Adventure 001 review: Awful everything 22

VERDICT: This lady (Sharon Cobley) actually purchased 4 x separate 5 hour Starter Packs, not a 20 hour block as she has claimed and was advised at the point of sale that these were heavily discounted starter packs which are not intended for use at a single flying school. The first 5 hour voucher was flown by her husband at Biggin Hill and he received good service. Mrs Cobley then attempted to exploit the situation by refusing to take the next starter pack at another flying school despite there being 3 alternatives in Kent including 2 at Biggin Hill. Her first approach was to become verbally aggressive with the member of staff who sold her the 4 items demanding that we booked the additional 3 x 5 hour vouchers at the same flying school when it was explained to her that she was not entitled to this, she became enraged and made threats against our member of staff that she would sue her personally if she did not do as she was told. This caused a great deal of stress to the member of staff and was completely inappropriate conduct. Adventure 001 Ltd then advised Mrs Cobley that we would be refunding the unused vouchers in full with immediate effect. We then received a very poorly written letter making a demand that if we did not make an ADDITTIONAL payment to Mrs Sharon Cobley personally for £1, 500.00 she would actively contact various organisations to bad name us and that she had commenced this process as per the example above. This in our opinion amounted to blackmail against our company and as we had already made a full refund against her 3 remaining items she had suffered no financial loss whatsoever.

This company Adventure 001 are the best in the business

I found Adventure001 to be the best value and have used them on 3 occasions now. I have always been extreamly satisfied with their service, sounds like this Cobley woman attempted to scam them!

I also have found Adventure 001 to be first class and best value. We had the most amzing flight over London last weekend for my Father's 90th birthday and cannot fault their customer service in any way.

It would be extremely interesting to see the proof of the demand for an extra £1500. In addition, if someone had actually spent that much money on a present for a person so dear, why would they make such a mistake as to buy 20 "french letter" days as opposed to actual lessons? Unless of course they had been ill advised . It gives me great concern that your company appear to have admitted fault by immediately refunding the money that someone had paid with all good intentions. Then to add insult to injury by publicing it. When I buy a Christmas present it is to make someone special happy!

This "not" experience was a whole farce. First I got wrong information (Dean Gay at Adventure 001) what to chose from regarding where the helicopter flight can take place then nobody responded. Then when I made the decision I was reminded (by Benjamin at Adventure 001) that what I have decided is no option so I am asking why it has been proposed to me in the first place. Then it took ages until I got confirmation of one of the rare suggested new dates I was given by Gift Experience Scotland which the actual company that provides the experience. Finally it should take place (I got 2 different time slots and confirmations! So this is definitely not working!) and then it was cancelled due to weather when it was a beautiful sunny Saturday, the nicest in weeks. Then new dates were suggested with a new venue where I got 2 weeks later another email saying: be careful the venue has changed to a new one which was the old one...One hand has no clue what the other does) where just 1 was applicable as we were on holiday. The 27/10. Today on 15/10 I got now an empty email saying this has been cancelled without a reason at all just mentioned I have to contact the other company Adventure 001. Are you serious? I have worked hard for the reward points I got over many month and this should be a changed via the rewards program to a birthday present for my husband (this was on 20/05!) which now never happens. Be aware when you book something like that!

I'm currently in disagreement right now with them because they canceled my flight with my son when he visited from America and he had to leave the next day and its been a month now and still no refund, £250 quid. Will keep everyone advised

If you are thinking of buying these as a gift - DON'T BOTHER! Give someone a voucher for a high Street shop instead. I booked helicopter rides twice (and stayed overnight in a hotel the second time as I live a fair way away). Both times the trip was cancelled. The stay in a Henley-on-Thames hotel the second time cost an extra £60 but was far better value than a two minute ride in the air. I've just phoned this company to see if my voucher is still valid but have been informed that there is a £40 charge now to extend it again. They must make millions from these vouchers being unused. I know the idea seems good in principle but they are more hassle than they are worth. If you are buying as a gift to someone you love don't give them the grief and hassle.

Purchased a voucher through KGB deals, it clearly states that it is valid Monday to Saturday 9.00am to 5.00pm. On trying to book I was told that they only offer weekends. The lady told me that she agreed that the advert was misleading but, offered nothing in return.

Companies can get things wrong but, the true measure of a company is in how they sort things out.

I bought Voucher
for helicopter flight experience that take place by Adventure 001.The
voucher was a birthday gift for my father (77 of age) who came to UK
to visit me. I called Adventure 001 several times to book but they kept
asking me to call back. After I waited over 4 months they booked me. However
I got an e-mail from adventure001 saying they have cancelled the booking
due to their operational restriction. Ever since then I have been asking
for a refund but they refused to give me. I am really devastated by this
as I spent all this time, energy but above all I am very sad as my fathers
(78years now) dream was shattered and he is emotionally and
psychologically disappointed. Please be careful don’t go through what I and
my father went.

Absolute pants avoid at all costs, once they have your money no customer service, if you deal with brian, god help you, useless, no an experiance i want, would rather not have than deal with this pile of tossers, bit of false advertising along the way

I have tried to redeem a voucher my partner gave me for Christmas for a helicopter experience, he bought he for me to fly over the Purbecks from Bournemouth. I sent an email to enquire about dates flying from Bournemouth and got this reply..Thanks for your e-mail
Please call [protected] weekdays 10am - 5pm) and speak with a member of
the booking team and they advise locations - those lines are receiving high
call volumes currently... I called them to be told they stopped flying from Bournemouth at the beginning of the year and I can fly the Jurrasic Coast for additional fee. That flies from Devon so not only extra fee but an hour and half travel by car and fuel cost to add. When I said if I took that option what are the dates the girl told me all the released dates have been booked and they are waiting for more dates so I asked how I would know when dates available and she told me I have call back in a couple weeks. Presumably with no guarantee there will be any available dates left if I don't know when they are released? Not impressed by any of this. Brian McLaren could have explained in his email they were no longer flying from Bournemouth so no dates for that, as that was my specific question

Booked at birthday flight told to arrive 2pm for a 3pm flight, dealt with sarah she has no costomer service skills what so ever, she was rude and a complete liar.we were told the flight woule be at 430pm due to delays, this then changed to 5, we returned at as requested to be told around 5!, I saw loads of people with lower numbers waiting, I returned to sarah, who then said she hadnt said any of the previous, this time I spoke to another team member who tried the same bull speak, I told them to stop lying and give a exact time as we had wasted a day due to their lack of organisations skills, we were then told 630pm, our flight was eventually at 640pm!
adventure 001 were useless there was 1 toilet for a large group of people, you were given no info of where to get a drink, there were no information boards to up date anyone, so you had to go back to the incompetent sarah,
we were told to bring id!, , this wasnt even checked, you were told you would be weighed but sarah didnt bother to do that either so major safety issues also, the only time she was interested was when she wanted to sell an emty seat she clearly works on commission!
Dont use adventure 001 too unprofessional, poor customer sevice!, ,

DON'T USE THIS COMPANY!
I was given a flying lesson for Christmas, it was only purchased as it stated it could be used locally. I set up my account online, put my details in only to find that the nearest location was 3 hours drive away not where they stated in the advertisement. I have been trying to contact them via the website and the phone number provided on their website. It only rings or had an automated answer telling me i can use the website to contact them. I went back to the website and tried to contact them via there, also suggested as an alternative to the previous. Months went by of calling and emailing and I have not yet had an answer. I finally found them on Facebook and contacted them through there, they told me to call the number again and it could be taken care of by someone there, only the number is never answered. My voucher has now expired and I still haven't had an answer from anyone, I sat on the phone for over an hour with it ringing constantly and still no answer and no contact has been made other than via Facebook and no attempt to redeem this situation has been provided. This company is shocking! The item was bought through NEXT, they have stopped using the company apparently but also refuse to do anything and say it is down to Adventure 001, not them. I will be taking further action and this is not the end. Unfortunately for them they don't know who we are, my family take care of situations like this for other people everyday. And we do it Televised.

Avoid these guys like the plague. I spent weeks trying to book a flying lesson with them (a gift from a friend). The availability was, at best, incredibly limited. I was told to book as far in advance as possible only to then to informed that available dates are not confirmed that far in the future. Its a complete farce. My voucher was extended because of the limited availability issue. When I eventually managed to book the lesson, I received a number of frantic messages from the aircraft operator on the day trying to move the time and then told to "get here now" some 3 hours before the agreed time. There was no safety briefing or explanation. We were lead to the aircraft and told to get in. The aircraft engine then caught fire whilst the pilot was trying to start it. Alarmingly, the pilot didn't spot the fire / smoke, it was me. The customer service is woeful. Spend a little extra and use a reputable company.

I concur with the original complaint of poor customer service, based on my own experiences with Adventure001.

My first experience with Adventure 001 was to have them reschedule my prepaid booking with 2 hours notice on a very clear day. This reschedule could not possibly have been due to weather - witnessed in person at the airfield in question - as you would not find many finer or clearer English days. This seemed to be due to staffing issues by Adventure001. Despite the considerable inconvenience, I thought I would try and reschedule.

Adventure001 then gave extremely limited rescheduling options, then, after re-booking, they would not accept a later rescheduling that was unavoidable due to work commitments.

Email replies from Adventure001 throughout the booking and rescheduling process were also unacceptably slow - in one case over two weeks late.

In summary, their customer service is extremely poor. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere.

I have had my helicopter flight over London cancelled 4 times the day before the flight I have paid for hotels for the nights before 4 times they give a different excuse every time DO NOT use this company they are scammers I am going to do my best to expose this company and get them closed down and the directors prosecuted they need to be exposed on watchdog etc

This company are a disgrace, canceling helicopter rides due to the weather is acceptable and unavoidable, but to tell people 30 minutes before that it is definitely still on, then after they arrive telling them it is cancelled is avoidable. What is more disgusting though, is refusing to give a refund, and instead, demanding the customer takes another booking which at at best will be 7 months later.

Simply reading the reply from this company to some of the clearly disappointed customers should fly the warning flag nice and high. Drawing attention to a customers "very poorly written letter" shows exactly the sort of company they are and how desperate they are to deflect blame at any cost.

Please avoid this company. Most likely the flights will be delayed and the refund will not be given to you at all. When you will ask for refund you will be told to read "terms and conditions". It's better to book an expensive helicopter flight rather than booking with these guys as they make a lot of money by not refunding and asking for more fees afterwards. Very bad customer service

This company is full of crap. First they cancelled my flight and when i asked for refund theh started takking about policies and then they told me that within two weeks they will email me the reschedule but they never did. When you try to call them they say if it is cancelled it just means it is cancelled and nothing can be done to rearrange or anything... Just full of crap

I am writing this comment again because the company told us that they will let us know about the new schedule, but they never did. Its been 6 months i have been waiting for my rebooking but nothing happened. Worst experience

Appalling company - basically thieves. They closed down their flight centre and refuse to refund our flight lesson (£79), despite not being able to offer an alternative. This breeches the Consumer Rights Act! £79 should not be a lot for a company to return so I'm concerned they're facing financial uncertainty more broadly. They've also failed to respond to my emails for several weeks now.