O'FALLON, Mo. (KMOV/Gray News) - A new Christmas light display near St. Louis left many guests disappointed after they say the event was not as advertised.
The "Jingle!" event in O'Fallon, Missouri, which is about 40 minutes northwest of St. Louis, opened on Friday to an array of unhappy customers.
"Facebook did a lot of advertising about 'Jingle!' and it looked amazing," Dora Young said. "It looked like a winter wonderland."
Instead, she said the event caused a lot of headaches before even entering.
"We were charged for VIP parking, and no one would even verify it was even VIP parking, we got in there and there were no signs," she said. "It looked like they weren't ready, really didn't know where to go, what to do."
Parking issues and lack of signage were just some of the issues, guests said.
One of the main complaints about the event is the safety of the walkways, which guests say were covered in ice on opening night.
"Soon as we get down there, we realized it was icy everywhere," Young continued. "This was unsafe for the elderly, for kids."
"Jingle!" also promised an ice-skating trail that wasn't set up and instead provided a small rink that looked nothing like the advertisements.
Myisha McGee shared her concern: "Her forehead was scrapped up bleeding bad... her face was scrapped up and bleeding," regarding her 5-year-old's injury from snow tubing.
The ice skating and snow tubing required additional fees beyond admission prices ranging from $26-38 per person according to time slots; add-ons cost $13 each per person with parking between $12-20.
Stacy Deutschmann commented on skipping activities due to safety concerns: "The ice-skating rink... people were just falling." She added comparisons with Kansas City's previous successful events branded as Enchant Christmas but noted this year's local disappointment saying it felt nothing similar nor safe enough compared with past experiences elsewhere such as Kansas City’s version last year now rebranded locally under ‘Jingle!’
Guests also complained about missing warming stations along food/drink vendors initially promoted heavily through advertisements leading hundreds online commenting negatively via Facebook reviews expressing dissatisfaction over wasted money spent upon unsafe conditions encountered throughout attendance at such venues calling them complete rip-offs or scams demanding refunds despite policies stating otherwise prohibiting any reimbursements whatsoever offered willingly without dispute unless pursued legally perhaps involving credit card companies disputing charges directly themselves instead if necessary given circumstances faced here presently involving multiple consumer protection agencies investigating further including Missouri Attorney General alongside Better Business Bureau actively pursuing matters related accordingly together collectively seeking justice fairly equitably reasonably logically systematically efficiently effectively consistently transparently responsibly 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