would you complain - expensive swim lesson

[postitgirl]

So I booked ds some 1-to1 swimming lessons as he's 13 and can sort of swim, but I thought he would benefit from a few personal lessons. They're charging £15 for a half hour lesson. But, when we got there you have to queue up, ready changed, and then a girl (very slowly) checks off each child's name, and brings them into the pool, and then comes back to get the next child -e veryone waiting with their child and parent. I checked the time and DS's lesson didn't actually start until 9.07. Then to collect, the parents had to queue up again, and they got him out of the pool at 9.25, so I make that an 18 minute lesson. I guess they are doing this to be covid-safe. But I am a bit fed up to say the least. Shoudl they not book 40 minute lessons so they have 5 minutes to spare on each side for the covid stuff? Or AIBU.

Nope, if you are paying for 30 minutes you should get 30 minutes. If they can't manage it in the time they need to charge less or increase the slot times. I would totally complain about that.

Yanbu, that's ridiculous. But also they're not 'one to one' if they are checking off multiple children.

I would complain - 30min lesson should mean 30mins in the pool.

Yes I would complain, your child should get 30 mins in the water and they should have a gap between lessons.

That sounds ridiculous, especially for a teenager.

I would complain.

£15 for 30 minutes is £2 per minute, so for 18 minutes you should be paying £9.
Or find another instructor, 18 minutes is no time to really learn and practise technique.

They need to build in extra time between lessons. It’s what other pools do.

I can do maths really, meant to say £1 for 2 minutes.

Its cheeky. You should complain. Is it a local authority run pool.

Yes complain . Our leisure centre has given 5 minutes between finish and start of next lessons to avoid overlaps. DD gets the full 30 minutes.

No that’s not on at all. I would be looking elsewhere for lessons and would be telling them the reason you are leaving.

Yup, that’s ridiculous op. Definitely complain.

It is also ridiculous that a 13yo needs to be escorted to poolside ffs.

yes flyingpandas he was morto. very disappointed.

That's crackers, my DD's lessons start on the dot of 18.30 and finish at 19.00. The next group comes straight in at 19.00 with no gap between the classes. We pay £9.50 for 30 mins and I'm really happy with them.

You should get 30min if you are paying for 30min.

It's yet another example of a company using Covid as an excuse to provide a substandard service. Definitely complain!

YANBU - our DS has one-to-one half hour lessons and he gets the full 30 minutes every time, and sometimes a couple of minutes extra. They aren't cheap in the first place (ours are £17.40 each) so you need to make sure you get what you're paying for!

That's a ridiculous carry on. Of course you should complain.

Hmm. Covid has been a good excuse for poor service at the pool where I was a member.
You could not swim between the hours of 4 and 6pm due to the swim schools using the pool at those times which was understood.

Then they started extending the hours so the swim schools would be operating when we swam which meant you could not book a slot and if you did manage to get a swim, the pool had too many people in.

Every time I attended other members were complaining about the lack of swim time cut down because of Covid and not being able to swim when they wanted.
I also noted the pool was not as clean as it could have been and saw things floating and that is when I left and did not renew membership.
It's poor time management and also cramming people in due to loss of profit and that is why I am not swimming just now.
I really miss it, but the thought of that particular pool makes me feel sick.
I would complain about your son's lessons and demand a refund but I doubt you will get one.

When members at my pool complained they were told 'that's life'.

It is. It really is

No, complain.

so I complained, and she didn't believe me - I'm not sure if the woman I'm dealing with was there this morning or not. Anyway, grudgingly she said he can come at 8.50 tomorrow for an extra 10 mins and she will "watch the time" in future. So a result of sorts I suppose. Have only paid for 3 lessons - was going to keep it going for a few weeks but changed my mind now, won't bother.

I had this with a swimming teacher, she’d always get them out of the water too early. That was one of the less important issues. When I questioned it, big faux concern. She was a shit teacher and I removed him from the lessons. I hate that woman. Her shit teaching has given Ds a real avoidance of swimming ever since.

I pay £10 for a group lesson so that sounds v cheap. Maybe that’s why?

At that age I really don’t understand why the children need escorting to and from the pool. Bonkers.
Covid regulations are no longer the law. Fine if they want to keep doing it but they need to make sure lessons are the length advertised. This might well mean not starting the next session until 9.40 or so.