Bowldogs — Local services in North Liberty

We recently booked the "Party on the Lanes" package for our daughter’s birthday, and unfortunately, it turned out to be an incredibly disappointing and stressful experience. What was supposed to be a joyful celebration ended up being the most chaotic birthday party we’ve ever had.

From the start, nothing that was promised in the package was delivered as advertised:

Party Host: There was no party host. Despite being clearly listed in the package, we were left to handle everything on our own. Birthday Song Across the Lanes: This was one of the main highlights we were excited about. We were told there would be a birthday song and banner with our daughter’s name — instead, a generic video of candles randomly played on the screens with no music, no names, no announcement. We missed it completely because there was no indication it was happening. Extremely disappointing. Unlimited Soft Drinks: We had to remind the staff about this at the end of the party — they had conveniently left it off the bill. Virtual Reality Ride: Included in the package, yet we had to walk around with a group of kids trying to figure out who would honor it. Bowldogs sent us to Pizza Ranch, who sent us back to Bowldogs. It was frustrating and disorganized. Prize Wheel Spin: When we asked about this for the birthday child, the staff at the front desk looked confused and said they didn’t know anything about it. Shoes and Socks: Socks were never offered, even though they’re listed in the package — a small detail, but yet another example of overpromising and underdelivering. To make matters worse, we had booked an additional lane for adults, and the lane (Lane 16) kept malfunctioning every few minutes. The balls got stuck constantly, and no one could play properly. A technician finally had to stay behind the lane just to keep it going — not exactly the experience you hope for during a party.

The only positive I can mention is that the two front desk staff members genuinely tried to help as much as they could. They were kind and did what they could within their limits.

After the event, I received a call from the event coordinator. I explained everything to her, and she apologized and said she would speak to her manager and get back to me. It’s now been 5 days, and I haven’t heard a word back.

This place has a lot of potential — it looks great and has fun activities — but sadly, the service and organization just don’t live up to the expectations. We had hoped to host more events here, but after this experience, we won’t...

This place was a nightmare for my first bowling experience in about a decade. I was intrigued by the innovative “hyper bowling” and layout, but there is a perverse incentive to multiply points by hitting the bumpers and then to hit the pins. The system actually will stop the lane and make it inoperable and say it’s a foul. This perverse incentive is confusing to the average consumer and will lead to the lanes being serviced way more than they should be. This probably explains why the hour of bowl time turned into less than half hour of actual play time.

The front desk has to be flagged every time there was an issue. There is no clear service button, from what I or others could locate.

They lacked in adequate amount of bowling shoes for the size of the establishment. A man came and wanted a size twelve, and, since I was on my way out from this disaster of a business, I told the young lady at the counter just to maybe sanitize my pair quick so this other patron can get his time in.

I left with no refund and paid for an hour of time and rented shoes from the scare inventory only to get maybe 5 total minutes of actual enjoyment.

Call it bad luck or call it what you want but I think management failed at this business.

Miss Williams/Wilson was an assistant manager of some sort that informed me the general manager was let go that day (probably for good reason based on the nightmare this place was). She was not given any authority to refund anything and it was almost 10pm already and offered to extend time but I was already tired and did not want to lane hop until midnight with 10 percent of actual playtime all night long.

Moreover, I overheard a woman at the bar complaining of costs of food and the bartender overserving others. I am not sure if I walked into a drunk bar altercation that made the mood off or what. Another notable observation is I didn’t see any of the bartenders card young adults.

This is alarming for a place that will also have children on arcades and young adults in the same place as an adult bowling establishment where others are...

Imagine having a date night with your long distance fiancé and it being an epic fail. We had a frustrating experience at Bowl Dogs in North Liberty, Iowa. We were moved multiple times from bowling lanes within a 20-minute timespan because the machines needed maintenance. One of the reasons why we had to move lanes was because we were playing a type of game called Hyperbowl, where you use the bumpers to score more points based on their colors. Just as the game was becoming fun, it was suspended because the ball hit the bumpers three times. The display monitor showed it being a “foul” because we were being ‘too aggressive’ with a triple bumper hit.

Additionally, the staff seemed indifferent to these issues and there were many other frustrating aspects to our experience here. For example, the bartenders were inattentive and didn’t know what they were serving. I had ordered a non-alcoholic Heineken and was charged for an alcoholic one, and the bartender insisted it was alcoholic when it clearly said 0% on the bottle. Another frustrating aspect of this place is that they didn’t offer a wide enough range of shoe sizes, from children to men. My fiancé reserved a size 12 online and they had no size 12s available. I also noticed them not having many children sizes, which was unfortunate for them. Finally, they didn’t have help buttons on the lane kiosks, or at least we or our neighbors were unable to find them. So we had to walk to the front register to get further assistance. There was no follow-up after something was “fixed” so we again had to walk back over to the register.

This was overall the most frustrating and disappointing bowling experience ever. And management didn’t offer any other incentive other than moving us to a different lane. Overall, I would...