Ed's Bowling — Attraction in West Jasper Place

On May 5th, I decided to take my 11-year-old son ten-pin bowling for the first time. We paid $44.63 for 30 minutes of play. Before we started, I kindly asked the admission desk attendant if they had lighter balls for children. They confirmed that they did and assigned us lane 4, which was at the far end of the alley.

Unfortunately, when we got to our lane, we couldn't find any balls light enough for my son. I spent about 5 minutes walking to the other end of the alley, checking all the ball racks along the way, but I still couldn't find a suitable ball.

As our 30 minutes of play time ticked away, my son tried his best to roll the ball from between his legs, but he was struggling. Seeing him struggle, I decided to press the 'HELP' button on the control panel. I pressed it several times, but unfortunately, no one came to assist us.

I then made the effort to walk back across all the lanes, hoping that someone had put a light ball back on the racks. However, I still couldn't find one, and more time was wasted. We returned to our lane, where my son continued to struggle. I pressed the 'HELP' button a few more times, but still, no one responded.

When our time ended, we went back to the front desk to return our shoes. I politely informed the attendant that we did not have a good experience because there was no ball for my son to use and that no one came to help us despite pressing the 'HELP' button multiple times.

The attendant apologized for our inconvenience and explained that I should have come to the front desk to ask for a lighter ball because they keep them behind the desk. I mentioned that I had pressed the 'HELP' button repeatedly, but no one came to assist us.

I believe that the appropriate response from the bowling alley would have been to offer us the opportunity to play for an additional 30 minutes or provide us with a credit for 30 minutes to be used in the future. This would have been a fair gesture to make amends for the inconvenience we experienced. Unfortunately, they did not offer any compensation, and I left feeling disappointed and...

I tried booking a small birthday party for kids through their ‘text’ for service option, which annoyingly directed me to email (which I would have done originally, but preferred the convenience of text), and then that email conversation evolved to them needing to talk on the phone to finalize booking. The experience started with a redundant (although friendly), communication circus, and then the experience continued to highlight the organizations lack of proper processes.

When we arrived, they had booked us the wrong bowling experience (wrong lane/type), and the young guy behind the counter said “well, that’s what we have you booked for.” Not having the time or desire to challenge it, we took the given lane.

I was surprised with a shoe rental charge which after paying for a package, I didn’t anticipate - it’s fine, and maybe it’s in the small print somewhere, but it’d be optimal to clearly highlight it for customers somewhere during the process.

They brought out deep fried Oreo’s the minute we sat down (part of the package), but never brought out the three jugs of soda (also part of the package). I personally didn’t really care because we were headed out for dinner afterwards, and the kids didn’t need it, but…I’m sure there are others who would have been expecting it.

There was a young Manager (I’m assuming) that came over when we were finished to apologize that we didn’t get the soda, and offered to bring it with 9 minutes left on the clock (and the game was finished), but I declined. An offer for a partial refund when I said we didn’t have time left (and the game was done) to get the sodas would have been an ideal resolution at this time, but again, I didn’t have time or desire at that point to engage any further.

The point of the review is to let other know to be sure when booking a party to clarify the details, get it in writing in and email, and be sure when you arrive to get what...

I went with my husband as a last minute date night. We knew we would have to wait for a lane, no problem. We were told at 5:00pm it would be a 40-45 minute wait max, and I was asked to write my name and phone number down for the wait list. Wrote it down, and we went to grab a quick bite to eat before going. While we are wandering around, I see it’s 5:45pm, and we head back since we were expecting to be called any minute now. Get back, wait in line, it’s now 6:00pm, and we get to the front and I say I’m just checking in to see where we are on the wait list. The lady asked me if I was on the wait list already. Let her know we were, and we had been there an hour before, and were told 40-45 minutes. She asked my name, I told her. She asked my phone number, I again told her the information. She said she didn’t see my name on the list, and asked again if I was on the wait list already, or if I wanted to be added. Told her again that we had been there at 5pm, and I wrote down my information on the sheet that was provided, and was told they would call me when a lane was ready. She looked at another worker and they looked around at other pages, and were talking to each other. After a couple minutes of them not talking to us and still looking around, my husband asked “sooo….is there a lane yet?” And they looked at him and said “it’s now a two hour wait for a lane” I looked at her and asked why we should wait when they messed up. She just said it’s a two hour wait now and we would have to be re-added to the list. I told her I will not be waiting for a lane, since they made a mistake, and were making me wait two hours even though I waited an hour already when they said that it would be 40-45 minutes. We left without bowling. They “lost” my information some how, and made zero attempt to resolve the situation. I’d recommend going to literally any other business in the city before...