Peak Adventure — Attraction in Derbyshire Dales

Where to start... we booked a joint exclusive birthday party early January for March the 16th and paid £50 deposit. We had spoken to the manager Keith about food to which we decided to cater ourselves, spoke about the capacity, which was advised up to 60 children and where the children would eat, which was mentioned the party room. Upon booking the party the soft play was fully functioning with a full seating area. The manager called me on the 20th February to advise the soft play is being refurbished and that the insurance wouldn't cover them to open. Slightly irritated as we had already sent the invites out. The manager did apologise unempathetically and offer us a refund of our deposit, however this was too late notice for us to get somewhere else so we decided to reschedule for the week after. We had 45 children coming to the party, which meant telling 45 parents that the date had been rescheduled, which in its self wasn't an easy job. 3 days before the party, the manager called me to confirm booking details. The day before the party, a friend of mine who was attending another party earlier that day at Peak adventure, called me to ask if our party was still going ahead. When i asked why, she informed me that apparently it was still a building site and that the the other party had been cancelled. I called the manager, who advised that the other parent cancelled due to work still being carried out, but reassured me, that this wouldn't be there for our party. The day of the party.... me and my friend arrived half an hour early to set up, when we arrived half of the building was still being worked on. The toddler bit was a building site, which granted were closed off but because of this we had lost at least half of the seating area. We asked to set up the party room with tablecloths, food, balloons and cake, to which the manager advised that we couldn't as it was included in our exclusive pack. This is not what we were advised on our initial booking back in January. We asked the manager why we couldnt use the party room for food when he advised this was included. And he just kept repeating himself stating its not included in our package and that the party room was all set for a party at 10.30 the following day. Understandably, we were distressed. We had 40+ children plus parents with half a seating area due to the building work, we didn't know where we were going to sit everyone when it came to have the food. We had a look in the party room, and all that was set up were paper plates... When trying to discuss all these issues with the manager, he was very short and rather obnoxious. We booked a party based on what we saw and was advised back in January, this is not what we got. Please don't get me wrong, the rest of the staff, we're lovely, helpful and accommodating, however we feel let down and ripped off with only £25 deducted which the manager advised this was for rescheduling... The new layout means there is a lot less space for parents. There are fewer tables, and they're now pushed closer together. Also because of the renovations the view of the softplay is obstructed so unless you're sat on a couple of specific tables there's no way you can see your children on the top two levels of the softplay from the seating area.

I had to ask several times for a contact number for the managers superior to make a formal complaint, to which he left me a generic email address at the end...

We came to Peak Adventure with 4 excited children, eager to burn off some energy on a rainy afternoon. On entering, the teen manning the till awkwardly told us we needed to book online. So, bemused, standing there in front of said teen we used our phones to book the next available time slot of 13:30 and tried again. On our second attempt we were informed that there was a private party at 14:30 so we would only be able to play for an hour. It was currently 13:00 so i asked if we could come in early rather than wait outside in the rain for half an hour. Despite 2 tables being available we were informed this was not possible as said tables needed to be cleaned. The teen then proceeded to walk off and began to clean the kitchen area, refusing to make eye contact. Our repeated attempts to regain his attention were futile. I do believe he was intentionally ignoring us, but didn’t have the foresight to perhaps do this out of sight in a less obvious manner. After much waiting, we managed to get the attention of teen No. 2, a girl equally disinterested in aiding our admission. Recounting our encounter with teen one, she reiterated that we could not enter as the tables were not clean. Musing at how long it took to clean a table we offered to clean it ourselves if this would aid our bid for entry. She agreed and took payment. So close to gaining admission we were again stopped as we had not paid for our own pre teen. Our explanation that he would not be partaking in play was refuted as, and I quote “we cannot be sure he will not leave the table”. (Nor can I, he may for example want to go to the loo or buy a piece of cake from the bar. Not wanting to labour the point further, I however kept quite on this matter.) This would be our final obstacle as we decided to admit defeat, ask for a refund and leave with 4 very disappointed children. Unfortunately this business appears to be fronted by teenagers with no interest in business or customer care. I would like to think that a grown up with a vested interest would have perhaps noted the empty tables, checked the bookings themselves, apologised for the 1h 30 play time remaining but invited us in should those terms be acceptable. Said grown up would have made the business some extra money as we were also poised to buy 8 lunches with drinks and deserts which we begrudgingly ended up spending on 8 Tesco meal deals. From the “abuse of our staff will not be tolerated…escorted off the premises by security…” sign at the front desk I can only assume that others, less tolerant and more vocal than myself have had similar experiences. For us, what was intended to be a special, no expense spared trip out for the kids, turned into a somewhat miserable supermarket...

A real let down- as a regular visitor I've stuck with this venue during their changes and alterations and their now new set up- today on a torrentially wet day my family and a friends family arranged to meet as we often do at this establishment- unfortunately we were met by very rude and ignorant staff who would not give us entry as they said they were fully booked- a sign saying bookings only. I tried to explain that I had attempted to book via their online booking system and each time had been taken to the purchase where I had inputted my card details- only for payment to freeze and not be taken. Got told by a very rude manager that meant they were fully booked. No identification of this on the online booking system. I feel very let down that the manager was rude and arrogant towards both myself and friend, told me they were fully booked even though it wasn't even half full. Unfortunately they've sadly lost some very good customers that had stuck by them. Fortunately a different soft play centre up the road were more than accomadating and my little boy with Down syndrome was happy once more.

Following on from your comment I was not rude I was offended by the rudeness of both members of staff- yes you did offer a place after I said I would lodge a complaint about staff attitudes- and the manager was not interested in my explanation of the fact the booking system does not work with a member of staff saying when a payment freezes it means your fully booked- which then meant we did in fact have a wasted journey- with no friendliness met. I have worked in the public sector for over 29years and this has been the first time I have ever had to put in a complaint- anywhere!!!! This complaint and comment has only been completed because I felt so utterly let down by the rudeness I incurred. As for my friend she wasn't embarrassed but also has had issues on...