Ground Control Trampoline Park - San Antonio — Local services in San Antonio

Normally I never ever leave reviews anywhere. I have had countless birthday parties here throughout many years! This is the only place that I book 3 parties a year for my kids for the past 12-13 yrs. Aug, April and Nov. This past friday was absolutely the worst experience EVER!!! Staff was very rude and inconsiderate. After I specifically had booked the upstairs mezzani 1 I went up there had set up most of my stuff and they went up and told me i had space 2 and it was so much smaller and my invited guests were standing with no space to sit! I had to move all my decorations .They refused to give any of my guests their jumping socks til we paid at the beginning. Never ever have I had to pay my remaining balance at the beginning, I always have paid it at the end because you always add more food or drinks or more jumpers show up. They refused so it took 30 min of arguing til my kids got their jumping socks! That whole time was wasted jumping time. The whole party anything I asked for after that they would say of we are out. Y’all aren’t the only party going on. I literally asked for 2 extra pitchers of Dr pepper and they said no because there were no pitchers available. How the hell not. Never ever have they ran out of pitchers and I have had parties when it has been way more crowded. They never once announced for the kids to come eat or cake time or anything until we would go up and complain why hasn’t it been done. When we would ask the employees who were giving us a hard time they refused to give us their names. The party next to us that they made me move over for had not even half of the ppl that I had they had no cake no decorations no nothing yet I had to move all my things to a smaller area which I made sure when I booked it that I would get that area. They literally treated us like dirt like we didn’t matter at all. My little girls birthday party we spent arguing with the staff the whole time. They didn’t deserve the $500-$600 we had to pay for how they treated us. We witnessed other parties paying their balance at the end and have it recorded too but yet they kept telling us it was a new policy that they had started. When I asked since when was this policy changed the girl couldn’t even tell me she was speechless cause she was lying. I told her I just had a party here in Aug and a friend had one October 26 and we always pay at the end. It was a total embarrassment to my guests and ground control will no longer have any more of my business nor my money. I will tell everyone how wrongfully we were treated and non of the staff, the actual owners as well didn’t care! They kept telling me to be out by 9:15 when they barely announced the cake cutting at 9:05 cause we asked them when are yall going to make the announcement?! The party next to us were not rushed out and we’re still there when we left with no one pushing them out! I was infuriated never ever have I felt discriminated against and ground control did nothing to try to help the situation no apologies no nothing. It was more like too damn bad and suck it up and go back upstairs. Worst worst worst customer service ever. I have pictures of my crowded area and the other party area that was totally empty and proof of everyone paying at the end! If I could have given them 0 stars I would have they don’t deserve even...

INSULT TO INJURY! My small and petite 3yo daughter fell down the stairs when visiting this overrated trampoline park. With a missing rail/handle available to her right for her to hang on to as she went down the steps along with the gripped socks against the gripped steps is what allowed this accident to happen. The place was closed so the lights were on when this happened. There was absolutely no urgency to get her any help without me asking for it. After minutes of me attending to my daughter down below I had to ask for them to call 911 as my daughter was complaining that her leg hurt, before that request was made they just kept cleaning the place up walking past us several times. In addition, the young staff had no idea what to do to include not filling out an incident report until I had to ask if they were going to file one due to accident. My daughter got rush to the hospital by ambulance from there and sadly 6 weeks later, no one has extended any concern or apologized for this happening, no one called to check on her as a courtesy. To add insult to injury the refund I requested was never processed back and when I finally called to see if the owner had ever even found out what happened I was told that they didn't do anything wrong and that no refund would be processed in an effort to make things right. I asked for their insurance company so that I can file a complaint and was told that I would need to hire an attorney before any insurance information would be released and only to a lawyer. I'm besides my self that a new and popular place like this would be quick to not take any responsibility for accident and pretty much wash their hands of any. Luckily my daughter didn't suffer any broken bones from the scary fall, only received several bumps and bruises from head to toe.

(see owners reply)

MY REPLY TO Co-Owner EVIE, “Enough” was definitely NOT done! If ignoring the obvious, an injured toddler is what you have trained your staff to do in an emergency situation then YES they did do what they were trained to do! There is NO railing against the wall of the steps so YES you do have “a missing railing”! My daughter was NOT playing with other children “near the top of the steps”, SHE WAS GOING DOWN THE STEPS TO GO CALL HER BROTHERS who had gone down a couple of seconds earlier. She was going down ALONE, obviously, nobody was around her to catch her fall or help her not go all the way down 22 steps!!!! So go back and watch the footage! EMS recommended taking my daughter in due to the type of fall she had suffered AND to check her out entirely being that she was a small, petite toddler that was complaining of her leg hurting....DID YOU MISS THAT!? And Yes, you are FINALLY correct. I DID PURCHASE 10 tickets for all of my kids and step-kids to jump but what the hell does that have to do with my daughters accident???? ANY OTHER BUSINESS WOULD HAVE REACHED OUT 1, TO SHOW SOME COMPASSION AND 2, OFFERED SOME TYPE OF REIMBURSEMENT OR SOMETHING TO MAKE IT RIGHT! I never said your business intentionally “caused her fall”! You refusing to provide your insurance information or even file a claim...

I took my 11 year old and 9 year old kid to Ground Control to see an alternative to Urban Air. The cost was around 60$ for the four of us and that included a free pizza. Like Urban Air, Ground Control is marketed (in my opinion) for kids between the ages of 8 to 16 years of age.

The Facility The reason I mention the marketing campaign, is because the facility really isn't designed for anyone younger than 15 years old. Many of the activities require your child to be very athletic and very tall. As an example, I am 6'2" and could not reach (without jumping) many of the Ninja Warrior course. My kids, who are also very tall, couldn't even start the course because of the height of the monkey bars. This is true for the swinging bar, and the platform jump. While on one hand, this is cool for the late teen and people that are above average athletics, it doesn't work out for anyone that is average or less than average athletic. See my included pictures. Because of this, I do not recommend this facility for anyone under 15.

This is especially true for those younger than 8 years old. Why? Aside from them not being able to do most of the activities, the little ones will most likely get hurt on the cement floors, metal stairs, or any number of possible safety issues. Don't get me wrong, Ground Control has safety measures in place, but you and your children should use best safety practices when jumping and playing at the facility. Young ones tend to not know yet how to be safe in that kind of environment and I saw more than one young child get bruised and banged up while we were there.

To be fair, there are other activities that kids can do, such as jumping on the trampoline area, fighting in the pugil pit, and playing dodge ball, but that can be done anywhere. And it's not worth 15$ a child per hour, in my opinion.

On the plus side, the bathrooms were very clean, and the facility's graphic designs on their walls (inside and outside) are epic looking. I suppose they have a cool glow-in-the-dark show, but we went during the day and missed out.

Staff The staff was very nice. They greeted us when we came in, showed us how to fill out waivers, and gave me extra napkins for the pizza that we ordered, knowing that it would be a little bit more greasy than normal. Other companies should learn from them; this is how you should treat your guests.

Price As I mentioned, the price was around 60$ total. I was lucky and went on a Monday night, where the special was 15$ a person per hour (12$ plus 3$ for socks) and I got a free pizza and a liter of coke. Compare this to Urban Air, which has many more kid friendly activities, and the price is about the same. (Urban Air is 19$ per person, but can you can play all day long.)

Summary In the end, if I was a teenager or if my kids were teenaged, I would bring them to Ground Control more often, simply because the facility is more of an intermediate playground (whereas Urban Air is more kid friendly). Right now, that's not the case. I wish them the best of luck, and hopefully in a few years, my...