irksU

Oxted and Edenbridge Show - Rip Off

I got pissed off at the Oxted and Edenbridge Show this year. So I decided to complain. I got the secretary’s email from the Edenbridge and Oxted website and wrote her the email below. the reply I got was so condescending I decided that it needed a post category of its own!

Read on - this is my initial email:

Hi -,

As a family of five visiting the Oxted and Edenbridge show on Monday, I have to say that overall it was a nice day - even without the livestock.

I was, however, disgusted with the prices of the fairground rides once again. With three children and two adults entries into the show it was a small fortune anyway, but to be held to ransom over the fairground rides really marred the day. The kids were so looking forward to the rides but at the cost of £2.00 per person for a four minute ride on the teacups was way too extravagant. The ghost train seemed a better deal at £1.50 but was so appallingly short that it was in face even worse value for money than the smaller childrens’ rides. We cut our visit short after those two rides much to the disappointment of the kids.

I am writing this in the hope that you will take it on board. I expect that there were many many parents thinking or even writing the same thing that I am. Perhaps next year you could try and book a fairground group that aren’t as greedy - although I expect that in some part their high prices are in direct response to the price they are charged for the pitch.

The condescending and somewhat snotty reply that I got is below:

Dear Mr. -
Thank you for your email from which we regret to note your concern about prices of fairground rides. Whilst we agree with your concern regrettably the charges are in fact similar wherever fairground rides are present up and down the country.
We make every attempt to include lots of attractions and entertainment for visitors to watch and participate in and mostly these are all included in the admission charges.
We are sorry the cost of these rides ruined your visit but we do hope you will visit again in the future and perhaps persuade your children there are far more fun things to do and watch than the fair, which is just a very small part of the whole show.
Regards -

I realised quite fast that I was dealing with someone that I was not going to get a satisfactory response from so decided to post my correspondence here so that others may comment or at least be prepared.

For the record, the prices were very much on the high side for fairground rides - even for the ripped off south east - but that wasn’t particularly my gripe: the quality of the rides were appalling. The Ghost train was pathetic! If the Oxted and Edenbridge show need to make prices as high as they were then they need to make sure that the people they book are providing quality.

In response to this statement:

and perhaps persuade your children there are far more fun things to do and watch than the fair

I challenge anyone to steer their kids away from the fairground attractions. After all - it’s why they put them there!

I’d like to hear from others who feel that they have been ripped off at the Oxted and Edenbridge Show.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 and is filed under Rip Off Britain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.