Tru Ninja Penrith — Attraction in Sydney

Dishonest. Abusive. Verbally aggressive. The owner of the venue verbally abused me, did not introduce herself until I introduced myself to her - and has tried to charge me EXTRA costs despite being given the Terms and Conditions and the pricing emailed to our quote. This woman has ruined my daughter’s birthday party! She was so rude and verbally abusive and embarrassed me infront of my entire family and friends because she now wants to charge us a BYO FEE of $150 when this is not STIPULATED in the terms and conditions or my original booking quote. BYO was on the terms and conditions and there is NO additional cost associated, as long as you don’t bring in nuts or alcohol or glass.

I would NOT let me teenage child work under her from the behaviour that I saw displayed today.

After her abusing me, she then told me everyone had to leave within 10 minutes (this is whilst we are tying to sing my daughter Happy Birthday) whilst she starting packing up our chocolate muffins and stood there watching us just before we started singing and the kids were trying to get around the table, and I didn’t even get a photo! Not one group photo! I am so upset!

I have hired many private venues and I have NEVER had an issues with charges, costs or terms and conditions.

Hire fee is $1900

Then a cleaning fee of $100 - despite NO cleaning being done DURING or after the party.

Then the week OF our party she sent an email with a BYO cost of $150 despite me being quoted without this charge and this not being in the TERMS and CONDITIONS, to which I also raised this in response and questioned why there was now a hidden cost and advised I found this very unfair.

I was then charged FULL cost of the cafe TAB, despite it being a 10% discount in the terms and conditions and I was charge $7 for gloves, despite being $5 in their terms and conditions. She did end up honouring the pricing stated in the document sent to me, but I had to show it to her for the cafe and show it to the receptionist for the receptionist to put the correct glove fee.

How is this business operating?

This women after verbally abusing me, hid in her office when I came to pay the glove fee, and she told her young staff to tell me she was on the phone. She then filed a police victim report and I was sent a text message via NSW Police.

This has caused me unnecessary emotional and mental distress. I am absolutely so upset as I type this, that this type of behaviour happens on a business level and a moral level.

We tried to discuss our concerns with her in a calm manner and we have evidence and proof that there is and never was a BYO charge - our total expenditure for 2 hours was over $2500 for 38 people on the course. We did all cleaning, all tidying and everything.

Disgraceful and very unnecessary and unprofessional.

*Edited to add response from Tania the owner with an attachment of image. Also double checked my emails and there is NO email sent on the 18th of June? The ‘threat’ at the end just shows true character. To clarify, I paid the bill 15 minutes before my booking ended and was technically verbally abused DURING my party not AFTER.

• Laws and regulations relating to the rights and obligations of consumers and suppliers of goods and services in Australia are covered under the Australian Consumer Law (the “ACL”). Under section 40 of the ACL it is illegal to request payment for goods or services that the customer has not agreed to buy

• Component pricing A supplier must not promote or state a price that is only part of the cost, unless also prominently advertising the single price. ACL reference: sections 47-48, 165-166

• It is unlawful to use physical force, coerce or unduly harass someone about the supply of, or payment for goods or services. ACL reference: section 50

Coercion involves force (actual or threatened) that restricts another person's choice or freedom to act. Unlike harassment, there is no requirement for behaviour to be repetitive in order to amount...

I had my daughters bday here this past Saturday nov 30th. I booked for ultimate party package 12.30pm to 3pm. As we were leaving some of the party were still playing one of the kids jumped off one of the obstacles and fractured a ligament in her ankle. Not one of the workers helped her until we told them to. The workers were very young the host that helped with our party was very young and the whole time I had to disagree with anything she suggested because It just wasn't safe or suitable for the party. Anyway so one of the kids hurt herself she couldn't stand up crying and screaming in pain. Finally someone came and helped bandaged her ankle and put some ice on it. We had to carry her out to the car so her mum could take her to the hospital but nothing was even suggested or even given to us by staff. Later on the parent advised me she had a fracture. I tried to be on the floor as much as I could but I really couldn't have eyes everywhere so you kind of trust the staff to just like they do at flip out but I should have never have had my daughters bday here. The staff are very young and just have no idea what they are doing. The obstacle where one of the kids got hurt is like you jump off from the top balcony sort of thing onto a blow up mattress. There is staff standing at the top with the kids where they jump off and most of the parents I got Info from told me the kids weren't being told that they can't land on their feet the parents were the ones telling and warning the kids not to land on their feet but their bottoms to avoid this type of situation and even let kids jump off together. I made a complaint to tru ninja and they wrote back saying that all staff are trained (clearly not), and that the child was hurt at 3.05pm and our time on the obstacles was supposed to end at 2.15pm... this is so crazy to me. I paid $45 per kid for 25 kids 12.30pm to 3pm for her to tell me we were supposed to be off the floor at 2.15pm ?? 45mins before the party ends i have never in my life experienced such a rip off. But also, no one even advised us that we had to be off at that time so again the workers are really just not able to run a whole party venue like this. I was actually more disappointed that I'm telling them one of the kids broke their ankle and she's telling me well you were supposed to be on there anyway?? She/he shouldn't be running a whole business or better yet should be letting 12 year olds run it. Really disappointing if you are thinking of having your child's bday party here don't waste your money or time. The party room is upstairs and far from the play area and they don't have lifts so bad since alot of people have prams. Not very practical at all you get a host who is clueless and is about 12yrs old. And lolly bags are tiny and also the food...

WARNING! Owner breaking multiple CONSUMER LAWS to get extra MONEY from you.

I attended a kids party and it was very disgusting to see the GREED and UNPROFESSIONALISM demonstrated from the Owner.

She was dishonest during the booking process and trying to sneak in hidden charges through the party event.

Trying to add in a BYO food charge a couple of days before the party (when through it was agreed by email that they would remove it) Attempting to overcharge for Gloves Double charging for gloves (Customer and Party Organiser) Added more glove charges to the total bill Not honouring the 10% discount for cafe bar charge

If one of above happened in isolation, you’d accept the human error - but collectively it demonstrates the poor business ethic and poor customer focus this establishment has.

Further to the above, the owners behaviour during the event was appalling -

Whilst lighting the candles for my friends daughter’s birthday, the Owner was rummaging through the packaging and throw away cake items (cupcakes, scrolls), because she wanted to charge a BYO fee for food.

She then proceeded to YELL at the mother of the birthday girl DURING the party.

When the mother and I tried to resolve the matter, we waited outside the customer service desk for NEARLY AN HOUR to talk to her. She called the police despite the calm and amicable behaviour we demonstrated to try and resolve the matter. Even the staff were apologising to us and indicating that the Owner always behaves like this. They also acknowledged that the Terms and Conditions for the party booking needed updating.

The owner hid in her office for over an hour, and instead of resolving the issue in a professional manner, she resorted to being a KEYBOARD WARRIOR and sending through remittance advice for the BYO charge (agreed not to charge) and sent an email to my friend threatening her.

I have worked in service based industries for over 15 years and I have NEVER experienced this level of disgraceful conduct.

Very disappointing, you would expect a more considered approach from an Owner of a CHILDREN’S play centre.

Party bookers check the Fair Trading Ombudsman before booking - BYO falls under the Liquor and Gaming code, there is nothing in Consumer Law that states BYO is legal for food items. And since they are charging for a service they are not proving, it is again breaking Australian...