ComplaintsforBounce Universe

• Initial Complaint

  10/30/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I rented a bouncy house from this company on 10/28. Because i just built a pool, I have no grass and cannot plug a bounce house into my home. I rented the bounce house with after house, generator, extension cords, tarps, sandbags, etc. The generator did not work after approximately 2 hours of use. I called the company 6 times about the bounce house and generator as it kept collapsing on the children. I trouble shooted it on the phone with the company several times. I made REPEATED requests for the company to send someone out as we had a large party going on at our home. I paid for every possible need for this bouncy house so that we would have no issues, Including buying the generator, the extension cords, the water hose, the sandbags, and a $150 tip for the delivery people trying to insure this process went smoothly and I spent over $1200 on one bounce house with all the extras to try to insure no problems. I had several phone conversations prior with the company where I explained why I needed the generator even though it was in my backyard, why I added all the extras, explained my backyard and not having any grass and all the ways to access my home and even asked the company if there were anymore needed extras. The bouncy house collapsed on the children 5 times. Every time we restarted it per the instructions the company gave me on the phone it would run for 10 minutes and then fail. Again and again and again. The company refused to send anyone out and kept telling me to plug it in to my house which I kept telling them and had already given a bunch of advance notice WAS NOT AN OPTION. This was incredibly poor customer service when I told the company I had video and photos and asked for a partial refund they refused and said my backyard was garbage and there was mud (which they were alerted to previously, hence the tarps!). There were at least 30 other adults who witnessed the generator continue to start up and then go out over and over again. The charged us the full amount but did not provide the goods and services they charged us for. A working bounce house and generator capable of being bounced on.

• Initial Complaint

  12/08/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contacted the company on Dec 4 for an event occurring on Dec 11. I contract was for $1204 for two bounce houses. The deposit was $350. They contacted me on Dec 7 to sort out logistics and they mentioned that they need a 5 ft gate opening at the backyard gate to to fit the bouncy houses. This was not stated at time of contract. When I told them that our gate is only 3 feet they indicated that the houses wouldn't fit. I need two houses / they said they could only fit one, so I would need to go to another vendor. When I told them this wouldn't work they cancelled but indicated they would keep the deposit. I asked several times to show me where it stated that 5 ft was required - they could not. I asked to speak to a manager or owner - they refused. I got a text message saying they would cancel but keep 150 of the 350 deposit. When I asked to see where in the contract that it states 5 feet is needed they replied that the contract was cancelled and they would keep the full refund. I can understand if I cancelled but I didn't, and they didn't indicate that there was a minimum space requirement.

  Business response

  01/20/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/12/23) */ Hi, Hope all is well! This is in response to the complaint against Bounce Universe, on a reservation supposedly for 12/11/2021 - 12/12/2021, but ended up being cancelled. The customer entered her information details in our website, where she selected the rental items, she wanted and the system automatically generated a quote under #XXXXX. The same quote, she put her non -refundable deposit to seal the reservation. During the booking phase, there are parts of our website which would already tell our customers that their deposits are non-refundable. Please see one of the attachments - Part of Website During Customer Booking Where It Says Non Refundable Deposit As part of our verification process, one of our representatives reached out to the customer and confirmed rental details. The exchange of texts posted by the customer is the same thread where the discussion of the 5 ft. requirement was brought up. We attempted to save the customer's reservation by asking if removing portions of the fence is a possibility, but the customer said no. Please see one of the attachments - Customer Response Her Gate Is Only 3 Ft Wide & Customer Stating They Won't Remove Portion of Fence A second attempt to save the reservation, is the recommendation of removing the 18' Rainbow Dry Slide and we that the 30' Obstacle Course can be folded in such a way that it would fit a 3 ft. wide fence, but the customer did not entertain the idea and shifted focus on the requirement of 5 ft. Width. Please see one of the attachments - 2nd Attempt to Remove One Unit to Make Reservation Possible All of inflatable slide in the website contains an important reminder that 5 ft. wide entrance is mandatory, no exemptions. Please see one of the attachments - Part of Website Showing 5 Ft Width Requirement We also have the reminder in our contract, should the customer have read it. Please see one of the attachments - Automatic Email Stating Non Refundable and Link to Contract Even the non-refundable deposit is stated on the automatic email response she got, and the contract as well. Please see attached contract. Please be considerate, as we are a rental company. If a customer reserves an item, we lose the ability to rent such item out to another customer, that in itself we are already losing money. We tried to work with the customer as much as we could, but it didn't work out as she did not acknowledge and still escalated. Please see one of the attachments - Final Attempt to Reduce Cost for Customer Thank you for your kind consideration. PS - We also emailed all this information to: **************@nctx.bbb.org as of 12/23/2021 Consumer Response /* (3000, 8, 2021/12/24) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Respectfully - offering less than what I wanted (ie removing one of the bouncy houses) or telling me to remove a portion of my own fence had nothing to do with trying to keep me happy, and everything to do with your company wanting to make the full sale. I completely disagree that you tried to salvage anything - you just didn't want to lose the money. Your website did not state the 5 ft requirement when I booked - I read the website. It is also not reasonable to tell me to remove a portion of my own fence, when I neither have the tools nor heavy equipment to do so. I told you in the response that your could do it if you want, and you are the one that refused. I also asked you multiple times for someone to talk to that had the authority to make a decision and you refused and then stopped answering. Next - I specifically asked for two bouncy houses. I was not going to settle for one because of a technicality on your end. This was for a twin 5 year birthday party and we needed both. I can understand a deposit not being refunded if I cancelled for a personal reason, but this is your cancellation, because of your inability to fit the houses into a standard house gate. Residential houses have standard 3 ft gates not 5 feet. And for your information - we ended up finding another company that provided bigger houses that fit it our backyard. When we told the delivery person what happened with your company he said there is never a need for 5 ft gates - just that companies need to learn to fold them. As the sole bread winner in my family this interaction with you cost me 6 hours of my time - between the booking, the hassle of trying to get a refund, and finding another company. This is truly one of the absolute worst experiences that I have had. Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2021/12/30) */ Hi, This is the rebuttal to the customer's response regarding our inability to deliver the inflatables she ordered. We have several points below, which we can look at surrounding the incident: First, the exchange of communication was initiated by our company on December 4th, 2021. We did not get a response until December 7th, 2021. It took 3 days and we already lost the ability to rent the inflatables to other prospective customers, that in itself we already lost money. Second, we beg to disagree that we didn't attempt to save the transaction as we offered solutions as stated on our previous response. We offered removing the slide as that's the one which cannot fit a 3 ft. wide gate. We also asked if there's a chance that portion of the fence/ gate can be taken out. Third, regarding the matter of our company removing fences and portions of gates, we will not do that because that is outside our policy, which we are going to be deemed responsible in case anything is damaged. Fourth, anyone can check our website and see all of our inflatables specially the slides and obstacle courses having a 5 ft. requirement. If other companies are saying that 3 ft. is sufficient, that is because the inflatable they are delivering are not as big as ours. We have inflatables that can fit 3 ft. wide passages, but the customer didn't we downgrade the inflatables. As with our previous response, there's an exchange of communication when we attempted to remove the slide and fold the obstacle course so it would fit the 3 ft. wide gate, but customer never gave an opportunity to go further with such conversation. Fifth, we also tried to offer a credit of $200.08 and we will keep the $150 as part of the deposit, but we didn't go further again with the conversation as the customer already threatened to complain to the BBB. Lastly, our company has been given bad reviews already by the customer and it already affected the image of our business. We already took damage at this point, but we're still in the process of the dispute. We are really hoping for a fair ruling on this incident as we feel we have provided several options, and presented alternatives but were not heard, and instead escalated. Respectfully, Bounce Universe Party Rentals PS - we also emailed this response to: **************@nctx.bbb.org as of 12/30/2021 Consumer Response /* (4200, 12, 2021/12/31) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Respectfully - repeating the same information that you communicated the first time is not going to make me change my mind. There are not any new facts and what you state above is still disputable. I do not agree with your stance for the reasons I already stated. Also - it is categorically false that you reached out of Dec 4 - you only sent the invoice. You reached out on the 7th to set up the delivery and this is where it was disclosed that 5 feet was needed. And rest assured that the inflatables we got were bigger than yours. In the end, my kids were happy with the second company we went with - the service was much better and I will be recommending them moving forward. I do feel like I was robbed of the deposit. Again - if I cancelled I would completely understand. But this is do to your actions. I am the sole earner in my family and we can't afford to throw away money at a company that doesn't deliver.

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