Just left Billy Beez with my family and I wish I were giving it 5 stars. My family and I played with our 2 1/2 year old for 2 hours. We had an absolute blast. The facility is well kept, safe, and so engaging for our little one.
Then, while crawling through one of the tunnels we spotted a 4 year old who was nearly in tears asking where her mother was. We walked to the front of Billy Beez and someone promptly scanned her bracelet. While this little girl sat on chair, the Billy Beez attendant then walked away and started to check in new customers. Not a word said to me, like do you mind staying with her? Ten minutes goes by, three attendants wait at the other end of the counter laughing and joking with each other. As I continue to help this little girl deescalate, I inquire if we could possibly page the girl's mother again. We do, nothing.
My family then goes to look for this little girl's mother based off her picture in the system. Another five minutes goes by and one of the female attendants walks over to the three male coworkers and says something to them. Another attendant then walks over and says, "oh yeah, we can call her mom." The call goes straight to voicemail and there's a joke make about how the voicemail sounded like someone answered. At this point I ask if there's anyway this situation could be taken more seriously. I was then told that the reason the little girl has been left unattended by someone who works at Billy Beez is because I was with her and "sometimes little girls don't like it when grown men wait with them." At this point I ask, "your policy is to leave a lost child with a stranger?" Im then told, "well we were going to give you a free pass to come back." Frustrated with this dialogue I ask, "can we please call her mother back and possibly leave a voicemail?" He calls back and gets the mom, she quickly comes and retrieves her daughter.
The mother thanks me and apologizes sharing that she didn't once hear the page. My family and I leave and as we're walking out, none of this situation seems right, I tell them to go ahead and I'm going to walk back in and share my experience with a manager.
I re-enter to two of the male Billy Beez workers clearly talking about me to their manager, I hear one of them say, "she's coming back in." I then explain the situation, explaining my goal is to make sure this situation isn't ever handled like this again- the manager Aaron very rudely interjects and says, "well I wasn't here and I have no idea what you're talking about." I then share, "in well aware which is why I'm explaining it all to you." The conversation continues for over five minutes as three adult men avert my eyes and take zero accountability for the situation, defending every action that was taken including waiting ten minutes to call and notify the parent of a missing child. I was then told that I was going to be give a free pass until I was "rude." Exasperated I shared how I'd addressed each person as sir or miss, kept a calm voice, and shared that I'm an elementary school teacher and my main objective is for the situation of a missing child not be taken lightly and be given more attention. I was then told the situation was "over" and I was invited to go back to my family. One of the male worker's was able to see my objective in the end and thanked me and apologized, he also told Aron "no, she's okay" when in the middle of speaking, Aaron said, "we need to be done, we have customers." read more