World Ice Arena — Local services in New York

I cannot stress enough how poorly treated myself and my boyfriend were at World’s Ice Arena. I purchased a Groupon ice-skating package for two as a surprise gift for my boyfriend. Carole Liotti, who oversaw the Groupon deal emailed me informing me that they are no longer able to do the package and offered me complimentary tickets.

We tried to set up a time in March for our complimentary ice rink day to which Carole emailed asking if it would be possible to come on February 15th at 12pm. We came in at February 15th, only to have the nightmare begin. We arrived only to have them say Carole isn’t here, but they could do a lesson and day at the ice rink at 1pm when the instructor arrives. We agreed since we were already there. We were surprised they would offer us a lesson on top of that, since it wasn’t stated in the email. We walked around for an hour in the cold to keep ourselves amused. We got back to get ready for skating. We were told that we couldn’t skate because the Groupon was refunded and no longer valid. One of the ladies popped up from her chair and it was Carole. Carole was one of the ladies behind the cashier’s booth the whole time! She pretended not to be Carole when we got there at 12pm. The front desk personnel also went along with pretending Carole wasn’t there. She didn’t want to give us the complimentary ice rink pass which she stated in the email (attached photo). Carole said we could pay for the lesson if we still wanted to do it. Why would we want to pay for the lesson when we were told we were going to get complimentary rink passes? We were upset that she pretended not to be there and had us wait a whole hour, just to be turned down. They expected us to pay after they made the error. Our time was wasted, and we ended up with nothing.

The rudeness that they gave us was uncalled for. My boyfriend set time off from work to enjoy the day. He lost money for the negligence that occurred from Carole, which is more money than what those tickets cost.

I wouldn’t recommend going to this ice rink. Management is horrible. If they didn’t want to give us a complimentary day at the ice rink, they shouldn’t have offered it in the first place, causing us to waste our time only to try and force us to...

Very rude staff. Today Saturday, January 15th for the 11-11:30am basic 3 skating lessons session, my daughter began her first class. Unbeknownst to me that there would be a crazy long line outside the office with parents waiting for their child’s name tag. In the past the name tags were displayed outside a table for parents to pick up before their child’s lesson began, that way there weren’t any lines. Today they were very disorganized. Because of their poor service, my daughter missed 7 minutes of her skating lesson, and I know for a fact I wasn’t the only one. Normally this could be easily resolved with the instructor making up for lost time, but of course that would delay every class following, however, in poor cases such as this one with a 7 minute delay, why not? A credit wouldn’t even suffice, we are paying for the lessons, nothing other than more time would make up for their mess. We are paying $200 for 7 sessions for 30 minutes! With only 30 minutes to a class and 7 minutes lost, my daughter only got 23 minutes of her lessons. In order for the office staff to deter me from placing a complaint in person while I was still waiting for my daughter’s name tag at the beginning of her session today, they told me their best suggestion was to give her the name tag right away so she could finally join her class for her lesson and I could come back at the end of her session. So I did. I did come back, just to be told with frustration in the girls voice to email the staff, and to wait for an email. Why should she be frustrated with a parent who is telling you the failed system your establishment has placed?! I’m paying for a 30 minute session just for my daughter to get 23 minutes and you’re frustrated???? Do better because this isn’t the first time this happens. Or do I need to start recording the delays and uploading them until something is done about it? I would like to know how your staff will stop this from...

I signed my daughter up for 2 days of learn to skate holiday clinic 2022 along with my friend’s children. In my daughter’s group there were 11 students and 1 coach. There were about 30-45 minutes on ice where we see the coach hanging around the group of 11 kids, for the rest of the day, we only saw the coach chatting with other coaches or adult skaters. After 45 minutes on ice, there was a short snack break, then they took the kids outside to run and exercise in 30 degree weather. After they came back inside on the ice again, the coach was no where near the kids. My child was left hanging on the ice by herself, coachless. They said it was play time or game time. Our children felt like they were abandoned. During the time the coach was with the kids, the coach gave a few brief demonstrations and instructions and the kids were left alone. My daughter fell constantly and the coach offer no help or guidance. This happened to my friend’s children as well. They were just left alone on the ice to fend for themselves. Or they get up by themselves only to find themselves falling back down again. The coach kept his attention on teaching a select few students who were more advanced than our kids and completely ignore the kids who were new and struggling to learn. My daughter left the ice early before class ended crying she hurt her back from falling constantly. I understand falling is part of learning, but I don’t understand how the coach just stand back and don’t even care. They left these kids falling and getting frustrated without offering any assistance or guidance on how to fall properly without breaking their back. Mind you the clinic is $125 for 1 day or $200 for 2 days, supposedly to be 3 hours from 9am to noon with a break in between. My friend and I felt like we’ve been robbed. We paid for ice skating instruction and coaching not for our kids to be ignored and...