Snow Factory — Restaurant in Des Peres

I have been here twice. The first time, the ice cream was a little pricey, but delicious.

The second time was the worst experience I've had at a place of business, ever.

In short, I ended up paying $80 for one ice cream cup that I never even received. Details, if they interest you, are below.

I ordered one item, and tried to pay with a debit card. The employee then proceeded to run my card four times, each time receiving the "transaction completed, thank you!" confirmation on the card reader. Despite this, he kept trying and eventually informed me that the card "didn't work". Being suspicious because I saw the confirmation message, I checked my banking app, and sure enough, the $8 charge was there multiple times. I showed him this, and he kept clicking around on his screen. He invited over two more employees and they continued to run my card. As my bank later informed me, they charged me 10 times in total.

This encounter lasted fifteen minutes. The entire time, they would not give me updates or talk to me unless I repeatedly and directly asked them what was happening; it was like they thought if they ignored me long enough I would just leave. At one point, an employee used google translate to translate Spanish to English to say "the computer says you haven't paid". To his credit, that was a good effort to overcome the language barrier, but missed the crux of the problem. I, again, showed them that my bank definitely thought I had paid. I asked if there was any manager or corporate line I could contact to pursue a refund. Two of them shrugged, one dialed a number on his phone and never returned. One of them asked me again if I had cash - they were still convinced that I owed them money for ice cream they still hadn't given me!

Eventually I told them I would be contacting my bank to refute all the charges. I had to pick up my debit card from their side of the counter because after all of this, they still weren't returning it to me. They shrugged once more and said "sorry?" as I walked away - literally the only attempt at an apology throughout the fiasco. I was floored by their attempts at ignoring me and refusal to acknowledge the problem. The ice cream was good the first time I went there, but not worth getting robbed and...

I wish I could rate zero stars. My daughter stood in line as one worker had to fulfill several orders before hers. But she waited patiently. She ordered her rolled ice cream and asked for strawberries, whipped cream, macaroons and langirine. Payed extra for the macaroons. He handed her the order and as she took the spoon out of the cup as it was buried under all the toppings the toppings fell on the floor. I asked for napkins to clean it up and then asked if he could replace the toppings that he clearly saw on the floor. He tells me it'll be extra. I said yes we payed extra for the toppings it was a dollar for 1 macaroon. I said you saw her just drop the toppings in the floor you can't replace them. He proceeds to ignore me. I asked again and he just stood there looking out into outer space. I then told my daughter these are the people you give your money to. No type of customer service what so ever. Rude and arrogant as he completly ignored me. A waste of space. Absolutely insane. She was upset, I get it. Couldn't even enjoy the rest of her ice cream....

I'm not sure how the food is. We came for a special treat for our kids good choices. It is posted the store is open until 8 PM. When we arrived at the counter at 7:27 there were two high school boys sitting on the service counter. One popped up and said they were closed. I asked for clarification as the website said 8 PM. He said they closed at 7:30. But it wasn't yet 7:30, so further confusion ensued. I'm sure this is the choice of the two employees and not a reflection of the store, but without any other experience to go off of I can't recommend this store.

As I posted this and now ready to depart I see the two employees waited for 7:30 to start cleaning up. So they weren't closed when...