Tampa Bay Skating Academy — Local services in Oldsmar

We recently had my daughter’s birthday party at TBSA Oldsmar. To say I was unimpressed is an understatement. TBSA claims that they provide a “party hostess” yet our hostess was hardly ever there, she provided no direction, and she was not friendly to boot.

When we first arrived, the party hostess handed me the wristbands and tickets and said “here are the wristbands and tickets.” I had to ask her what each thing was for. She confirmed that I needed to put a wristband on each child to skate and then the tickets were to redeem the shoes. She then left. She was nowhere to be seen until she brought the pizza in a while later. She passed out the pizza which was fine. Then, she left. I wasn’t sure whether the kids should go back out to skate longer, if it was time to do cake, or what. We waited for some direction but that didn’t come. I ended up walking out to the front desk and informed the woman at the front (who was eating her Jimmy John’s sandwich at the counter) that I wasn’t sure where our party hostess was and I wasn’t sure what we were supposed to be doing at this point. She told me: “the procedure is something they go over with you when you book the party. I didn’t book the party so I don’t know what was said.” I said “So, I’m just supposed to remember the overview of the procedure from over a month ago when I booked the party?” She said “well no, the hostess should go over it here too.” I said “Yes, they should, and they haven’t.” She then took my payment page and crossed out the fees for the extra two children and told me that she would “retrain” our party hostess. While I appreciate the discount, there was no mention of “Oh, I’m sorry for the inconvenience” or any urgency to fix the problem, which was evident as the problems kept occurring.

Based on what the lady at the front desk had said, we started cake at 2. We put the candles in, found someone to get a lighter from (not the hostess, again,) and then we sang happy birthday and started cutting and plating the cake ourselves. As we passed out the cake, we realized that the party hostess had not provided forks, which is something that should have been provided. I had to leave again, while all the kids and parents waited with their cakes, to go find the “party hostess.” I found her walking through the halls and I said “Could we have some forks?” She responded, “Oh, forks? Yeah, I can get those.” She then went to the concession stand and talked with her friend as she gathered forks, plates, and napkins. After waiting about 3-4 minutes, she came out with all of the stuff. I told her, “Thanks, we don’t need plates and napkins though because we already plated the cake and were just waiting on forks.” She said “You did?” I said “Yes, it’s 2:00 right? The front desk told us we should do the cake at 2?” She said “Oh, yes, that is correct.”

I am going into such detail because I think it is important for anyone who plans to book a party here to be aware that there is zero benefit to a “party hostess” and I’m really not sure why we paid $270 when I could have just paid for each kid to skate individually and brought a cake. Additionally, both the party hostess and the woman at the front desk were incredibly unfriendly and not in any way helpful towards their paying clients. The kids did have a good time and were thankfully oblivious to the mess that was going on. The parents, on the other hand, did notice and also commented on how bizarre it was. I’m sure TBSA lost prospective parties from those parents, as no one was impressed. I just wanted to leave this here, as it was clear no one at TBSA was concerned about our satisfaction with...

Stay as far away from this miserable place! I don't know where to start. First of all, this place is a dump. There is no upkeep of this facility. The other facility at the mall apparently had a fire, and there was NO INSURANCE, so that rink won't be opening. There other one in Clearwater is also a dump.

Secondly, the management of this place is also a complete joke. My daughter's hand was run over by an instructor on one occasion, and on another, a child was allowed to fly around the arena at high speed, while LOOKING AT HIS PHONE and drinking a drink (both of which were supposedly against the rules, but nobody bothered to enforce it). This kid also treated adults with contempt. Nobody did a damn thing about it. This is with small kids in a beginner group that don't know how to skate very well on the ice at the same time.

Let's also talk about how nobody seems to know what they are doing. With the other rink being out of commission, they kept saying, "check your email", "we sent you an email", etc. Problem is they DON'T have my wife's email address. And when my wife came in do discuss getting a refund for sessions that we paid for, and haven't been able to be used because of the rink situation, they accused her of not paying (with no proof of course), and then changed course to say "we've had complaints about you"). Please. Enforce your rules and keep it a safe environment for your patrons!

This place is a dump, it's run extremely poorly, nobody seems to know what the hell is going on or enforce any rules whatsoever, and as such, it is a dangerous place for small skaters. Stay far away from these unprofessional clowns. You may also want to make sure they have liability...

1.0 star rating 1/3/2017 I went to the rink last Thursday, 12/29 around 7:00 pm for skating. Waited in line for 20 minutes to pay $15 which included skating a skate rental. I paid with credit card and was not offered a receipt. Next, I had to wait in another long line for 40 minutes to pick up my skates. Talk about a cluster of an operation! When I was finally up to get my skates, I had to tell the heavy set gentleman with the glasses who working the window 3 times what my size was only for him to tell me they were out of that size. Come find out, they were out of anything between size 7 and size 13. He directed me back to cash register to get refund. Upon going back, the female cashier told me shouldn't give me a refund without a receipt even though I had my raffle ticket for skate rental. She said her manager was the only person with that authority but she took down my credit card info. She also offered me free skating for a future date in place of a refund which I refused do to the fact that I live 45 min away from the rink and will never go back to rink, especially by myself with one lousy ticket. (Honestly, really just a ploy for you to come back and spend more money there since who in there rightful mind would ever go skating there by themselves) She said the $15 would be refunded the next day. It's been almost a week now and no refund. Joke of an operation and I will not be back. The rink in Brandon is much better and...