Kids Empire Paramus — Attraction in Paramus

My initial review has magically disappeared, so I will leave it again. I had a HORRIBLE experience I had on Saturday February 4, 2023 I booked a party for my daughter and 25 of her friends, and from check in this was absolute chaos! This was the least of my concerns! Our party host introduced herself and got us organized, she informed me at 6:30 food should arrive. At 6:30, food did not arrive, and they assumed it was just running late, at almost 7 we were finally told there was a mix up and the pizzeria had just begun making the 17 pie order!! This could have been avoided had someone confirmed all orders for the day before the parties began. Nonetheless we were given a new time of 7:30, at about 7:45 I went to check in with my party host ( Whom I now lost to the chaos and her trying to deal with all the angry parents). She was not available and I asked another young lady working who said" We don't even know if there is food coming '' At this point I was very upset and asked to speak to a manager or supervisor and I was told " No one is here, the manager and supervisors left". This is where I lost all of my patience and understanding, how is it possible that with 4 parties who have not received food for our parties, the supervisor LEFT!!! At this point I decided to just cut my daughter's birthday cake. I brought the cake out, I lit the candles, I found plates and served everything. My party host Jaritza was busy running the entire facility, one employee just left and they were all over the chaos and were hiding. At 8:00pm the pizza arrived and the owner of the pizzeria came to speak to the party parents. I commend him for owning his piece in this, however there was no one from Kids Empire who showed face for their piece in all of this! I had guests LEAVE because they needed to feed their kids, and I even had kids crying because they were hungry! I was absolutely MORTIFIED with my guests! This was so unprofessional! And I can't believe we spent close to $1000 for this! We were promised unlimited drinks , and party bags which we did not get, but our poor party host could not keep up as she was left to fend for herself!!! We have two children and have thrown many birthday parties and this was by far the worst experience I have ever had throwing a birthday party. I also had a guest who lost her cellphone at the end of the night, and a team member told her a friend of one of the workers was there "Hanging out" close to closing time and took the phone!!! WHERE IS THE LEADERSHIP in the place?? Why are random adults allowed to come in and hang out when there could be children still playing in the facility? Someone needs to intervene before this gets worse! Lack of management, professionalism and organization are killing this place. There is so much potential, my daughter loves playing here and the only reason we scheduled...

I booked a birthday party for my child through their website. They took my $150 fee. Their system took my money from my bank, but never sent me a receipt or acknowledgment or invitations to send out, etc. It did send me an email after I completed the waiver form on their site. So, their system had my email, etc. I immediately called their location to check to see if there was simply a delay. A very good, customer-service oriented employee listened, explained he could not fix the issue, took my info down and suggested I call back the next morning when the owner/manager would be in. I asked that the owner/manager call me back the next day since they already took my money. I never heard anything from them the next (2nd) day. The 3rd day, I called and spoke to someone, explained the situation, they could not help me, but suggested I call back when the owner/manager was in or to come in. I called seven more times throughout that day. No one answered the phone after the initial conversation with the employee and the voicemail was full. I was not able to go in physically until the 5th day. I did so and spoke with the same customer-service oriented employee who told me that only the manager could take care of the situation. I asked that the manager give me a call when the manager got in. I got a call from the manager and was told that there was nothing that could be done, the time slot for the party I reserved had been reserved by someone else and that it was my fault that this had happened. Apparently, I must have booked with a different location. That logic doesn't hold, b/c I would have received a receipt and the links for invites for that other location. So, the problem is with their system or that somebody is fraudulently (maybe not the company) charging cards through the website and it does not go through the system.

At no point did the owner/manager apologize for the situation or try to fix it - other than to say that I could book again online and pay again or come in in-person. The owner/manager REFUSED to refund my deposit and told me to dispute the charges.

This location is new, looks like a potentially fun place and my 4yr old daughter was looking forward to it. I hope the customer service improves for others and that no 9ne else has my experience.

Especially, because of the refusal to refund, the website and transaction are suspicious and I have to report it to my bank as an apparently fraudulent...

Nechama Rosenberg

Jan 29, 2023, 18:12 PST

Hi I visited Kids Empire for the first time today Sunday January 29th, Overall we had a good experience, but there were a few things that we found to be frustrating and really need improvement.

I have a 14 month old that was perfect age for the toddler area, however there were many older children as old as 10 and 11 years old that were running around and throwing balls in the toddler area. My baby got hit a numerous times(as well as other toddlers) and it was very nerve-wracking.

A simple solution can be to put up a gate at the toddler entrance and have a staff member only allow in those that are the right age.

Also have the sign in a more visible area, additionally have the staff members trained to have to the guts to kick out children who don't belong. ( even at the times there was a staff member watching he did not kick out the older children.

I also have a 3 year old who was enjoying the big jungle gym, when they shut the lights off for the birthday party he got very scared. It took a while for them to turn in back on after the party and during that time he was too afraid to go back on. It is UNECESSARY to turn off the lights. Kids Empire is meant to cater to young children and many were afraid of the dark, especially while being so high up.

The automatic motorcycles are very adorable, however it needs to be monitored 100 percent of the time. Children were getting hurt and bumped into, and the children on them were hogging them which created a long wait line.( Children are not capable of knowing when its time to share, they need an adult to help them).

For the price of your place I expected to have better management and service/supervision, and was disappointed.

I hope you take these ideas into...