written by Zaire212 on 10/09/2023
If I could give this company -1000 stars, I would. I booked a 25 mile helicopter ride through Buy A Gift for my son's 7th birthday, something he would of absolutely LOVED to do. However, after attempting (and failing) to book the experience multiple times, Adventure001 took it upon themselves to book it on my behalf, at a location that was absolutely miles away from where we live (I don't drive) which I find audacious after paying £250 for something that states that there are multiple locations to choose from. After making multiple attempts to contact someone regarding this issue, a woman finally answered the phone with the most nonchalant attitude who kept telling me that the experience hasn't been booked on my behalf, when it clearly had been. I requested a refund, as obviously my son's birthday has been and gone, and was told they couldn't do anything about it and that I should just contact the original provider - Buy A Gift (who were BRILLIANT btw!) to resolve the issue. I would advise everyone to stay clear of Adventure001, as they have absolutely zero consideration for their customers, and the customer service team simply don't care. Buy A Gift, however, processed my refund without complications once I told them about the awful ordeal with Adventure001, but I still have a little boy who is absolutely gutted beyond belief that he is unable to go on this experience. I am also truly gutted for him as I know how much he would've loved going on a helicopter ride.
written by SidneyDaly95 on 13/08/2023
We got this experience early 2019 , booked for August of same year, cancelled day before - then there were no more dates available - then covid happened - then I had a fight on my hands getting the vouchers back into play - because the supplier had falsely redeemed the vouchers - back in play we PAID FOR AN UPGRADE as only was to get a booking all together - booked for May of this year , my elderly father travelled up to Edinburgh in anticipation of this bucket list experience at last - cancelled again. Rescheduled immediately for August 2023 -4 years on - elderly father travels again - and even thought the weather forecast is clear tomorrow - now CANCELLED A THIRD TIME 'operational' reasons - load of croc. A total waste of our time and money - DO NOT BOOK - and certainly not with virgin experience days ! they pass the buck. £100's out of pocket and very dissapointed kid tonight - nothign to do with safety !
written by EvelinPiper on 04/07/2023
Do not buy vouchers for any trips with them. Claimed money even though they cancelled first 2 booking on this deal last minute due to maintainance!. Couldnt find any vacancies for 3rd booking without paying extra money despite contacting them several times to ask for assistance. Now saying have to pay to extend voucher or loose money completely. Dont think they were ever going to honour this voucher without paying extra. Wont refund me either
written by Angel1959 on 10/02/2023
Absolute disgrace of a company !!!!!!!! You pay for you helicopter voucher and once you have paid there are no dates free unless you upgrade another £100 and if you don’t there is no refund. False advertising . The dates are kept for those who upgrade another £100 which is not made clear on the website it seems like it’s a way to get extra money from the customer.This should not be allowed I don’t know how they are getting away with this!!!! Well it won’t be for long as I’m taKing further steps, trading standards, the media and tv will all be getting contacted, this cannot be allowed and needs a stop putting to it. I would have liked to have seen it on the website that you have to upgrade for a date instead of letting me buy the voucher and then told no refunds because I would not upgrade.
written by 477Dalrymple on 31/08/2022
Don't use this company. They state there is availability to book helicopter flights when you buy the voucher. Then you wait months and months on waiting lists to recieve emails of new dates added that you can only book as a new customer., and not use a paid for voucher There is no way to ring or have direct contact with them for help and after 4 on line queries, notifying them of the problem or perhaps computer system problems, all you get told is 'availability is as stated on line'. I can't believe that after 5 attempts of receiving the availability email and trying within 20 mins, that 10 dates with at least 4 session is all booked up. But of course they are not, because as a new customer they are availible!!! Poor poor money taking tricks
written by Judithy170 on 13/08/2022
Redeemed a gift voucher from Buy a gift via this company for a falconry experience & unfortunately contracted COVID (positive test provide to them) They refused to change my booking as we did not provide 7 days notice.l did not have COVID 7 days ago! Ridiculous! They said it was my choice not go and apart from feeling very unwell how irresponsible would it be to go to an event knowing you had COVID & could spread it. Avoid this company and shame on you buy a gift for being associated with such an appealing company.
written by JessieFlood on 28/07/2022
So me and my partner brought this voucher from buy a gift so we could do a helicopter flight it got cancelled a few times during to the covid rules which was fair enough so we booked it with Adventure 001 so we can fly on the 24 July which was meant to be last weekend and we got a email confirming it got cancelled the day before with less then 24 hours notice due to a operation limational faught since then for 5 days we are having nothing but problems of trying to get hold of this Company we can only email them which takes the mickey !!! and they don't even reply to any of them with a good enough excuse then they said we have lost out on our voucher cos it was our fault so told them that they cancelled and sent over the proof! Finally they excepted it but still got nowhere I'm sick of sending them the same stuff what they keep asking for and plus now for us to re book a day we have got to up grade if we want to continue with this flight a other £138.00 ! Which our voucher should of covered everything as it did state it when I showed them why should we pay more and not going to as ur quick enough to take our money and not sort out the problem so u can't speak to anyone direct only through email which is a complete joke ur better of banging ur head on a brick wall to get a better response I found this website as someone told us to leave the review which I'm glad I have as I can see I'm not the only one to have the similar problem so why can't this company sort it out as people want to do these things as its a operuitiy in a life time if u can provide this service stop ripping people off n getting there hopes up this company need to either reburst our money by or give us flight we no extra cost cos u should be shut down it will be reported and made public to what a joke and I'm glad I've seen these other reviews. !!!! Please no-one use this compamy so why should more people loose out on money as I don't reckon it is a proper company cos u can't talk to anyone only email !!!!
written by anuragagarwal.hitk on 18/06/2022
this is the worst experience I have had with a company ever and honestly I'm not even sure why or how they're still being allowed to operate as they are thugs. They call themselves an online only company so you can't speak to anyone about your grievances. You can only send emails which no one replies to. I had booked a helicopter tour last year and it was recscheduled twice because of delays from their side. Finally today I was supposed to fly. First I got an email yesterday saying there is some issue with airport staff and therefore they wont operate. When i wrote them an email no one replied but I got another email an hour later saying that the issue has been resolved and now they will operate. We basically blocked out a weekend for this and they keep playing with us like we have nothing to do. I have been planning this helicopter surprise with my wife for a year and we missed a friend's wedding to go to this as I was so wanting to do it. We spent GBP100 and about 2 hours to get to the place from Central London to find out that we would not be flying. They didn't even care to call people up - simply sent them emails an hour before we were supposed to fly! It's like they don't care at all. To make things worse, the Adventure001 staff was rude as hell. When I tried to explain my problem, the lady went like "I already know what you're going to say but it's not our fault". After lying to us about everything possible and making me and my wife wait for another hour, they told me that they can't do anything and that we should go back. I found out later that there were 4-5 other couples who were sent back without any explanation. They were ok to operate the longer flights as it pays them more but not the shorter ones. It was just bad planning all around but they don't care. It obviously ruined our mood and our day and my surprise to my wife - I will regret this forever as this would've been her first helicopter ride experience and Adventure001 ruined it completely. I really want this company to reimburse me for the missed helicopter ride and my travel expenses from London all the way to Fairoaks airport. HONESTLY, MY SUGGESTION TO EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO GIVE ANYONE A DECENT EXPERIENCE IS NOT TO TRUST THIS COMPANY AND NEVER BOOK ANY EXPERIENCE WITH THEM.
written by DependonDzr on 07/10/2021
Avoid this company at all costs! I'm pretty sure this is how they work.......... They sell adventures at reasonable/low cost through many of the different event day websites and then push for you to upgrade. If you pay more and upgrade the adventure goes ahead as planned when you book. If you don't upgrade then the adventure only goes ahead if nobody in the group you were booked with goes ahead. If anyone upgrades then they cancel the booking with the others for anyone of various reasons... i) the equipment broke ii) personnel weren't available iii) the weather... etc. Shoddy business practice that maximises profit at the expense of customer service. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!
written by za007 on 04/10/2021
save your time and money, WORST company EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in the History of companies CUSTOMER SERVICE, they will cancel and not refund you, only book directly from the pilot company, the "adventure" is you lose your money and get no refund when THEY cancel, yes we understand the need for safety but people plan and have the right to refunds.. avoid at all cost!!
written by Kerrycook on 13/09/2021
Avoid like the plague! Flights always cancelled! No slots available to rebook! No refunds given! Total waste of my Virgin Experience Days voucher, so far this company has cost me £110 for a helicopter ride that has never happened…….
written by DonavanBarrett186 on 23/10/2019
Personal opinion of service and to advise caution only
A truly awful and upsetting experience after having bought an experience through a third party.
Felt we were treated very very badly, left us totally upset and ruined an exciting experience for us. We felt it did not live up to our expectations of safety and customer service and luckily were able to go back to the third party where we were treated ever so kindly and are able to make the most of a truly devastating situation and rebook our experience elsewhere.
Such a shame
written by WilliamGTaylor on 06/11/2018
I purchased a voucher from Virgin Experience Days for £160=49 on 12/12/17, for a “Historic City Sightseeing Helicopter Tour for Two”, as a Christmas present for my son. The Voucher was redeemed for a flight over Durham, starting at 13:00 on Saturday September the 13th, flying from Fishburn Airfield with Adventure 001. On speaking to my son subsequently, he told me that he was extremely disappointed with the experience and felt that the advertised description was misleading. He gave me the following reasons: a) the flight only lasted for between 10 and 15 minutes, which is not very long for a 25 mile sight-seeing tour; b) the flight did not give him enough time to photograph the house of a friend when they overflew it; and c) the tour was supposed to be a city sight-seeing tour of Durham, but the tour did not overfly the city because, “… there was a prison there.”! I regard this service as inadequate and poor value for the money as: 1. you would have to fly at over 120 mph to cover the 25 miles in 10 minutes, this is a fly-past not a tour! 2. Fishburn Airfield is about 7.5 miles from the city of Durham and so well over half the flight time is spent in transit; 3. the flight did not overfly the city and so cannot be described as a, “city sight-seeing tour”; 4. After complaining to the Virgin "Service desk". I then had to follow up this complaint with their “Escalated Care office”, surely they can manage this themselves.
written by PaulineSteph on 29/06/2018
Between Myself and My Niece we have called and emailed this company over 20 times. Each time we call we get a recorded message saying your call will be answered shortly no matter what option you push ( We have tried them all). Well it never happens. they simply say the office is closed and leave a message, no matter what time of day! booking online is a joke it takes you back to the beginning all the time. We are trying to book for a member of our family who is on palliative care and is running out of time. It may only be a helicopter ride to them but for her is one of her Bucket list wishes. Sooooo Frustrated
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As rated by our community of reviewers
Diddy162's Response to Angel1959's Review
Written on: 07/06/2023
Have you had a solution to this. I'm having the same problem 16months on?
Angel1959's reply to Diddy162's Comment
Written on: 07/06/2023
I did eventually but had to fight for my refund. Stick to your guns demand your refund , tell them it’s false advertising.Good luck.