Ice Skate Birmingham — Local services in Birmingham

I come here to skate a lot as I rollerblade and this is the only time each year that I get to ice skate. The value of ~£10 is a respectable price for 1hour of ice time which is good, but the fact that the included rental skates are not looked after is atrocious. I politely asked for a refund after attempting to use the skates for 10mins to which I was refused. The skates appear to have never been sharpened at all and I could not catch an edge whatsoever, rendering the whole experience useless.

If I were to go into a bowling alley I would expect the balls to roll the same way as I would expect the skates to actually cut into the ice and function properly. Simply inexcusable. Not only does the skates being blunt make it effectively impossible to move around on the rink, but it also poses an alarming safety hazard as people who build up speed (assuming they somehow can) will not be able to stop effectively and pose a very real danger to others around them, especially considering there are only 2-3 Ice Safety Marshalls in the rink at any one time.

For this problem to be fixed the skates should be sharpened at least once per week. Whether this means increasing the entry price by £1pp or having to stock new skates entirely, so be it.

DO NOT EXPECT AN ADEQUATE EXPERIENCE WITHOUT YOUR OWN SKATES

Separately, a previous time I came to skate (approximately 8pm near closing time) the ice was not resurfaced at all. This lead to there being a snowy layer of powder being all over the surface of the rink resulting in very inconsistent traction across the ice- even though I DID have my own sharp ice skates.

After asking for a refund I was given one with no fuss whatsoever and was immediately refunded my full entry fee and the situation was handled perfectly by the staff :) I was also informed that the reason the ice was not resurfaced between the sessions was because there were some incidents that occurred earlier in the day, which judging by the 2 ambulances outside I could only conclude meant that they did not have time to resurface the ice due to people having gotten injured.

Think. You have blunt blades on your skates and about 40 people on the ice with equally dangerous equipment. What is the likelihood of people who have very little skill causing accidents?

TL:DR;. Do yourself a favour and bring your own skates. It's another world safer than using the deathtraps provided, and you won't be hospitalised even if you are an experienced skater.

2 stars because my first issue was dealt with nicely. 0/10 for equipment maintenance and...

I decided to come here as it was recommended by a friend the place was very busy and crowded, workers told us to take our shoes off and exchange them for skates. Every pair of skates had a number allocated to a box and this would be how you get your shoes later on. After having a session on the ice I went back to collect my shoes and the box was empty the worker informed me and told me to wait a little. I then saw a box that had skates and similar shoes to mine, white airforce and asked if I could see them, these were not my shoes as mine were recently bought and brand new, these were worn and creased. The manager then came and insisted that they were mine,she then placed them right on top of the shelf and tried to play smart by looking for my shoes again and taking the same ones of the shelf and insisting they were mine once again, saying “oh look these are on top of the shelf they must be yours” She then left and I kept approaching workers, but they were busy and knew my shoes would not be found. One worker helped me go through the shelves searching for my shoes however I still couldn’t find them, these two female staff helped me out more than that “manager” Emily, they explained that I’ve waited through 2 sessions and my shoes would not come back and I should get my money for my shoes that went missing. The manager didn’t turn up after half an hour and when she did I informed her my shoes still hadn’t been found she said “one minute” and disappeared again. 30 minutes of waiting and I’d had enough, my sisters then went to find her and she finally gave in and we managed to get money for new shoes. Even after handing us this money she carried on insisting those creased, dirty airforce were mine, I had to wear them the way home. A bit disappointed with the experience overall had so much fun until my shoes went. I also came to the conclusion that either a worker had handed a customer my shoes or the customs lied about there shoes taking mine as they were both the same size just mine fresh and new. Lesson learnt that next time I should just wear crocs as no one will want to steal those. I hope the workers can solve the issue of what went wrong and prevent further occurrences...

(Visiting for the weekend) Absolutely shocking and stressful experience. I have an 9&11 year old with the eldest being autistic.

The queue to get in was massive and when we finally got to turnstiles where it was even more ridiculously busy with no room at all when you went into the bit after the turnstiles. The ticket guy said I couldn’t go past without a ticket. I explained that I was never going to allow a 9 and 11 year old disabled boy to queue on their own surrounded by big and rowdy groups. Eventually after arguing with him and asking for a refund he then changed his mind where we were eventually allowed in too to help them change their footwear for skates

The stress continues to a whole mother level….

We where then ushered into the long and very narrow area of changing the footwear for boots. There was nowhere to sit and change, people where barging past, staff were completely useless with giving us any help. My nephew had his foot stood on with ice skates and when we informed staff they genuinely couldn’t careless!! We had the on-site St. John’s Ambulance take a look (we sorted this out and NOT the staff). My brother then argued for a while to get a refund back, as they weren’t willing to pay it back even it was there fault that they were very evidently that they were allowing way too many people in. We eventually got onto the ice 30 minutes late!!

I then took 3 kids onto the ice and within 5 minutes my son was off, then my daughter and then my nephew. This was all within less than 10 minutes. You literally couldn’t move on the ice, as there were so many people on the ice at one time. There was no one skating, just walking, as the amount of people on that ice rink was staggering. We came away from the ice feeling really stressed, kids upset and all feeling very disappointed and out of pocket!!

Whoever came up with this idea needs retraining or even stepping aside to allow someone that is capable of actually managing this circus a lot better.

Please bear this in mind if you are thinking of attending this circus act. The above is a true testament of how our experience was with...