Adventures Archery — Local services in Florida

We bought the $28 Groupon after reading all of the great reviews. It included all equipment and one hour of archery.

I’ll just say this, the blonde girl at the front desk is really not aware of what she is doing up there. She should not be alone and there should definitely be an experienced adult up there with her helping out. I’m not even mad at her, this mistake is based on poor management. There are a bunch of teenagers (or young adults) running the show and none of them have any idea what is going on.

When we first arrived she told us there was a party coming in at 3 (we got there at 2:35, I assumed they had sessions starting on the hour and we should show up early to get prepared) and that there may not be room for us or we may have to wait. The only thing the Groupon voucher mentioned was to make a reservation for a party of six or more. So ok, that’s annoying that I drove 25 minutes to get here and now I might not even be able to get my kids in today, or I have to find a way to kill time while we wait. She eventually comes back out and says they can accommodate the kids and redeems my Groupon. I step to the side to fill out waivers and after I’m done, we stand there clueless as to what to do as she has given us no direction and is overwhelmed with the line of people that has formed behind me. Some random customer points to a line across from the register and says I need to go over there, thanks for the heads up non-employee! We head over and stand in the line when a younger man with blonde hair asks us if we need help (we are still 3 deep at the equipment counter) and I say yes and explain what we have done so far and he says to come with him. He takes us back to the front desk and again there is concern that they have no room for us, but she has already redeemed our Groupon so they will make it work. After this poor guys speaks with two more employees we finally get put into the hands of Alex (who in my opinion was the only competent person working that day.) Alex got us set up with gear and while the guy with dark hair and a beard is walking around with a dry erase board, trying to put my 7&9 yo children who have never shot before at the lanes where the target is the furthest away, Alex makes sure this doesn’t happen and gets us up to the front where the targets are close and they can actually hit it. He then gives them a safety lesson and covers the basics and sticks around to make sure they each get a couple of successful shots off. He was the only reason this review is getting a three, otherwise it would have been a one.

About half way through our hour session the birthday party comes in, they’ve got tons of arrows so after my kids have gone through the 5/6 they each had, we just have to sit and wait for the party to finish theirs (about 10 minutes per round.) So a portion of our time is wasted watching these adults/teenagers socialize and take their time going through arrows. Again not mad at them but in this TINY range it isn’t really accommodating for separate groups, it should be shut down for a party, as a party of 10 had to share 5 lanes and there were only four lanes left after that.

Overall the kids had fun once things got rolling but a little disappointed about the wait time to shoot again after the party arrived.

Advice to management, have someone help manage all these young bucks you have running the show and don’t have your employees say “well we know you drove 25 minutes so we are trying to make it happen.” Just make it happen and create a sense of ease for your customers, not a sense of obligation and guilt.

We will be exploring other local archery options in the future and again, a big hats off to Alex for going above and beyond to turn our experience around, and to the guy with the blonde hair that put us in his care.

I wish I had gotten all the names but the one with dark hair and a beard carrying a dry erase board should not make a customer feel that it’s their fault that Adventures Archery was not...

If I could give 0 stars I would... I bought a crossbow from them at an outdoor show in Lakeland this year. It was a new release from PSE and after a few weeks of use, the limb delaminated. (This was not the shop's issue, this was a manufacturing issue). The problem is, how the shop handled the this. I called and described the delamination issue, I was asked if I had left the bow in my truck or outside in the cold (I live in Florida), if I was sure I hadn't dropped it or dry-fired it. I made plans to drive from Oveido to Tampa to drop the bow off at Josh's request. When I go to the store, there were several other of the same bow, with the same delamination issue. I was told that the store would request repair or replacement from the manufacturer. When I asked how long it would take, the shop could not provide an answer. We are now in the middle of the hunting season and I am without a bow. after 2 weeks, I called to check the status and I was told 3-4 more weeks. I called the next day and talked to Josh, he told me my bow would be ready on Thursday or Friday of last week. I called Josh again on Tuesday last week to make sure, and again I was told it would be ready Thursday or Friday. I changed my schedule around to go this past Saturday and pick up the bow. I drove down to Tampa from Oveido only to find out that my bow was in the trunk of a sales rep's car and he would not be in until Monday. Now I have made a wasted trip. I was told that the bow would ship out UPS Next Day on Monday and I would receive my bow on Tuesday (Today). I called and spoke to Josh Yesterday Afternoon to verify that the bow had shipped. The bow did indeed ship yesterday, when I asked for a tracking number, Josh could not provide one. He said he would have someone from shipping call me today with it. No one called me, so I called them again, after I got a tracking number, it was with USPS, not UPS and it was not shipped next day, as I was told it would ship, It shipped 2 day with USPS. My bow is now in transit and scheduled to be to me Wednesday by 8pm. I have had to reschedule 2 hunting trips with my son & grandson, I am out deposit money for hunting trips that I had to cancel because of this. All I go from Josh, was "I am sorry that this happened", "I am at the mercy of the manufacturer", and "I will speak to my shipping department about this" While I can appreciate the above comments, there is nothing that can be done at this point to make it right. I am sorely disappointed in this small business that I am sure relies on their customer base. That said, these guys have lost a customer over this, and I will be sure to tell my hunting friends to go...

I’m really surprised by all the 5 star reviews for this place. I’ve actually been in there four times over 5 or 6 years and I’ve been disappointed every time. The first time I went in, I wanted to buy a bow, I had a $1000 limit (which doesn’t go far, but is still I nice chunk of change) if someone knowledgeable had actually offered to help me I would have turned over the cash, but after wandering the store for half an hour I was finally approached by a young female employee. After I explained to her I wanted to buy a bow, she told me I need to talk to another employee but he was busy right now and it would probably be another 20-30 minutes. I left and went to Bass Pro around the corner and was more than assisted in the purchase of a bow, arrows, bow case, release and an arrow case.

A couple years later, I thought I would give them another try, went by on a Saturday with some questions, parking lot was packed store was packed no help to be found, left after 20 minutes of waiting for assistance.

Came back on a week night and the store was pretty dead, but still hard to find help and once I did the employee wasn’t knowledgeable enough to help me and referred me to the bow tech. After waiting for 20 minutes or so, the bow tech answered my questions, but almost seemed to be annoyed I was even there.

Went once with my wife to the range and like some of the other reviewers, was unimpressed with the rental equipment offered. My wife could barely hit the bale at 10 yds because the plastic arrows she had were bent wouldn’t fly straight and the kids bow was underwhelming accurate.

With archery being such a fun sport and with so few bow shops/ranges in the Tampa area, it genuinely makes me want to open my own range and pro shop, treat customers with respect and cater to new archers not high end connoisseurs.

I will say, the store is cool, the range is not bad, and there is typically a welcoming atmosphere from the other patrons which is thematic in the archery world, but I struggle to rate this business more than 2 or 3 stars after the multiple disappointing...