Flip Out Box Hill — Local services in Melbourne

Pretty fun place for the littlies. We came with a party on a quiet Saturday evening which was nice. Paying for 2 extra kids with socks was a bit of a shock at $36.50 each. We had grip socks but were told we weren’t allowed to wear them and were forced to buy flip out socks. Good quality but annoying I guess.

Party itself ran well. I liked the way the event ran ensuring the party host stayed with the kids and took them around to each attraction. Also liked how this went for 90 mins before sitting down and eating before booting us out. Once play time is over you don’t go back, which is different, but compared to some centres which have weird timings of 40 mins of “free play” before food is served and then after food another hour of play. Just felt this ran better and smoother.

Over staffed though, has to be for the price of entry. Came in and there were 4 people in reception and one guy was sitting on the reception bench with his back to me. Once they stopped laughing and gasbagging he finally realised and turned and served me.

Tramp area had 1 staff member patrolling and so did the rock climbing arena. Was fine for the limited children that were there but I would hate to see what it’s like on a busy session as the rock climbing seemed to be quite disorganised.

With multiple attractions and areas for kids to explore it’s definitely on our return list. At $33 for 2 hours it’s certainly on the premium end of play centres. Other competitors are not only cheaper but give you longer entry. With a family of 3 kids $100 for 2 hours is pretty nuts.

Food was average and limited in options. Not bad by any means but just what you expect from a play centre. Will be back, but I think we will stick to the 5pm sessions as it was quite calm and I know what these places are like at peak hour!

Overall a great centre, the two things for me that push this down from a 5 star attraction is price, and the customer service which was lacking. In saying that tho the party host was 10/10 for the kids which was great to see, but others in the venue didn’t seem to have any pride in the service they offer.

Update: 2/3/24 Downgraded to 3 stars. Went again with my daughter and half way through our 2 hour session she had an older child fall on her ankle pretty roughly. Complete accident though.

She was crying quite a lot and holding her ankle on the ground. A staff member walked past and just said “you’ll be okay sweetie!” And kept walking. We ended up having to leave as it swelled up quite a lot. No incident report was taken by staff and no care or treatment provided.

Because we rushed out we forgot about a new jumper that was left in the pigeon hole. I called a dozen times in a row and no one answered despite knowing they were over staffed again with staff chilling in reception. I emailed to ask if the jumper was there to which I didn’t get a response until I emailed again 2 days later to follow up.

“Apparently” the jumper was never handed into lost property.

Very poor understanding of first aid and incident reports for a business that would deal with injuries almost on a daily basis.

Also - had my 25 year old brother pop in to say hello. Staff at the said they needed to sign the waiver to enter. They signed the waiver and then were charged $50 for entry and forced to buy socks. When questioned why they said all patrons needed to pay and have socks. They didn’t want to cause a scene and paid.

When I said that’s not right we went back to reception to request a refund. He was offered STORE CREDIT. When we said he lives 4 hours away and are 25 year old adults who aren’t going to come again… the staff said well you were charged because you signed the waiver, why did you sign a waiver if you weren’t going to play?!

Absolutely...

Worst customer service I've ever experienced.

I have never left a review like this before.. but here we go..

I used the online booking service to book my son's birthday party, a few days after I made the booking, I needed to get in contact with someone from Flip Out as I had questions regarding potentially adding numbers, age suitability for guests, and how the party would he structured.

I called and left a voicemail with my name and number for someone to call me back. After 2 days no one had contacted me, so I emailed using the email contact page on their website. 2 days passed again, so I emailed again.. nothing..  so I called and left another voicemail. Still no contact.

After about 2 weeks of waiting for someone to call me back, I eventually drove into Flip Out Box Hill where I requested a cancellation of the booking because I had received no services, so I had lost all faith in them being able to run a sufficient party for the HUGE amount of money I would have spent with them.

Of course no manager was there, so I left my name and number with one of the staff members. Finally Vicki the manager or owner (I believe) called me back. I requested my $100 deposit back, and she flat out refused. I asked this to be escalated to someone higher up. I said I would be leaving a review on this awful experience which she replied "well that's not very nice". Excuse me? What's not very nice is not bothering to get back to a customer after multiple attempts.

From there I was put onto a head office member, Sue. Who OF COURSE blamed Covid for this poor customer service. And again refused to refund me the $100.

$100 is a good about of money to be out of pocket for families coming into the Christmas period. Not to mention when we also have my sons birthday in December.

Look, I understand "non refundable deposits" are meant to protect businesses from people who cancel close to event dates.. but this was weeks out. The company would have lost no money from this cancellation, so the refusal to refund is really taking advantage.

When I expressed that I would be leaving reviews of my experience, Sue threatened me more than once that there "would be consequences" if I did so... imagine threatening someone so they wouldn't leave a review on their experience.

I absolutely do not recommend booking with Flip...

This was our first and definitely the last time hosting a birthday party here. Very disappointed.

We booked online in advance for today’s 1:30–3:00 pm party, ordered food, paid the deposit, received a confirmation email, and even completed the parent declaration form via QR code ahead of time. But when we arrived at 1:20, the front desk staff looked completely confused and unprepared. They hadn’t even checked the online booking, and nothing was set up for us. As for the food we ordered, such as chocolate balls and the fruit platter, none of it was prepared. The front desk told us we wouldn’t be charged for the missing food, but this was never about money. We needed those items as part of the celebration.

After some scrambling, they cleared a corner upstairs for us, but by then it was nearly 2:00 pm. We sat there waiting, watching staff set up other tables and rooms. Around 2:15, I asked where our drinks and food were and was told to “find your host.” But nobody ever introduced us to any host. Finally at 2:30, four pizzas were served, an hour after our booking started. The children began eating, we need to start cutting the cake at 2:45. Even the plates we had to fetch ourselves from the downstairs café. The lighter and cake knife were also from home (luckily I brought them), because still no host ever showed up.

Just as we started on the cake, one staff member came over to remind us that our booking ended at 3:00. Excuse me? You served our food at 2:30, gave us no assistance the entire time, and then rushed us out after only half an hour? Everything asking questions, chasing food, even basic supplies, we had to do ourselves by going downstairs. No one ever took ownership of our booking.

As a parent, I am disappointed. The whole experience was chaotic, unorganized, and extremely poor value. Definitely not...