Pin Strikes Macon — Attraction in Macon

WORST BIRTHDAY EVER... I am father of three children (one grown) and grandfather of three as well. I am a respected licensed professional in this community. My son wanted to go to Pin Strikes for his birthday to bowl, play laser tag, arcade games, and pizza. The general manager "worked [us] a deal"(ha!) that was going to "save a lot of money!" I spent $150 for 8 people to bowl, 12 minutes of laser tag, and $5 each for arcade games. Two pizzas and pitcher of Pepsi was another $50. So I'm in for $200 total. I don't mind, because I want my family to have a fun day.

Immediately the trouble began. Our preloaded $5 credit cards for arcade games only worked for certain games. The ones my kids and grandkids wanted to play didn't work on that card. I went back to the GM and told him what we'd found. He said "oh there's no cash value on those cards. They're BONUS. They don't work on all machines. I'd have to spend more money to get cash value cards, so the kids could play what they wanted. I'm a little upset, but went on towards having fun.

I went to get the pizza. Two large pizzas were delivered to our tables and the kids all gathered around to eat. Everyone had washed their hands and was excited to see hot pizza. I had also ordered two pitchers of soda, and we needed 8 cups and 8 plates, and some napkins. We had NONE OF THESE when the ONE girl who was working at the food counter disappeared for 15 minutes. Our Pizza was COLD when we finally got some drinks, plates, and napkins. The staff I asked for help were rude and after hearing my requests for help, did nothing for me, but went about their own ways. The pizza could not have been GOOD when it was warm, because it tasted like greasy cardboard anyway. But COLD it was terrible.

After eating, we were going to bowl. We were assigned lanes 13 and 14 by the GM. I went over and saw they were littered with trash, clothing, a purse(?) and 8 pairs of shoes in various sizes. We requested a cleanup from a staff member. No one came. 10 minutes passed. I went back and found 3 employees standing around the counter talking and laughing. I asked all of them to come clean up Our lanes. They said they would, but each departef in different directions, none of them to our lanes. NOW I'm starting to get angry. I sought out a manager. A young guy acted as if he was going to hear my complaint, but interrupted me at EVERY WORD (no exaggeration) and would not look me in the eyes. He "threatened" to go get the General Manager, to which I replied "Please DO!" But alas, the young buck was only bluffing. He obviously didn't want me to report himto the GM. My wife intervened, I went back to our lanes and cleaned them up myself. Still convinced that we could have a fun day, we focused on bowling.

We got our shoes. Several of them were so WORN OUT that your toes would stick out through holes in the shoes. Ridiculous to think anyone would keep or issue such garbage for shoes! The couches on the lanes were coming unstitched at the seams and had holes in them as well. Once we were ready to bowl, our lanes did not work AT ALL. So we were moved to other lanes. After the first ball, the pinsetter got stuck in the down position. We waited 12 minutes for that to be fixed. Now we've wasted nearly half hour of bowling time (that i paid for) because of poor sanitation, poor maintenance, and Pitifully Poor Employee performance.

The ONE employee who did seem to have it together and helped us somewhat, simply affirmed my summary of the place. "Yeah, it used to be nice here. But it's gone WAAYYY Down."

It only got worse with the laser tag. The equipment we had to wriggle into had to be swapped because they didn't work. The attendant gave ZERO instructions or help or safety warnings. There should have been some block of instructions to improve our experience. But in following with everything else here, this employee lacked training, lacked enthusiasm, lacked personality, lacked a desire to do a good (or even decent) job.

SAVE YOUR MONEY. GO ANYWHERE ELSE. GO TO RIGBYS....

BELIEVE THE 1 STAR REVIEWS. There is no way this place has 4 stars with all the 1 star reviews. I drove 3 hours to the Macon location of Pinstrikes to spend time with 2 of my grands before they started school. In our group there were 2 children and 5 adults. They charge $5 cash, no card at the door to get in, then give you a ticket to redeem for $5. An associate told me it would be a better deal to purchase the family pack which came with the shoes a large pizza and 2 drinks. She charged gratuity without me knowing it. I don't know if that is standard or not. But I was not aware. We were put on lane 5. The lane would get stuck and then start again. We thought it was something we were doing. It finally stuck and never reset. After sitting for a while I went to the counter to tell the associate. She(black woman with a ponytail of dreads) immediately greeted me by giving me a dry eye blinking stare. I told her what was going on and she responded in a low voice ok. So I stood there thinking she was going to say something else. She looked at me like why am I still standing there and said real dry "ok he coming". I went back to my section and waited. After some time nothing happened. I went back to the counter and When she saw me coming her face became dry again. I told her it's still stuck and she said with a smirk "he told me to move y'all to lane 3". I asked how were we supposed to know that? She smirked and shrugged her shoulder and said "he told me to move y'all so I did". She said we had used 30 mins of our 2 hour bowling. We had been dealing with the glitching lane since we started and had been waiting for at least 15 mins for someone to fix it. I asked to move to 6 since we had so much food to move. The first pizza two drinks, 2 containers of wings, loaded fries and another pizza. She said that lane was closed for maintenance. I asked to speak with a manager then she said " I am the manager"!🤔 I asked how the refund worked She said "you want a refund?" I asked again how the refund process works. She then said "it has to be put on an in-store card" I already know half of the games don't work and there aren't that many to start with. My family decided to move all the food to lane 3 and try to make the best of it because the kids didn't want to play the handful of games that worked. We then had to wait for someone to come clean it up because the floor was wet and the booth had left over pitchers and cups from someone else. This lane was also sticking. I understand that mechanical things happen but it was the attitudes from the employees that made the experience so much worse when it could have been so much better. The manager acted like she didn't want to talk to anyone except her co-workers even though that's a part of her job. This place is really an after 9 PM club spot. That's for 21 and up only. I guess that's where the money is, so family groups aren't important because most of the games for children don't work. I never found out who the "he" was that "the manager" was indirectly putting the blame on. Also she put someone on lane 5 after we moved. It still wasn't working. The 4 pins were still sitting there and...

New Update (Mar. 10, 2025) After almost 3 years, I have come to say that this place is still not worth wasting money. Their hours aren't up to date and they will hang up on you if you call for confirmation. They have officially lost my patronage forever. We go bowling every Monday in Warner Robins, which is a drive 50 mins instead of the quick 12 min drive to pinstrikes. It's 5 of us spending over $200 every week between food, bowling, drinks... we are clean and low maintenance but we get the worst service every single time.

Update(Aug. 7, 2022) *It has been several months since I wrote my last review. My family and I started competition bowling out in Warner Robins at Gold Cup because our last time here was terrible. Tried going again because it is 45 minutes closer but yet again we get scammed, treated with awful service and refused for league style bowling with only 4 lanes being used in the entire place on a Sunday evening. The owner need to review their staff and awful pricing. $40 an hour on a Sunday night is ridiculous. Turning people away is even worst.

Let's start with, DON'T TAKE YOUR FAMILY OR FRIENDS HERE. If I could leave 0 stars, I would. Me and 7 friends went bowling this evening and this is the worst bowling experience I have ever had. For starters, the hours are wrong on Google and on the door. We we're kicked out at 9pm. Next, we asked them to adjust the temperature because my group and the two other lanes they squeezed us between were complaining about how hot it is. Yes we were moving a lot bowling but everyone, including someone who wasn't even bowling were sweating. The staff said the air conditioning doesn't even work!!! It's about to be summer and we are already having 90 degree days!!! No air-conditioning made it miserable! On top of that, they said no alcohol other than beer at the bar because "they need to calibrate the measurements on their pour system with their tips". I have never heard that load of bs in my life. The chicken tenders were burnt, they didn't have cheese, and the prices went up a drastic amount from last year. Now let's talk about our lanes going out at least 6 times while we paid by the hour (BTW THEY DONT OFFER PER GAME ANYMORE) once we asked for an extra 10 minutes added to each game, they refused and when I asked for a partial reimbursement or $10 gift card, they said I'd have to take it up with the manager. I asked for the manager and they said she isn't here... Not to mention that everytime we asked for help, we had to HUNT SOMEONE DOWN just to find them sitting there on their phones texting and rolling their eyes when they had to actually work. We were so polite and would have spent upwards of $400 on drinks , food and extra games if things were like we went in 2021. My family and coworkers used to come every Monday back in 2021. This place has gone waaaaay downhill! I will not be visiting here for a...