The Skate — Local services in Richmond

Further updated review: so my children talk to the manager about a game that is apparently broken (nobody talked to me, they talked to the children) and somehow the manager decides to give the children the toy from the game. Kids are pumped, they spend the next hour skating and dancing with said toy. On our way out the door the manager comes to me says there’s been a mistake she had to take the toy back. Well obviously I’m not letting an adult take a toy from my child because they made a mistake. This becomes a huge argument with several adults about TAKING A TOY FROM A CHILD. This is utter insanity. I talk to the owner and he decides the logical thing is to let the child keep the toy. What a mess…. These people made a decision with A CHILD realized they made the wrong decision and then try to back out of the previous decision. Cause a huge scene with paying customers. It was already a very low budget experience because they don’t maintain their equipment, they barely have any customers so the kids didn’t have hardly anyone to even skate with, the bathrooms were trashed…. What a crappy place, if this is how you treat our kids in front of us what happens when parents leave their children there?

Updated review: they were doing so good about revamping the place but now it’s gone the way of everything else…. Why are you charging for skates but every pair has messed up laces? We had to change skates 5 times because all the laces are either way too short or all ripped to shreds and you only discover that after you fix them yourself. When you get the skates back, fix the laces on them! And why on earth would you charge $4 on a refill of a pitcher of WATER? So even though it’s already half full of ice and I don’t need cups, approx 20 ounces of city water is $4? This is not a theme park. Fix your equipment (laces on the skates are an important part of the experience), present your products in a quality manner ( again, why am I getting skates handed to me with the laces all wonky, that should be fixed before I get them) and don’t charge CHILDREN insane prices for bottom of the barrel requests. We’ll go to Indy or Dayton next time. I don’t want to pay sky high prices for meh experiences.

I’ve been going to the skate for 30 years, I’ve never had such a terrible...

I booked a Tuesday evening birthday party. We have been here before but it’s been quite some time. In the past we’ve had good experiences, tonight not so much. Several things occurred to make me not want to book a party reservation again. First, most of the staff were extremely rude and short. They seemed extremely inconvenienced by even just being there. The three people at the skate rental and checkout were all great though. We had three separate pairs of skates break on the kids tonight. The skates seemed to really be worn down and definitely need worked on or replaced. Then at the small practice area it was overly crowded with bigger kids who clearly knew how to skate and kicked out the smaller kids multiple times. There was a couple kids wreaking havoc on other skaters and injured my daughter. One in particular kept tripping other skaters and cutting them off on purpose. Multiple kids were heard complaining of the same kid. At one point we saw the same kids jumping over one another on the rink. The staff did not seem to notice. Several in attendance of our birthday party were hurt by the same few kids. The pizza included in our reservation was put on our table half cold and did not taste good at all. We left at least half if not more at the table when we left. Then my daughter was disappointed when we booked the reservation they ask for a favorite song. It was never played. So wondering what the point was. Then it was so extremely loud that we had to almost scream to just talk to the person sitting next to us at the tables. We don’t expect silence of course, but the music could stand to be turned down a couple notches at least. No I did not complain in person as I don’t typically like to, and this is local to us that we have enjoyed before. Was just not happy with this experience...

If you're looking for a place to skate for a few hours with kids, it's an alright place to be. But, if you're looking for helpful staff to make your night the best, don't waste your money. I had only been to the skate twice as a kid and I absolutely loved it... the lights, the people, everything was pretty good as far as I remember.

Tonight was a totally different story. I go in with a friend and the guy letting us in didn't greet us. Also, the guy scoffed at me when I told him I hadn't been there in a while and if he could tell me what the price was again (since I called them three times when they were open... their phone went to voicemail all three times). Once I got in to get my skates, the girl didn't say anything until I asked how the shoes ran. I'm happy I got an answer, but after that I was also looked at very rudely for asking...

No matter though, the rest of the night was great... until we left. This time it was the guy who checked us in and the girl getting our skates.. no one said anything. I turned the skates in and said "Here's the skates, I hope you guys have a wonderful night!" A smile and everything... again I wasn't talked to and no one said a single word. This is the worst staff I have ever experienced... I've only been working in the customer service industry for a year and a half and even I know to at least say "have a nice day".. even if your day has been the worst.

Out of everything, I know that people have bad days... but you can tell that the staff don't want you there. If you are looking to have a good night here, go to another skating rink or the bowling alley in Richmond. Trust me, it's...