A Midland bowling venue is investigating an angry mother's claim that her son's birthday party was "ruined" by a food mix-up and a "rude" manager.
Mother's Account
Hayley Whitehouse, 40, from Upper Gornal, said her son Joseph was left "crying" and some of his friends went home without eating or seeing the cake cut at Tenpin Dudley. She paid £212 to hire the venue for a two-hour party from noon on Saturday, June 6. The party had been planned for weeks and was the "biggest" turnout for a party at his school, she said, but she and other parents were "really disappointed" by the experience.
"It was a disaster, it couldn't have gone any worse," said Hayley. She said they arrived 15 minutes early to set the tables as 26 children were invited to the party in a soft play area of the venue. But the kids' meals failed to arrive on time.
"By about 1.30pm, half-an-hour before the party was due to end, all the children were saying, 'I'm hungry'," said Hayley. "I went to the desk and asked when the food was coming out. The worker said, 'I'm so sorry, we forgot to put the order through. I've sent it through to the kitchen now'."
Hayley said guests began leaving at around 1.45pm, still having had nothing to eat. She returned to the desk and complained for a second time, saying the service wasn't "good enough". Staff were again "very apologetic", but she asked to speak to the manager. When the manager came out, Hayley claimed he had "a bad attitude" and "really aggravated the situation".
"The parents were angry and had gone to the bar to try to sort something out," said Hayley. "We were saying we hadn't got the food, all the meals were missing, and he (the manager) was just walking off, serving customers."
The food finally arrived at 2pm, when the party was scheduled to finish, but some meals were still missing. "Someone hadn't got their veggie burger, someone else hadn't got their cheeseburger, and nobody knew whose meal was whose," said Hayley. "The chips came out but nobody ate them, they were cold. They were all piled up in baskets."
Two of the children had allergies, one with a nut allergy and the other a dairy allergy, but Hayley said those orders had been mixed up with the normal food. "They dumped all the meals on the table, stacked on top of each other," said Hayley. "One of the parents was very angry, she made a complaint to Tenpin about what happened."
She claimed ice cream, which was also part of the food order that had been paid for, was "dumped" on a separate table with no spoons. Hayley said Joseph's birthday cake was brought out at 3pm, but there were "only around ten children left to sing happy birthday".
"I was embarrassed because it's my party and I asked all these people to come," said Hayley. "They'd all gone out of their way, they'd bought presents, they were all looking forward to it. Joseph had the biggest turnout out of any party that's done at the school, 26 was the biggest turnout. It was such a shame for the children and for Joseph because it ruined the atmosphere. Joseph was crying at the end of the night. It was terrible. I didn't expect a party could end up like that."
Compensation Offer
Hayley, who had held Joseph's previous birthday party at Tenpin Dudley, said she was offered a "free party" next year by staff to compensate for what happened. But she added: "It was no good giving us a free party next year because we needed that one saving that was going on there and then."
Venue Response
A spokesperson for Tenpin Dudley told BirminghamLive: "We are very concerned to hear of Ms Whitehouse's complaint and are taking her concerns extremely seriously. We have launched a full investigation and will be in touch directly with Ms Whitehouse at the earliest possible opportunity."
