Just testing the water here. One of my mates wee lad just turned 10 so they asked what he would like to do for his birthday . He is a great wee rider (check Insta for joshfindlaymtb) so he said he would want to go ride at Dannys park. They live in east lothian so his mum had booked a couple of nights close by to stay. They were booked in for today but last night went to a BMX indoor park in Darlington. Being a wee jumper he was hitting one of the jumps and getting higher and higherand ending up decking himself and spending the day and night in the local hospital with concussion. he was advised to rest up but went to have a look at the park as his wee pal had also ventured down from falkirk to ride with him.
My mate went to speak to the lady who runs the park (dannys mum I think) explained the situation and wondered if he could either defer the date or get a refund seeing as he had been advised not to ride and was told no refunds or deferal. Pretty poor in my opinion and Personally id be flaming them on social media . whats the STW view .? All guns blazing on FB and insta or a tactful email .?

Let’s be honest. No one is gonna disagree with you. It is a bit poor form.

Rather than be a social media warrior why not try to contact Danny directly somehow? He might be more inclined to help out.

No one is gonna disagree with you.

I will, most businesses won’t offer refunds or deferrals because if becomes unmanageable. Book a concert or theatre ticket and get sick, tough luck. Book a flight, expect to pay a lot more for flexibility. Why single out an mountain bike business as expecting to cover you for something outside of their control?

^^ Yup seems a decent fella , Im sure a wee message will do the job.

Bike Park Wales is the same. Wife had an issue and couldn’t ride. Booked in for a course so quite expensive. They said they would let her rebook but then never replied to emails when we tried. Not great service but I guess they are busy enough not to worry about it

I’m with the organisation. When I book motorbike trackdays there’s a 14 day cut off. You pass it, you get nothing.

I guess it depends what the terms and conditions are

Hate to say it but I agree. If people want cancellation insurance they need to source it themselves rather than hoping the park will provide it gratis. I doubt the Hotel offered a refund either.

Having said that I’d have thought a quiet word with someone higher up the food chain would result in a good will gesture of some kind.

My 2p worth.

If they let you change the date/defer, that basically means anyone could book a date, then essentially decide when they actually wanted to come, as long as they came up with a reason they couldn’t ride. I bet you’d find a lot of people got injured in the run up to forecasted bad weather, for instance. As for refunds, they still need to fuel the uplift bus for everyone else, and will have based pricing on a set occupancy, if folk can change at will, that skews it.

Sorry, but these things happen. I’d also politely suggest that going big in a skate park the day before might be less than sensible, too.

Had focal pneumonia a couple of days before a BPW trip, emailed them and they let me rebook no probs!

Thanks for the replies folks , I can see it from both sides tbh. My son races Borders MTB races and has through injury had to defer race entry from one round to another . Everyone is different I spose and every place cant have an excellent Trevor Williams to deal with.

Day before at least they could maybe resell the ticket but on the day? No chance.

@tomhoward the wee fella is 10 , how can you tell a wee lad not to ‘go big’. What a ludicrous statement. Im fairly sure when he turns 20 he might think not to go Big the day before he rides a bike park.

At least 24 hours notice then yeah, maybe, as it would perhaps give them chance to fill the booking. But on the day? I wouldn’t expect a refund/rebooking put it that way.

As for BPW, we were there today and will be tomorrow, except for one of us. Banshee Rune with a lost flip chip, BPW happily let the lad have a voucher code for next time.

Bigger places like BPW could probably fill the space on the day easily but in my experience cancelling the day before will pretty much always mean losing your money at most places which is fair enough.

I’ve had this before when my daughter managed to scratch my eye pretty bad messing around in the swimming pool the day before I was doing an uplift at Gawton. I phoned them and they said if anyone filled my place they would give me a refund but if not I’d lose it, apparently it’s due to people booking then trying to cancel if the weather looks a bit rubbish

@tomhoward the wee fella is 10 , how can you tell a wee lad not to ‘go big’. What a ludicrous statement.

Correct, you can’t expect that. That’s why an adult shouldn’t have given the wee lad an opportunity to go to destination fcuked the night before a day at Danny Harts bike park.

Just my twopennyworth – in our business (very specialised plant hire) we get cancellations on the same day now and then and would never dream of charging the customer. However, it’s not the general public we’re dealing with and we have loads of competition so just have to suck it up.

Correct, you can’t expect that. That’s why an adult shouldn’t have given the wee lad an opportunity to go to destination fcuked the night before a day at Danny Harts bike park.

Exactly.

So back to the OP’s question. I’d suggest an apologetic and tactful email to the park appealing to their better nature rather than all guns blazing on FB, insta and STW.

Whilst i get the whole ‘rules are rules for everyone’/ under 24hr/if this was a hotel, airline etc etc, Im with OP on this one; its a 10 year old at a bike park…id refund or allow transfer to another day out of goodwill

the wee fella is 10 , how can you tell a wee lad not to ‘go big’

I’m with Tom on this.. at 10 he should be able to manage his own risk.. if he isn’t then its absolutely expected that a parent steps in to keep them in check.
See also Jackson Goldstone, Crosby Zimmerman, Harry Schofield for your own interpretation if these are good or bad examples and parentaly managed instabanger accounts.

But yes, goodwill on an injured kid would be expected but also are you talking about just one deferral or the kid, his dad, his mates and his mates dads all looking for a free pass and a zero revenue day for the park??

Pretty shortsighted from a marketing perspective isn’t it? 10 year old has best part of a lifetime of riding ahead so could potentially have an incredible day and end up going back dozens of times over the coming decades…

I think that unless it means the people running the place can’t fill a shuttle it makes no sense to not allow them to come back again on another date.

Send them a photo of the fella in a hospital bed.

Send them a photo of the fella in a hospital bed.

What so they can see he would be a liability at their place.

Suck it up IMO, the kid had an accident that’s not the companies fault.

You can’t flame a company on social media for following their terms and conditions (or most other companies for that matter). I appreciate its bad for you, but that’s what you agreed to when you ticked the box.

Best bet is to contact them by email and see if they can give you a discount if you come back.

Hope your kid’s alright

The way i see it .shit happened and you want someone else to pay for it.
There running a business not a charity and no it wasn’t Danny’s mum at the van.
Just be thankful your son didn’t spanner himself too bad and accept it’s just one of them things .The fact your on here suggesting a social media roasting is proof to me that modern society cannot hold itself responsible and is always looking to blame someone else .
It’s embarrassing

I would go for the pleasant and polite plea and see what happens. Maybe they will have some sympathy / see the good PR opportunity.

modern society cannot hold itself responsible and is always looking to blame someone else .
It’s embarrassing

That was my thought too

Take it as an important life lesson for your child. If you want money back, take it out of his pocket money so he learns a valuable lesson.

The park does not deserve this negative thread let alone any other internet/social media roasting.

I’ve been able to rebook a day at BPW when the weather meant I couldn’t travel, but they’re a much bigger organisation I’d have thought. Echo the comments about a quick email to the management and see what they say. Wouldn’t flame on SM it doesn’t help anyone.

No I wouldn’t expect a refund on the day. It’s a business and they have operating costs – if you start letting people cancel on the day you’re probably going to struggle to stay in business.

As for telling a 10 year old to calm down it’s pretty simple using basic parenting skills – tell him directly, take a break, get him on another trail or just stop him if he’s putting himself in danger. Failure to adequately supervise your child is neglect.

“Take it out his pocket money” oh boy you sound like a great dad.

Yeah send them a nice email.

Being nice is more productive than being angry, with customer service people.

Maybe include a pic of the lad, his head bandaged, gazing at a poster of Danny on his bedroom wall

😉

This is exactly why I buy travel or event insurance for anything I’m going to which I wouldn’t want to lose the money I paid for.
Went on holiday last week, paid £560 for the cottage and £20 insurance via Sainsbury’s – small price to pay – was on a big ride the day before we set off for the cottage and if I’d had a fall I’d have got the money back.

What??? Because Danny Hart’s probably never crashed a bike has he?

I wouldn’t expect a refund. It’s your son’s responsibility. Ask him for the money.

It’s a lesson for your lad to not crash through better judgement and skill improvement.

I’ve been through this with ours – learning that crashing at the race means you don’t complete, or damaging a bike while practising the day before preventing you from competing, or crashing the first day of a long summer holiday after exams is not the thing to do, just so you can ‘go big’.

We’ve had a few wasted race entries, or burnt through a tank of fuel to ride for less than an hour etc. Now eldest is paying his own entries, own bike maintenance costs, he is riding is much more considered, smoother and faster.

take it out of his pocket money so he learns a valuable lesson.

A bit harsh BUT… if the op had told the kid to calm down & the possible consequences & then the kid hadn’t taken heed then fair enough, gotta learn sometime to take notice of parents.

Take it as an important life lesson for your child. If you want money back, take it out of his pocket money so he learns a valuable lesson.

The park does not deserve this negative thread let alone any other internet/social media roasting.

Harsh, but fair. Kid’s fault he got hurt, adult’s fault he was in the situation to get hurt in the first place.

I’ve had to mete out similar education to my sister’s kids, they had to learn that I can’t always just magic new parts out of thin air to replace stuff they break, replacement stuff now comes out of birthday present money we give them. They’re all on rigid single speeds now… 🤣

For the record it wasnt my son but a friends son who hurt himself , thanks for the replies a lesson learned I spose.

modern society cannot hold itself responsible and is always looking to blame someone else .

I reckon its always been that way.. its the bullshit, everyone thinking their opinion is right and unarguable, discussions on the internet that is the difference.
But we love it.

Ultimately, there’s no real wrong or right here, the park are withins their rights, but it’d have been a nice touch if they were more accommodating.

Mind you what I don’t get is why you need to go down to England and pay for tracks considering what we’ve got up here! 😆