Hunter Valley Horse Riding & Adventures — Attraction in Lovedale

Unprofessional, dishonest, rude & upsetting.

My husband and I came here for our honeymoon, and were extremely disappointed and upset by the whole experience.

More than being disappointed at being overcharged, which could have been so easily rectified, we were disappointed with the lack of communication and professionalism.

Before leaving on the ride, the 16 year old instructor asked our group whether we were booked for 1 hour or 1.5 hours. The three others with us said they were booked for an hour; my husband and I said the manager had recommended over the phone that we book for an hour and a half, but that we were happy to change this to suit the rest of the group. We left on the ride on the assumption that we’d all decided to go for 1 hour.

The ride itself was incredibly boring; the slowest walk you can imagine, stopping every hundred metres to make sure we were all in a straight line. Our instructor looked about 16, so we were patient and didn’t complain. We were all rather glad when it was over after 50 minutes and we dismounted. There was no conversation about how my husband and I would still be charged for time we didn’t receive; it was simply understood by the group that we had all had enough and would be charged for an hour ride only.

We contacted the manager, Margaret, afterwards thanking her for the ride and letting her know we’d only gone for 1 hour. She did not respond. Two days later, we noticed that $180 (the price of 1.5 hours) had been withdrawn from our account. To do this without communicating with us, far less without sending us a receipt of payment, was wholly unethical. Had we not checked our bank statement, we would have been none the wiser to the overcharge. As young newly weds who were trying to honeymoon on a budget, this overcharge was significant for us.

My husband called Margaret assuming there’d been an admin error and asked for it to be corrected. Margaret was rude and defensive, refusing to listen. She kept speaking over us and ended up hanging up while we were still speaking. We rang again the next day to check that something would be done, and again Margaret did not listen and spoke with an accusatory tone. We asked to speak with the business owner, and she refused to put us in touch.

Two days later, after not hearing anything further, we sent a detailed email to Margaret and the team outlining what had happened on our ride and why we were upset at being overcharged. This resulted in the owner calling us, accusing us of making up lies and being ungrateful.

Lee (the owner) was unpleasant on the phone. He continually cut us off and did not let us explain the situation. The phone call lasted for half an hour, which consisted of him berating us for being greedy and complaining about nothing. As an experienced manager himself, my husband spoke calmly and asked if we could find a compromise. Lee refused. His final words before hanging up on us were: “write all the bad reviews you like, I don’t * care”.

It was clear after this phone call that this business do not care about customer service or satisfaction. The fact that they are unwilling to listen to feedback and to respond to complaints is alarming. After reading many other reviews of this business on TripAdvisor, it is clear that their appalling lack of customer service is a recurring issue. We only wish we had seen those reviews sooner.

We believe this business to be unscrupulous, rude and dishonest. Our honeymoon funds would have been spent much better at a different establishment.

We only hope that this business will eventually take their customers’ feedback seriously, and that by writing this review we can help others avoid the...

This place is a joke. If I could give it MINUS 5 star I would. We came up from sydney for a two day trip. On our second day we booked for a 1.5 hour horse riding session for noon. We got there at 11:20 and it was raining. We were told that the rain will subside and to wait til noon. We do so and the rain just got harder- to the point where it's literally pouring and it looked dangerous to go out. The guides say that it will be safe and that though the horses may slip and slide that it was normal. We spoke to the boss Margaret, over the phone in hopes of negotiating an outcome. We weren't very hopeful as we had looked up google reviews in thetime we were waiting and saw a complaint about a similar situation where they were unable to reach a compromise with Margaret. She replied to that reveiw and said that there was another side of the story so we were curious to find out. We asked very politely for a refund and if not even a part refund because the weather is out of everyone's control. We understand that she may have incurred costs paid to the guides and hence we were happy to settle with a part refund. She pressed on that according to they cancellation policy that unless the guides said it was unsafe then they would not offer any refund NOR ANY RESCHEDULE OPTION. Now can someone please tell me under what situation wouldthe guides say its unsafe- that is 100% subjective and theyare probably subject to pressure from their unreasonable boss Margaret anyways. Mind you after this conversation with Maragaret, the guides say that if they were us they wouldn't go out either. It is typical of such a business to AT LEAST offer a chance to reschedule in this situation so I asked why as a reschedule doesnt incur any loss to they business. She tells me rather rudely that I obviously dont know how the business operates and that she needs to pay the wages and feed the horses- erm, what? So does that mean she DOESNT feed the horses when there are no rides booked??? She is most unreasonable and really does not know anything about creating a good customer experience or doing business. 100% WOULD NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYONE. just a complete waste of time and money- mind you that's $190 down the drain for no apparent reason. I dont understand how a business can be so...

Rude owner double-booked us, rescheduled then cancelled! We were lucky we got a refund.

The Story: My Girlfriend and I booked a 1.5 hr ride 2 weeks in advance, $190 paid upfront. We were phoned about a week out to change the time slightly and verbally confirmed our booking with them, so far so good.

Day of, we arrived ~10 mins early and were all signed and helmet-ed by our scheduled time. We then waited around for another 20 minutes, only then to be informed by one of the staff that they didn't have room for us on the ride. The staff onsite phoned Margaret, who attempted to blame the booking site we'd used to book the ride, but this was clearly BS as we'd confirmed our booking verbally a few days prior.

Luckily we were staying a few more days and could reschedule for a couple days later, Tuesday at 0945. We confirmed this over the phone with a rude and curt Margaret. Then at 0730 on Tuesday morning, we got a text message from Margaret saying our ride was cancelled. Fortunately, Bookeasy — the booking site we'd used — was able to give us a swift refund. From some of the other stories I've read, I mightn't have got a refund if I'd booked directly with them. My advice: I'd be careful about booking a horse ride here, you might have a great time, but if anything goes wrong, expect very poor...