I was just wondering did anyone manage to get a booking for this deal?
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/36442
I called twice and both times they told me to email [email protected] with dates and they will reply with a confirmation.
However its almost been a month since I sent my email and they still havent replied.
Has anyone had any luck with getting a booking??
I would call them but unfortunately I am Overseas atm.
Hey Scoopon! What have you got to say about this:
Avon Valley Ballooning & Balloon Sunrise have now ceased to operate and I suspect the company will be going into liquidation very soon. There are going to be some very dissapointed Scoopon voucher holders who haven't yet redeemed their flights.
People need to be wary of these cheap deal websites. Obviously there are some bargains to be had but there are also some risks.
I wonder will Scoopon be refunding all the money to the voucher holders who didn't get to use their voucher??
I think Scoopon and other such cheap deal websites should do their research a bit better before they allow so many of these very cheap deals to be sold. I think that allowing 3700 heavily discounted balloon flights to be sold just before Christmas is very irresponsible of Scoopon. The full retail value of this deal was over $1.3 million dollars and sold for less than a third of its value (even before Scoopon takes out their commission).
I don't think there are any businesses in Australia that could cover its costs and survive if it's turnover was cut to less than a third.
Please resend your request.
At this stage we have no outstanding requests.
Thank You - Avon Valley Ballooning
i didn't have any trouble booking, found them very helpful, going in Oct.
Hope no-one has a gift voucher, my partner received one from friends for his 60th birthday, did not realize it was going to expire until 2 days before the date. Rang to make a booking that he could fit in,they could not accommodate, so asked for extension they refused, we wrote a letter to consumer affairs, they contacted Avon Valley Ballooning they still would not provide the service we had paid an exorbitant amount for, they asked what they did with our money, they said they had spent it on their Christmas party. All Gift Vouchers should have no ending date.
Wow, that is unbelievable.
This just in from Perth Now:
AT least one person has been injured in a hot air balloon crash at Northam, 100km east of Perth.
Police said there were eight people on board and one was reported to be unconscious.
The cause of the crash, which happened just before 8am, is unclear.
Police and emergency services personnel are at the scene with three ambulances.
The RAC rescue helicopter has also been sent to the crash site.
Several companies run hot air balloon flights in the Avon Valley near Northam.
more to come
"AT least one person has been injured in a hot air balloon crash at Northam, 100km east of Perth.
Police said there were eight people on board and one was reported to be unconscious."
It is understood the balloon was operated by Windward Balloon Adventures - one of several ballooning companies based in the Avon Valley near Northam
is this company still going ?
it's website has the usual 404 error
When I went there ( Around may I think ) they were merging with another company from the eastern states. Not sure whether that has anything to do with it. and I forgot the name of the company they were merging with sorry.
balloon sunrise - 1800 468 247
i confrmed my booking just yesterday, no pobs with riginal avb adn scoopon voucher
[email protected]
Avon Valley Ballooning & Balloon Sunrise have now ceased to operate and I suspect the company will be going into liquidation very soon. There are going to be some very dissapointed Scoopon voucher holders who haven't yet redeemed their flights.
People need to be wary of these cheap deal websites. Obviously there are some bargains to be had but there are also some risks.
I wonder will Scoopon be refunding all the money to the voucher holders who didn't get to use their voucher??
I think Scoopon and other such cheap deal websites should do their research a bit better before they allow so many of these very cheap deals to be sold. I think that allowing 3700 heavily discounted balloon flights to be sold just before Christmas is very irresponsible of Scoopon. The full retail value of this deal was over $1.3 million dollars and sold for less than a third of its value (even before Scoopon takes out their commission).
I don't think there are any businesses in Australia that could cover its costs and survive if it's turnover was cut to less than a third.
where's that info from …
"Balloon Sunrise have now ceased to operate"
lucky i did mine 2 weeks ago, loved it !
I went on this. There were about 12 people in the balloon. The scoopon buyers were not necessarily in the majority. It fills the baskets up and on weekdays. Better $70 than nothing. The breakfast place was owned by the same people and was a small and relatively inexpensive meal. One glass of crappy sparkling wine for those who wanted it and who were of age. I am sure scoopon will refund those out of luck. I am not sure whether the company has closed or if they have merged anyway.
If $70 was enough then why have they gone broke?
I doubt that Scoopon will refund the money unless they can recover it from whom ever they paid it to in the first place.
I just said that the majority were non scoopon customers. Therefore it wasn't $70 per head. The $70 per head would have been revenue they otherwise would not have received. On top of their regular revenue.
They have ceased operations, not necessarily "gone broke". There is a difference. Just like above you are talking about how their "turnover" has been cut to less than a third. You should have stated revenue. Turnover is different. You are also assuming that they were full of full payoing customers on every flight before the scoopons were sold and that they only had scoopon customers after the scoopons were sold. This is illogical.
Why don't you tell us what your real gripe is and maybe you can get some help? Do you hold scoopons that you can not now redeem? If yes, then request a refund!
scoopon have refunded for vouchers bought for items purchased and the supplier has gone 'broke' or ceased operations
I'll give you a clue, I know a fair bit about what it costs to run a ballooning business!
I knew from the moment this deal sold out on Scoopon that there were going to be a lot of very dissapointed purchasers of this deal.
I sincerely hope Scoopon will refund or credit these customers.
now it says suspended operations, not ceased.
Trust me they will not operate again. They owe tens of thousands of dollars in wages and other bills.
All staff have resigned due to not being paid for a couple of months.
15.3.3. The Provider’s business has gone into external administration (including receivership or liquidation), permanently closed, or has temporarily closed for an extended period of time. Scoopon Credit Vouchers may not be issued where the Provider has one or more other locations within reasonable proximity that can service the Scoopon vouche
I wonder what reasonable proximity means. Also, extended period of time.
Any updates on this? I note Scoopon's absence from commenting.
Hello,
I like the way “scooponwise” – Damien Hayes owner of Windward Ballooning Northam skips over responding to the comments on the accident that his company had in April, and goes straight to the scoopon deal.
www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/hot-air-balloon-crashes-at-north…
Avon Valley Ballooning was sold to Peregrine Ballooning Pty Ltd trading as Balloon Sunrise in March this year. Balloon Sunrise had operations in The Yarra Valley and offered flights over Melbourne. They seemed quite solid and all above board. Simply put, their end of the deal was to fly all pre booked – presold passengers of Avon Valley Ballooning over the next two years. Mark Beacham, the now sole director of Peregrine Ballooning Pty Ltd had purchased Balloon Sunrise in Melbourne based on a similar arrangement earlier in the year.
I do not know if it was too big too fast, mismanagement or what, but obviously it didn’t work, not just in WA but across the board. Peregrine Ballooning Pty Ltd are now in Liquidation.
The Scoopon deal did not bring down a company.
I dislike these forums because of the lack of identity of the users.
I am Sven Tetlow previous previous owner of Avon Valley Ballooning.
[email protected]
Regards,
Sven
Thanks for your comments Sven. I am not quite sure why you felt the need to interject here when my comments were actually directed at Scoopon & other such cheap deal websites not at you or the new owners of Avon Valley Ballooning.
But for the record would you like to tell the public where the money is that Scoopon paid out for the 3700 balloon flights at $98 per flight? Perhaps you would also like to invite Mark Beacham to comment and share his thoughts on the purchase of your business.
Thankyou for providing the link to the April incident. The article and the majority of the press coverage of this incident reported the details quite fairly. I do commend our pilot on his actions to avoid a much worse scenario and I sincerely thank the Western Australian public for their continued support of Windward Balloon Adventures. We look forward to celebrating 30 years of operations in the Avon Valley next year.
Warm regards
Damien Hays
Director & Chief Pilot
Windward Balloon Adventures
PO Box 168
Northam WA 6401
[email protected]
www.ballooning.net.au
Now I get it. Your business suffered due to these vouchers being sold for another company's services.
Hi Voteoften,
No my business hasn't suffered at all. I suspect that maybe our bookings were a little higher than forecast due to our opposition having a lot of their spots taken up with the Scoopon customers. So I have no complaints there.
But out of the 3700 vouchers that were sold I estimate that probably only 700-800 of them were flown so there must be about 3000 very dissapointed Scoopon customers, whom I feel very sorry for. We have had lots of them phoning us thinking that we were the same company. If you speak to the manager of the Northam Visitors Centre she can tell you about how many times they have had scoopon customers phoning them or coming into see them upset (sometimes in tears) because they have arrived in Northam for their balloon flight only to find out that their booking has been cancelled (I suspect probably bumped for a full fare paying customer).
Now my business may suffer because disspointed Scoopon customers will no doubt spread bad word of mouth about ballooning in Western Australia, following their dissapointment.
People who had been cancelled most likely were bumped due to weather conditions. I considered staying in Northam overnight the night before, but there had been a flight cancelled the previous day due to weather conditions and I did not want to drive all that way and stay in that armpit only to turn back. Even after we drove out in the balloon bus, we were almost cancelled. Had to go to different spots to find the right one. They were very close to cancelling.
Northam is an armpit. A cesspool with crap hospitality options. I knew I well and truly did not want to stay there. Some of these people who went in to the tourist office might have made the trek and paid money to stay in the cesspool that is Northam. They would have been very angry at knowing they paid to visit a crappy town in the expectation of going ballooning, only to have to repeat the process upon cancellation. I know I would be in tears thinking about another overnight stay in Northam.
I received a PM from Sven, asking the following:
I have laid the cards on the table re my identity. I note you are active
across the specturum.
May i ask your identiy / motive / angle?
I am not going to reply via PM, as I am confused by his concern. I actually somewhat defend the company, in the absence of no other evidence of bankruptcy.
Probably the only negative I said was that the sparkling wine was crappy. In the scheme of things, who cares? I was actually more dismayed that I only got one glass, even though not to my liking.
My identity - an individual who has been on the balloon flight when Sven apparently owned the company. I was bored, but I didn't go for my benefit, but for the benefit of my guest. I expected to be bored. I doubt a balloon ride could ever be exciting for me. I was asked on the morning to keep quiet about the vouchers and keep it from other customers. I did. Other people's business is their business and my business is my business.
Motive - the scooponwise identity was just whinging, IMO. They were not sharing relevant info, other than possible disruption. I was trying to find out what he/she in fact, was trying to accomplish. I still don't know.
Angle - I like sharing and receiving info on ozbargain. I support those I think have been screwed/short changed/ripped off. When people say things I think are stupid like, "i think I should get a refund because I forgot about my voucher and it has expired", I will give them a bit of stick. When I think they have been poorly done by, I encourage them to seek redress, after exhausting avenues with the GB company.
Bottom line is that I use heaps of vouchers. I bought a couple and used them with this balloon company. Didn't knock my socks off, but then ballooning never would. If it had been an amazing gourmet breakfast with things I never or rarely have or with bottomless quality grog, I would have carried on positively about it. What I got was what I expected and what I paid for. It satisfied my guest That was my aim. It ticked another box on their list. Now they are been there done that.
If someone had asked me about who they should use, I would have said to go ahead and use whatever company it is that I used with these scoopons. I might have confirmed that they knew they would likely be bored, regardless of the company used, but would have said that Sven's company did more or less what was expected and that was better than no info at all. If they were paying full price, I would say that they should wait until they are somewhere where there is more going on than a balloon ride over some paddocks. Like the Bungle Bungles or on safari in Africa. Somewhere where a different point of view has potantial to be interesting.
Scoopon will have to refund folks who could not redeem their vouchers. Who Scoopon recovers the money from, be it the original owner (Sven?) or the subsequent buyer, will probably be determined by a combination of negotiation and the application of contract law.
Scoopon buyers will get their refunds from Scoopon. I expect that it will be without reference to where or if Scoopon recovers their money.
I hope that answers your questions Sven. I am not in a conspiracy against you or anyone on this forum.
Regarding the "I am not in conspiracy against you or anyone on this forum", I do note that Scooponwise really irritates me. Whinging and whining about things that are apparently none of their concern and not out of concern for anyone on this forum.
Thank you - "Voteoften"
http://www.hotairballooning.com.au/
Now acknowledges the liquidation of Balloon Sunrise and gives an email address of the people handling the liquidation.
shame about that for people who have booked next year. I think the perth season has finished now anyway.
do scoopon actually give all the money to the operator at the start?
thought that doesn't make business sense for them
thought they might give 30% at the start , and the rest every so often the the operator 'cashes' in the vouchers for the money - otherwise things like this can happen and hurt the supplier - in this case - scoopon.
Here is an example of the kind of rubbish that goes on in Northam.
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/review-of-police-response-af…
A state MP just happenned to be assaulted in the combo street/bar fight. Probably the only reason it makes the news.
Stay out of Northam. It is an armpit. A disgusting and dangerous cesspool with no quality tourist facilities.
Hi ballsofsteel,
If you're having difficulty getting hold of the supplier, we kindly ask that you send your query to [email protected] where our support team will be able to assist you further.
Kind Regards,
Team Scoopon.