Puddle Ducks Omdömen 

AVOID.
Gone up to over £17 a lesson.
Also, we have 8 lessons banked, but can not use them as there is never any availability BUT they will not refund the 8 lessons we have paid for but can not use. We have cancelled our lessons and have found swimming elsewhere.

They make you pay for every single week even during the school holidays. You can bank lessons you do not use which sounds good but you will never be able to use them all due to availability.

Unfortunately didn't have a brilliant experience with puddle ducks. Due to illness (so understandable it couldn't be helped) we had a different teacher almost every week, so there was no consistency or a chance for them to get to know my child's ability/confidence level. My child is 3 and was a total beginner and quite nervous, she hadn't had lessons as a baby. Yet on 2 occasions she was ducked right under the water by 2 different teachers who decided they thought she was ready because she happened to lower her head. I understand this is a technique but it shocked her and she wasn't ready. I had to work to get her to go back the next week, she was then always really worried when I had to pass her over to the teacher. Other than that, she did really enjoy herself in the lessons but I felt we made no progress at all in 10 lessons. 8 children with parents sounded good in theory but in fact felt too busy in a very small pool and I thought for the price there would be a bit more one to one attention. It probably works for some kids but wasn't right for us. We decided not to go back after 10 lessons.

Teachers are great that the good bit over with pool is very poor and nearly always broken and cold changing room are beyond cold and the showers have never worked in nearly a year ( John wick gift Academy Grimsby ) The fact my girl loves going is the only reason we stayed the payment method is beyond broken and silly having to be a minimum of 7 weeks in credit to then pay for another month is silly amd if you ever phone up to say the smallest Criticism you have to speak to an answering machine to get them to call you back and if Nicola calls you back from the Doncaster and humber Region she's the most Rude and obnoxious person you have ever spoken to with her favourite words being LET ME STOP YOU THERE as your half way threw a sentence as she speaks over you

That's my input many thanks.
DAN

My children both started at 8 weeks old as Floaties and my daughter is now 4.5 in Swim Academy level 2 and son is 3 and in the Dippers class. They’re so confident in the water, my daughter can swim a few meters on her own now and my son can dive underwater for rings and swim through my legs with a little bit of a push from the teacher. I’m genuinely impressed at how well they’re doing in the water. Yes, it’s a lot of money and I dread to think how much I’ve paid in total, but the water safety they’re taught from learning to float, holding on to the side, monkey walking along to safety. It’s just worth every penny because there’s nothing more worthwhile to spend money on than ensuring your child doesn’t drown. I’ve no experience of other lessons for comparison, but my children both love their swimming lessons, they’re both genuinely excited to go and I’ve never had tears from either of them at any lesson. I’d definitely choose Puddleducks Oxfordshire again given the choice.

A real shame that their teachers are great, as the companies policies are atrocious! We booked 10 sessions, the teacher was fab but the one toilet in the facility for women was NEVER in use, one shower with no privacy to use it after swimming, the changing rooms were beyond freezing with no heating in the winter (Not as advertised on their website as a ‘warm environment’ in the slightest) so we were hesitant on continuing. On the 9th session we postponed due to chicken pox- 48 hours in advance!

I got a call being hounded (As always) to set up a DD & I said thank you but we’ll finish this block & discuss with the children as come Monday each week they were always suffering with colds which was a consequence of being continually cold changing after swimming. I was then told that session wasn’t ours to have as their ‘courtesy’ classes are for paying members? Pardon?! I am paying- I’ve paid?! Apparently unless in a DD you’re not insured in the pool- very contradictory given we never were. I discussed this with Caroline who gave me even less reason to want to wave goodbye to this £30 lesson & the promise of a refurb in the future of the venue but increasing the price regardless of that not being yet is pretty baffling.

Apparently the courtesy class note is in their T’s & C’s but I had to traipse through to find it in their FAQ’s. I would recommend you find another lesson with not such a ‘money oriented’ ethos!

Been a customer of puddle ducks for 2 years, have now given notice (which is apparently 30 days). Lessons boring and repetitive. Pool cold. My child was more advanced than others in the class and was clearly bored. Spoke to teacher and she agreed he was ready to move up. Then the teacher changed and nothing happened so I contacted the office after a few weeks (Bristol/Bath). They apparently asked the opinion of the new and old teacher and they wanted to keep him in the same class “for a few more weeks” which would make it about 2 months and over a hundred pounds since the 1st teacher confirmed he was ready to move up (and there was space, I checked online). Then I went to the lesson after this message for the teacher to ask his name, clearly demonstrating she had given an opinion on his swimming ability but had no idea who he was. Then I had a parent come up to me asking why my child was even in the class, as he was clearly far more advanced than others. I fed this all back to the office and asked about process for giving notice and they simply gave the process and said I could call Caroline to discuss my concerns, but didn’t go out of their way to even contact me.

Puddleducks classes are really good fun and I do feel that my daughter, even though she’s still quite young, is really learning to swim.

The staff are all wonderful, kind and fantastic with the kids and really instil confidence in that they know what they’re doing.

But… the payment thing… which is mentioned time and time again here… it’s just infuriating. I understand that the company needs to ensure that they’re securing income to pay their overheads and I know it must be difficult, especially given current circumstances. But you’re really just alienating your client base with pushy tactics and what feels a little like blackmail when it comes to courtesy classes and securing a spot for your child.

Please revisit your payment policy and talk to your customer base about how they feel about it!

My daughter has been with puddle ducks for 3 years, until a couple of months ago I would have given an extra star not just 5, but I have been forced to remove her from the lessons because of another child’s extremely poor behaviour and sometimes dangerous behaviour both poolside and in the water, including pushing other children out of the way on wet slippery poolside floor right next to the water, grabbing hold of and pushing other kids around in the water, and being a constant distraction during the lesson to the point where the teacher is spending 5-10 minutes out of every half hour lesson, just on this one child. This has been going on ever since my daughter moved up to level 4, I have complained several times to the office about it, not being value for money as a portion of the lesson is wasted on 1 child with behavioural problems, and the nature and potential consequences of the dangerous pushing and shoving poolside and in the water, it got to a point where I said enough is enough and if it’s not dealt with satisfactorily I would not be continuing with my child’s lessons, the office staff, after consulting with another teacher, agreed that this girls behaviour was not acceptable and informed me that they had taken steps between the office and the regular teacher, and that this girls parents would be required to supervise her for every lesson going forward, both for the other childrens wellbeing and the functionality of the lessons. I agreed to continue paying for my daughters lessons, only on the basis that it would be a permanent thing that this problem child would be permanently supervised, I was promised by both the regular teacher, and the office staff, that this was going to happen.
2 weeks her father supervised her, (quite clear from seeing the mothers nonchalant/passive attitude to seeing her child’s disruptive mess that she doesn’t care so not at all surprised when the mother stopped bringing her to lessons when someone was required to stay), those 2 lessons were perfect, no problems whatsoever. 3rd week…teacher allows the parents to leave her unsupervised again…straight back to square one. I counted in my daughters final lesson, 19 times the teacher had to stop the lesson to deal with this child’s behaviour, twice she was made to sit on the floor out of the pool, and once pushing other kids out of the way in the water.

I feel it has been very poorly managed, 1 child has been prioritised over the other 5 in the lesson for some unknown reason, and I was deliberately deceived by both the teacher in person and the office staff on the phone by promising this bad kid would be supervised permanently going forward, I was obviously told that to shut me up for a couple of weeks so I wouldn’t withdraw my daughter from the lessons.
I received an obligatory apology from the branch manager which was pretty much the obvious you’d expect, “we’re very sorry to hear about the issues you’ve been having during your child’s lessons… etc etc”, but when I replied saying how annoyed I was that I had been lied to, I got no response after that.
On the plus side they did refund the outstanding lessons I had paid for straight away.

The teacher is excellent and a really nice guy, the office staff have always been great, but it seems political correctness has been put ahead of what’s right or wrong by allowing a child with problems to adversely affect the swimming lessons for 5 other kids.

People who have children with behavioural problems need to take responsibility for them and manage them, not leave it to swimming teachers and stand at the side at the end of the lesson grinning when their child is being disruptive.

Unfortunately I won’t be recommending it after this fiasco.

Could be a amazing company but poorly run the teacher we had was amazing the lessons are 5 star but having done 15 lessons my son got to 6 months and according to the website I was expecting him to move to the 6 to 15 months class to start learning new things but was told there was no space and would have to be in 0 to 6 months classes for maybe till he was 9 months old so not willing to pay for him to be held back doing the same things and not learning new skills I canceled

The swimming itself is great, we managed to get ourselves in at a nice warm pool and the instructors we have had from when our LO started at a few months up to now (shes at Dippers level now) have been friendly, very encouraging and all in all good (if not a little rushed but understandable given the amount of content and length of classes).
The issue is with payments and courtesy classes. We just paid for the next term only a few weeks ago and suddenly im getting calls saying the payment didnt go through (the last payment definitely did as was unexpected so took me into my overdraft). Turns out they are trying to take for the next term already and warned me that I need to pay by a certain date or she wont be allowed to continue. The date is weeks away so its all getting a bit pushy on the payments which is taking the fun out of it honestly. Also the process is weird and complicated... they dont just take a payment every term or whatever- its like you pay for a term, then they take a little bit (or not) depending on the difference between terms. Hard to get your head around even as long time customers.

Finally I'll say that the policy with courtesy classes absolutely sucks. If you aren't able to come to a class then you tell them in advance and they give you a courtesy class to use later- excellent. The thing is that if you don't use them before your paid term is over then you don't get to use them after. You can only use them whilst you have a paid term active with them. This may be okay in other areas but we are in Brighton where space for a courtesy class almost NEVER come up so you're forced to continue lest you lose your money. Right now we have 3 courtesy classes waiting to be used and 3 weeks left of classes before we have to renew. I have checked every day for classes to come up but nothing. Its getting a bit expensive for us now and our LO is to a point where shes confident and it seems puddleducks has done the job to a point we're pleased with so we dont really want to do any more classes but if we dont fork out for another term we lose 3 classes that cost £14 each... £42 of classes down the drain. Held at ransom basically

I must admit, when I booked puddle ducks I didn’t read the reviews till after, and I was nervous about going today and having second thoughts, however I’m glad I did go.
Not to sure why puddle ducks is getting bad reviews,
I went to freedom leisure centre today in Maidstone and it was really good!
The Leisure centre is a bit dated but it’s clean, which is important.
The puddle duck instructor was really lovely, helpful and friendly! My son had a great time.
I will be recommending puddle ducks to all my mum friends!

Xx

Please avoid taking swimming classes with Puddle Duck. My daughter drowned during her level one classes! There are only 2 trainers per every 8 level one kids in the pool!

My daughter and I went to the puddle ducks class at the Plains pool in Elland, Halifax.
The pool is attached to a house. The pool itself is an ok size, the instructor was nice and welcoming. The changing facilities dismal!!!!
You have a tiny changing room and a stool!!! To try and get changed in, you can't even tune around it's that small, you're expected to try and get changed with a baby in your arms as there's no room or space to put them safe whilst you get changed, the locks on the doors are broken, the toilet as no door on it so everyone can see you.
I ended up taking my baby's bath seat in the second week so I knew she'd be safe whilst I got dried and dressed, had I not booked a 10 week session I wouldn't have gone back, mums crying as it's hard to get changed in a tiny space not big enough to swing a cat, honestly they are supposed to be a family run business, with baby's coming in and have no facilities to support and help you and because of covid you can't have a partner or someone in there to help, it's a disgrace.

Really poor experience.

We bought a block of ten lessons for our baby daughter. Then Covid happened. She doesn't particularly enjoy the classes and the changing rooms (in the Noke hotel) are not Covid safe for the number of parents in the class.

Because the changing room is too small, they expect parents to wait in the cold with their crying kids outside the pool till a space frees up. The tricky thing is that as any parent knows it takes a fair amount of time to dry and dress a little baby. Obviously a more responsible thing to do would be to limit the class sizes to match the facilities they offer.

Even though they don't provide adequate conditions they won't refund you for the classes. If you cancel they will only refund the future months' worth of lessons, regardless of how many you have purchased or actually used.

Any 'courtesy' classes i.e. classes you paid for in your original block of 10 lessons but pre-booked in their system as 'not attending' that week are not refunded. You cannot even pause the membership and go back later when it is safer as they make them expire and won't allow you to use them without an active membership (£66 a month, even if you have a balance of 'courtesy' classes to use).

Suggest using an alternative swimming club if you have one nearby as Puddle Ducks have been a bit 'tricky' as a company as the other reviews on here seem to indicate.

I emailed in advance to explain that my son was 9 weeks old, was born premature and to see if he could attend the classes. I also asked what he should wear. I received an email back explaining that they take babies from new born and to buy the swimming trunks. Excitedly I booked. Before the lessons I received an email with instructions for how the classes would run due to Covid. It stated that you must not bring the car seat into the venue as there was not enough room. So as instructed I carried my baby in and got him changed into his swimming trunks. After less than 5 minutes in the pool I was told that I should get out as my baby was probably cold and too small. When I got out I was told that we should bring him in in the car seat and to buy him a wetsuit to keep him warm. All of this information would have been very helpful before I arriveD! I felt very embarrassed, this was the first class I had done as a new mum. We were then locked down again so by the time classes started again, my son was around 13 weeks old, I had bought him the wetsuit. again we were in around 5 minutes when I was questioned by the teacher if he was tired or hungry. I decided to leave. I didn’t like the way I was spoken to and found the company to be quite unprofessional. Not forgetting the week prior the class was cancelled 30 minutes prior because the water was too cold!!! Would not recommend

Booked a block of 10 lessons at great cost pre covid. Wasn’t comfortable going back straight away after lockdown and was given courtesy classes. However can only use these if you keep paying for more classes. Absolute rip off, avoid and go elsewhere as I am now doing!

I’m disgusted & extremely disappointed in how MidCheshire Puddle Ducks have treated us.

I wanted to start my son swimming from the age of 3 months. I did some research to ascertain local companies; I chose Puddle Ducks due to the weekend classes (so hubby could attend too).

You need to buy a block of 10 classes which cost £142.50. Before making the purchase we emailed Puddle Ducks to check class availability & also to ask if we had to take all 10 consecutively (as knew we had a 3 week trip booked in the middle of the course).

They only responded to the availability question & not about taking the classes consecutively. Annoying.

Hubby replied requesting the booking form, and again asking the question - do we need to take the classes consecutively.
He did get a reply eventually which was (verbatim) 'For any classes that you cannot attend you are able to book holidays and a courtesy voucher will be applied onto your account. This will enable you to catch up on the classes that you have missed out on, on a different day and even at a different pool (if you wish). The courtesy classes are bookable 6 days in advance.’.

Due to this we went ahead with the block of 10 and started our classes. The classes & instructor were good. They’re only 30 mins long as the group are babies so £14.25 per class seemed a bit steep but we ignored this as we just wanted to enjoy the experience.

Now it gets a little complex; PD automatically put you on a ‘Recurring Payment Scheme’, something I was unaware of as it wasn’t mentioned on the Booking Form.

I’m sure this recurring method is in the small print/FAQs somewhere but as new 1st time parents we didn’t go looking for any T&C oddities, and as we had contacted the team & received the above response by email why would we?!

Mid way through the classes PD tried to take further money from me, numerous times actually, however I’d used a dormant account to make the initial booking (luckily) so they failed each time. Once I realised what was happening I emailed to ask to be removed from the recurring payment scheme as we just wanted the classes I’d paid for. They took me off the scheme no question. We eventually got to class 10, which was our 7th actual class as we’d missed 3 in the middle of the course due to our trip. I then logged onto my account to book in the 3 unused classes - to my annoyance I couldn’t select a new date for these but I just assumed it was a system error and emailed the team.

The response was this (verbatim) ‘With regards to the courtesy class vouchers, you are only able to use them whilst you are in a regular class to book an alternative class to the one you would usually attend. They do not have a cash value I’m afraid, so can’t be used to pay for more lessons.’

Not the clearest reply but basically saying “you're no longer paying for lessons so you’ve lost out on the 3 classes despite the fact we knew you couldn’t attend and we’d even discussed this in advance”. I was annoyed but ereplied to explain I just wanted to bring my son to 3 more lessons as I had 3 ‘in the bank’. They refused and to say I’m fuming is an understatement.

Their reply to my early email never stated I need to stay on the recurring payment schedule nor that I would need to take the 3 substitute classes in the 10 week course period. Had I known we wouldn’t have booked as it simply wouldn’t have worked for us from a cost perspective or timings as I knew we were taking the 3week trip in the middle.

As they refused to allow me to take the missed classes I asked for a refund which was also refused. Therefore I’ve paid £142.50 for 7 x 30 minute lessons! This works out at £20.36 per 30-minute baby class!

I feel how we’ve been treated is disgraceful. Also, the team's communication skills are shocking & I’d suggest HQ offer some basic training to all franchisees in order to avoid muddying their name.

I'd urge other parents to STEER WELL CLEAR unless you have money to waste!!!

I've used two puddleducks areas lancashire and Derbyshire. the teachers are all fantastic. Customer services is fab and most importantly my son loves it. You can see every week his growing ability in the water. Can't recommend highly enough.

The best thing we ever did for our son. He has thrived in this environment and learnt invaluable skills that he will refer to for life and use for fun!