Troubleshooter: Family fights for refund from bouncy house supplier
FUQUAY-VARINA, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Fuquay-Varina family is upset after having their son's third birthday party all planned out; only to hear the bouncy house they paid for from Jump-N-Play Inflatables was going to be a no-show.
Beth and Scott Terry were excited to celebrate their son's birthday and thought a slide-style bouncy house would be the perfect addition.
"We planned to have the slide because we knew we had a lot of kids coming and something to keep them busy with," Scott Terry said.
Beth paid for the bouncy house from Jump-N-Play when she bought a Groupon for the rental online. She says Jump-N-Play had no problems making the reservation.
Beth Terry says Jump-N-Play told her, "'We're available that date. We'll bring it at 10:30. We'll pick it up at 2:30. It's no problem.'"
Beth says she paid the $48 reservation fee and agreed to the contract, which stated the specific date for the party, and thought everything was ready to go.
"I called the day before the party on Oct. 24 and she said she had me down for October 26 and they wouldn't be delivering the slide on the day as the contract said," Beth said. "She said she'd have somebody look into it and she'd call me back, and I never got the return phone call from her."
So the Terry's moved quickly to have the party without the bouncy house.
"We were scrambling. We ended up finding a bunch of ride-on toys that we put out in the yard for the kids to play with," Beth said. "We were counting on the slide and we'd been telling our son for months that he was going to have this big toy at his party to play with and it just didn't work out. It's a big disappointment to everybody."
After the party, the Terrys wanted a refund for the no-show bouncy house. Beth said she had no problem getting the $100 purchase refund back from Groupon, but could not get the $48 delivery fee back.
"That was frustrating. They said they wanted to reschedule, but you know, we don't need a slide that big for another reason. You would just need it for a party," Scott said.
We got in touch with Jump-N-Play after being contacted by the Terrys and they got some quick news about their refund.
"About an hour after you got in touch with her, she sent me a refund for the full amount," Beth said. "I am happy with that. Thank you very much for your help."
The Terry's got their money back, but representatives from Jump-N-Play did not return our requests for comment.
The company is based out of Georgia and has an "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau, where they have 68 complaints in the last three years, many of which describe last-minute cancellations and no-shows.
Similar complaints were also found in comments on Groupon, where Beth bought the deal.
Some advice to keep in mind: while you may want to get the best deal, one way to protect yourself from a no-show on a bouncy house is to research and look up a local company. There are several here in the Triangle.
