Pump It Up — Local services in San Jose

We hosted our son's 6th birthday party here last week, with 20+ kids and 20+ adults. We had a very bad service and food experience. The package included dedicated hosts, but our hosts were with us for very little time. When they were with us, they showed quite poor hosting skills and experience. We ordered food from their menu, and the quality of some of the food was way below its price.

How our hosts "helped" us: When we were in the party room, where we cut the cake and had dinner, I had to go out 3 times to ask the person at the front desk to ask our hosts to come and help us! The hosts are supposed to be dedicated to the party, and I should not have to go out and look for them, let alone 3 times! The hosts brought the cake to the party room, and opened the box, but did not get the cake out of the box! When we needed that to be done, they were not present! We had to do that, and we had no problem doing it, but we were under the impression that our hosts were supposed to help us with everything, and they didn’t. We had a 6" round cake for a guest with a dietary restriction. They didn't bring it out with the main cake; I had to go out and ask at the front desk for our hosts and the cake. Our host brought the cake, then to cut it, opened the box, but did not open the sides, and proceeded to cut a slice. So, as expected, our host was not able to remove the cut slice as a single piece; our host took the slice out in bits and pieces! I looked at the plate and realized what had happened after it was done, and it looked like the leftover pieces and crumbs of an eaten cake! The host did not say anything, or do anything, to indicate that they understood that they messed up! My 6 year old would probably have done a better job, because he would have just asked for help. The hosts had put the pitchers of soda together on a table, without any cups! When we asked for cups, they brought some, and put them on a different table, on another side of the room, well away from the soda! We had brought a simple plastic cake knife with us. We gave it and other things in a bag to our hosts for setup. They did not get our knife or another knife ready for the cake cutting. Our host called everyone to sing happy birthday, and so we did, and our son blew the candles, and then we realized there was no knife! We had to wait a minute for the host to get a knife, and they got a metal bread knife! I don't know if this is the norm, but we were expecting a more kid-friendly knife. Then, we asked a friend to fetch our knife from our bag, and had to wait another moment for it to arrive, and then my son was able to cut the cake.

Some of these are small/minor details that a skilled/experienced host wouldn’t miss; a small thing here and there would be okay, but all these put together was too much for us!

The pizzas were absolutely horrible! I wish I had taken pictures. They did not look or taste fresh at all. They felt like they had been baked in the morning, and our party was in the evening! Worse, the pizzas were prepared completely carelessly. We had ordered many specialty pizzas, and the quantity of toppings was very little, and some of them did not even have all of the toppings that they were supposed to have! And, some of our pizzas were burnt. I think $5 pizzas would be better than their pizzas!

During the two play sessions, our hosts were with us only at the beginning and at the end. In hindsight, we should have realized from that that something was wrong, but we didn't.

In hindsight, I think we would have had a better party if they would have just told us something like, "we don't have hosts for you; you will have to manage your party yourself". Our experience would have been much better just hosting ourselves. This aspect of the hosts not being there, and being so unskilled, was so unexpected, that we didn't fully realize it until after the party.

So for your next birthday party here, be prepared to host it yourself, and hope your food turns out much...

This would've been the 4th time we used this place. I have 2 kids and both would've had parties here. The venue is great for kids and I like that it's private. That said, we had reserved last Saturday for my daughters 8th birthday party. Unfortunately, the day before mothers day, she got very I'll with pneumonia and she also had a leg infection. She's actually still dealing with that. My sweet girl! The Monday before the party I received a call to go over the details of the party at which time I told the man that my daughter was in the hospital and we didn't know yet if she would be better by then. He said he was sorry she was sick and let me know that nothing needs to be finalized until Wednesday. That was our. Wednesday came and a different Payson called and I let hey know we needed to cancel as she was still in the hospital recovering. I was told by the woman that there would be a $50 charge. I didn't think that was right. I assumed they would keep my $100 deposit which is totally understandable. I let her know I would be rescheduling for June. She asked me to call back to reschedule. I wasn't able to call back Wednesday and another different person, Rhea texted me on Thursday. I'm so glad I have it all in text as wish happened next was inexcusable. She texted me and said that they were going to charge me the full amount since itc was 2 days before the party and then she charged my card!! She didnt even wait for me to ask fo over other options or anything. She charged $639 right then. I immediately texted back telling her I didn't understand the charge and ib do not authorize that. She said the when I reserved the spot and paid the $100 that I signed the terms and conditions and I agreed to that. I immediately replied and said that I of course didn't read all the terms and conditions and pretty much no one does and that I want told that on Monday when I first mentioned my daughter was sick and i was told $50 on Wednesday (I never thought that was right) I also had canceled it the day before, on Wednesday which is more that 2 days. I asked for the dm phone number and explained I didn't think it was fair. This is all over text. I tried to call at this point and she didn't answer. All of a sudden I get a text saying she would refund half. My number one issue with this is the way it was handled! I get that they took a loss and I understand they have policies but they handled this so poorly and unprofessional. We will never use them again. Please be aware, they will charge your card on file in full of you cancel 2 days before and half if you cancel 2...

We have visited this indoor play place several times as guests and recently hosted a party here, giving us a comprehensive view of what it offers.

The Good

The facility successfully achieves its primary goal: entertaining children. Kids aged 5-9 years old seem to absolutely love it and are easily occupied (though it may be less ideal for those under five). We were pleasantly surprised by the catering; the food tasted good, surpassing our expectations for a play center. Furthermore, our direct interactions with the staff were generally positive.

The Bad

A persistent observation across all our visits is the apparent lack of adult supervision. The facility seems to be run entirely by very young workers, primarily teenagers. We have never seen or interacted with a manager or older staff member. This might contribute to operational weaknesses, as the phones are never answered, making communication difficult. A quality concern is that the play structures are showing their age, and we noticed that some parts of the facility were not very clean. While the food is overpriced, that was an expected cost of doing business and didn't factor into our overall disappointment.

A Note on Tipping Culture

The most disappointing aspect, and the primary reason we will not be returning or recommending this place, was the incredibly awkward and high-pressure tipping expectation at the conclusion of our party. We felt ambushed when the staff hand-wrote a massive, expected tip amount directly onto our final bill. This calculated tip was based on the total cost of the event, which included the facility rental fee. While tipping on food alone might be acceptable, being asked to tip on a rental fee crosses a line.

To the owners: This practice left a very bad taste at the end of what was otherwise a positive experience. Please stop ambushing your customers with this kind of aggressive...