AIBU to complain after Flip Out restrictions disappointed the children?

[Forestgreenblue]

Would you be annoyed with this or am I being a bit dramatic?

DP is away this weekend so thought I’d occupy the kids by taking them to Flip Out. Being honest - not usually something I often do with them BUT they do often go with other friends. In the last 12 months, they have been at least 4 or 5 times. Regularly prior to this too. They had all specifically asked to go.

Took x1 16 yr old, x1 14 yr old plus x2 12 year olds. 2 children have done gymnastics for a long time though not currently in classes. This is relevant to my story

Total cost today was £63 for entry, socks for 2 kids plus locker charge. Fuel obviously additional. 20 mile round trip. I’ll make it clear that whilst we aren’t on the bread line, I haven’t got £63 to simply throw away. I expect at least some value for my money

We had booked online lastnight. Got there. Kids went on the arena and were told they weren’t allowed on the white trampolines/stunt area unless the were professional parkour trained or currently in gymnastics classes. These are the trampolines that are a bit more bouncy so were what the kids wanted to go on with them being a little older.

Only notice of this was a hand written piece of paper in reception - which obviously I would have been oblivious to having booked online the night before. When I pressed them on why, it is because they are short of staff. Not really my problem is it.

I requested a refund or at least partial refund given they were not delivering what we had booked. I was refused on the spot and informed to email them.

4 disappointed kids. Huge amount of money for an hour. I understand H&S but surely in this circumstance, you would offer a refund for people not happy with this?

Would you complain? Or am I being a bit precious?

5.2 You acknowledge and agree that, from time to time, certain attractions, Activities or equipment may be unavailable, restricted or closed due to maintenance, repair, safety checks, technical faults or other operational reasons. Flip Out shall not be liable where such unavailability occurs, provided that reasonable efforts are made to minimise disruption to your visit.

It's in their T&Cs. Of course it is. They can't promise that every section will be open every time.

and trampoline’s

We are all so different! I would not have lied to the gym, and I definitely would not have told my children to lie. Ever since my adult children were young, I told them that if they ever misbehaved and then lied about it, they would be in more trouble for lying, than whatever it was that they had admitted to.

I would have been particularly disappointed if they had lied about something just because they wanted to be able to do something, but knew if they didn't lie, and instead told me the truth, that they wouldn't have been able to do it on that occassion. Someone lying just so that they could do something that they would enjoy, rather than they needed, would have made me particularly disappointed.

NB: To be clear, if someone were to lie and steal because they would starve if they didn't, that does not, and would not, bother me at all, except that in this day and age, no-one should have to - but that is a far more serious discussion than this one!

That's a really poor take.

Expecting businesses that take huge amounts of money from you and that operate a service where your child's safety is in the mix to be professional and to spell correctly is nothing like being discriminatory to people with a disability? Why would it?

If you are suggesting that all the staff in charge of the whole centre have learning difficulties leading to a grammatically unclear and poorly spelled handwritten notice and that this should be seen as ok by paying customers as part of an inclusive society....then I would point out that there are many digital spell checking tools available.

My cousin is a solicitor with very severe dyslexia. For this reason he uses devices for all written communications. He doesn't draft letters and documents by hand and expect other solicitors and clients to accept whatever he writes!

The sign hasn’t been made by the “business” though, it was made by whoever was working that shift. My local Flip Out pays their receptionists NMW as well which is a lot less than a solicitor earns.

Jobs like this are crap, they pay peanuts so people aren’t invested and often call in sick leaving everyone else spread thinly. I feel sorry for the staff there if they see this thread critiquing their spelling, demeanour, etc.

Yes but is it rules belonging to the white trampolines?

If they were in the business of teaching English you might have a point but no, totally unrelated field, so irrelevant!

To be honest I’m not fussed about grammatical errors on the notice - what bothered me was the actual location of it. It felt ‘hidden’

In this day and age autocorrect is a blessing! If I sent half the emails I type out without correcting them I’d probably be out of a job!!

The reception desk was approximately 3-4 metres wide. Check in was to the far right to the side of the desk. The notice was on a piece of Perspex located to the very far left of the reception desk. It wasn’t where any visitor would immediately view it on check in. Surely a desk mounted notice at check in would have been a more visible location? Perhaps informing guests with older children verbally would also have been a good idea

Certainly as a paying customer who had already agreed to various T&Cs booking online, you would assume you simply turn up, watch the H&S video then crack on right? You wouldn’t think - oh I’ll have a quick check to see if they have any random hand written notices up?! Apparently not.

I’ve emailed. No response as yet but will call to chase this afternoon.

I know it’s not mega money but surely we cannot be the only people who have been left disappointed? Honestly - if I had just very little ones I wouldn’t be overly bothered as they would have been quite happy on the normal trampolines but it did ruin the experience

Yes I figured they may have something like this in their T&Cs. However it can be argued that the have not made reasonable efforts to inform us of this - neither at the time of booking or indeed checking in. Had we been made aware on arrival, we would have taken our business elsewhere.

But yiu agreed to the Ts and Cs that don't say how or when they have to inform you....

This is weird. The sign is restricting use (as if it suggests you have to have some kind of training to use certain areas, or that some would be in more danger than others) rather than properly stopping it. It would be more reasonable to go with 'safety grounds/ risk assessment' but presumably that doesn't look good for the company.

Only the 2nd entry on the sign is something I would not question.

The combination of this, the sign being very 'unofficial' and difficult to interpret vs the actual ts and cs you have to accept; the 'was there even someone there with the authority to issue a refund?' question; and the low staffing is almost more concerning when added together. I agree that it suggests a recent set of, either, accidents or near-misses, maybe 'invited' due to the low supervision. Point out the question of trust in the venue as well as the disappointment aspect, if you email - which would be a good idea.

It's not irrelevant.

If you enter a premises offering a service or activity, you want to be reassured that you are in a safe, organised and professional environment. Poorly spelled, grammatically incorrect paper notices do not give the right undressing for a business that is relieving you of significant sums of money (and on whose attention to detail and professionalism your children's safety rests).

If there is no one there who can print out properly written, branded and visible notices, what else can they not do? Ead and verify the waivers? Accurate fridge temperature checks? Equipment check logs? Lock up and set alarms? Cash up etc.

Would you be ok with a dentist or GP surgery putting up signs like that or would you feel it didn't give a reassuring impression? A solicitor? A wedding venue?

For those feeling that pointing out that the poster doesn't give a great impression of the company running it is unfair on the staff there in the day - my issue would be with the overall management of the place and as the op is emailing a generic head office email I think we have all acknowledge that is who should carry the can.

I will apologise to you now @Forestgreenblue as I am about to question you about how much you usually exaggerate your stories, because if it is not a usual occurrence for you, I am sorry for bringing it up here.

However, if it is your normal way of telling a story then you may find more people will start to think "Oh, is that a Forestgreenblue tale? I have given up reading her threads as she just exaggerates them so much, and therefore it is proving too difficult to pick out the actual true bits!" - Of course, many people do exaggerate to a certain extent in order to try to make their stories interesting enough for someone else to listen to/read - but maybe you can re-read the following paragraph that I copied from one of your posts above, and see if you can agree that maybe you did exaggerate to a certain extent:

"There were 3 staff on. One woman was on reception and also running the 'safety briefing'. She was extremely rude. There were a further 2 members of staff in the actua arena. One spent the entire hour my set of kids were on there clearly getting her step count up. She didn't glance at any of the kids on the arena even once. Walked up and down the same strip at least a hundred times looking down at her feet. The other member of staff was 'quarding' the white trampolines in question. The rest of the arena was completely not covered. Not one of them thought to check any other area. There could have been any number of children stuck in the foam pit, in trouble in any other areas but she stood fast at the white trampolines only. I will also add that there were roughly ten other children in the arena additional to my 4.

If you don't agree that you were exaggerating, a lot, OP, then I would love to know how you were able to watch the member of staff, who was supposed to be watching the area your children were in - for an hour - as after all you stated that you knew that she didn't "glance at any of the kids on the arena even once" and that the third member of staff was only guarding the white trampolines, as lower down, in the next paragraph, you said that:

"I kept an eye on my own kids"

How, on Earth. OP, did you manage to never take your eyes off the lady who was apparently trying to 'up her step-count', while also constantly watching the lady guarding the white trampolines, and on top of that, also managing to watch all of your 3+1 children!?

Even though I have said and quoted all of the above, I am really not trying to be horrible to you. I actually find it amusing how much anyone of us can enhance some tale or memory, in order to make it sound more interesting, and, as much as I like to believe that apart from telling the occassional 'white lie' - to spare someone's feelings - I am always very honest, I would probably only be deceiving myself if I thought I had never enhanced a story, even though it may well have been unwittingly. I am also probably very lucky that, so far, no-one in real life has ever challenged the truth in any of my interactions with them!

We are, hopefully, all still humans, and as such, our imperfections are legion, and although the last 6 years have probably been the worst out of my almost 70 years, I would still rather be an imperfect human being, than an alien from a perfect world - that really would be far too boring!

By the way, I definitely think that you should be given at least a partial refund, as there definitely should have been a warning notice on the website before you bought the tickets. In fact, as they rightly appear to be worried about safety - I have heard from at least one A&E doctor before, that residential and play area trampolines, without nets, and not embedded into the ground, cause more leisure accidents than any other play/gym/exercise equipments, but of course he could have been exaggerating for effect! 🤭 - they almost certainly should have closed until they had appropriate staffing levels.
If I could, I would send you a bottle of wine Forestgreenblue to try to make up for this reply! By the way, I love the picture in my head that your name
has given me 😊 and here is a 💐 in case you don't drink 🍷😉

True... but if you;re putting up a poster in the workplace surely spellcheck and printed poster would be the preferred option....