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.

Or just do something else the day before so that there is no risk of jeopardising the big day. I appreciate that older kids have to learn through their mistakes, but for a 10 year old there’s lots of other stuff to do near Hamsterley.

Well I didn’t know about the park but am now considering a visit and possibly even a holiday down in that direction. All publicity is good publicity?

Not good PR for Danny’s Park, so I would refer them to the poor publicity and see if they come up trumps – Danny is good lad but not hands on at the Park so family run it for him.

Well I didn’t know about the park but am now considering a visit and possibly even a holiday down in that direction. All publicity is good publicity?

Make sure you get to the uplift pick up point quickly!
I’ve been twice in the last 12 months with a couple of riding mates & been left waiting because they have booked more people on than places on the minibus!

Danny is good lad

Not good enough to give his seat up on the bus so that a paying customer could keep riding!

I wouldn’t go all guns blazing on social media for this as it isn’t something they’ve done wrong, but I would be tempted to email them to explain the situation to see if they’d let you defer the date, or maybe a discount. It’s an unfortunate situation, but you’re asking a company to put themselves out of pocket to fix it even though it wasn’t anything to do with them. It would be a generous if they did sort it out for you, but trying to shame them on social media would be a bit unfair in my opinion.

I hope the lad is ok, it must be gutting for him to miss out.

Make sure you get to the uplift pick up point quickly!
I’ve been twice in the last 12 months with a couple of riding mates & been left waiting because they have booked more people on than places on the minibus!

IF they are reading this thread – which if they have any marketing sense, they should be – the above would put me off (especially as a mincer that might be checking out some features, no way will I keep up with the downhill boys doing top to bottom race practise)

As for the original point – on the day no-show-refund, not a chance. Only leads to higher prices (and maybe deliberate overbooking, see above) for everyone else.

How many places were they trying to defer to a later date? Sounds like the other lad was there and booked in but didn’t ride as your friend’s son was out of action, and I’d guess an adult was booked in too. Losing three bookings would be a lot more significant than one, esp. if there was no reason for the others not to ride?

Most theatres will try and resell your tickets less a fee, if they can resell then I don’t see a problem.
Contract law in the UK does not allow you to make a profit from a change or breach, so if the park is able to resell the seat then legally they should refund less costs.

Unfortunately I’d absolutely side with descend on this one, expecting a deferal or refund on the actual day in question is just not reasonable. Hamsterley especially is fairly small scale and often has only one or two buses on even at a weekend, it’s not an 80-150 folks a day place like BPW or revs etc.

OP sorry I think you are out of order coming on a public forum and suggesting the venue is in the wrong and that a mud slinging exercise might be required if you don’t get your desired outcome. If I knack myself before a holiday in the alps and don’t have insurance is it the mtb companies responsibility. Nope. I might ask if there was anything they could do to transfer dates etc but if they say no so be it, except that sometimes companies can’t give gestures of good will, it not a consumer right. Then go on a forum under the pretext of asking for advice and in doing so tarnish their rep. Stop trying to get the sympathy vote because the wee lad is only 10. It’s no fault of descend your mates lad crashed.

Couldnt agreed more with bigwill.

You really need to come on a forum to ask this? As an adult you couldnt use your common sense and maybe send a polite email explaining things?

You’re a fooking chancer.

I think that you cannot expect a refund/rebooking on the day. If you gave them notice then things may be different. Fly up at Cwmcarn have been great when I said my car was having work on it with a weeks notice before I couldn’t go. They just said I could rebook. These are not multi million pound corps. and the OP should respect that.

Let’s be honest. No one is gonna disagree with you.

And the price for reading the audience hopelessly wrong goes to……… 😆

And the price for reading the audience hopelessly wrong goes to………

Never underestimate STW’s love of a good old fashioned pile-on.

When a pals Mondraker got damaged on the uplift trailer (the strap failed) Danny sorted him out with a replacement front end / back end (can’t remember which).

It was the decent thing to do but he did it without any hassle. Seems a good lad to me.

And as others have said, you can’t expect a refund on the day. A shame that the lad crocked himself but you can’t expect the business to be out of pocket as a result.

Slating them on social media is not cool.

More emotional horse shit.

Whether the lad is 10 or 110 makes no odds, back story irrelevant.

What would you have them do, refund everyone that doesn’t ride when booked…. a nice cold rainy day would no doubt see them in the poor house.

Like listening to the **** BBC.

OP go have a word with yourself.

Tough crowd.

Op, as suggested by a few of the more measured replies send them a polite email. Not because they have done wrong but simply to see if they might bend a rule a little under the circumstances. If the answer is no I’d reply back and say thanks for considering the request anyway. Well,I would anyway.

As a parent it’s a fine line between cotton wooling a kid and letting them go too feral. No way I’m going to preach to anyone about that as it’s a bloody hard balancing act that I’ve got wrong more than once when my kid was… a kid.lol

Glad he is (relatively) unscathed by the experience. That’s all that really matters.

What’s the point in asking Descend for a refund or rebooking again. It was already done at the park.

Suck up the £26 loss and stop trying to use it being a 10 year old as emotional leverage.

+1 I’m with the organisation.

What you could have done is ask for another day at a discounted rate… then see if they come back with a free one.

If you go in for the full refund and don’t get it, then there’s nowhere to go after that (except online to complain..). Negotiation 101.

Never underestimate STW’s love of a good old fashioned pile-on.

Mebs, but also (from me) a bit of small business experience of people changing their minds at the last minute or mismeasuring on bespoke stuff that’s already in progress after they’ve confirmed their (now-incorrect) measurements and expecting a replacement or alternative for free. It’s the same with a race entry, I wouldn’t expect a refund if I couldn’t race for whatever reason, it’s just shit luck.

Its understandable why there’s a blanket ‘no’ policy – they base the number of drivers they have on any day on the bookings they have. So there is a direct cost that has to be paid based on any given set of bookings irrespective of who shows up. They cant offload that cost at the last second, so they have to ensure that paid bookings remain so, otherwise everyone would have to pay a little more to cover all the people hurting themselves and becoming no-shows, which in the line of business their in is not an unlikely event.

Slating them on social media is not cool.

This

People are too quick these days to use a “social media review” to get their own way. It’s not their responsibility to make sure your boy doesn’t hurt himself and can’t go. It’s harsh but it’s a life lesson, I think you need to suck it up on this occasion.

Tough crowd.

Not really. Same day is pushing luck a tad too far. What should they do have the workers come in and send them home if they aint needed because everyone has broken themselves the day before/taken a look at the weather and claimed they have done so.

Not exactly a surprise that a person goes after the man best know for one of the most incredible DH runs of all time, and doesn’t get the backing he hoped for

I don’t agree with ‘tough crowd’ either. Poo happens. It’s not the Park’s fault. I don’t agree with this heart string tugging ‘won’t someone think of the children!’ BS.