Pump'd was a favorite destination for my six year old twins, where we hosted two birthday parties and visited regularly over the past five years. So I was very happy to learn it was reopening under the Jump N Around name, a center in the Monterey area with exciting looking photos.
I exchanged text messages with the management for a few weeks, and was told they were performing upgrades and would be open soon. Last week I got a text saying they would open on Saturday 3/18, followed by another saying just a few delays, but Sunday 3/19 at 2pm would be their grand opening. Well this being my birthday, my kids were beyond stoked - we get to go back to Pump'd and celebrate Daddy's birthday!!! They were buzzing with excitement - so happy!
So that Sunday we planned our day around "the new Pump'd". At 11am I texted to make sure they would open at 2 and was told "Yes :)" Yes with a smile - hard to beat! So we loaded up the car and drove the 30 minutes down to Watsonville, kids totally buzzing with excitement - "Daddy, how far to new Pump'd?!?" Almost there, buddy!
We arrived right at 2 to a totally empty, filthy parking lot. The door was locked and clearly had been abandoned for a while, as there was an overflowing dumpster, fresh homeless camp with bags of old clothes strewn about, and a pile of human feces - with a poop-smeared green sweater used to clean up - right in front of their main door. SOME GRAND OPENING!!!
Looking through the door this was obviously not the place, right? The entry area was barren, old front desk ripped out with debris in its place. No tables, no chairs, nothing. I called their phone and got voicemail; texted asking for the new address and got no reply. Surely this LITERAL SH!THOLE was not the refurbished and improved Jump N Around we had been promised?!? A few minutes later the manager from the main location called to apologize...the owner had some story about staffing problems and they would now be opening on Friday.
WHAT A BOGUS, HEARTLESS, NASTY THING TO DO, especially after confirming just hours earlier. This wasn't a case of the employee not showing up - the place is a freaking DUMP, an unfinished NIGHTMARE wreaking of death and desperation and smeared with human waste. What was once a joyous place of fun was now a deceitful pit of feces and FAILURE.
My son was so disappointed he just cried and yelled. He was promised a birthday jump with his dad at his favorite place, and he arrived to a frightening sh!t-smeared lie of a dump. For minutes he pounded on the windows yelling "I HATE PUMPD! I HATE THE NEW PUMPD!!!" (Heartbreaking - he celebrated two birthdays here and associated The place with love and fun, not lies and sh!t.) His sister was more reflective - "DADDY, WHY DID THEY TRICK US? WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT TO US?" Also heartbroken, she took it more personally.
Even more disconcerting is the view from the front window. Expecting the exciting play structures shown on the Jump N Around website - here we see none of that! Three old deflated bounce structures lay discarded on the ground. A new concessions area (?) looks half built, a rough pile of unfinished plywood. A few more outdated arcade machines have been shoved in among the debris, the only possible new addition. And there may have been a couple of new bounce houses, still folded on palettes. But it's painfully clear, like the pile of sh!t that greets at the front door, that the new owners haven't put a whit of effort, energy or concern into making the place fun, safe, better or even acceptable for their formerly loyal customers and their children.
I am scared, very scared for this business. This was confirmed as their GRAND REOPENING, but instead of a fun center, they offer an abandoned dystopian hellscape. YOU LIED TO AND HURT MY CHILDREN. YOU RUINED MY BIRTHDAY. YOU HAVE TAKEN A WONDERFUL PLACE AND BEFOULED IT. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AND ALL SHOULD BE WARNED.
Hoping to salvage the day, we headed to MOD at the Capitola Mall. It was fun, until we could not leave due to a MURDER/SUICIDE IN OUR PARKING LOT! We should never have been there, if PUMPD/JUMP N AROUND HADN'T LIED ABOUT BEING OPEN!
I'm very afraid of what's to come. If this is the honesty and effort the new owners are putting into the place, it will never be a healthy or happy place to take our kids. You can't even clean the sh!t off your doorstep or get your opening date right - can you be trusted? FOR SHAME. read more