the floor. The make up was thick and cakey and eyemakeup was not blended at all. To be honest I was horrified that no cleaning of brushes was carried out inbetween make up applications and that lip gloss and eye liner and mascara was used directly from the pot and no disposable brushes were used. There was no infection control at all. When I left I had to remove it as the makeup made my skin burn and pre treatment allergy questions were not carried out. We went to the studio for photos where were met by mike who was understanding when we asked to rebook as I had no makeup on. I didnt complain about the makeup as it was his step daughter who had done it and felt awkward. In light of this I would like to request an alternative location in cardiff as the advertisment said was available and as it is a package We paid for I would prefer to take advantage of it in its entirety. My hair wasnt done either and I asked if I could borrow some hairspray to stick my flyaway hair down as I hadnt done anything to it as I expected it to be done for me as yhe advice was to come with no makeup and clean hair without product as this will be done, I didnt know what to say when she said ' you leaving your hair as it is, mike likes the natural look', it was a mess as I had done nothing to it!...in short lovely people but the makeup and hair side let it down. Being a clinical supervisor and in charge of cross infection policies for the NHS for a living I expect a higher standard of cleanliness. Please call me to discuss and rearrange alternatives or refund.

Regards

Received from activity superstore:-

Good afternoon Sarah,
Thank you for your email and I hope you are well. 
I am so sorry to hear this, we do not wish this upon any of our customers! Unfortunately we state in our terms and conditions that you must make the venue aware on the day and as this was not done I am sorry to say that there is not much we can do.
You are of course welcome to email customer services to have this reviewed further.
Once again I really do apologise for this, Sarah.
Best wishes,
Olivia 
Customer Support Advisor

...

Sent today from myself to activity superstore:-

Please forward this complaint to customer services on my behalf and avoid me taking things further I have spoken with the relevant organisations about my legal standing onv this matter and because we underwent cross infection breeches and allergy testing was not even addressed there are slightly more serious ramifications involved than the fact we were to shocked and traumatised to notify on on the day. I do not wish to get into a battle over this but will if I have to and will write negative reviews wherever I can (as I have already viewd horrific reviews already posted against your name and now wished I hadn't used you in the first place in light of these). I am a reasonable person and dont feel you seem to be taking this complaint as seriously as you should because the transferance of the HSV1 and conjunctivitis are highly contagious and allergies are also at the forefront of many complaints. I now do not wish for an alternative product in light of the companies lack of professionalism in dealing with my complaint and seek a full refund. I request a full and detailed response with your findings in 14 to avoid taking this further.

Regards

date was..28 august.2019 voucher num GKSR104449 name mr barrie crossland steam ride for two at nene valley railway ltd peterborough cambridgeshire...i could not get my sat nav to take the post code whitch was pe8 6lr due to not anough information given no street address just stibbington.peterborough cambridgeshire .which was not anough for the sat nav, we used the travel directions given but did not see any signs what so ever .telling us the way to go .we phoned the if lost phone number given 01780 784444 witch was no help what so ever .we even stoped and asked and nobody had any idea where it was .when i filled up with fuel the garage staff had no idea where it was .so in the end we gave up and went home.a round trip of 350 miles . as you can.imagine we were not very happy .but am willing to try again as we wanted this on the understanding that we are given better travel directions. or a.refund...thanks barrie crossland email address [protected]@live.co.uk

My son purchased my voucher for my birthday worth £39 and I thought it would be good to book a comedy night in Leicester as it is the closest. After going through registering the voucher I then had to call the comedy club up myself to book. This was booked for September 1st 2019, as this was the next free evening, so they took the money and they booked 2 of us in for this night. I then got offered 2 free places which I thought was great. When I finished the booking I then thought I would look online to see how much the tickets are for this venue and I was shocked to find they were £5 each! I feel like I have been took advantage of and disgusted. I spoke to my son and he called activitysuperstore up and the said I could exchange this for something else. We looked through and called again and the person on the phone suggested we go for one of the meal out experiences. We left it and looked over the experiences again. These seem to go over what the voucher was worth. I realised it was getting to the end of date for my experience so I did what I was told and tried to exchange the experience online. The site was telling me that I had to book it over the phone only the problem was everyone had gone home for the weekend. This I thought was terrible as my voucher was up on the Monday 1st July and when I emailed as it said it would get back to me within the next few hours it was to tell me to talk to you on the Monday 1st July. So I called 3 different numbers to try and get my gift before my voucher was out of date (even though my money had been taken by comedy store and has still not been used yet!) to no avail. Pretty bad that there was nothing I could do, whatever I tried, as I had to rely on you and you haven't got anything or anyone in place from Friday afternoon onwards to help me get my gift experience. You took this away from me. I called the following week but still couldn't get through as your weekly closing times say differently online to your phone line. Called the following week and they said they couldn't help me and wasn't their fault and the manager tried to get me to put another £20 towards my gift to book again. I don't think so! Very disappointed! The meal I was going to exchange it for was already £10 more on your site than the price of the restaurant. I have included times called and all I can. Hope you can resolve this before my expensive comedy night. I feel I have done all the leg work and you have let my voucher go out of date because no one is available Friday to Sunday or I would have not missed out on my experience. Not my fault.

We booked our third experience in Balloch and have never previously had a problem. The hotel we booked was sold as perfect for couples (as the whole gift is targeted at couples). When we arrived we pulled in to a car park that seemed to be of a nightclub. We reversed and went next door to the hotel. At reception we were asked if we knew about the ATTACHED nightclub? No. We didn't know, nothing was mentioned on activity superstore nor when we booked. She said it would be like a nightclub in our room but we are young so that's ok.
We then proceeded to our room which was full of cigarette smoke (despite it being a 'no smoking room').
We politely asked if we could change room as the toilet didn't flush, room was above the club smoking area and the whole room was filthy but no, all other rooms were occupied by a hen party. At this point the music began and there was no a possibility anyone could sleep there (being pregnant means sleep is invaluable). After frantically ringing 20+ bnbs and hotels we found somewhere for £70 a night and quickly changed hotels. How you can sell this experience as a couples break and have them as partner is disgusting. It has now cost us more money and the original gift has not been used. I look forward to your reply

Samantha Tomlinson

The cost of the gift was £119. It states the best available seats on booking, we were given seats in the gods, asked to change was given two seats below.If you look on the seating plan there are plenty of seats not booked which are better seat so where does the best available seats come into it ?. There are plenty of available seats but they will not allocate them to us. We both have disabilities so not sure what will happen next week when we get there. There was a choice of 5 shows but when I booked it I only had the choice of 3 which we did not really want to see any of them but that's all there was. The best part about this package is to buy the tickets for the seats we have are £19 the two course meal I checked at Maxwells is £15 each total of £68 so what is the other £51 paid for ? This is a total rip of and I am contacting Watchdog.

My son bought me the above package for Christmas. Inside the box it gives a choice of 5 shows to go and see but I received an email from you when I activated the voucher which states only 3 shows. I have been emailing customers services to no avail. I have already missed out on one show I would have liked to see because no one is getting back to me. I am not happy to say the least as these packages are not cheap and the customer care is non existent.
B Reece

I was given as a Christmas Present 2018: The package - The box states the following : An energising facial, a Swedish back, neck and shoulder massage, and either an eyebrow shape or a nail file and polish: This package could not be booked until 1 Jan 2019 so not an old offer ie brand new for 2019 and does not expire until 1 12 2019.

When I rang Durham Bannatyne to book the lady explained there is no facial with their package and offered instead (with the Swedish back, neck and shoulder massage) x 2 small treatments of nail and either scalp, leg or hand and arm massage. ie., 15 minutes short of the package.

The lady stated the' wrong box' had been sent out from Activity Superstore. We have booked but I told Durham Bannatyne I would be contacting Activity Superstore as different from stated on the box.

I have been in touch with Activity Superstore - via Tara by phone and by email and sent her copies by email of the box to verify and she has explained that Bannatyne have changed 'their' package and taken no responsibility for this error. She explained that the total time is the same which is not true as x 2 small treatments is 2 x 15 minutes and a facial is at least 30 minutes alone ( and a small treatment was already included) therefore short of 15 minutes' treatment. Same answer from their Customer Services.

We particularly wanted the facial. I have sent a letter to the Secretary of the CEO at the Activity Superstore but no answer to date. People need to know what they are buying as a gift is not what is given and the person who has been gifted just has to take whatever is offered for fear of offending the person who purchased the gift.

We were given a 'Comedy Night for Two', our children paid £34.99 for it as a present to us, after much trouble trying to find a venue in London with any availability before the expiry date and after emailing Activity Superstore they suggested I contact a comedy co. in London called 'Just the tonic' which I did and they found us availability for Saturday 24th Nov. My complaint is that they have now emailed me my tickets which state they are £6.50 each, £13 in total which is £22 less than our children paid! ... I emailed Activity Superstore on Tuesday 20/11 asking if there has been a mistake or whether we will be getting a refund for the difference and simply received an automated response saying 'we will endeavour to reply within 4 working days' ... I would say this is daylight robbery to be honest. If you pay £35 you should get a product worth £35 or more! ... Please can you look into this as a matter or urgency. Thank you.

My son had a voucher, which was brought from next activation number [protected], expiry dateb1/12/2018, we changed the activity, as the one was no good for him as he has autism, the voycher was £200, the changed activity, £89, so why is they only £10 left, my son is very unhappy, your online chat service nether works sent email. 4days ago now on 5 day no email, so we're is the rest of the money, I don't have a receipt, as the voucher was a gift to him, and the person, I am no longer in contact with .

Dear Sir or Madam

I was given one of your 'Indolent Spa Day' for two as a gift. We went to Bannatyne gym at Quey Street in Manchester back in August. It was a very dissapointing experience, I complained and they agreed a refund but said I have to 'go through yourselves' which I did.

Numerous emails have been passed two and fro from your customer support department Harriet. She has assured me many times that she will issue my new voucher but has not done so up to date.

I feel I am being fobbed off and it is very frustrating.

Please can you resolve this issue asap otherwise I will take the matter further.

Yours faithfully.
Mrs Patricia O'Brien
[protected]

Very disappointed and feel very let down by this company. Was given a winery gift experience and validated the voucher within the time limit. We can only go weekends due to having full time jobs and being parents. However have been informed tours are extremely busy at weekends and are booked out up to the expiry date. (Activity S will most likely mention dates are available Monday to Sunday, blah blah blah - however this is a pointless and moot explanation as I've already mentioned - we work and are parents).
My options they tell me are...
- exchange voucher for something else, from what I've seen online 99% events are more expensive. And all have to still be within the time limit we have left. Therefore the problem remains... we can only go weekends and most likely events will be fully booked anyway. Pointless and I'm not lining their pockets with more money.
- spend £20 on extending the voucher a further 6 months. The gift only cost £29 and why should we have to pay because they can't find dates you want because they are full booked. They are the agents and we are the customers - we shouldn't have to pay them more admin charges so they can click a button to find an alternative weekend. Doesn't feel very special nor very "gift like".

So I either have to take a day off work and find a child minder, pay more money for an extension or exchange the gift for more money, which would be something we don't really want and then find a date that works still within the time frame.

Do not use this company. Use Virgin Experiences who let you validate the voucher and then give you plenty of options to suit, a longer time frame to use the voucher and ultimately succeed in giving you a lovely experience.

Am not interested in a reply - you'll just recite the Activity Superstore user manual robotic style which I've read in other comments below. What you don't do is the only thing you should do. If a customer can't find a date suitable because you're booked up, offer a free extension. It's not the customers fault you've over booked experiences - it's yours - but that's what greed is.

on friday 6th july my husband and l had booking for coach and horses hexham.
you sent us email to my husband email address
[protected]@gmail.com voucher no GFCI101841
It stated one night stay for two people including breakfast

There was no breakfast so we had to go out next morning and buy two cooked breakfast tea ect costing us £20. Next morning no hot water either.
The landlady when we got there not happy about our voucher and said was going to phone you.She came back said no answer so was emailing you.

l phoned on monday morning to complain then again monday afternoon and told would get back to us today tuesday and still no word.
l even told woman on phone if l were your company l would take coach and horses of your listings.

This was a gift from our son and told him not to buy any more of these vouchers if this is the way it works.

yours Mrs L Flood

[protected]

113 wenlock road
south shields
tyne and wear
ne34 9bd

Initially I booked a glider experience and was told a confirmed date and time but when the day came I contacted the site they told me they do not take bookings from activity superstore any more as I do not do business with them. The next nearest location was an hour and a half away which was pointless. I have now changed their experience to 30 minute powered flight and a light aircraft and was given a new confirmation number which isn't valid when I go on the website so I cannot book the experience. I've been trying to get a reply via email for the last 10 days and your phone line say you are closed. I think you are taking money under false pretence. Why cant You just provide what you have promised and be more open and honest with your customers.
I'm at the point of total frustration and looking into making national media aware of your company's poor customer service.

I paid £79 for a voucher as a gift. The choices were very limited, but did find a nice B&B and upon calling the B&B I found the the voucher paid for a room half the price. Speaking with Activity Superstore via chat (only option or email) I was denied the service of speaking directly to a manager so googled this and got through to a customer service line who reluctantly let me speak with a manager. My request was to have the voucher upgraded free of charge so that at least my parents would have the breakfast with the room (even though this was still not to the value of the voucher). The manager refused and told me they a 'third party supplier ... etc'. A total scam. I could have called the B&B and paid for the same with my debit card in 1 minute for half the price.

If you want to buy someone a gift like this my advice would be to book directly and put a copy of the confirmation email in a nice card, because I have essentially paid an extra £40 for a cardboard box and subsequent huge restriction on where I can book.

My wife and I were given a voucher for a Two Night Getaway at Christmas 2017. We decided that we would like to make a long weekend with our two night break and a Voucher From Red Letter Days making the fourth night (This was booked in ten minutes direct with the hotel)
We phoned the number we were given for the Buckatree Hotel which turned out to be answered by My Hotelbreak.com. These told me that we would have to wait at least a month to book there as they haven't been allocated their slots for the Buckatree and they were working on March (This was early February by the way) we wanted 28th and 29th of May. She said to phone in a couple of weeks to check again.
I then phoned the Buckatree to ask them whether I could book via them and the lovely lady there told me she was sorry but they couldn't book for me as this had to be done via My Hotelbreaks.com, and to go through them.
My wife then phoned back in two weeks and was told that there still was no way of booking as they were only working on April bookings and we would need to phone back in a month which would be the middle of March. This time we were told confidently to phone the Buckatree Hotel directly and we should be OK.
This we did tonight and were told that they were sorry that there is no longer any availability at the hotel for our dates. The hotel told us to phone My Hotelbreak.com. We did this and were told they are still working on April and to phone back in two weeks time (again!).
We have since checked on Buckatree Hotel's website and there doesn't seem to be any availability for our dates now at all even paying directly for them.
This is really ridiculous and if this turns out to be true, we have lost any chance of doing the long weekend we have planned since January.
We wont be encouraging anyone to use this company anymore as we are devastated that our family bought this voucher in good faith for us.
We will end up booking our nights at an alternate Hotel for money we don't have and being stuck with the voucher.

I activated a voucher for Gastro Pub and restaurant Dining from the above, the first choice of venue was taken off due to bad reviews. They told me to go online and choose another venue. The next nearest restaurant was Ulysses Bristol Road Birmingham. I receives an email reminder the day before the event. We turned up at the restaurant at 6.40 on the 24th of February, the booking was for 7 pm. The manager looked surprised and told us that no booking had been made. So a wasted journey £20 there and £20 back in a taxi. I emailed the company on the Monday they sent an automated email saying that they would get back to me within 48 hours. In the meantime I received another email asking me if we had enjoyed our night at Ulysses. They replied within 24 hours by email and they asked me if we attended the restaurant ( this information was all put in my email) I tried to phone them but all you get is an automated message. I tried the chat line and it went from 5 minutes wait to 17 minutes wait. I am still trying now to get someone on the chat line. I have emailed them again because it has been over 48 hours and only an auto response. What is the matter with these people who run this company. I am 70 and my wife is 68 and this voucher was a gift bought in November for my 70th birthday. How can a company treat people like this and get a way with it. I will never purchase anything to do with this company again. They take your hard earned money and then don't give a dam. Absolutely no after service whats so ever. I'm still logged into Chat line and have been for the last 20 minutes the waiting time is the same 5.40!
Please advise me
Regards

William Boyce

I was given this as a gift. After trying to book a couple of the hotels available (there were literally 2 on the list I would even consider staying at, the online reviews for the majority of them are horrendous) I requested a refund be sent to the buyer. Both hotels I tried had so many restrictions and supplements that it would bring the total cost to £310 for 2 nights when it was only £280 booked directly through the hotel itself! I web chatted with Emily who told me they couldn't refund as it was a gift from As this was only bought 2 days earlier so i asked how this could possibly be out of the first 28 days. Her story and attitude then changed and I was told that it would have to be taken back to Boots (''who will only refund at their discretion'') or it could be exchanged for another activity. From the conversation I had with Emily it seems like once they have your money they really don't care. All in all this is a terrible company with awful customer service and a very underhanded way of operating. I did look at the other activities available on the website but after hearing the issues and problems people have with actually booking anything I have decided that sticking red hot pins in my eyes would be preferable to dealing with this company any longer than i need to. The buyer is taking the pack back to boots, hopefully they will be more helpful than the shower of trolls at Activity Superstore have been.

This company is a joke
This company is the biggest scam ever. Shops like Boots and Debenhams need to stop selling their packages.
I was given a night away by my son and had not registered it as I had so much family issues going on.Didnt realise they had a used by date on which was the 17th of December 2017. Which was only 1 month out of date
When I wrote to explain the issues they are not sympathetic and offered me 10% if I wanted to book with them again. My voucher was worth £96.00.
What an insult. Where does the money go when this happens. Jokers please can you tell me we're the money goes. Who's pockets do we line

I purchased this for my husband returning from a 6 month deployment away on the information it says book 72 hours in advance (3days) I did this on Monday and received a automated email back saying someone would be in touch in 72 WORKING HOURS ! No where on any of the information regarding booking does it say working hours ! I've already booked and paid trains and hotel to go and do this experience for our wedding anniversary and contacted the venue who can't do anything about it because activity superstore is a 3rd party ! I'm so angry and if I don't hear back il be looking to take this further ! Going by the bad reviews I'm not holding out much hope ! I'm thinking watch dog on TV would take this on as it looks like one big con to me !

I have a voucher purchased by a friend for a Voucher-meerkat experience and for very genuine reasons would like to enable my young niece to enjoy this. I have asked on 7 occasions for the company to conform the age restrictions and venues available as the website has conflicting information. Despite providing everything they have asked for to answer this simple query, the question remains unanswered and as such the experience cannot be booked. They are the most frustrating company I have ever dealt with and appear to have copious complaints that are not addressed!