Terrible place for a child's party!
We had the displeasure of having our daughters birthday at this facility in early June and to say we were less than thrilled with our experience is an understatement. We chose this place thinking it would be a fun time for our daughter and her friends (ages 4-6) and when we booked and plonked down our $50 deposit, we were told by the high school girl who did her sales pitch that they would call a week before to confirm (didn't happen) that they would provide plates, napkins, and a staff member to cut cake (didn't happen but luckily I called 3 days prior to event to confirm booking so was able to run out and get plates etc), was told painting would last approximately 1 hour with 1/2 hour for cake and clean up...estimating a total party time of 1.5 hours. Again...didn't happen. We were provided one high school aged girl to assist the 10 kids at our party (fortunately 2 Moms stayed so she and I were able to help out) and apart from literally dishing out paint and telling the 4-6 year old once that they "had to do 3 coats" we were left to our own devices. One of the 6 year olds who had done this before even had to ask the girl "assisting" us for extras such as decorative sponges.
Painting of the pieces were completed by all children within a half hour at which point the employee "assisting" us had vanished. I finally found her at the front desk where I asked if we should do caked next and was told "um, yeah, sure". Nobody offered to help with this process and the staff didn't even participate in singing Happy Birthday as many party facilities do. We had zero help with any clean up whatsoever however. I was told to tell the party guests parents to come back after 1 1/2 hours however in total this party only lasted 1 hour so with a half hour to kill and no further offer to do anything with the kids from staff (there were 4 wandering around, including the Manager, Cody who sat in the middle of the store working but not directing his staff) we decided to play "heads up 7 up".
We were charged $16 per piece + a $6 per child fee + 12% gratuity with our $50 deposit applied to the back end of this. In total we paid $209 for something that we didn't feel should have cost anywhere near this so early this week, I called to speak with Cody and find out if the time we had been allocated and the time this party actually took was normal. I left a message in the a.m. and then called back in the afternoon. I had to call back 7 more times as his staff kept telling me he was either with a customer or would put me on on hold and I would get "disconnected". It was not until I lost my temper with the sales assistant and told them I would contact the BBB if I did not get a call back that day, that Cody was suddenly able to call me back.
What I learned very quickly is that Cody not only has very few customer service skills but he also does not want to hear anything anyone might have to say that is negative about his business. He will talk over the top of you, try and put words in your mouth and if he does offer any potential admission to an error, he will blame his staff. He takes very little responsibility himself and he told me that it was our job to follow up with them during the party and figure out what to do next with our little party guests. He also went on to tell me "There is not possible way to determine how long it will take a person to paint a particular piece. There has not been a scientific math equation determined for that yet. Even the most world famous artists can't determine that and anyone with any basic business sense should understand this" So not only does he not have any customer service skills but he is condescending, rude and belittling to those that do spend money in his store and in turn basically pay his salary. He said he was shocked we had complained as nobody had ever made a complaint to him before yet then 5 minutes later stated that he had had a woman complain 2 months ago to him about not being able to book a reservation for 4 people and he proudly stated to me "I Informed her that this is not a restaurant, I can't reserve a table for a group of that small..she should have known that" and then snickered down the phone.
After him refusing to give us any form of refund and 25 minutes of listening to him talk in circles, he said he would look into things further and call me no later than 10:00 a.m. the next day...that was 4 days ago and surprise we still have not heard from Cody. We were told it would take a week to get the pieces for our party but I got a call 10 min after hanging up with Cody to say they were ready. I sent my Husband to pick them up as I had no interest in dealing with Cody..or his obnoxious attitude in person but surprise..my Husband was told that Cody had left the building. I would avoid this place at all costs for party or otherwise..total ripoff on many levels. read more