Toybrary Austin — Attraction in Austin

Toybrary was very cluttered, and the owner was extremely rude and dismissive when I was paying for entry. She acted as if she wanted nothing to do with me and as if she does not know anything about customer service. She refused to answer basic questions and did not make me feel welcome. If my child had not been excited to attend the petting zoo, I would have walked out at check-in.

I am shocked that she even has any return customers. I'm wondering if she is bipolar or something because I can not see how anyone could recommend this woman or her service with the way she treated me and the people who came in behind me.

As another parent put it, "the petting zoo was underwhelming." The petting zoo had about 5 animals with only 2 furry animals and both of those were dirty and looked unhealthy. The animals were in a cage thing that was not physically accessible for the kids. They couldn't reach in to touch the animals at all. Parents would have to get the animal out. Most people just looked at them... I and one other mom picked up the rabbit (one after another) and let our child pet it.

I was expecting baby animals that we could actually hold and pet. I was also expecting the staff to hand the animals to the children so they could pet them or at least allow the children near the animals so they could pet them. My child and I stayed in the petting zoo area for maybe 5 minutes, then we washed our hands immediately after and went to explore the toy areas. I do not think any of the children who went in with us were particularly interested in the animals, which is what we all paid for...

Toys were everywhere from the time we arrived which was about 10:20 am. They opened the building at 10 am, and the petting zoo was to start at 10:30 am. I had to constantly move toys out of the way for my child to be able to play with toys and for us to be able to walk around.

It was too crowded and grimy. I'm sure the toys and dress up clothes are not cleaned. They looked dirty. Children were tripping all over the toys and could barely make their way through the space.

We were really excited about visiting, but I would not return after our experience there. I would not buy a single thing from this lady and I do not recommend this place. If you don't believe me, just check out the other negative reviews. The owner seems to have a history of being rude to customers, having a bad attitude, delivering horrible customer service, and making excuses rather than correcting the problem. I'm pretty sure she does not like kids or people. Stay away! There are other places to take your children where they'll treat you with respect and actually deliver quality events. I'm not sure how she has any customers.

Pros: The "petting zoo" started on time and there was no wait when we went in. The other families there were very nice and openly talked with us and each other. The guy who was running the "petting zoo" was very friendly and knowledgeable about the animals. I liked the stack of re-usable wash cloths in the restroom for drying your hands vs paper towels. I've seen this at a couple of places before and it can be a nice touch as long as the wash cloths are clean (these were pretty dingy looking). There were a few toys for sale there that I am interested in purchasing, but I will NOT purchase them from this rude, unprofessional woman. I would rather purchase them from the manufacturer or Amazon even if they cost more because this woman does not deserve my business.

Again, I do not recommend this place and the owner should be ashamed of how she treats people in person and in her online responses to legitimate complaints. There is no excuse for...

I really wanted to like this place. I was really excited to visit. But it wasn’t a great experience pretty much from the minute I walked in.

My first issue, I have sensory issues and the place was very cluttered. It was very overstimulating. And there were no kids there when we got there, so all the toys were put away and it was still overstimulating. Not at all aesthetically pleasing.

In addition to the clutter. I thought it really sucked that they put toys that were membership only and toys for purchase easily within arms reach of the little ones. Either the owner knows nothing about children or they set it up that way purposely to charge their customers extra. Which is gross. Kids don’t understand that they need a membership to play with that toy or mommy needs to pay $20 to purchase that other toy. We came to play and I felt like I was spending the whole time telling my kids to put things down. They were cool toys, my kids wanted to play with them, but I didn’t go there to buy toys or a membership. I wanted to see how it went before I made any type of membership commitment. If you’re selling toys and have toys that can’t be played with by everyone, put them somewhere the kids can’t just grab them. It’s not a very kind thing to do. If a parent comes in with only one child, it might be easier to keep them out of those toys, but parents of multiples aren’t going to be able to keep all of their kids from touching them.

When I first came in, I had mentioned to the owner that the events page didn’t really give much information about the events and I wanted to know more about them. Literally just says the title of the event and the date. And she snapped at me about it. If I’m going to an event, I would like to know what it’s about. It’s not clear with just a title.

I also didn’t like the way she spoke to my friend either. She had this weird attitude with her the entire time we were there. I don’t know if she just couldn’t understand what she was saying because her accent was thick or what, but she definitely didn’t speak to me that way. I will not be returning. If I want a stressful shopping experience, I’ll just take my kids to Walmart. It’s way cheaper.

Edited to add:

The owner’s response to my issues is incredibly manipulative as she didn’t say any of that when I was there and I went back to her events section just now and noticed she added to it. The gaslighting is incredibly mind blowing.

Also, toybrary is not marketed as a toy store. It’s marketed as a kids play place. You have membership fees to play with the toys in your business. We have been to many, many kids play places with membership fees. Yes, they too sell toys. Behind glass. So children cannot reach them. The membership only toys are absolutely within reach of the children. And my friend has zero interest in coming back either.

Before your response, I was just disappointed. Now I am blown away by the arrogant gaslighting response. And don’t you worry, I took a screenshot. I will actively be telling everyone I know about my experience here. My mind is just...

I'm gonna try to keep this short lol

So i saw a groupon for toybrary memberships and was intrigued. I called to ask questions bc the website and groupon details were vague and I was told that all the services were included in membership and there were some select events free with membership and that the place gets cleaned frequently. So im like “let’s buy the annual membership!” (I technically bought this as a backup to our daycare or childcare so that i could handle emergency work meetings which are 30 min or an hour tops; one of the services is something like “we have private rooms to work out of while your kiddo plays”)

We show up right at opening for our first (and only) day. The place is not clean or organized. This older lady sitting at the front is checking people in and then turns to me and says “drop in rate is (x)” and i got “i actually have a membership” and she says “no you dont” and i say i bought it on groupon and she says “show me”. Dry and short as can be. (Plot twist: turns out she’s the owner, and a few moms from daycare after i shared this story said she’s known to be rude). Well there’s other people, like 3 fams so she asks to hold onto my phone credit card and id and that she’ll check me in later and to step off to the side…. Im like um ok… but my little ran off to explore so i followed and assumed she’d come find me (it’s not a huge place).

As Im walking around Im looking at the toys and I can see things have definitely not been wiped down in awhile, and some toys were old and glued together. One of the wooden horses another little was playing with broke off at one of the hand holds and exposed a rusty nail. I took it up to the owner and she said “oh yea, this one breaks a lot” and just left it on the floor while she walked away to set up some paints or something. I asked if I could have my cc, id, and phone back and she said “oh yea, it’s on the desk” (she left it sitting on the front counter where everyone walks in and out of) so i go grab it. I came back and asked her questions about the services and where the room was you could work out of and she says it’s extra. I tell her “oh i was told it was included in the membership” and she says the membership (which is 600 bucks) is to borrow 3 toys at a time. All the toys are outdated minus maybe a small table with a handful of lovevery toys…. I kinda laughed and said “is there a calendar to see which events come with the membership and she says “you have to pay additional for the events; if i have to pay for it, you have to pay for it” (word for word). We stayed maybe an hour total and then left. I called that afternoon and asked if i could refund my membership and that i would pay the drop in fee for the visit we had and she denied it but ends with “but i do hope to see you and your son back, he was so sweet” and hangs up. I tried getting groupon to refund but she denied it (they have to get her approval) and now im just disputing it...