CAR-VEL SKATELAND City Base — Local services in San Antonio

My family and I visited this place today for my niece's birthday celebration. When we get there, the female at the front window, which we later find out is the owner, states that it's $11/person. We let her know that we are just there for the celebration and that none of us will be skating. She said that it didn't matter if we were skating or not, that we still had to pay to enter. Now, on another review listed, the owner responded saying that there are numerous policies posted stating that everyone 21 and under, skating or not, will be charged. My question is, why were my husband and I charged when we stated multiple times that we would not be skating, and are so obviously over 21? Since we were there for a birthday, we paid and went inside. When discussing the high price for admission with our other family members, we find out that other parents that were not skating did not get charged. During this time, we decided to make the best of the situation and went to get some skates. I took my son to the counter and asked the young man behind it for a 6. Since I initially did not plan on skating and had sandals with no socks, I also asked if they had socks for sale. He handed me the skates and asked me to wait while he checked if they had any available. He went to the front window where the owner was sitting and asked, then came back and said they were all out. I took the 6's he gave to my son and we left to go put them on. They were a little too small so we went back to the counter. This time, a young girl was there and when we asked for 7's she asked us to wait and went to the front window where the owner was sitting and then came back and said they were all out of 7's but they did have size 8. As soon as she put the skates on the counter I told her those would be too big for my son. We went back to our table and I told my husband that because there were no socks or size 7's, that my son and I would be unable to skate. He went back up to the counter with me and the owner came out. My husband mentioned a large sign posted on the wall, visible upon entry, and pointed out rule #3 stating, "non skating parents free", and asked why we were charged when other's weren't. The owner tried to laugh it off and said, "that sign's been there for 40 years!", in an attempt to discredit the information on it. I should mention that this was our first (and now last) time visiting this establishment. How are new customers supposed to know that the posted rules and regulations are null and void because they are 40 years old? My husband asked for our money back since we initially did not want to skate and when we tried we were unable to due to no socks or size 7's, but she stated that no refunds would be given and offered us free vouchers for next time. When he pointed out that her sign was false advertising, she raised her voice and told us to leave or she would call the police. What a horrible experience to have at our niece's birthday celebration! She then went back to the front window and got on the phone. Earlier, my husband posted a review about our negative experience and the owner commented on it saying that they had all sizes available and that he should email her so that she can resolve this issue. Where was that helpful attitude when she told us to leave and threatened to call the police after asking for our money back? Imagine having to explain to a child on her birthday that her aunt, uncle, and cousin have to leave shortly after arriving because they are unable to stay! This negative experience will stick with our family for a long time! I hope I get a reply to this post and I hope that future skaters or party planning parents will read this and be deterred from giving this place their hard earned money just to be treated rude and disrespectfully. I should also point out that this place was dirty, the tables were sticky, and the bathrooms and rest of the establishment had an unpleasant smell. Not a good...

Horrible customer service rude and unprofessional, and even after you pay the $15 a person regardless if you skate or not add anther $5 to skate inside. They $5 extortion fee is when they do their glow in the dark skate and you have to purchase a $5 glow item from them to skate. They do this every hour. And even after I paid the extortion fee for my 6yr old we were out there skating. Then i was rudly approached by CC the teenager worker. Who started yelling at me to get off the floor. Which I initially felt bad for her she seemed frustrated trying to do it all snack bar, dj and run the rink. There were two other older women employees but I mostly saw them sitting rather then working.Then when I approached the older incompetent worker. I was to told that it was a game and i could sit out or by onther $5 glow item to continue skating. Wow!! they didn't charge to play any of the other skating games. (Why not charge $20 a person upfront at the least be honest.) Then when I ask to speak to the owner. Apparently she had some more important things to do. (must have been some good rollbacks at Walmart 🤣🤣. That's where she told me she was at two hrs later when she arrived.) Rather than stay and help run her struggling understaffed business. ( which she herself acknowledged to me was the reason for poor customer service.)Wow I couldn't believe it. This was the owner admitting she does not care. If this place goes under she has no one to blame but herself. I hope for the sake of the business she makes better choices next time. It's a shame I've been going here since I was a kid and I never remember it being this way. My family and I (group of 14) will be going to CARVEL SKATE CENTER LEON VALLEY making better long lasting memories . Over there they where nice , better pricing way better skates, well staffed. Just all around good experience.

And most of all I didn't feel like I was being deceived or extorted which is legal. Maybe the BBB should investigate there business practices 🤔

Despite all that happened I didn't let them ruin our night I had a blast. I just love to skate 😍🤩😜🤪. Finished off the night perfectly with my bros...

Took my family and some extra kids the place was cleaner then I remembered it as a kid when I used to go every Friday. none of the lockers worked, some of the front railing has been removed which I think is better. The place seemed to be pretty good i even saw the same lady running the place. The gang of teenage girls really we’re having a good time up until this one employee I’m guessing kept skating up to them and other people this girl/ wanna be guy thing would skate close to them and then throw a leg in front of the other people skating to freak them out and make them fall. I wanted to do a whole lot but it looked like an older kid not an adult and I’m not trying to go back to jail so I told all the kids I went with if that thing messed with them again to throw their own leg out when she checked them so she would go down with them luckily I’m pretty sure it heard me telling all the kids that when it was skating by because after they told me what that person was doing to all of them and I told them how to handle it I was watching that person and I stopped as soon as the kids told me. I say I think it was an employee because it was going into the dj booth with 2 other skaters and helped the dj with the limbo game and other tasks. Other then that the price of food and drink seemed reasonable. We’re trying to take the kids skating every Sunday cause my toddlers wanna learn how to skate better so we be back and I will update this with our new experience if it’s better hopefully it was just a one time thing with that older person picking on...