Complaint Review: Medieval Times Dallas TX - Dallas Texas

I totally see this location acting wrong. We went with a group of scouts today and there was many other scouts there also. They expected us to allow small kids to be caught up in a disorganized mess with no structure. One person ruined it. The trumpeter guy. He was yelling parents had to go to one side while kids went alone to another for animal science. When parents said no he yelled and cussed at them. Later he reported some of the parents to the scout leaders who in turn asked the parents what happened.

When we explained the scouts sided with the parents. However, the same guy walked by a boy with Autism and cussed at him ran his mouth and so on. The mom confronted him and he continued to yell at the autistic kid until he had a meltdown. POOR POOR SERVICE. We spoke to management who promised he would stay away yet at the end the guy stood where we had to walk to leave and told us "safe travels, or not".  Ignoring him he continue to yell offensive comments. He was discriminating as we told him the boy had Autism and to back off and he wouldn't. My opinion is definatly low of them now.

I couldn't help but to comment on the first line # 8 said "Medieval Times is a great company and they always put the customer first."  It is a shame they don't do the same for their employees unless they kiss the managements butt.

My son worked very hard for 4 years at the Kissimmee Castle...employee of the month..never written up in all the time he was there.. went the extra mile to help anyone that needed it.

Well Medieval Times "No Tolerance Policy" Stinks! he made one error and was asked to leave..it took 3 years till they got off their butts to let him be a Knight....what no one see's is how hard they work for so little pay..the only ones that benefit are the ones in Corporate.

I have worked for several corporate companies and have never ..ever experienced such bogas policies as MT. The favoritism stinks as well as the self centered, no heart, corporate idiots.

I am relieved my son is not there anymore...The horses get treated better than the employees..

Anyone I ever speak to that works there.. hates it and says there is no future in this company..no room for advancement...

With all the advertising I have done for them freely, will never be again. Especially not after what I have seen and heard by many there.

It is exactly what it is.. "A Show" Too bad people can't really see what's behind the scenes..
 

I was researching venues for my 10 year son's birthday and thought this would be great. However, after reading the thread we've decided to take Medievil times off the list. I have no confidence the night will go as plan for the birthday boy nor his friends. I value and practice customer service also and hard earned money is better spent elsewhere. 

I'm an employee at the Dallas castle, and even though I feel like both parties didn't act in the best way, I do want to provide some information that might provide Chris with a little more peace.

I was hired in June, and never met Rebecca the gift shop manager. So I don't know how she ended working with the company, but she is no longer there.

Ever since I started working here, I haven't been drilled with anything more than going out of our way to make the guests' evenings pleasant, exciting, and a knight to remember in a good way. In fact, just today we had a little pep up speech just before starting the show.

I don't know if this possibly was a movement inspired from your attempt to right things, or if it was already there and you just unfortunately experienced an extreme lapse of the typical service. But excellent customer service is the main focus and genuine goal from all employees now residing in the castle.

An example of a similar situation...which has only happened once in my 6 months of working there to my knowledge. An announcement was also not effectively communicated to the person who delivers them to the Chancellor, and their name was not called in the tournament. Afterwards, they approached the staff, they were connected to a manager, and offered a free knighting ceremony in front of all - which is actually a more expensive deal including a photo. From a simple Dallas employee , I truly apologize about the experience and hope you find comfort in knowing everything you wish about our customer service is in effect.

I have never been to the Medieval Times in Dallas, although I have been to the one near me several times (SC). I've always had a good time there. I agree that the knights are extremely talented!

I do think you should get what you pay for, no matter where you are. Someone dropped the ball, and the company should be held accountable for making it right. I agree with the person who said it may have even been Jessi who made the error. I do not understand why it had been necessary to check in with Gina when you'd already placed the order for the birthday package over the phone. The fact that the manager had not known that there was a problem and didn't know why you were so angry also suggests to me that there was a lack of communication there.

I also disagree with the way you were seated. The hostess was out of line by dismissing it with "well, I guess you are going to have to get someone to move." Why would 2 people go to dinner and expect to be seated separately?

From the manager's point of view (Rebecca), since she did not know the full story, she may have taken your comment to "shove it" as a threat. I appreciate that you do not mind cussing in your business; some people do mind. Most likely MT has a no-swearing policy & they run their business their way while you have the right to run your business your way.

I am not sure what it is that you wanted from the company to make it right. How can they prove to you that they have gotten the CS training that you say they need when you do not want to return to the business?

In any case, I do maintain that you having to speak to 5 different people was inexcusable. You still did not get what you'd paid for, and by the end of the evening after MT had not followed through on 2 promises AND you found out about the poor communication AND you had missed part of the show, I'm sure you were very much ticked off (putting it mildly). I don't blame you one bit for writing a letter to the company and telling them your experience. I do commend you as well for being honest in your letter to the company.

All that said - don't let anyone steal your joy and ruin memories of your wife's birthday! Due to a misdiagnosis by a mechanic, we had a problem during my daughter's 21st birthday. Like you, I wanted this to be a big, celebratory event. The plan was to go away for the weekend and my daughter would drive to meet some friends from her previous school, and we would also go to a nearby theme park as a family. I even got her a "Finally 21" shirt for her friends to autograph. Since my daughter would be driving alone during part of the weekend, we decided to use her car. She took it to a mechanic earlier that week who told her that it just needed a valve. Once we got to our destination, the car kept overheating and finally died. We had to get the car towed, diagnosed, and then get into a rental car. By that time it was 5 pm. She never got to wear her shirt and go out partying with her friends. I felt bad about that. We did manage to get to the theme park, but by that time it was Sunday. As a result, we didn't get back home until 2 am Monday morning & I had to be at work at 8 am.

Despite all that happened, we looked on the bright side of things. We were together as a family, the car did die after we were all together, it died during the day time while the garage & rental place was open, the garage had a play area for kids & pc's w/internet access, we did get to go to dinner and we did get to go to the theme park. We had a birthday cake and candles with gifts for my daughter. I think the best thing that happened was that on the way home we stopped at a restaurant on the road. We were so surprised when we asked for the check and the server told us that the other group who'd been sitting in his station had already paid it. I thought it was a joke, but he was quite serious! We left a tip for the server & left. As soon as we got into the car, my daughter burst into tears. She had been so sad about the disastrous episode with her car, and now she could not believe how these strangers had been so kind to us. It made her day. Seeing her so happy and joyful was such a treat for me. Now, we could each choose to focus on the fact that the mechanic misdiagnosed her car trouble and so her car died & we spent many hours in a garage & my daughter never saw her friends. OR we could focus on our time spent at the theme park, our great dinner, my child unwrapping her presents, and the kind people who paid our bill.

My point - don't let anyone or anything ruin your wife's birthday, or any other special event in your life!

Medieval Times is a great company and they always put the customer first. In fact, in the Medieval Times company, customers aren't even called customers, they are referred to as guests, much like you call people when they visit your home. Each separate castle is based on a teamwork and family environment. It's ridiculous that two grown adults are behaving like children because someone's birthday was supposedly ruined. You were kicked out because you were rude and threw a temper tantrum, the company doesn't tolerate behavior like this for the safety of other guests and employees. Don't listen to the original poster of this report, in my two and a half years experience working for the company, I never once saw a dissatisfied guest.

I found this complaint while researching Medieval Times for my step-son's birthday. And I am shocked at the child like behavior of this guy. I can't believe a grown man who curse and yell at a pregnant woman. 

Obviously the employee who responded was genuine in his reply and looking back at the situation it's easy to say who should have done what. As you can see this was nearly a year ago but as her birthday approaches again I can't help but think about the horrible way we were treated last year. You guys really need to be tactful with your guests. It's not really a regular place most people go. I happen to have a lot of out of town guests visit and use to bring them to your establishment regularly. But the majority are there for something special and a situation like this will leave a mark for a long time. This time we happened to be there for a special occasion. I was told later she was 7 months pregnant and as a compassionate human being I understand. But unfortunately business isn't compassionate and the excuse that she was 7 months pregnant is no excuse at all. Furthermore she wasn't too compassionate of our experience up to that point. She still called security and attempted to have us escorted out (as we were walking out the door to top it all off!) The DPS officer didn't do anything. If he was able to tell that I was calm and cool, why couldn't she tell? Is she not trained to recognize the difference between a disorderly customer and a frustrated one? The DPS officer had no problem distinguishing between the two. Again, this is another testament to why she should have been terminated or at the least demoted and properly re-trained. I'm still interested to know why she felt the need to throw my wife out. My wife said and did nothing. Why was security called on her? This is the major problem I have with Rebbecca. That and the fact that she refused to give us her name and position with the company. As someone stated earlier it's unacceptable for someone to refuse to give their name and position when asked. Let's say for a moment you have someone who is drunk and acting disorderly (which I was clearly not). Do you call security on the entire group? Anyway, I appreciate your reply and hope in the last year the GM has done some major re-training of the staff. Like I said, the wait staff, eh, it is what it is. It's expected. But when the managers act with the same indifference towards the customers as the wait staff, then there is a serious problem that speaks to the entire establishment. Calling security on a guest who has said and done absolutely NOTHING is inexcusable. From a distorted and warped perspective you could say they had reason to call security because I used a "dirty" word. But there was absolutely NO reason to have my wife escorted out by DPS. Pregnant or not you don't forcefully throw out somebody who's said and done absolutely nothing! Especially on her birthday!

As an employee of the Dallas location, I would like to present a rebuttal to this report. First of all, it's very easy to judge the operations of a company when you are not familiar with the intricacies of it. I remember the incident Chris is referring to, since I was working that evening. Yes, the ball was dropped. I am not denying that. But to demand that the gift shop manager be fired -- when Chris admits that she was not initially privy to the events of the evening and therefore had no way of knowing that the hostile comment towards her was a culmination of an evening's worth of frustrations -- is fairly extreme. I have had the pleasure of working under and with Rebecca and know that while she does not tolerate unnecessary verbal abuse she is also more than accomodating to guests she knows have been wronged. Otherwise, she would have never been promoted to her position. And for all the praise that Chris gave Jessica, it's entirely possible that she never delivered the announcement to Gina. Gina only receives a sheet of paper with those announcements that the call-center reps put in the reservations system. If, as Chris states, his announcement was not taken, Gina would not have received it. And if, as it is most likely, Jessica -- while meaning well -- did not deliver the amended announcement to the announcement sheet, Gina would not have known to include it on the sheet that is eventually delivered to the Chancellor to be read during the show. Where the real problem occured is when it was discovered that the announcement was not made. A manager should have been involved at that moment. Gina, as a gift shop clerk, does not have any authority to change the show or to tell the show department to do something. If she told Chris that she would be able to do something, I'm sure she attempted to have it done. However, without a manager's authority, what needed to be done was never followed through. Had Rebecca been involved during this step, the end result would have never happened. Unfortunately, a real manager was not involved until it was too late. And unfortunately, Chris had already reached the point of frustration. The blame should not be placed on Rebecca for a problem that she never was made aware of. To her, she was simply being verbally assaulted needlessly by an irate guest. The fact that she was 7 months pregnant at the time probably also had something to do with her reaction. If I had been in the same situation, confronted by a potentially hostile situation, I probably would have called security as well. Was Chris's frustration justified? Yes. Was it entirely informed? No. Blame for the situation does not need to be placed with one particular person, but for a series of unfortunate events that culminated in the end results. Unfortunately in an industry that works in such a multi-faceted way, one person's mistake can easily s****..

Just wanted to write a quick update again. It's been about 5 months since the incident and my wife and I are still a bit upset about it. Every time we have to pass by that place we are still in disbelief at how everything was handled and (me anyway) get a little sick feeling in my stomach. I was way too cool about the situation. The VP contacted me directly but I was way too nice. I should have accepted the refund and demanded the girl gets be fired. I was hoping not taking the refund would make a bigger statement and have management really investigate this incident instead of write me off as someone who was just trying to get a refund. But there is no real satisfaction in the outcome here. A refund wasn't what I was after. I hope that girl no longer works there because she really ruined a night that was supposed to be special. If it were just any old night, we probably would have forgotten about it, but how many people forget their birthday? Eh, next year I'll have to take her somewhere really special.

Well Peter, regardless of your opinion the facts remain. They have a zero tolerance policy for casual swearing and I have a zero tolerance policy for poor customer service. The difference is I side-stepped my zero tolerance policy three times and politely asked them to make it right and three times they ignored me. So they couldn't swallow their pride for a moment and try to make it right instead of calling security? Now, instead of having a customer walking out who is just upset, now they have a customer walking out who's ready to scream his experience from roof tops! What sense that does that possibly make? It's not even so much "they", as it is the woman who refused to give me her name and position with the company. Turns out it was Rebeca the "gift shop manager". She doesn't have the customer service skills to manage a Waffle House much less a place that is supposed to be as prestigious as Medieval Times. The GM was rather a nice guy once he realized how bad our evening turned out. And no, neither of us enjoyed the dinner or show. We've seen it dozens of times! My wife was disappointed because they didn't call her name I couldn't enjoy myself because I was running around trying to politely get people to help! UPDATE! I received a call from the VP. He seemed like a genuine and sincere gentleman. He handled my call the same way I handled the irate customer I mentioned above. It's really simple and it doesn't take a degree in engineering to figure it out! JUST LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMER! That's why he's the VP and Rebeca is the gift shop manager! He offered us a refund and complimentary tickets. I really appreciated that but I didn't accept either because I want to see a change there! Why should we have to stop going because their staff is slacking off? I just want him to seriously take a look around, get with the wait staff and encourage them to visit the tables more often to check on guests (especially the waiters/waitresses in charge of the drinks). Spend the $400 they offered to refund and comp me on an hour long training session for their employees! Hell, get some pizza and some beer, sit them all around in a group, make an event out of it and start by saying "Hey, when you see a customer having a problem, let's do what it takes to make it right!" And it would be nice if they retrained their "gift shop manager". Or at least give her a position she is qualified to do that doesn't involve directly working with customers. Anyway, that's the last you'll hear from me on this issue. It's over, they apologized, and we both feel a bit better about the whole ordeal because of the VP who was a true gentleman.

Well Peter, regardless of your opinion the facts remain. They have a zero tolerance policy for casual swearing and I have a zero tolerance policy for poor customer service. The difference is I side-stepped my zero tolerance policy three times and politely asked them to make it right and three times they ignored me. So they couldn't swallow their pride for a moment and try to make it right instead of calling security? Now, instead of having a customer walking out who is just upset, now they have a customer walking out who's ready to scream his experience from roof tops! What sense that does that possibly make? It's not even so much "they", as it is the woman who refused to give me her name and position with the company. Turns out it was Rebeca the "gift shop manager". She doesn't have the customer service skills to manage a Waffle House much less a place that is supposed to be as prestigious as Medieval Times. The GM was rather a nice guy once he realized how bad our evening turned out. And no, neither of us enjoyed the dinner or show. We've seen it dozens of times! My wife was disappointed because they didn't call her name I couldn't enjoy myself because I was running around trying to politely get people to help! UPDATE! I received a call from the VP. He seemed like a genuine and sincere gentleman. He handled my call the same way I handled the irate customer I mentioned above. It's really simple and it doesn't take a degree in engineering to figure it out! JUST LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMER! That's why he's the VP and Rebeca is the gift shop manager! He offered us a refund and complimentary tickets. I really appreciated that but I didn't accept either because I want to see a change there! Why should we have to stop going because their staff is slacking off? I just want him to seriously take a look around, get with the wait staff and encourage them to visit the tables more often to check on guests (especially the waiters/waitresses in charge of the drinks). Spend the $400 they offered to refund and comp me on an hour long training session for their employees! Hell, get some pizza and some beer, sit them all around in a group, make an event out of it and start by saying "Hey, when you see a customer having a problem, let's do what it takes to make it right!" And it would be nice if they retrained their "gift shop manager". Or at least give her a position she is qualified to do that doesn't involve directly working with customers. Anyway, that's the last you'll hear from me on this issue. It's over, they apologized, and we both feel a bit better about the whole ordeal because of the VP who was a true gentleman.

Well Peter, regardless of your opinion the facts remain. They have a zero tolerance policy for casual swearing and I have a zero tolerance policy for poor customer service. The difference is I side-stepped my zero tolerance policy three times and politely asked them to make it right and three times they ignored me. So they couldn't swallow their pride for a moment and try to make it right instead of calling security? Now, instead of having a customer walking out who is just upset, now they have a customer walking out who's ready to scream his experience from roof tops! What sense that does that possibly make? It's not even so much "they", as it is the woman who refused to give me her name and position with the company. Turns out it was Rebeca the "gift shop manager". She doesn't have the customer service skills to manage a Waffle House much less a place that is supposed to be as prestigious as Medieval Times. The GM was rather a nice guy once he realized how bad our evening turned out. And no, neither of us enjoyed the dinner or show. We've seen it dozens of times! My wife was disappointed because they didn't call her name I couldn't enjoy myself because I was running around trying to politely get people to help! UPDATE! I received a call from the VP. He seemed like a genuine and sincere gentleman. He handled my call the same way I handled the irate customer I mentioned above. It's really simple and it doesn't take a degree in engineering to figure it out! JUST LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMER! That's why he's the VP and Rebeca is the gift shop manager! He offered us a refund and complimentary tickets. I really appreciated that but I didn't accept either because I want to see a change there! Why should we have to stop going because their staff is slacking off? I just want him to seriously take a look around, get with the wait staff and encourage them to visit the tables more often to check on guests (especially the waiters/waitresses in charge of the drinks). Spend the $400 they offered to refund and comp me on an hour long training session for their employees! Hell, get some pizza and some beer, sit them all around in a group, make an event out of it and start by saying "Hey, when you see a customer having a problem, let's do what it takes to make it right!" And it would be nice if they retrained their "gift shop manager". Or at least give her a position she is qualified to do that doesn't involve directly working with customers. Anyway, that's the last you'll hear from me on this issue. It's over, they apologized, and we both feel a bit better about the whole ordeal because of the VP who was a true gentleman.

For starters, I think Peter's an @$$. Chris had every right to do what he did. He talked to 5 different people about this whole thing and nothing was resolved until a second so-called manager came out. There is also no tolerance for employees who refuse to give their names and positions. I am assuming that everyone gets a scroll, if not, then the no named girl knew of the situation and lied to Chris. If she didn't know, she wouldn't have asked if they got the scroll. I'm sure it's not hard to see when people are walking out of a building. She had no right to call security on them. I hate to compare Chris's adult situation with a child's place but think of this: you take your child to chucky cheeses for his/her birthday. The big rat makes birthday announcements and the fake band sings to them. Your child is happy they got acknowledged, your happy that they're happy. This is the same thing. Even adults need to be acknowledged every once in a while and that's all she was looking for. Chris was trying to accomidate for her. The first person he complainted to should have gotten the manager right then and there and had them fix the problem before he ever sat down again. Granted, he would have missed more of the show, but I'm betting he cared more about his wife then the show at this point. Peter, I'm guessing you've never loved anyone or had anyone love you that much other than your mother. Obviously, Chris is a romantic and loves his wife very much to go through even the least bit of trouble to make her happy. That is a very rare trait to find in anyone anymore, even women. I applaud Chris for holding his tongue as long as he did. I would have gone off on every last one of them a lot sooner. He is, obviously, a very professional business owner and takes pride in every aspect of his life. Congrats, Chris. You have a very lucky wife.

Perhaps if you had treated the staff the way you yourself like to be treated as a professional, none of this would have happened. Further, your use of profanity and throwing a tantrum was highly inappropriate not to mention inconsiderate to your wife. So the knight did not say your wife's name. BIG DEAL. It sounds like you otherwise had a very nice dinner, cocktails, and a show which you admit was wonderful. If anything, you owe your wife an apology for the crass behavior you demonstrated on her birthday.

Perhaps if you had treated the staff the way you yourself like to be treated as a professional, none of this would have happened. Further, your use of profanity and throwing a tantrum was highly inappropriate not to mention inconsiderate to your wife. So the knight did not say your wife's name. BIG DEAL. It sounds like you otherwise had a very nice dinner, cocktails, and a show which you admit was wonderful. If anything, you owe your wife an apology for the crass behavior you demonstrated on her birthday.

Perhaps if you had treated the staff the way you yourself like to be treated as a professional, none of this would have happened. Further, your use of profanity and throwing a tantrum was highly inappropriate not to mention inconsiderate to your wife. So the knight did not say your wife's name. BIG DEAL. It sounds like you otherwise had a very nice dinner, cocktails, and a show which you admit was wonderful. If anything, you owe your wife an apology for the crass behavior you demonstrated on her birthday.

Perhaps if you had treated the staff the way you yourself like to be treated as a professional, none of this would have happened. Further, your use of profanity and throwing a tantrum was highly inappropriate not to mention inconsiderate to your wife. So the knight did not say your wife's name. BIG DEAL. It sounds like you otherwise had a very nice dinner, cocktails, and a show which you admit was wonderful. If anything, you owe your wife an apology for the crass behavior you demonstrated on her birthday.