DEFY Greenville — Attraction in Mauldin

I debated on writing this review, but I felt it was necessary to provide information to other parents looking for a place to have a birthday party. I booked my daughters birthday party online and because it was a weekday I could get 10% off the party package. I paid my deposit online to hold the reservation. On the website it stated that someone would reach out a few days prior to the party date to confirm everything. I never heard from anyone so I called the day before to be sure everything was good to go. I also physically went to DEFY the morning of our party date to square up the remaining balance and to be sure we were good to go for that evening. When I came to pay, the balance on my receipt said one price but the kids working the front kept saying I owed more. I realized that the 10% off was not being calculated on their computer. One guy kept trying to convince me that my paid receipt that I got online was wrong and that 10% of $280.00 was $7.00. He kept trying to convince me that this is just what I owed and that "whatever" I got online was incorrect. I pushed to see a manager that came and fixed the problem. I paid my balance and came back for my party that evening. The kids had a great time jumping for our first hour but when it came time to go the party room for the second hour, our pizza had not arrived. I kept asking the kids working the front desk to let me know what was going on with the pizza and no one was able to tell me anything other than they weren't sure. The later it got, the more I pushed to understand where the food was and if they can at least tell me where the pizza was ordered from, I could call them myself to see what was happening. The best information I could get was that they were texting their party coordinator and one staff member also told me that this apparently happens all of the time which was insane to me since we were the only party scheduled for that entire day. I had to go ahead and cut the cake and sent my brother out to Little Caesars to buy pizza for our guests. By the time by brother got back with the food, the other pizzas had arrived and we only had about 20 minutes left of our party. While we were eating I realized that we also didn't get our drinks, and we constantly had to go back and forth asking our party host to bring us silverware, napkins, etc. These are a bunch of untrained kids running this business. It was not worth the price paid to have a birthday party here. Great place to come to entertain your children but most definitely not worth the price for the horrible...

We have went a total of 3 times, and each time although the set up is nice and it is a fairly clean and safety up kept environment, it is one that leaves sooooo much to be desired on the employees. The employees (remember been there 3 times) at check in are almost always fairly nice and helpful teens. Once you get through that aspect then the nightmare begins. The set up is one where you have to wait on a cold concrete floor after removing your socks and shoes, or wait on a ramp (carpeted here to be fair on review). There apparently has been a change this last time to an upstairs area that is carpeted that you can wait in now. There is no going over of rules while you wait for your turn. There are arm bands and they are color coded to tell you when your time starts and ends (the employees are like mad dogs barking at you if you are even a minute late from getting out of area past your time, even when the place is almost completely dead with few if any others waiting for their color code to come up). They should have someone going over the rules while people are waiting in line. Also they should get someone to actually answer their phones! Seriously they had a girl who use to do it and then she just seems to have vanished and no one replaced her. So you have to leave a message and I have waited days and ended up having to rent another place for the 7 nights we needed for a large group slumber party. Can't imagine how much loss of the bottom line that costs the company daily.

The employees are very rude. They are mostly young teens and there are a few mid to older age either employees or owner/operator(s) there. Seems a business who has there whole existence reliant on the community and keeping that community happy and coming back, has a lot of work to do in how it treats those people when they visit this business. This was our families last time. This time was so bad in the form of watching how rudely the employees talked to the children that my wife and I witnessed that we decided we would never subject ourselves or family to watching that type of rude behavior again. I give this business a strong B on upkeep (it is a newer facility) I give this business a F- on social skills and...

I will be a realest here. I understand the struggle when it comes to staffing is horrible. I also understand that parents use the facility as a child drop off to baby sit their middle school aged child for a few hours. All of that considered I can understand why certain areas wouldn’t be monitored or staffed appropriately. Which is why my issue seems valid. The updates they have done to the facility are great. Very nice and definitely worth it. Especially the basketball area. Which brings me to my frustration. You should definitely utilize todays vast array of available technology options and install a clock system that limits grown men ( 18 to 40) and wild middle school age groups. That Stay on the basketball courts for hours. Literally!! The entire time my family and I were there these groups never moved until I approached them with some hostility as well as several other parents. Their were kids ages 5 to 12 that sat and waited patiently for them to stop so they could play. Once they did ( for 5 mins ) to get water or pick teams they would take the court over. It’s Pretty pathetic that grown men have nothing better to do other than bounce around on a Saturday night at a trampoline basketball court pretending to be LeBron much less basically bully indirectly young kids that deserve as much playing time As them. So , maybe this time clock will alleviate this. 10 people per court for 15 mins . Counts down rotate a new group of 10. This is going to hurt your business because it’s turning into a street ball drama fest from the crowd that’s allowed to take over this very nice state of the art addition you’ve added. Just thought I’d let you know. Otherwise this place is great. We’ve had several birthdays there. And frequent visits. Unfortunately for us until this is resolved. We’re taking our business to sky zone and will encourage anyone we know to do the same. Especially with kids in these age ranges . From a parents perspective….. you’re setting your kid up for disappointment…… they should be happy about being there . They should be able to play on this very nice addition….. oh but wait ….. the grown men of Greenville county that aspire to be NBA stars get to blow off steam and run this area...