Cuerden Birds Of Prey (Permanently Closed)

I was given a voucher from my brother for a Hawk Walk as a Christmas present to share with my mother. I wanted to do this during August and have received no acknowledgement from my emails and my telephone calls haven't been answered. This is a total rip off and we have contacted BBC TV Watch Dog. My brother is also contacting PayPal with whom he paid for this experience.

Wife purchased the Ultimate Bird of Prey experience for £75.00 as a Xmas present for me. When attempting to arrange a suitable date was told by Richard Cookson, Director for the company that the company was experiencing problems with the programme as bird flu was preventing the continuation of the programme but to call back towards end of March/early April 2017 as things might have changed. Phoned back spoke to Richard Cookson who informed me that the problems still remained and discussions were taking place with board members and that he would get in contact with me in a couple of weeks to let me know how things have got on. After hearing nothing I got back in touch to find out what the situation was and Richard Cookson answered and said that they were still experiencing problems and because of this he would have no problems returning our £75.00 but to go through Pay Pal. Unfortunately we had paid by card which meant that we were unable to go through our own Pay Pal account and raise a case with the resolution centre as it was not showing as a Pay Pal payment/reference on the system and within our account. I contacted Pay Pal and they were able to trace our payment to Cuerden Birds of Prey on the Cuerden account but because they could not take action through resolution centre advised that we would need to speak with Cuerden direct and ask them to take action and refund us our money. They also advised that even if we would have been able to raise a case through the resolution centre the period since we paid had now exceeded the 180 days and so they would not have been able to help. On this I contacted Cuerden Birds of Prey and spoke again to Richard Cookson and explained the situation and he said that he would contact Pay Pal and arrange for us the refund of our £75.00 and would email me back to confirm. This is now over 4 weeks ago. I have tried to email, phone Richard Cookson on his mobile and phone the office. No answer. It does look as though Cuerden have made the decision that because of the circumstances that they find themselves in i.e. not being able to run the programme that they are making up for the lost revenue by keeping the money that people have paid up front and refusing to refund and than ignoring any further contact? I do understand and appreciate the difficult time they must be going through as a business with the bird flu but I do find it very sad that other peoples money is being taken and kept in such a way. I very much would like to hear from Richard on how this is going to be resolved and I do hope that he gets in contact with me to make things right. As mentioned Richard has had numerous emails from me and I have tried to contact him on his mobile and at the office. I am sure that Richard would not have any difficulties as he has mentioned earlier as excuses with previous cases in knowing who I am and how to contact me to get this resolved. Please Richard get in contact???

I bought the Ultimate bird of prey experience as a present in December and upon trying to book a day for this in June, I was told it was no longer available and if I wanted a refund I'd have to process it through the resolution centre in Paypal.

15 days after doing this the refund still hasn't been processed and no one is answering either the landline or mobile.

I even text the mobile number provided stating who I was and that I'd done as requested and asked when this would be completed, still no response.

The fact that you've agreed to refund me and then take over 2 weeks to log in to your Paypal to click a few buttons to get this solved is anything but competent.

It's a shame that it seems you'd rather have yet another 1 star review than actually communicate with a customer.

As a previous post , I bought an owl experience which they said should have been removed from their website because they no longer provide this experience. I have requested a refund through PayPal but there has been no response from them. Do the right thing Duerdens and pay people their refunds without all this hassle .

Bought a Hawk Walk experience for my husband. I was involved in the day and it was truly fantastic. Richard is an awesome Faulkner who truly knows his stuff and clearly loves what he does. Thouroughly enjoyed our time spent with him and learned so much. Highly recommended him.

Fantastic birds of prey experience day! Great value for money. Brilliant friendly family run company, great range of birds, good quality personal experience. Richard and Doug were lovely and very knowledgable. Set in a great location and Highly recommended. We will definatly be returning to see the birds of prey again! Thanks Cuerden birds of prey for a great day!

Cuerden Valley Birds of Prey joined us at Ashbridge School and Nursery for an Autumn Adventure day. The staff were very friendly and fantastic with all the children and parents. The birds looked amazing and each child got to hold and have pictures with them. A great experience and would recommend for any event.

We had the Owls visit our Holiday Club at St Oswalds Community Hall today and they were fantastic. The kids loved the whole experience from holding the birds to seeing them fly. We were particularly impressed in the way both Richard and Carley worked with the children especially those who were a little frightened. One little boy went from being really scared to even be near them to wanting to hold them - a fantastic achievement.
We will certainly be having them back for another visit and would highly recommend them.