Jeaux and I have been trying to go bowling for the past two weeks. We thought it'd be fun, so I called the bowling alley (Alley Katz) to find out their hours and if anything weird was happening on Wednesday nights that would prevent us from bowling. They happily told me they were open 'til 2 in the morning and said nothing special was going on. So, we went.
Last week, we arrived at about 9:30 and actually got on the lane maybe about 10. They gave us a fucked up lane (the evil 22!) and it kept doing things like giving us frames we didn't bowl and finishing frames we hadn't finished while not registering frames we'd bowled. So we had to keep going to get help, which ate up our time. That proved to be a problem, considering they made this announcement once we got on the floor: "Alley Katz will be closing in one hour." That's 11 for you math whizzes.
So, when checking out after our one CRAPPY game, we asked why they were suddenly closing at 11 since I'd taken the trouble to call and make SURE of their hours so we could plan our whole night around it. They said that since it was dead week and the cosmic bowling league wasn't meeting, they just didn't have the business to justify staying open late. They said when they came back they'd be able to be open late, and when we asked about next week they weren't sure. So we decided next week, we'd come early.
So that we did. And a bowling league was hogging all the lanes, so we played pool (very crappily) and a video game, and then proceeded to find out what was going on with lanes. The bowling league was there and they were first priority, so they told us wait about fifteen minutes until they got out of some meeting, and then they'd see what was available. Well, after about 20 minutes and no word, we got up and asked about the wait. They said another 10 minutes and they'd speak to the president of the league. Still no word. So we went up and asked them to take us off the list for now, so we could go get shopping done and then come back when they were finished or it had cleared out a bit.
The girl who was there was happy to do that and said they'd definitely be open until 2 this time, and we were guaranteed to get a lane if we came back after the leaguers went. When I said we'd just wanted to make sure because the last week they'd closed at 11 due to lack of business, she gave us this strange attitude like "I have no idea what you mean, we don't do stuff like that." She specifically said "Well, *I'm* planning on being here 'til 2," and we thanked her and left.
Long story short, we called the alley at about 11:15 to make sure.
"Yep, we're closing at midnight."
If we let them do that to us a third time, we're just stupid. So, if we want to bowl, I guess we'll have to do it elsewhere; it's not because I particularly want to "punish them by taking my business elsewhere" like I've got my head up my ass, but seriously...I just wanted to bowl. And apparently there you don't get to unless you're in a league.
I hate it when I have to be a dissatisfied customer.
Notes:
That's a shame. Bowling is fun, though I'm not very good at it ^__~ Good luck finding a better bowling place! [katqueen]