Stemville — Attraction in Northville

We recently had my daughters birthday party at stemville and the customer service experience leading up to the event was a total nightmare. We love stemville and have a membership so we figured doing my daughters birthday there would be a great idea! When i first called inquiring about a party, i was informed they accommodate dietary restrictions as stated on their website. I asked if eating halal/ kosher is a dietary restriction they accommodate and the person i spoke to said yes. After placing a deposit, they later changed their minds and told me that it is not something they accommodate to the day before the party. So i was not able to bring my own food. At this point they put me in a tough situation. When speaking to the owner of the business, she was incredibly hard to get a hold of and rude and did not try to make the situation better when she acknowledged it was a mistake on their part for misinforming me. She told me it was new employee that started and told me yes when in reality that was not correct. I understand we all make mistakes but take accountability for the mistake and as a business owner try to rectify the situation especially if its not the customers fault!! At least refund me my deposit. Because i was misinformed and booked based on the information i was given. She would not and basically told me there's nothing that can be done and if i wanted she can get her husband involved who is an attorney. I truly believe this isn't the way to handle business properly especially escalating the situation the way she did. The staff was nice and courteous during the party but felt like they kicked us out toward the end. The bathroom was closed for cleaning 20 min before the end of the party when that was the time we needed it to wash our hands. They started cleaning up before our time was up. Also, decorations were not as glamorous as you see on their Instagram. Literally just a table cloth and silverware and plates and some balloons. Overall i would not recommend this place to host a party. Terrible experience.

RESPONSE TO OWNER: Those dates and claims are false. I cant believe you would make such wrong statements! I never received any call back! In fact i was the one trying to reach you constantly and never got a call back! Hence my statement about you being "hard to get a hold of". Judging by previous one star reviews, instead of taking accountability it seems like you deflect and make false accusations. As an owner of a business, i pride myself on doing anything to make the situation better when it comes to customer service and come up with a solutions especially when it is your fault for misinforming me! But that is what separates exceptional businesses from mediocre ones.

To who is reading this, please read other one star reviews when booking a party, i didn't believe it at first but wish i did. This owner apparently can never be wrong and is arrogant about it. Situations like this can be handled with nice words and understanding. Not threatening lawsuits and combative behavior. Truly...

Initially, we were impressed with the appearance of Stemville and decided to purchase a 3-month membership. However, our experience quickly deteriorated. Despite their promise to rotate toys regularly, the same toys were often left out for weeks at a time and were not set up in a playable form. For instance, the ball tower and programmable train-track were frequently left in a state that made them unusable for young children.

Moreover, some staff members demonstrated a lack of consideration for children with special needs. For example, they displayed a toy human skeleton that was frightening for our 4-year-old. When we asked the staff if they could remove it temporarily, they refused, claiming that other children might want to play with it. This approach did not seem inclusive or appropriate to us.

Unfortunately, the most significant issue we experienced was the rudeness of some of the staff members. During one encounter, an employee refused to give us her name (which in itself is telling she knew very well what she was doing), and when the owner later contacted us to inquire about the incident, we were only able to describe her as a black female employee since we do NOT know her name. The owner responded with self-righteous and condescending behavior and even accused us of being racists. This reaction was outrageously inappropriate and left us feeling disappointed and frustrated with Stemville.

Overall, we did not have a positive experience with Stemville, and we do not recommend it to others based on the issues we experienced.

Edit after owner's reply -

It was slightly amusing to see the effort made to undermine my review by mentioning timing of the review.

While I wasn't present today to witness how you treated my wife and children, I did visit your establishment multiple times during their membership over the past few months. I personally made most of the observations that formed the basis of my review.

Regarding today's incident, my wife contacted me after her initial encounter with the impolite staff member, and after her phone conversation with the owner, and again when she was in the parking lot where she broke into tears. That's what compelled me to write this review to expose your behavior. I am confident that I have all the information I require and that they are accurate.

Furthermore, out of curiosity I took the time to read all the reviews and realized we are not the only ones frustrated by "rude" employee or had confusion about the "buddy" system. Though I'm not sure if the employee who was repeatedly rude to my family was the same individual that the other reviewers complained about, I can say that the business does not care about or act on critical feedback as it claims. Rather, it laughably takes time to hide the issues by sugercoating and even distorting truths and shifting blame to the customers who had disagreement with them in reply to critical customer...

Bad place with very poor customer service. The owner didn’t care customer either her employees. I would give zero star if I could. Definitely don’t recommend this place.

Edit: A few facts bent by the owner's response: Every time the skeleton toy was taken away, it was taken by us to front desk staff and put away by them under their permission.

We never attended multiple times a week. We only visit once a week on Saturday since January 2023.

We never requested any refund. The refund was proposed by the owner, not us, during the last exchange.

The comments about some employee being "too-young" was mentioned by the owner, not us, as she agreed with us that some staff acted unprofessionally during that visit.

The "listen to me" comment was only made because the owner wouldn't stop talking over me and bashing me as "racist". In fact, I feel we were treated unfairly because we are the minority and I do not speak perfect verbal English.

We had 2 kids enrolled in the membership Jan - Mar, and we thought we could bring 2 buddies twice every month. This is because the rule wasn't clear to us. It was printed only on small fonts on the wall and on the online form when purchasing membership which regular people would just skim through. We never brought 5 buddies at once. The only time we did something remotely similar was we invited 2 buddies on Feb 4, and 2 buddies on Feb 25 and + 1 paid friend (see how the owner bent the truth?). This happened in February, and we offered to bring no buddies during March to "break even" and they seemed OK at the time. Even though we made a mistake, we still believe it's inappropriate to kick us or our friends out as some staff initially insisted during that visit. All appointments are made ahead of time including "buddies", why did the staff not inform us when the appointment was made but rather embarrass your customer at the scene, with kids? And I do not appreciate your passive aggressiveness in your response calling me "abusing" the rule

Lastly, there is no point virtual signaling and victimizing yourself as if that would help your argument. We've visited the place since January, and until the most recent incident you've welcomed us every single time which means we're not unreasonable people. But if we are treated rudely, we...