I'm all for supporting local and small business, but this mom-and-pop needs EXTENSIVE lessons in customer service!!! If I could give negative stars, I would. BUYER BEWARE...DO BUSINESS WITH SOMEONE ELSE!!!!! This is Ownership that does not keep its word, nor appreciate people that make an effort to support local.
It was a recent Monday and my birthday was Wednesday of the same week. I purchased a Groupon for SmashIt and was REALLY excited and looking forward to going. As instructed, I went to their website to book a reservation. Their calendar allowed me to select Wednesday and go through all the steps necessary to schedule, including a prompt that said something like "complete our waiver to secure your reservation," which I did. I thought I was set, and didn't think anything else of it.
Wednesday came and my husband and I drove up to New River from Phoenix (not around the corner) and found the place to be locked. I called the phone number and nobody answered. We waited...in the heat...in the afternoon...on my BIRTHDAY. I sent a text to the number with no response. Finally, I called again and left a voicemail.
Shortly thereafter (still waiting outside the storefront), I got a call back from the owner, who informed me that they are closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and that he doesn't know why their website would allow me to go through the process, but he insisted I didn't have a reservation. When I informed him of the details of the steps I went through for scheduling, he was snarky when he asked if I got a confirmation email, which I did not, and I acknowledged that. I told him how much I was looking forward to this, and that it was my birthday and his only response to that was that he would be interested to see a confirmation email and they are closed and he doesn't have staff for Wednesdays. He was condescending in pointing out that it was not his problem.
He was able to see the waivers that were completed for my husband and me, and when they were created, but nothing else. Then he said "Oh...my wife must have opened Wednesdays. She's not here right now. I'll talk to her about it when she gets back and one of us will get back to you in the next little bit." Nobody from SmashIt EVER reached out to me by phone, text or email.
In good faith, in my mind I gave them 24 hours to get back to me with some kind, ANY kind of response. When it didn't come, I went into my Groupon account and requested a cancellation, which you can if it's within 72 hours. I had a lengthy chat (in writing) with a Groupon rep and let them know what happened. The rep escalated the cancellation request, and when I got the email from Groupon, it stated that the VENDOR DECLINED the refund request. That means NOT ONLY DOES SMASHIT NOT CARE ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE, BUT THEY WERE BIDING TIME UNTIL GROUPON COULD NOT REFUND WITHOUT THEM APPROVING IT.
It would have gone a long way if they reached out to me when they said they would, offering an apology, explanation or try to make it right in some way. Now I am out both the money for the experience and for the birthday experience itself. I know I could reschedule, but if this is how unethical the ownership of this company is in doing business, I would rather do business with LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE! read more