The Rec Waroona: Venue forced to issue public apology after family fun day leaves families disappointed

A WA venue has been forced to issue a public apology after an advertised weekend event left local families disappointed.

The Rec in Waroona had advertised a family fun day for Sunday, encouraging members of the South West community to celebrate the opening of the venue’s new playground.

Social media posts promoting the event also stated mini golf, face painting, a kid’s raffle, and a sausage sizzle would be on offer for families.

When attendees arrived for the event, however, they were left disappointed over issues with table bookings and a lack of the advertised activities.

One comment left on a Facebook post advertising the event said staff had “no idea about the raffle”, while another attendee said “nothing was happening at all”.

Another attendee anonymously told The West Australian the swing set on the new playground was “unsafe with bolts not secured”, resulting in staff closing off access to the playland an hour and a half after the event began.

The venue was quick to address the negative feedback, releasing a statement on Sunday afternoon admitting they “missed the mark” with the event.

“We are writing this to unreservedly apologise for the execution of today’s Family Fun Day,” the venue wrote in a statement.

“We promised a great day celebrating the playground opening with face painting, mini golf, a sausage sizzle, and a kids raffle — instead, we completely missed the mark.

“We know many of you experienced significant issues, from booking locations being messed up to our staff having absolutely no knowledge of the advertised activities, such as the raffle.

“Due to sudden and unforeseen operational circumstances beyond our control that occurred just prior to this weekend, the event was not conducted nor expedited properly.

“Please know that we are currently undergoing immediate internal restructuring to ensure this level of disorganisation does not happen again.

“We are deeply sorry for letting down the families who came out today expecting a fun afternoon — we are committed to making it right and earning back your trust.”

Some were quick to praise the venue for the honesty and accountability shown in their post.

‘This is why local pubs stay open,” one local praised, while another wrote: “Good on you for acknowledging the problem!”

“Today might’ve been a rough one, but it’s not the story people will remember — they’ll remember the way you responded, the way you backed your staff, and the way you moved quickly to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” another Waroona resident wrote.

Some attendees, however, were still left disappointed by the lack of communication surrounding the event.

“Clear communication beforehand or updates on the day would have avoided a lot of frustrations for families who attended specifically for the advertised activities — I appreciate you acknowledging a mistake and hope any future events are communicated more clearly,” one commenter wrote.

Another said: “I know you tried to do the right thing and still hold this event but it will be harder to come back from this than it would be if you said ‘Sorry guys, having issues we need to cancel and will reschedule’.”

The Rec general group manager Troy Lowrey told The West Australian the confusion over the event was due to a member of the Waroona venue’s management team parting ways with the company in the days before.

“Head office only became aware (of the event’s issues) when we started seeing messages about how disappointed people were,” he revealed, prompting the apology message.

He said the social media statement made by the Waroona venue was “to apologise for the disappointment of attendees”.

“We wanted to apologise for what happened — maybe it does allow people to understand that mistakes do happen and can be rectified, but we weren’t seeking any attention or praise.

“The main reason (The Rec wrote the statement) was to say sorry.”

Addressing concerns about the play equipment at the venue, Mr Lowrey said the Rec is working quickly to resolve any loose bolts but said the playground had been installed correctly.

“It’s remaining closed for now, and on Tuesday there is a crew going down to have a look and reset the playground,” he said.

Mr Lowrey also gave The West Australian exclusive insight into the “massive” Australia Day event The Rec has planned to make up for Sunday’s error: “We’ll be doing a Free Food Sunday so anyone that comes down in the time window will get fed for free.”