Skate Station of Sumter — Local services in Sumter

I took my son to skate station for his 13th birthday. I knew 3 of us weren't going to skate but we wanted to be there as a family. half of us were playing the arcade games, the other half skating. I bought 2 red bands (for those staying after 7pm) and an orange band for my bf to skate until 7. we're not skaters naturally so he wasn't skating that long and we knew it. my 15 yr old daughter has vertigo and she gets dizzy so it wasn't a good idea for her to be on skates. so out of a party of 5, 3 are skating. 7 comes along, I've already spent every dime I had on pizza, drinks, skating and games. they then told us that bc my daughter didn't have a red band on and my oldest son didn't want to skate anymore (his feet were sore), the whole group had to leave. we talked to the owner bc I couldn't believe we were being kicked out and she confirmed. unless I'm willing to pay another $10 for a red band for my daughter and force her in skates, and her brother as well, the whole group got canned. I didn't know these rules and like I said, I'd already spent every dime I had. my son's 13th birthday ended in the parking lot based on the owner's "crowd control" rules. not going back...

So I had my little girls birthday party here and I guess it was ok but there was a few things that I was pretty unhappy about. The way the kids check in for the party at the same time normal skatting starts made it pretty difficult and the woman trying to lean over the counter all the way down to my child to put a birthday pin on her shirt and bands on the kids instead of letting the kids in and coming out in front of them but what was really pretty slack was 60 percent of there games are out of order dont work I mean even the air hockey table doesn't work they have 3 Skeeball machines and only one works my child couldn't really pay any of the very few machines they have for the amount we had to pay for the party just doesnt seem at all like a good value and the fact that all there machines being broke doesnt even bother them they just tape over the holes the tokens go when a machine has a problem. Can say my little girl had a good time but she's 4 and all her friends and family where here theres nothing that would have kept her from not having a good time but we prolly wont have...

I'm not very impressed with Skate Station. I understand that they have to keep traffic moving, but the wall should at least be reserved for young children who are learning. Many times that I've been to Skate Station I've seen the guides blow their whistle at 5 and 6-year olds who had just entered the rink and were holding on to the wall for support. This discourages youngsters from even trying and they end up leaving to skate on the carpet.

I was also not impressed when I threw my daughter's birthday party. The staff who hosted was wonderful, but were incredibly pushy about the time. We had to clear out the party area 20 minutes early so they could set up for the next party. Our guests had to find seating elsewhere and since the facility was full, many of them ended up leaving.

The facility itself is kept somewhat up to date, although I wasn't impressed with the cleanliness. There was trash on the ground and the tables needed to be wiped down.

Overall, it's an OK place to go every once in a while to entertain your kids, but I wouldn't go there on a...