Locked Up - Mishawaka | Escape Room Experience — Attraction in Mishawaka

This is the WORST escape room ever in America thanks to good ole Dana. On 01/18/2025 I arrived at the escape room at 3:40PM I had informed everyone who was apart of my party to arrive at 3:50PM. Because in the instructions it stated that we all needed to arrive 10-15 minutes early. It also stated everyone had to sign their waivers prior to entering the escape room. So I brought screenshots of every waiver formed signed as well as I paid for the extra person who was going to be attending. There were 13 people who showed up because this was a surprise party for my mother. My mother showed up at 4:00PM. Which I took a video of to record her expression. Some of my mother’s friends had came all the way in from Ohio. I had ordered a crown and sash for my mother to wear. Keep in mind the only person who hadn’t signed the waiver form was my mother. But we were informed on 01/12/2025 that was okay because she could sign it at the place. As we were having issues accessing my mother’s waiver forms we asked for help from Dana seemed to have an attitude. Her words were “HURRY UP WE ARE ALREADY LATE” and then proceeded to storm off. It was 4:05 After that a young lady with red hair began to help us and explain to us the rules of the game. She then proceeded to put us in handcuffs and had us divide up in teams. 10 minutes into the game the young lady came in informed us that there was pieces missing from the escape room and we needed to exit so that she could place them where she needed to. We then came back in the room and proceeded to continue on with the game. In the process of doing that one of my family members got trapped in the handcuffs. Another family member of mines tried helping her out but we were informed by a gentleman there who was an employee that with these being real deal handcuffs sometimes if you put the key in too far it will get stuck but it’s okay and that it’s normal. He also informed me it happens all the time and ensured me he would get my family member out of handcuffs. During that process I had overheard Dana yelling at one of my other family members stating how she shouldn’t have jammed the key in for the handcuffs which my family member explain to her that is not what happened. Because prior to my family member getting stuck in the handcuffs we had used that same key to unlock another person handcuff and that person didn’t get stuck. After that my family member was then removed from game. During that entire hour and 15 minutes my family member was greeted by bolt cutters of large and small size. The handcuffs were also yanked around her wrist that caused some redness as well as bruising. So today on 01/22/2025 I called up the escape room to ask if I could speak with a Manager or District Manager. I was of course greeted by Dana. I explained to Dana who I was and what I was calling about. I immediately got an attitude from her. I told Dana that we didn’t have a very good experience at the escape room and was hoping if we could talk to someone regarding her behavior towards my family. Dana then started speaking to me in a very aggressive and hostile tone. I tried reasoning with her but each time I said any word she came back with more and more attitude. I brought up what happened at the escape room, what happened on 01/05/2025 (booking the escape which was a hassle) and Dana kept dismissing and talking over me. I then heard whispering in the background and so I asked Dana if she had said something. Dana then proceeded to say “I HAVE YOU ON SPEAKER PHONE AND WE HAVE PEOPLE HERE WHO ARE DOING AN ESCAPE ROOM AND ARE GOING TO BE DONE IN 1 MINUTE AND 13 SECONDS” I then said Dana I understand that but I’m trying to inform you on what happened and how it wasn’t a good experience for us. Dana then said “OKAY AND WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT ME AND ANTONIO RUN THIS COMPANY ITS NOT A BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY”. Dana then kept yelling on the phone and before I could say anything else she hung up on me. Disgusting behavior...

Ok, I tried this place a few years ago. Disappointed. I decided to give another chance and do a different room. Honestly, I'm still not impressed. Other escape room companies in my area are more customer service orientated, have way better plot and cohesive story, have clues that are incredible, creative ways to incorporate the clues that match with the story line and theme. This place is lackluster compared to them. Most of the pieces of the puzzle are literally just open this lock with a key, open this lock with a word, open this lock with a number code... 🤦 REALLY?? It's terribly unoriginal or creative.

I was in the car coming home with my boyfriend and we thought of over a dozen ways they could've been more creative and more story based with the "escape Alcatraz" theme. All the things involved putting more effort into the set in simple ways instead of having a large room with a ton of empty space. I've done 2 games there...and both are all over the place with clues. Non-linear in thought...meaning, you think you are done with a certain area and have cleared it...but...your wrong. Zero logic there. Clues are riddles that have nothing to do with the over all theme. Terrible at story immersion. Not impressed.

The only reason there is different levels of difficulty on the rooms, at least it seems to me, are because whoever the original creator was of these rooms can not tell a story or keep a logical and linear plot going. They try to be even less logical and linear in the harder rooms. Pass on this place guys...go to a different company. Look up the Pharaohs Tomb in our area (Endeavor Escape Rooms). It's WAY more immersive, the set is absolutely amazing, the owner is so friendly, the story makes sense.

Oh, forgot to say...I was gaslighted by the first person I dealt with the first time I came to Locked Up. Thought it was just a d_____bag guy that I was dealing with that day. Nope! I guess it's the way they are taught to be to customers. The person I dealt with today legit said..."Don't move the painting or things hanging on the walls. We don't put any clues behind them. Also, don't move the furniture either we aren't gonna make you move anything heavy and we don't want you to tear anything up." Not exact words...but, something VERY similar. Thing is, there was a clothes closet on wheels with a door behind it that I saw but figured I am not supposed to move it because of what he said. So I wasted 10 minutes looking for more clues when I should've been moving the closet to open the door behind it.

Wasn't upset until the guy literally tried to play some kinda head game and act like he didn't say what he said. He tried to convince me and my boyfriend we misunderstood. We didn't, he was playing mind games and I feel that's extremely inappropriate to lie to customers. Then gaslight them when they call you out on it. It comes across as shady and argumentative and like they don't care that they ruined your game. That's not fun to me and wasn't fun to my boyfriend.

Anyways, don't let all the fancy lobby furniture and register area fool you. They spent all their time and money on the front area and a couple other sitting areas in the back. They spent way less money and effort in the rooms. They use jenky thrift store props that are beyond worn out and broken. And I get trying to make things look old and used. But this just looks like dumpster dive items that people left outside the Goodwill donation box.

I wouldn't have even wrote this bad review of the man would've been friendly and non argumentative. That did it for me. I despise spending good money on places with mean/argumentative employees. Not fun guys....

I have been here twice and enjoyed both experiences. However, when you make a reservation online and then want to change it (for example, if someone in your group cancels) there's no way to do so, so you have to cancel your whole order and re-do it again. Honestly, while it's a bit of a pain, it's not a big deal. However, what is a big deal is when you are not automatically refunded when you cancel an order online. (Their cancellation policy states you can cancel for free 24 hours in advance.) This happened to me twice, so I know it's a problem with their system and not a one-time mistake. I was charged an extra $500+ by Locked Up and not refunded (despite it saying online that it was refunded). When I realized this, I emailed them to request a refund, and they responded timely to give me one, to their credit. However, if I didn't monitor my credit card statements (which often people, me included, forget to do) I could have been out $500+. If you have an online system that allows you to make, pay, and cancel reservations, it should automatically refund those that are cancelled within the time their policy allows. It should not require your customers to have to initiate it. Also, after I sent the refund request (which took a bit of time as I had to gather evidence from my online Locked Up account and my credit card statements), the response included no apology for the mistake or the inconvenience nor did it include a promise to fix the problem for next time. Obviously, given that they fixed the problem, this isn't the biggest deal, but an apology is still nice when a customer has to go through a lot of hassle to get something done that should have been done automatically. This isn't necessarily a complaint, more a warning for future Locked Up customers to be careful/diligent and an opportunity for Locked Up to improve their systems and customer service training. Honestly, because it was a hassle and there's always the fear "what if they don't refund me?" (even though they did) I probably won't come here again if I have to make group reservations, even though I enjoyed both my experiences. My advice to those considering going: Until they fix their system, if you decide to go here and then need a refund, monitor your credit card statements and perhaps take a screen shot of your cancellation online (one of my orders mysteriously disappeared from my...