Manchester, The Chill Factore www.chillfactore.com

went to book lift pass after loads of messing around on their website they had four prices for the same ticket. I filled out all details including credit card details the website timed out and said the transaction was not complete and to rebook my tickets,so I did. The second transaction was complete telling me I will receive an email to comfirm the booking.I checked my emails and a few minutes later i got two emails telling me both tickets had been booked thats the one I wanted and the one that didnt go through. I try to get intouch to tell them so they could refund my card but nobody seems to want to answer the phone and they havent replied to my emails either.really poor website.. really poor customer service...

I bought my boyfriends 2 kids for a taster lesson and was told by instructor that to book a beginners lesson would be £89 per child. As I had no money at the time to do this I tried to book online, nowhere could I find this offer, I tried calling chill on at least five occasions at varying times of day- no answer it just rang out endlessley. So I decided to make the 75 mile round trip to speak to someone in person and book the TWO beginners courses. When we got there somebody new was handling our complaint and couldn't help us!!!? ? No one senior was obtainable and her fellow colleague clearly couldn't be bothered. I have sent several emails one as a sarcastic thanks for a lovely time - to which I had a 2 minute response the other 5 were genuine complaints - which after almost 4 WEEKS have not warranted a single reply! Who runs this place!? How do I get to speak to them??? Despite all this I am Stlll prepared to spend my hard earned money here!! But not at the in agreed price of 300 quid instead of the 89 each as promised! Kids xmas present ruined !!! Thanks to NOBODY dealing with me! I explained at the time when I came in to book in November it was intended for Xmas !

My extended family (13 of us) went to the Chill Factore in the half term holiday to celebrate my birthday. The day was fun but you didn't get much "bang for your buck" so to say on the activities and unfortunately there was no group discount and despite there being a special offer advertised on their website and in the press "half-term children go free" because I had booked slightly before the offer started they wouldn't give me the discount - which I think is very unfair given I did ring and ask about discounts and we spent a large amount of money.

I rang Chill Factore groups booking telephone number from the website when I made the booking to get some assistance as we were a large group. I was told there were no discounts and you had to use the regular webpage and try and see what you could get activities wise, each activity needs to be booked separately and there weren't any activities available for all of us to do together. The booking staff were polite but couldn't actually provide any more assistance than that. After a lot of trial and error on the activities booking webpage, I managed to get a time slot available where some people could do the luge whilst the others were on the slope or in the snowpark. The luge is 45 minutes, of which 5 mins was waiting for the instructor to take us onto the slope, 10 mins was getting everyone clued up on what to do and safety etc. So you actually get 30 mins real activity time which equates to about 8 goes down the slope. The skiers got an hour but that amounted to about 10 goes down the slope also with waiting time for lifts. The snow park ticket for the younger ones is for just 30 mins. So we spent time in the cafe waiting for the others to finish (spending more money!). We had dinner at Nandos after the activities. Again I rang in advance because we were a large party. They told me they couldn't make a reservation as they didn't do reservations but they would keep some tables for us. In fact they did keep the tables and although it takes some organising to get the order together and take it to the till as there is no table service, the staff were excellent, very accommodating and the bill was very reasonable.

So in conclusion, if you are a large family group wanting to celebrate an event then a day at a water-park or even alton towers offers a lot more value for money than chill factore and is certainly a lot easier to book and to get discounts for a large group.

myself and my partner who are both novices went along for a full day ski beginners day.

Noel and Andy are both fantastic instructors and made the day what it was. Very easy descriptive instructions given with patience for all to the group . Treating everyone as individual learners going at a suitable pace for all.

Nothing was too much trouble for either one of them and were passionate about sharing their years of knowledge and expertise.

By the end of the day we were confident to move on to the next level 4 5 and 6. so back next week for more.

Great atmosphere for all ages and really looking forward to our first skiing trip to Switzerland knowing that by the time it arrives we will be able to enjoy it .

HUGE thanks to Noel and Andy.

The snowboarding beginner day experience was fantastic. This was due to the enthusiastic and positive persona of our instructor - Mini. Through his patience and excellent coaching advice this allowed us to enjoy our snowboarding experience to the full and learn a lot along the way. His coaching advice and one to one instructions allowed all of the grouop to become recreational standard. We will definately be coming again and would love to request Mini as our instructor.

Excellent day with super instructor, Mel.

She took time to assess each of us in group and planned day accordingly, depending on differing levels of ability.

It was Boxing Day and thankfully quiet, as most people next door at Trafford Center- shopping:((( and special deal meant only cost £70 for whole day,including lunch.

I learnt a lot and developed my basic skills thanx to Mel

I have my own boots, but one member of group had really poor fitting boots hired to him and I urged him to change them,but even after changed still not much better.

I really think if you going to enjoy skiing and go away, investing in your own boots is really worthwhile!

Was so impressed by Mel that booked 2 private lessons before I hit slopes again in Saalbach next month.

Took my daughter and her friend here for my daughter's birthday, booking everything in advance online on their website - including clothing hire.

We were somewhat surprised that they advise arriving a whole hour before your alloted time, just to get your clothing but it turns out you absolutely need to!

Why do you need to? Because the staff don't seem capable of looking at the labels in their own clothing and handing over age appropriate items. Sounds simple but apparently it isn't.

Took three trips back and forth to the counter just to get trousers and jackets for two ten year olds. The clothing originally handed over ranged from age 12 right down to age 3!

Later we had to go to another desk to get helmets for tubing - and the pantomime continued - wrong size helmets, helmets with broken chin straps or straps which had been tied in knots to try to make them usable presumably but which ended up having the opposite effect.

I emailed them the day after explaining what had gone wrong. They never replied.

They did manage to send me an email offering discounted ski lessons if I booked within a week. I replied to that email address, forwarding a copy of my original email to guest services and guess what - that went ignored too.

Looks like they couldn't give a hoot.

Nowadays people are quick to complain and when something is great they do not take the time to shout about it so I have decided to leave a review on my experience with the Chill Factore.

I booked the Chill Factore through one the amazing deals they sent me after I signed up a few weeks ago.

I have my first skiing holiday booked and wanted to learn the basic before I got there so booked onto the Beginner Ski Course.

I thought the Chill Factore was fab- the whole experience was so enjoyable and considering my nerves before heading for the slopes I was surprised how quickly I started to relax and really enjoy myself.

I had a brillant, fun and patient instructor called Ian Baxter who made the whole day even better making us all laugh and enjoy learning to ski!

All the staff working there were all really good fun and welcoming- even when I spoke with the customer service team via phone- they were so easy and friendly to deal with.

I would have no hesitation to recommend the course and the Chill Factore to any friends and family- It is so rare nowdays to find such a great attraction which is brilliant value for money and the customer service is outstanding.

Thanks again for a great day and I am signed up for the Improver course and guided ski lessons as I enjoyed myself so much!

Kate

Visited the Chill Factor on Satuday, as an alternative to our usual indoor venue at Castleford. We liked the ticket system at the ski/boot desk for weighing and measuring. The toilets and changing area were clean, however the lighting in the changing area was poor. The slope itself was quiet (which we liked) The access to the button lift on the left as you look up the slope was bad, there was a step up to it and we (and everyone else) had to turn and side step up to the button. The slope itself was ok, however there were 3-4 foot wide areas on either side and a 2-3 foot area in the middle where the snow was rough and therefore everyone avoided them. The slope itself needs policing more, there were one or two people there who obviously didn`t know how to turn and were just snow ploughing straight down from top to bottom. The extra half hours ski on top of our 1 hour was good value for money. We enjoyed our lunch afterwards in the Trattoria upstairs where we were served politely and courteously with nice food in a clean restaurant.

We travelled from Sheffield, however we`ll continue to go up to Castleford for our indoor skiing (about half the distance) as the Chill Factor does not offer any more than Castleford does.

Disappointed by a recent visit to the Chill Factor. We booked the play in the snow/visit santa grotto event. The play in the snow was great, however the experience was spoilt by a 50 minute wait to see father christmas. All the children in front of us had at least 5 minutes with father christmas, however when it came to our turn and the people after us, we only had approx 2 mins with santa. It was obvious that they had decided to shorten the visits due to the increasing length of the queue. Also the present we received was not great - it was a cheap colouring book but they did not include any crayons!

We were also advised by a member of staff that the session had been overbooked due to a technical problem with the booking system and that people normally didnt wait that long.

They should have made you aware of the wait time to enter the grotto before you booked. If I had know we would have to wait for 50 mins I would not have made the booking.