Katie J.
Yelp
TLDR: Only go here for free play, not events.
We recently hosted an event at Pickle Pop, and while the venue showed potential, several aspects fell short of our expectations, leading to a less-than-satisfactory experience.
Our event was disorganized and did not meet the expectations set in their events package. The staff, while friendly, did not provide the necessary support to manage the event from start to finish. The discrepancies in service and invoicing after the event marred what could have been a very easy event for them to execute. For all the issues below, Picklepop only acknowledged the delayed court time so they offered 20% off ($107) our remaining balance, minus the deposit and bar tab already paid before the discount.
Pros:
- The event scheduling process was straightforward via email.
- The facility itself is gorgeous with very nice courts.
- The staff was friendly.
- Owners immediately responded to our concerns about the discrepancies in charges and services (see below).
Cons:
- The event started late due to the previous group loitering, causing a delay and clutter. Picklepop says this was a ~10-minute delay but that's how long it took us to get on the courts. These groups did not pack up their stuff/leave for an additional ~20 minutes (25% of our total "private" court time).
- Despite our package coming with professional instruction and organized play, there was no effort made to facilitate our games or provide the support we were promised. Picklepop says their staff asked us multiple times if we needed anything and that was why none of these services were offered.
- The bar, which had a $20 minimum spend per person, was not staffed and poorly managed. The event concluded with the staff unable to reconcile our tab at the bar against the minimum required. Despite us being on one bill, they also could not provide any form of itemized receipt.
- Picklepop charged our bar minimum a second time in our post-event invoice but removed it after it was confirmed we paid in person. Full notes on invoicing issues and owner's follow up below*
- Water was not available; instead, they were only available for purchase, which was a disappointment given how hot the venue was inside.
*When organizing our event, we were explicitly told we could adjust our minimum attendees (which the per-person costs were based on) closer to our event date. We had fewer people attend than expected, which I proactively communicated to their team, but we were still charged the original number on our contract. Picklepop chose to uphold the contractual payment terms which I only signed after their earlier emails confirmed we could adjust the attendees. They said their intention in their earlier communication was to allow us to add more people, not less. In other words, they would never let us adjust our minimum unless it was to their benefit.
