Does anyone else have AMF woes to talk about. I took about 5 years off bowling and decided it was time to try again. AMF in Timonium MD was the closest bowling center to our house so we tried. While I am happy with my average, 203, I am constantly baffled by the things that are wrong with the bowling conditions and they put new carpet and counters in. The ball returns are the slowest that I have ever seen. The approaches are filthy. We average around 10-15 scoring mistakes by the computerized scorers. The lane conditions are completely random.

I heard a rumor that AMF was bought by someone. Hopefully they will put more energy and money into the important things for a bowling Center.

I've bowled in a LOT of AMF houses, here in the Western mid Calif area. Some are not so good and some are good. Just like private owned houses. But my biggest beef is when a center hires people that know absolutely NOTHING about bowling. From what I've seen, AMF centers typically hire cheap help that is very transient in nature and doesn't know the first word about customer service. Another problem I see more often in AMF houses is that they do not oil the lanes on the weekends. Maybe they think its a waste of money to do so, but it makes practising pretty difficult.

When the centers are not clean and the help not welcoming then I think that gives bowling a bad name.

So with that said, I have to plug a couple AMF centers that I feel are above the level of the average bowling alley. One in Sacramento; Mardi Gras lanes and one in San Jose; Oakridge are clean, well run, has plenty of staff at all times, including attending managers. If you ask for assistance, for anything, you get it with no hesitation.

Erin