Pump It Up

To sum up my impending rant in one (very long) sentence: while my nephew had a good time, I was charged MORE then what they told me my total was, they attempted to short-​change us on the time that we were booked, and the manager is such a flake that I doubt she exists (after chasing after her and leaving 6 messages for her to call me, she finally did, she left me a message — I called back 12 minutes later, and she had already left for the day and NEVER called me back again!!!) — DO NOT BOOK YOUR KID’S PARTY HERE UNLESS YOU LIKE GETTING SCREWED!!!
OK. Let me start at the beginning.
My sister-​in-​law had to have neck surgery a month before her youngest was to turn 4. I love my sister-​in-​law, and I love my little nephew, so I volunteered to deal with his birthday party, so that it would be one less thing for her to worry about.
I called and was told about the «Terrific Tuesday» party package that would be a *total* of $ 149, which would include TWO hours of the party (an hour on the inflatables, and an hour in a private room for cake and presents and what-​not), invitations, and a «host» that will monitor and watch the kids (to keep them from getting hurt, etc). I was also told that I could also bring in snacks. Great! As I had a working budget of $ 200, this would be awesome, as it gave me $ 50 left to get cake, snacks and party favors.
Three days later, I get the confirmation letter/​contract with the $ 149 — HIGHLIGHTED by their staff. I also see on this letter that any outside food (except cake) would incur a $ 60 charge! I called back talked to a different staff member, who confirmed that outside food, like a fruit platter would mean a $ 60 charge. Hmph. I was pretty miffed at this, because I was planning on bringing some additional snacks. Glad I read the fine print!
Then 4 days before the event, my sister-​in-​law calls and wondered if we could order pizza for the kids as well. No problem — I called Pump It Up to order 2 X-​Large cheese pizzas ($ 14 each — not great, but not terrible either) and decided to just pay for everything (so I didn’t have to deal with it on the day of the party)…when I was told that the $ 149 «total» was EXCLUDING the 10% Maryland Entertainment Tax. Now, I get the tax thing, however, when one is told that the TOTAL (NOT sub-​total) is $ 149, and that is the price that they have written and HIGHLIGHTED as the «TOTAL», doesn’t one expect that the $ 149 is INCLUSIVE of the tax? And yes, I realize that the tax was a measly $ 15, however, this was not my money we were spending — this was my sister-in-law’s, and that $ 15 tax (that magically appeared) would mean that I was over budget.
I asked to speak to a manager, and was told that she would give me a call back. I called back 2 hours later, after not hearing from the manager, and I was told that the manager would call me back. I called back again the next day and was told that the manager would call me back (are you sensing a pattern?!). Finally, at 4:20pm, the day before the party — the manager calls and leaves me a voicemail (I was just coming out of a meeting). I call back 12 minutes later (at 4:32pm) — and SHE HAD LEFT FOR THE DAY. Also — the message that the manager left me was «just checking to see if you would like to order any add-​ons to your party, like pizza or balloons… and you have to pay the 10% sales tax it’s Maryland law». Obviously she didn’t even read her messages or my party file, or she would have known that I did indeed already order the pizza, and my question was over how they can tell me that my «total» was one thing, but then charge me something else! By the way — the manager hasn’t called me back since.
Finally, at the day of the party, although the confirmation letter/​contract stated that they party was to be from 12:30 — 2:30, they tried to shorten the party and get us out by 2. The result was that the kids (who were only 4), got their pizzas at 1:45, hadn’t done presents or cake yet — and the «host» tried to get the kids to eat faster (yes, let’s get all the kids to choke on pizza!), and insisted on serving the cake immediately. After pulling out the contract to show that we had the room until 2:30, they said that they would «let» us stay until 2:30. Um, excuse me!!! LET US?!? The contract said we HAVE the room until 2:30 — you don’t «let» us have the room until then. ARGH! Also, while the kids were playing on the inflatables, there were too many kids coming down the slide — and ramming into each other. The «host» who was supposed to be supervising them wasn’t paying attention, and the kids nearly got hurt. My sister-​in-​law, who had JUST had neck surgery and was still in a neck brace, had to go and slow the kids down — wrenching her neck again in the process. I won’t go into how upset I am by this.
While my nephew had fun — all the hassle, lack of communication, and mismanagement makes this NOT WORTH IT!!!