Jungle Kids Indoor Play Centre, a business that has operated in Wallan for the past 13 years, announced it would be permanently closing via a Facebook post on Wednesday, February 25.
Jess Hobbs from Kilmore said it was through this post, rather than the business contacting her personally, that she found out her daughter’s birthday party might not be going ahead.
“The day before, I was trying to log in to double-check things, and it said it was temporarily closed. I thought, ‘Maybe it’s a glitch on Google,’” she said.
“Then, one of the parents said, ‘Have you seen Facebook?’”
While she was upset at first, having already paid in full for the party, Ms Hobbs said her main thought was, “What am I going to do for my daughter now?”, with the event scheduled to take place just 10 days after the announcement was made.
Puckapunyal resident Kylie Humphreys, who also paid in full for her daughter’s upcoming birthday party, alleges that the post, which has since been deleted, indicated that refunds would not be granted to those who had upcoming party bookings.
“The way (the closure) was communicated was to put a blanket message on a Facebook group that not everyone was part of,” she said.
“Then, to have comments turned off, we couldn’t ask questions.
“It was just a statement of: there’s no refunds. It wasn’t, ‘Give us a few days, we’re just sorting things out.’ It was no refunds, full stop.
“We were just left to go, ‘We’ve lost our money.’ My daughter’s response was, ‘Mum, we’ve been scammed.’ Those were her exact words.”
The Telegraph contacted business owner Kylie-Jane Shannon, who said all bookings had been refunded within 48 hours of the announcement.
She also apologised for the late notice of the closure, but said the business was unable to notify its customers sooner.
“Unfortunately, after lease negotiations, we were unable to come to an agreed amount, and therefore, not paying February rent on waiting for a new lease, we were left in breach,” Ms Shannon said.
“We 100 per cent did not know that this would happen and would never have taken bookings if that was the case.
“We had always intended to pay customers back, but not knowing whether or not the company would go into liquidation immediately, we did not want to promise refunds if we weren’t able to legally do that.”
While she has now been refunded, Ms Humphreys said she was still disappointed in the lack of communication from the business.
She said connecting with a group of parents facing the same issue, like Ms Hobbs, was helpful in navigating the situation.
“If it wasn’t for the ladies that reached out and said, ‘This is what I’ve heard, what have you heard?’, I don’t think the rest of us would have even known about it,” she said.
Despite getting her money back, Ms Hobbs was faced with the challenge of organising a party catering for all of her daughter’s classmates on short notice.
She was amazed at the number of businesses and individuals in the community who stepped up to support her and other families impacted.
Ms Hobbs was able to put on a successful party for her daughter, thanks to businesses such as Poppa Pete’s Treats, which brought its ice-cream van to the party free of charge, Mimi’s Creations and Western Charm Pony Rides.
She and Ms Humphreys also wanted to highlight the generosity of North Central Hire, the Soft Play Cafe in Kilmore and The Bush Bus, which is putting on a free ‘birthday bonanza’ for affected families on Saturday, March 14.
Ms Shannon said she hoped this situation wouldn’t overshadow the 13 years of the business, and the contributions it had made to the community, including donations to schools and kindergartens, charities and sports clubs.
“We can’t help the fact of what happened, it’s never ever what we wanted to happen, we only walked away with a loss, we never walked away with a financial gain,” she said.
“We lost our whole business, our wage, our livelihood, and everything that we poured our hearts into for the last 13 years.
“The most that happened to everyone else is that they had to organise another party, whilst we lost our whole lives.”
