St Charles Lanes — Local services in Saint Charles

This is not an over review of the facility, but of the Kid's Birthday Parties.

2 years ago we decided to go there for our daughter since Chuck-E-Cheese became a mess. Haley was the hostess and things went beautifully.

We booked again this year 2016. Had 10-12 kids. First issue, they told us Haley no longer worked there, which we ran into Haley working the counter that day. We had originally requested her again, she did an OUTSTANDING JOB year before.

This new girl DID NOT DO HER JOB! I am writing this on behalf of my wife, under her account.

It's $100 for every 10 kids, when I pay that amount of money, I don't expect my wife to host the party and run the show.

After getting the kids set up to bowl, EVERY TIME we need this girl we had to go find her! Haley kept every thing on time last year, set the kids up, gave us notice when the food for the kids was coming, so the kids could stop bowling, then had them bowl again while we set up cake and presents, which she presented over and served and had it all wrapped up and cleaned up in time.

My wife had to find the girl for refills for the kids, she was over at the counter talking to others. My wife had to check on the pizza, the girl was over socializing. My wife helped served the food. Then hunted her down again to get cake set up. We paid $100, but cut and served the cake. This time she was somewhere farther down talking to a boy.

Me and my wife handled handing out the presents and gift bags and the clean up of our daughters presents. Then the girl expected help cleaning the table. For $100, my wife ran the entire show, they provided soft drinks, initial set up and two pizzas, the rest was done by my wife.

The kids loved it, but as a parent you get very little for all the money you pay!!!

Either Haley set a very high standard (which I doubt because other places we have went to for kids parties did what Haley did, but again she did awesome and took care of everything!) or this girl just didn't care.

Yes we did call the following week and we were told that it is their policy not to refund money. We didn't ask for it all back, but my wife worked the entire time we rented those two lanes and that area. We were offered free bowling passes, because again, their policy is they don't refund money.

We'll we don't return our business to places who operate under that policy. We have discouraged others from having kid's parties at that location.

I caution other parents, unless you get Haley, specifically, you or your wife may be paying good money to run and work your child's birthday party, when in fact you are paying for them to run the party and they don't.

Some people, say not a big deal, but we paid good money so myself and my wife could enjoy the party as the guest enjoyed themselves versus working it and making sure everything went as it...

I would like to first say, that this review is only the first step to many I will be taking against this business establishment. Now as a business owner myself of (3) local businesses, I definitely understand the challenges of running a business. Now myself, my son and some friends went to bowl on 4/21 around 7 pm at these bowling alley. We asked the front desk person if we could get two lanes because we had 6 people. He then told us you need 7 people to get two lanes. We replied with "we are not going to be able to bowl with that many people on one lane because there is 5 teenagers sharing a lane near us that we share the bowl return with. Now all we did is ask if we split our crew up to 3 and 3 instead because there was so many lanes open and it doesn't make sense to jam 11 people on one ball return. he then got immediately nasty and had a horrible attitude and snippy with us. We finally got a solution to the issue of needing two lanes, when there was approximately 15 open lanes available. As we all walked to our lanes, we turned to each other to be in shock how rude and disrespectful the front desk person was with something that wasn't even supposed to be an issue. We let it go and enjoyed the rest of the night. Well, the worst is yet to come. About an hour into us bowling I had went up to the bar area to get all of us drinks. Now the front desk guy was also the bartender, so he was definitely overwhelmed when handling two areas of the business. So, we were patient a number of times being that he was busy and waited to go back up when he got everyone taking care of on the bowling side. I then walked back up to the bar area about 10 minutes later and asked him for the drinks I was ordering. I then when waiting for the drinks, told the guy, in a smile that the owner needs to get him some help, so he doesn't have to bounce back and forth. Now there was (2) security guards there and two other employees with St Chales Lanes staff shirts there too. Now those (4) other people the business is paying, weren't able to help him with any of the tasks he was doing. So, the only other thing I said to this man as he was making the drinks is "they need get you someone that can help you more, instead of the paying 2 security people to guard a bowling alley." I ADDED A PHOTO TO THIS REVIEW TO FINISH THE COMPLETE STORY DUE TO NOT ENOUGH ROOM ON HERE TO COMPLETE THE...

Lines to just get a lane was crazy. One person, to check people in, assign lane, get shoes, take card. Other staffers there, but no help. We got a lane, and on the 3rd frame, we had a misrack. The head pin was NOT dropping down and was stuck in the machine. We used the call button - TWICE - with someone finally answering but could not hear anything through the speaker because it's a loud bowing alley. Do you think they would send anyone over? NOPE. So my granddaughter and I played the rest of the game without the head pin. Once it was over I went to the same line, with the same woman checking in folks. Waited for her and she said that she would send a manager over. Once manager came by, she went back to fix the issue and said thanks for my patience and said that they were very busy today with kids birthday parties. So what? The parties are scheduled, therefore they should staff up! She said she would give us a free game but my granddaughter now wanted to go to the arcade. They did provide us with a card (for our trouble) but a lot of those games weren't working either! We were going to have lunch there, but the food prices were astronomical & really not worth it. ONE game of bowling, for an 8yo and myself cost about $24 (w/shoes). The cheapest arcade card is $26 (a lot of them didn't work) & if you wanted to say have a cheese pizza and a couple of sodas, that would have been $40! AND an hour later your back in the car. I'll never go back much less bring a child who will constantly have the look of disappointment on her face. Do better. Lower your prices. Make it affordable and fun for families to...