Pickleball Palace — Local services in Hanover Township

I played indoors at the Pickleball Palace on Whippany Road last night with great friends. First time for all of us playing there. We all play competitively in leagues and tournaments and we were rained out of our outdoor match so we went inside to play our scheduled match. We reserved the court for two hours at $50 per hour and paid the $100. No problem. The facility was nice although the customer service was an absolute disaster.

At 9:40 pm, there was one other court being used with zero players waiting for a court to play. I believe the person who was the manager said to us at 9:35pm that we had to wrap it up as we were over our allotted time at 9:30. No problem. He then says “go ahead and finish your game”. At 9:45 pm with the score 10-9, he said he just texted with the owner and the owner said we had to leave immediately or pay $25 for another half hour if we wanted to finish our game. At that point, I had some choice words for his owner (through the manager) and I ultimately went back to the manager and apologized for my choice of words but when you are in a 10-9 battle?? You want to finish. No excuse for the choice of words for sure.

Bottom line, I truly want to see pickleball facilities like this succeed but I’m not sure I would’ve handled the customer service part of the equation the way it was handled. Especially as I believe this is a new facility and they are presumably trying to gain traction. Especially in the summer months! I will never go back and I will tell my friends about this experience as well if asked. If the owner is reading this and would like to direct message me, I would be more than happy to elaborate.

Thank you for your response (owner). Your manager said point blank we could finish our game and 5 minutes later he said we were done . I will not come back and if asked, I will spread the word on my experience You and your staff seemingly do not understand the customer service aspect of this business. Best of...

I cannot say enough about Pickleball Palace both in West Orange and the new, beautiful state of the art facility in Whippany. I picked up a paddle for the first time at "the Palace" 4 years ago and went from a beginner to a 4.0 player thanks to their amazing staff and services.

The new facility is an amazing opportunity to host more indoor pickleball throughout the year including the hot summer days and cold winter days, it also allows for evening play which is often a challenge on public courts.

I was surprised to read the review above the spoke about being upset to be asked to vacate the court. Like any other business, the PP has rules and I have never seen a customer complain about their allotted court time. It is a general respect to others in the community. I liken it to this...if you sign up for a :50 min massage and you are really enjoying it, and the therapist doesn't have a client after, you cannot expect that they will continue to allow you to use their room and/or services indefinitely? Why is this any different.

All in all, I have only the most positive things to say about Pickleball Palace and wish them the best of luck in this and future...

I’ve mostly used Pickleball Palace for court rentals and have taken two guided plays — one with Anthony and one with Vicki/Vicky. Anthony was great with technique and being encouraging for beginners, but Vicky was very intimidating for a beginner session. Her first comments were things like, “Have you taken clinics before?” and when I said I had, she followed up with, “Did you take them here?” When I said no, she immediately replied, “That’s why. You don’t understand the game or strategy.” It was overwhelming, and a gentler approach would really help beginners build confidence - maybe she suits more advanced players… I also felt my group didn’t receive equal coaching time during the guided open play.

I wanted to sign up for the beginner/advanced-beginner clinics, but the app won’t let me update the self-rating I entered when I first registered, so I can’t move up. I even saw a 6:30pm clinic that worked for my schedule and was interested in the winter sessions, but when I asked the front desk (I think her name was Joan), I was told I had to email. I wish the front desk could book classes directly instead of requiring a whole email process...