Sproul Lanes — Local services in Marple Township

Nice facility but terrible management! I pre-booked and paid 4 days in advance for a reservation at a specific time. When we arrived, the elderly lady at the desk seemed bothered by the fact we were requesting our lane, and stated it would not be available for another 10 minutes. (We arrived at the reservation time.) I asked if we could get our shoes in the meantime, and she directed us to the shoe area. I then returned to the desk as it was close to the time she indicated our lane would be ready. The elderly lady then said, "I know you're here." I asked if our lane was ready as the 10 minutes had passed. Without apology, she indicated the lane would not be ready for what would amount to almost 30 minutes into our 1-hour reservation. I expressed shock and restated our reservation time as I thought she may have been mistaken about our booking. She became highly defensive and accused me of rudeness and yelling and wanted us to leave. I refused, stood my ground by the desk, which seemed to exacerbate her further as she kept trying to engage with me. At that point, I was happy to inform her I would be writing this review. She then said, "Fine, I'm the owner, make sure to mention my name!" I replied, "OK, what's your name?" Her reply, "I'm not telling you!" (Clearly, I was interacting with the exemplar of professionalism and maturity. ;-) ) We finally got our lane and enjoyed the bowling, but customer service needs a...

Lanes are very oily for the leagues, and it's a mess to bowl on, especially if you don't have a heavy oil ball. Prices are high, and the 'specials' are high priced as well. Easily 2x the price of the other nearby bowling alley. Natural wood lanes, and they are very beat up. You'd think with the high prices, they could afford to revamp the lanes. There is a depression in the lane wood 2 feet off the line, right where you drop your ball usually, on lanes 1-13 or so. If I throw a perfect strike ball, it will bounce on that depression and shift to the right, and then not come back in time. Ball return takes 30-40 seconds, compared to the 10 seconds or so at the other alley. When you're renting a lane by the hour, 1/4 of the time is waiting for the ball to come back.

A shame, as this place is almost within walking distance, but with the high prices and poor lane conditions, I go elsewhere.

There is a pro shop there, but Steve really should adjust his hours to be there when the bigger leagues are in session. He could make a lot more money if...

PHENOMENAL bowling alley. The lanes are oiled perfectly, the walk up is waxed perfectly, and the house equipment is fantastic. They have an extremely impressive collection of house balls, including different types of balls other than the typical plastic balls you would expect. In addition to that, they are actually all in really good shape, even the plastic ones. Like I was expecting to have to deal with a house ball riddled with huge gouges and scratches, but was very pleasantly surprised to find that that was not the case. The staff is wonderful and super friendly as well. They also have really great bowling specials. Only paid $18 for 6 games and a pair of shoes. Great deal.

I was speaking to the manager before I left, complimenting them on their equipment and lanes and she was telling me that they are very serious about the upkeep and quality of everything because their alley is really big on league bowling.

I was overall extremely impressed with this place. Definitely is now my new go to...