Helicopter company gets schooled by customer who leaves a bad review online after his flight was abruptly cancelled

Author image for Sienna Varady
Sienna Varady
May 2, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

We prepare, we carry out, and we want the finest result. But what would you do if an associate decided they didn't feel like dealing with you after months of preparation for one of the most important events of your life?

The story below is an account of a frustrated individual. The original poster (OP) thought of a way to contribute to his brother's wedding, making it special and unforgettable. To ensure the bride and groom arrived at the venue with style and swagger, he had planned to charter a helicopter. But despite his best efforts, he encountered a number of challenges. Three weeks before the wedding, the helicopter man abruptly canceled their agreement, and OP realized that he needed to act and settle the score.

That being said, be sure to read the story below if you're interested in learning the specifics of what happened as well as how OP settles the score! After you're done reading, don't forget to read the account of the part-time worker who covers for a full-time colleague only to have his manager reprimand him for going above and beyond!

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  • 01
    "You're toast..."
    via canva
  • 02
    Cancel on my kid brother's wedding at three weeks notice? Enjoy being at the top of google rankings for all the wrong reasons.
    via u/markbrev
  • 03
    So my kid brother got married 12 years ago this year. Being non religious they got married and had their reception at a tithe barn at a country house. Thinking for something different for their wedding present, my dad decided that instead of getting several wedding cars for them, he'd hire one car to take them from the venue to their hotel and as a surprise hire a helicopter to take the bride and her dad from my parent's place where she was getting ready (her family is from
    via u/markbrev
  • 04
    down south) to the venue. Then after the ceremony the newly weds, her immediate family and ours would each get a ten minute flight. So we (me) set out looking for a helicopter hire. We find this one company, they survey my parents place to make sure they can get in and out (we have a six acre field adjoining their garden/our driveway) and do the same at the venue, confirm all is ok, and my dad signs the contract and pays the 50% deposit.
    via u/markbrev
  • 05
    3 weeks before the wedding they ring back and decide that they can't actually get the helicopter into either the venue or our field and would be cancelling the hire and would be refunding the deposit when they do their next invoice pay run at the end of the month. Cue my old man losing his stand by the end of the day getting his money back. What followed was a mad scramble to find another helicopter firm, which in rural Lancashire aren't exactly to be found on every street corner. After a fraugh
    via u/markbrev
  • 06
    find another firm who are more than happy with getting in and out at both place, are cheaper and more relaxed than the initial firm. When we told them why we were booking it last minute they told us that we weren't the first that they'd heard of being let down by that firm. Here's we're the petty and honestly unintentional revenge comes in. Back then I was a frequent contributor to a car forum I'll call Mark's car nerd forum (which is how my wife referred to it). Not a
    via u/markbrev
  • 07
    massive one, at most I think we had about 70 members, but it was ours. One guy sorted out set up and we each bunged him a fiver a year to admin it. There were half a dozen sub-forums where we'd chat about motor shows, new car launches, F1, etc and one invite-only VIP area. Anyway out of frustration I posted on the open pages about how I off and stressed we had been over the whole thing with a post title of "Beelzebub's helitours are a bunch of absolute
    via u/markbrev
  • 08
    C@#!s". Nothing I wrote was untrue, I just laid out the facts of what they did and the stress it put us through a couple of weeks before the wedding. Of course the guys all chimed in in support about how sh y we'd been treated, until someone pointed out that we (as a forum) had paid for google ranking boost and that if someone searched for a particular thing (say 'Lamborghini Gallardo') then our forum would be on google page 1 because one of us had posted about it. So
    via u/markbrev
  • 09
    everyone changed their post to start with a version of "What's that? Beelzebub's helitours are a bunch of absolute C@#!s?". Within a day if you searched "Beelzebub's helitours" on google, one of the top results on page 1 was a link titled "Beelzebub's helitours are a bunch of absolute C@#!s". Eventually one of the directors of said firm emailed the forum admin demanding the post was removed as it was damaging his firm's
    via u/markbrev
  • 10
    reputation. Dave the admin told him that unless he could provide irrefutable proof that my version of events was in any way incorrect then the post would be staying up. This was followed by various threats of legal action to which Dave responded by locking the post with the message "Beelzebub's helitours have threatened to sue Mark's car nerd forum to remove this post. We
    via u/markbrev
  • 11
    have repeatedly asked them provide evidence that this version of events is in anyway untrue which they have failed to do so. Until such time that they do, this post will remain up as a true account of how our member was treated by them."
    via u/markbrev
  • 12
    Penarol1916 9 hr. ago This plan reminds me of an episode of the Cosby show, when Theo and his friends decided that they wanted to take their prom dates on a helicopter ride before the prom. It completely ruined their hair for the dance and ruined their night. I don't know why anyone would think a helicopter would be a good idea to take the bride to the wedding after getting ready.
    via u/Penarol1916
  • 13
    Italian warehouse 2 hr. ago Modern helicopters have windows...
    via u/Italian_warehouse
  • 14
    markbrev OP. 42 min. ago Helicopter lans, shuts of engine, rotors stop spinning, pilot gets out, escorts bride & father to helicopter, buckles them in, closes doors, gets in, closes his door, starts engine & rotors, flies to venue. Lands at venue, shuts down engine & rotors, gets bride & father out. No one's hair gets messed up.
    via u/markbrev
  • 15
    • 9lobaldude · 12 hr. ago · edited 12 hr. ago Nice collective petty revenge on that devilish company
    via u/9lobaldude
  • 16
    smeghead9916 · 2 hr. ago The fact that they weren't refunding you right away p ed me off, what if someone couldn't have booked another helicopter because they didn't have the money?
    via u/smeghead9916
  • 17
    Zyklon00 5 min. ago. Don't book a helicopter if you don't have enough money to book 2
    via u/Zyklon00
  • 18
    guf2017. 1 min. ago You had me at " Marks car nerd forum"
    via u/guf2017
  • 19
    Bont Tarentaal · 2 hr. ago • Beautiful. *applause*
    via u/Bont_Tarentaal
  • 20
    leonidganzha 5 min. ago Some people have way too much money and time on their hands lol. Sorry you had to go with another helicopter ride on your six acre f property or whatever, must be so stressful While 3 million people from their country depend on foodbanks to survive ng
    via u/leonidganzha
  • 21
    Correct-Blackberry-6 6 hr. ago "Beelzebub's helitours" should have raised a red flag
    via u/Correct-Blackberry-6
  • 22
    Confidence_Connect · 2 hr. ago Not the real name, burning it would Have been awesome and made my S y day at work yesterday better...
    via u/Confidence_Connect
  • 23
    554-0 TheZookeeper31 3 hr. ago So you assisted in ruining a business because they canceled on you 3 weeks in advance with a somewhat reasonable reason? You're a rich c t!
    via u/TheZookeeper31
  • 24
    BeautifulPhantom1 · 12 hr. ago Goodness, why threaten legal action when the post was a factual accounting of what happened? Huffing and puffing and threatening to blow your house down. Loads of sound and fury that amounts to nothing.
    via u/BeautifulPhantom1
  • 25
    Alexis_J_M 12 hr. ago Because an awful lot of people will take down content at the first hint of legal action. So the answer to "Why?" is "Because it's cheap if it works."
    via u/Alexis_J_M
  • 26
    12-5 13 Rogueshoten 3 hr. ago And, it's basically all they have to fall back on. It's not as though they can turn back time and do the right thing.
    via u/Rogueshoten
  • 27
    18-55 Hempsox 12 hr. ago Since it has been a few moons since this occurred, we're going to need to know the answers to a few follow up questions. Were there any repercussions for Beelzebub's Unprofessional Helitours? Did the firm stop sending thr ts to Dave?
    via u/Hempsox
  • 28
    markbrev OP. 12 hr. ago I don't know if it had any impact short term, they are still trading as they are a flight school as well. When you google their name now our post no longer shows up. Eventually the emails stopped as
    via u/markbrev
  • 29
    Dave just kept copy and pasting his same response. He never mentioned receiving anything other than the emails from the same guy.
    via u/markbrev

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Tags

reviews loyalty family drama entitlement petty-revenge-reddit funny reviews customers reddit story petty revenge helicopter Reddit malicious compliance reddit karen entitled people
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