I have been seeing a lot of posts lately talking about how a True narcissist will play the victim to a situation they created. Well, this lovely human, is accusing me and my facility for the things she was doing. She was calling me names and insulting me to her guests right in front of me, and increased calling me names and blaming me for her behavior because I called her out on it!
What kind of intitled (you fill in the blank) comes into another person’s business, knowing the rules of the facility and blatantly goes out of her way to do exactly the opposite! Then accuse the owner of being rude when they enforce the rules of the business? You don’t go into someone else house (or place of business) and go “I do what I want” you also don’t go into staff places in that business, get called out on doing something you shouldn’t have and act like “I didn’a do nuffin!”
For public awareness’ sake: in our facility when you book a party, you read and check boxes for things like timeliness and expectations of party procedure, in addition to food, décor expectations. You will read about what we provide for your party so you don’t waste money on things you don’t need (that will ultimately get thrown away when the party is over) that we are already giving you in your purchase.
Once booked our party assistant, sends an email and a text to remind you, once again what we provide and what you should do the day of your party.
On this occasion the party’s parent knew from past party experience what we do, but also knew what she read for this round party procedure and called me and said what she wanted with her décor. I explained why we don’t allow outside décor, and issues we’ve had. She expressed that the reason she wanted to use her plates, her napkins, her banner was for cute pictures. Didn’t click with me in a negative way until that party’s end (I will elaborate at the end)... But in our conversation, I told her when she comes in to give us her things and we will have it set up for her and her guests.
At stratosphere parties are 2 hours long. One hour after the party starts the party room opens. Giving the partiers a place to eat pizza, cake, and do the present thing if they desire. After that hour the party concludes, guests then leave. Partys and how we schedule them allow our facility to maximize party availability for guests. Many Saturdays we go through 6 parties per day but there is room for 9. Keeping schedule and being on time is crucial for all guests because we only have 15min to get the room cleaned and turned over for the following party. This is also the reason we only want to use our décor. Prior to this procedure people would bring in an unopened amazon box of theme décor and expect us to have it up and installed. If you haven’t purchased an amazon décor kit from them yet, its cute, its cheap, and everything needs to be assembled, banners, balloon garlands, goodie bags, all the table decorations you name it! It’s far more complicated than plates and napkins. It can’t be done by one person in 15min.
On this day, this parties’ guests began showing up on time, but party mom (the person who booked) did not. Our lobby was filled with about 6 families with many kids, and a good portion of those kids were special needs or spectrum children. While we waited, we began getting those guests on the list for guests to the event. Mind you this party was booked for 10 jumping guests. By the time mom showed up (15-20min late) we already had 15 kids on the list. Mom tells us she’s only paying for the classmates she invited. (About 20 kids) Any other children, siblings of invitees, should be paid for by the parents of the invited child. Now we had to go back though our list of names and modify and get payments from parents that did bring more kids then the party child’s class mate. At our desk was myself (owner) my cashier, my party assistant, and a new training staff member all trying to quickly sort though the mess of people filling the lobby, all while taking gifts, cake, décor etcetera, to the already prepared and decorated party space.
After we got the lobby semi empty, I turned over the desk to my cashier and went to the party room to start turning over our décor for the mom’s stuff. My party asst. come to me and said a guest of the party did the waiver and we can’t find her in the system, but that the mom had a screen shot. I’m like screen shot, our system doesn’t really have anything to screen shot?! So, I head back to the lobby to meet this parent. Her screen shot was noting I had even seen before from our system, I asked her, did you do your waiver on stratosphere Hinesville web site” she replied with “I don’t know?” I said well show me the site you used… we go into her safari (apple browser) and the 1st page to open is a stratosphere site, but not ours. I said is this the site you used to fill our waiver? She says “I don’t know?” again. I said OK well lets just get this don’t the quick way take you phone scan this QR code then fill out our waiver and we will get you and the kids going! She then says, “How do I do that?” after finishing up with this mom I head back out to the party room, and mom and another guest are in there taking our stuff out of the way and putting their stuff up. It was so hectic up to that point I just went in and helped remove our stuff and let her carry on, because I figured she was just sitting up and once it was done, she would be out of there. In my head I knew we talked so I know she knew she didn’t get access to the room until 1:30. Head back to the lobby again, and there is a big family for the party so I start putting bracelets on the kids, when I tried to give one to the biggest child mom interrupts me and says “We’re not staying! So I look around to make sure I understand who she’s talking about and then they head to the mom in the party room. I just figured to say hello and thanks for the invite before heading out.
After another lap to and from the lobby, I came back to the party room, and now the guest that was not staying is behind our staff sock counter getting pizza and plates, serving guests standing in the party room. Now grandma is in the party room talking to mom! At this point I know they are not respecting procedure. So, I say to the mom you guys did not pay for early access, do you want me to add the fee to your party?! Mom’s like I am just decorating; the other guest is like we’re not staying! They can all see my face is lit up with concern, but act like they are not doing anything wrong, then mom, right in front of me tells Grandma, “Ya, she’s rude, I talked to her yesterday on the phone she was rude then too.” I know have to begin explaining how we do things what she was told and the friend that’s standing in our staff space starts interjecting with when were you going to get the room decorated! But I’m the rude one, I was the one calling names, I am the “Racist” person that was telling them they shouldn’t be in the party room yet. Both the party mom and the Obnoxious guest begin berating me for how a business should run and how I should treat people. I said… you’re in my house! This is my business, if you’re not happy that’s fine we can pack you guys up and you can leave. Take your party to another location. They stopped arguing for the time being but then proceeded to fuss and whine to their guests and play the victim. So I figured you know what they clearly are not respecting the rules, she checked the boxes and signed she understood that not following the time procedure would incur additional cost, I added the early access fee to their existing party balance. They then left 1-star reviews from every Gmail account they had, all while still enjoying my facility.
Once I adjusted that I informed the mom if she wanted to access the party room to now go ahead. Even offered to the obnoxious guest she would like a drink while motioning for her to come into the room.
I then went to check the guest sheet when it occurred to me that they booked for a 10 guest, they room is set for up to 20 but we have 30 actual jumping guests with this party. It occurred to me we need another table. So very quickly I pull out a 10’ folding table and get it open, covered and set for the extra 10 guests. Obnoxious mom just kept standing in the way judging us like we didn’t do our job of having everything set up for the party. She behaved just like the typical free-loading party parent does, all the attitude in the world and 0 understanding of what was actually paid for.
I let mom know who at this time was still fussing to grandma about how she was told she could add more guests to her booking… I just looked at grandma and said she booked 10 kids we have 30 smiled and walked off.
Other than when I called out this mom in the party room all interactions with her, her guests and family were pleasant and with smiles. Even though she continued her crusade to bash me. One of her guests said to me while I was updating my staff, that he and his wife see what she’s doing. He actually said, “You know Autism comes from somewhere” and motioned his hands at mom, I about laughed! He complimented me and said he and his wife see what party mom is doing and how she is behaving. He said our facility is great and his kid really enjoys playing here. They were probably the best 2 people in that whole group.
Parties are nearing its’ end and mom comes up to add an additional 30 mor minutes of jump time for. Curious I am such a horrible racist human that she paid more money for her guests to stay and play a little while longer.
Unfortunately, there are the people in life that walk around with a chip on their shoulder, and the world owes them something because they happen to be breathing and standing on it. This mom when the party was nearing its end, after paying she just left… she didn’t take her kid with her, the child’s father did… that’s when it all clicked for me, this mom is the one that takes the picture to show that she’s the good parent. That’s all it was, a show, really, she’s too busy in her selfish life to commit to her child so she not the custodial parent. The dad that I was talking to was the guy who took the party child home, cleaned up the presents and took home the left over pizza.
My recommendation to this guest, & her obnoxious friend, is that when you go into a place of business try following its rules and procedures. It’s how you show respect, to then get respect in return. I think you’ll be surprised when things go much smoother when you’re not creating problems that the business owner has to deal with. But if you are business owners as you claim you are, I truly hope you have fun dealing with the type of customer you are.
To anyone that took the time to read this, the next time you go into a business and see some rules you don’t understand, ask yourself what kind of nightmare guest did they have to endure for the rule to be present?
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