River Roll Skate Center — Attraction in Riverside

Worst customer experience of my life. I was buying fireworks for my family at a stand in the parking lot at River Roll, just off Gateway, at the end of June, for the fourth of July. I parked my car in a marked parking spot among dozens of other cars, and proceeded to purchase some fireworks from the stand. Afterward, my wife and kids picked me up in her car to grab a bite of dinner down the street at the Corner Cafe. We went in her car and left mine where it was, surrounded by other cars. We returned an hour later to drop me off at my car. It was gone. I was very confused and after searching all over, I asked to speak to the owner of the fireworks stand or River Roll. One of the employees introduced me to a woman, who said she was the owner of River Roll. She told me they towed my car to Smithville, that I was parked too close to the fireworks and had to tow me. I looked behind me where my car was previously parked and she was motioning for her employee to move cones to block my spot, as if they had always been there! There were no cones when I parked there! I realized she was trying to make it appear the cones had always been there. At the time I was there an hour ago there was no way for me to know not to park there and in fact there were (and still were at that moment!) dozens of cars parked all around me, with absolutely no signs anywhere saying not to park there. I was astonished that this was happening! I calmly explained why I was upset that she towed my car and that there was no way for me to know not to park there. I then asked her to refund my costs to get the car. She refused all my repeated requests and refused to explain why I was singled out among the many cars adjacent to me, even in that moment, to be towed. I stood there for what seemed like an eternity, simply baffled and confused at what was happening. I eventually had to change our evening plans, drive out to Smithville and pay $300 to a tow truck driver in order to get back my car. It was possibly the worst customer experience I have ever had. Either I was scammed by this woman and she was in cohoots with the tow company or she was embarrassed by what happened and worried I would take legal action against her if she took responsibility for what had happened. Either way she was a coward and of the lowest morals & ethics. I have disclosed this experience to many of my friends who are astonished how she could have gotten away with this. I wonder how many others have been victim to this woman. In the end I strongly considered suing her out of the principle of the matter, but decided my time wasn't worth it and I did not want to let this woman take one more moment of my life. I rarely write reviews but i do so here to my share my experience with others who may fall victim to this woman.

*Follow up response to Skip Clinton's response:

Your total lack of care for me as a customer in your post and and your wife's actions that day tell me everything I need to know about you and your business: that you no doubt will be out of business soon and you run a dying operation. Sad, really that you totally miss the point of running a business: to make someone's life better. So, while you claim there were cones there where I parked (there weren't! I have video of your wife overseeing kids installing them where my car was!), the real point is that you took no responsibility for the event that occurred from a paying custmer, which is the sad part. You truly did not care about me as a customer, which is now perfectly evident and provides me a level of knowledge knowing why that terrible...

If you are a POC especially a black person I would think twice about patronizing this establishment. They give mediocre service and then like to weaponize the police to their benefit. I visited this establishment for a birthday party on Saturday and you could feel that we were unwanted from the jump. Being skipped over for them to help white people that were there after us was ignored but when We were rudely interrupted from singing happy birthday to my niece and told we had to leave the party room now because there was another party coming although they were the reason for the party running behind; due to them not bringing the food or ice cream on time. My sister instructed the staff that we would leave once we finished singing happy birthday and cleaning up like any normal person would after they've paid for a specific service. Of course they immediately responded with calling the police and I'm not the least bit surprised with the way this country sees & treats black people. One of my cousins even tried to take to who presented herself like the owner & all she kept saying was that she would call the police. We hear these stories all the time of white people weaponizing the police and it ends badly thank God we got an officer with a small chip on his shoulder or my nieces birthday could have went very differently. Oh & FYI after all that The next party still was in the room...

Our family of 5 came out to skate today March 1, 2015 at 2pm -- my husband specifically asked if inline skates are available, the cashier said inlines are available, we paid our fees, walked over to the skate counter, and discovered they didn't have size-12 inline skates for my husband. We immediately asked for a refund because my husband didn't want to skate without inlines. The owner would not offer us a refund and as a group, our family didn't feel right skating without Dad. The owner offered us 2-free passes, which made no sense because there are 5-in our party -- we were there for 5-minutes... The owner proceeded to tell me what a bad person my husband is in front of my 3-small children and several other parents because my husband made a comment "learn how to run a business". I've never been treated so poorly in my life. A man in line was shaking his head with disapproval so the owner gave me 4-passes instead of the 2-passes he first offered. I explained that I would prefer to have my money back because he didn't have my husbands size and we were only there for 5-minutes. The owner refused. We paid for 5-Admissions + Skates/Inlines $32, stayed for 5-minutes, were refunded $6 for the inlines they didn't have and were given 4-free passes (no refund for the skate rental) to a place I will never return. My family didn't...