Hi, We have just had our first mayor experience with the headcorn skydiving club. We chose the static line parachute course. We are both very disappointed with how this place is run. We are very easy going people and we don't need 5 star service, just a fair and decent service. So where shall we begin..... Firstly, arranging the training, booking, etc. took our money without any problems. When we tried to call to ask some questions, we got a moody lady, who was quite rude, abrupt, obnoxious and a bit patronising. It turns out this was Jane Hopkins the MD. (We've never jumped out of a plane before Jane, and spending over £500 for us to both do it, obviously we had a few simple questions. Rudeness was not needed!!) We did our training, which we felt was very good. The next day went to do the jump. First names on the board. Arrived at 08:30 when they said to arrive. Waited til 09:30 before anyone even showed up!! Then waited all day, only to be told weather conditions where to bad to jump that day. Fair enough, british weather hey. So we went back 2 weeks later, 1h30mins drive each way, 4 kids on board with us, my mum so that the kids could be watched while we went up and picnic food for all of us because the cafe there is completely overpriced, small meals, food isn't even decent. Just a rip off. Made it even worse that the 2 ladies behind the counter where just moody and had no customer services!!! So we finally arrived at 10:00am. Got told we were late so would have to wait for our revision training and that could be anytime in the day!!! Fair enough. Ended up waiting til around 4pm before we jumped. Funny that we couldn't do our revision training, which took all of 10 minutes, even though loads of staff where sat around chatting and doing loads of jumps thereselves!!! Staff never came over to let us know what was going on. We had to find them to ask what was going on. When we did, we felt like they were just annoyed by our questions and recieved obnoxious, patronising answers!!! The vibe seems to be carried on from the top leaders of the centre down. Jane hopkins is not a very happy person. Didn't seem happy to help. No customer services at all!! Other staff seem to adapt the same abrupt attitude when she was around as well!! We felt that this creates and continues to create a dull vibe at the centre. We kept feeling like we where just an annoyance to the main staff. The tannoy system that they use to let customers know what is going on, is very quiet and doesn't cover the whole of the skydiving areas. How are you meant to know what is going on if you can't hear it. Finally the most positive things about this place are just a few of the instructors and some of the other skydivers who where there or on our course!! The four instructor that really played a positive part in our experience at headcorn where Del (good sense of humour, good bloke), Simon (new instructor, very good guy), Yanis (had a lot of good chats with him) and Peter (saw us out the plane and made us feel safe beforehand). It's a shame that this place is run like this. It has some good potential, nice location, interesting history, but the way it is run, the prices, the attitude of the higher staff, the organisation and the moody vibe REALLY lets this place down. No need to keep people waiting this long or treating like this. A bit of politeness and patience would go a very long way at this place!!! Finally, have to say that Del's jokes gave us a few good laughs.
