In the spirit of fair play....

Following my last post, moaning about Gambados Beckenham, I feel it is only fair to let you know that the general manager of Gambado Beckenham has been in touch and has resolved the situation.  I will not post his name (and the email he sent) here, as he was very nice and I have not asked for permission.

Suffice to say that "All's well that ends well" and thank you Mr Manager.

Not a good start to the New Year

An Open Email to Gambado.....

Sent to  mray@gambado.com and customerservice@gambado.com

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Hi,

I wish to register a formal complaint against your Beckenham location.

Today we went to Beckenham in order to entertain our kids on a wet and windy New Years Day.

We checked the website and saw that you were open.

Typically we get there for 15:00 in order to get our 2 hours in by 17:30, but today we went in a bit early as we expected it to be busy.  See attached receipt.

We actually got in immediately and the receipt says that we have until 17:09.

You can imagine our surprise when at 16:00 (barely an hour later) the manager (a tallish chap in a white sweat shirt (not Gambado uniform)) informed us that we had to leave as they were closing!

I pointed out that it was 2 hours early and I was told that there had been a poster up for a month (that he had just taken down), the information was on the website, and Gambado don’t give discounts!

I found the managers attitude to be rude and disinterested.  He clearly just wanted to get rid of me and the other customers.

I spoke to some of the other customers and all of them were upset by the situation.  NONE of them had seen the fabled poster (there are quite a few posters in the windows of Beckenham advertising this and that and so no one pays any attention to them).  We ALL, however, HAD seen the poster that still said that we only had 2.5 hours during peak times (as it was prominently displayed.  Why was the other poster not so prominent??).  The young girl on reception had said nothing to us as we paid the usual rate to come in.

When I got home I checked the website and found the following….

Which makes no reference to early closing.

Then I spotted this.

But was unable to find a “News Section”.

Shortly thereafter this popped up.

Which makes no reference to early closing on the 1^st!

I am, or should I say “I have been”, a regular visitor to Beckenham over the last 11 years and am appalled the lack of well-presented information and at the attitude of the “Manager”, who clearly needs to go on a customer service course.  I am in customer service and I am sure I would not be in business for long if I treated my customers in such a way.  It is only by dint of the fact that we are a captive audience (in that there are few other choices in the area) that will keep many people coming back.

By my calculation we only received 3/5 ths (1.5 hours) of the 2.5 hours we had paid for and should be entitled to the equivalent of 2/5 ths (1 hour) in compensation (2/5 * £26.75 = £10.70).

I would appreciate a response and assurance that someone will be speaking to the rude chap in Beckenham.

Thank you and Happy New Year.

________________________________

Cosma