AIBU to expect a refund after dangerous behaviour by other DC at soft play?

[Icecreamandcoffee]

Took DD5 and 9month old DD to soft play after school yesterday for a playdate with a friend and her 2 DC. We paid entry and were told that there would be a small birthday party in at 4pm (they were not a private hire party). Absolutely fine by us. There was us, 2 other families and the party that was all.

The party arrived, mix of ages from 2 to 16. There were 5 DC aged from around 9 -16 who decided to remove the yoga balls from the yoga ball area and instead chase each other around the whole soft play and launch them as hard as they could at one another.

Unfortunately DD5 and her friend and another of the DC from another family all ended up in the cross fire and got hit. My friend raised it with the staff who announced over the tannoy that the yoga balls must go back to the area they came from. This was completely ignored by the DC and their parents. The game continued, and got rougher and rougher with the older DC clambering over the equipment, running up slides and shrieking whilst launching the yoga balls as hard as they could at one another. They also did this all over the baby and toddler area. The parents were completely disinterested and too busy chatting away or on their phones.

I went up and spoke to the staff to be told " there isn't a lot we can do, they are with the birthday party". I asked for a manager and was told there was no manager on site. I asked if they could ask them to stop.The staff member said she wasn't sure, it was her first day, she was around 18/19 I would say- uni student age. The other 2 staff members on were a school leaver (I know this, she is a friend of a friends daughter) and another young member of staff around early 20s. Not one seemed to know what to do. They were barely managing to prepare the food for the party and staff the cafe at the same time.

By this time another child from one of the families had been injured by the rampaging teens and the yoga balls. Their parent also came over to complain. The staff all just looked lost and shrugged that there wasn't anything they could do because they were part of the party. I asked for a refund as we will have to leave after 25 minutes of our 2 hour play session because the party guests were behaving very dangerously. They said that they couldn't do that because it needed manager approval so I needed to Facebook message the soft play page and some one would get back to me today.

I messaged the page, explained what had happened, asking for a refund and my name and number to discuss this. A manager has responded to me basically saying times are rough for the soft play because it is summer, they are sorry but they cannot do anything about other guests, we really needed the party income and we hope to see you again. No refund/ no play passes or anything.

Surely as a soft play business you have a code of conduct for parties and if your guests are behaving in a dangerous manner then you are well within rights to ask them to leave? Also, why leave young inexperienced staff with no management on site?

I am tempted to report them but I'm not sure where to. Especially as management's response is to just shrug their shoulders.

Vote with your feet.

I’m afraid I would leave a negative review. Not because of what happened but because of the way they failed to handle it

You could leave reviews everywhere you can think of.

It sounds like it’s run by inexperienced kids. I’d leave a review everywhere I could then not return. It doesn’t sound like a safe environment for your child anyway. I doubt you’ll get anywhere with your complaint.

I have left multiple negative reviews already. We will not be returning.

From what I've posted about it, we are not the only ones to have had this happen. It seems there are regular incidents of dangerous behaviour and the staff doing nothing.

A mum has told me today at the school gate that they will be shutting at the end of August. I'm not surprised.

Ask the disgusting people who didn't look after their kids to pay you back! And maybe suggest they actually do some parenting before their kids ruin school for everyone else, and have their own kids that they don't bother to look after.
I know, I know, it isn't your responsibility to do this.

Did they even have an accident book or anyone first aid trained for the children who were hurt?

Im wondering whether it is the council you should report the incident to, or HSE?

It sounds like the owners have hired insufficient staff and not bothered with any training on conflict management.

I would imagine the complaint will be seen by the owners and they will complain to their young staff, who are quite likely badly paid for what they are doing.

You are definitely not wrong to have expected some resolution to the issue at the time.

The real problem is those parents and the acceptance of over 12 year olds into a soft play centre unless it is exclusive use.

That sounds awful. They need an upper age limit of about 9 in these places. They're just not suitable for teenagers. My DS is 14 and there's absolutely no way I would take him and his friends to a place like this. It sounds very poorly run and that's probably why it's closing.

What the hell are 16 year olds doing a t a soft play kids party?
Surely they have an age/height restriction?
Can you contact the local council regarding the health and safety of the venue?

I mean they sound crap. But if they already know the business is folding in six weeks, what are they likely to do about it?

They should give you a refund and compensation that they didn't give it to you straight away. Of course paying customers can be asked to leave if they don't follow the rules and also I imagine (maybe I'm wrong) that they could deny a refund to people who needed to be asked to leave because of their behaviour. I can't imagine why they wouldn't have someone on site who could issue refunds.