beckyadlingtonsswimstars.com Reviews 

Good luck if lessons are cancelled trying to get the promised refund. Allow 20 working days they say from the date they send the money....what payment takes 20 working days and as expected, still not in my bank. Useless.

It has amazing customer service and the staff has amazing manners. Sean is amazing and has great laughs with us

Helped them out by continuing to pay over Covid. In return they sent us an email for swimming lessons from home? 'Online swimming lessons for a 5 year old'

Bizarre but whatever, just trying to help them through Covid. After everything returned to normal we didn't get anything back. No extra lessons for free, no thanks, no money back, nothing.

One star is generous. Paid £100 a month for my two children to swim. Watched them every week for two years, then told at start of year we can no longer watch our children swim unless seated. Four seats for 12 parents? I refused to stop sitting on the floor to watch my children swim tonight. Male swimstars worker raised his voice at me in front of the other parents and said if I didn’t move he’d end my children’s contract. I suggested he go ahead. Last night tonight!! Absolutely disgusting company - I will take this further. Avoid like the plague. Also falsely advertise lessons as “half length improver” to full length improver - unfortunately there’s no such thing as they’ve crammed another lesson in at the other end of the pool so they can only swim half a length - still take the same money though. Pool is always freezing as well so Bannatyne can make a few extra pounds on reducing heating costs - they even admitted they lowered pool temperature for this reason. Honestly you couldn’t make this up. Both companies should be ashamed of the way they portray themselves when all they care about is the money!! Oh and don’t expect to see any logical progress on your child’s record - never updated but apparently this is how we are supposed to judge our children’s progress now that we can’t actually watch them. Absolutely disgusting behaviour from this company!

Daughter attended for 10 months, no progress update, no certificates at all. Classes full and by the time they got through the children my daughter must have had 5 minutes spent with her! "Management" absolutely useless, wasn't even bothered why I was leaving even after I explained why! Id stay well away, dont waste your time or hard earned money!

I am am expert designing digital experiences, when I had to leave the card details in the system laptop from the company I realized that the payment subscription was going to be a nightmare. It gives NO control to the user to cancel the subscription so they continued charging even though I mentioned I didn’t want to continue the lessons. In July they didn’t give 2 lessons bc the school and teacher cancelled them. So I brought my child in august to complete the cancelled lessons from July. They charged august regardless. They also charged September as well, I had to change my card details bc of poor knowledge in Management and user experience.

Really poor facilities, take over half a hotel swimming pool. Changing room facilites not child friendly at all, naked guys in close proximity, no cubicles to get changed in. Cancelled the swimming and they continue to charge for the next 4 lessons.

Absolutely terrible service. Both daughters attended for 18 months. Recently had to go elsewhere as they stopped providing lessons at the venue we were attending.

Leading up to this, lessons were cancelled most weeks. Often, there would be a text an hour before (after I had left work early to take them). Sometimes, no text at all and we’d turn up to no teacher. Company couldn’t have cared less. No updates on progress. Good luck trying to recoup money on cancelled lessons too. Absolute joke!

Completely agree with the other reviews. The lessons look ok (didnt work out with my son who wasnt ready) but the management is appalling. Trying to call during working hours and it says the office is closed - on a wednesday at 10am what!?. Tried cancelling every way possible, told on phone (one time i got through!) i should get a refund as it was within cooling off, but then they try taking another £49 off me when ive already cancelled. Its like there is nobody working for them in their office!

Worst Company I've ever had the misfortune of signing upto. Constant cancelled lessons. Constant staff changes that were never communicated. No one ever responds to email or picks up the phone. You can never get a refund for lessons. The Management is appalling! We lost our swimming slots twice for absolutely no reason and were then moved to different classes where the teacher didn't even look at the kids let alone teach them. The worst child teaching provider I could imagine - Becky Adlington should be utterly ashamed of herself. Complete rip off merchants!

As stated elsewhere, the customer service for this company is that dreadful I honestly wouldn't be able to recommend it, which is a shame as the instructor is spot on and very good. It is near impossible to speak to anyone. All they do is reference the enquiry form which nobody responds to. Sending a direct email is also useless as it is not manned. Grim service from start to finish.

I am at my wits end right now attempting to cancel my daughters swimming lessons.
It is impossible to actually get to speak to anyone that is capable of doing more than telling you to “fill out the form in the website” I HAVE FILLED OUT THE FORM ON THE WEBSITE SIX TIMES!!!
Appalling customer service especially after being a customer for 6 years (purely because we liked the teacher, who has now left) grrrrrrrr.

Registered to use the SwimStar programme at Bannatyne's Ayr. The first two lessons were cancelled (staff sickness and gym closure - no refund) and then after the next two lessons, I receive an email saying a parent or guardian had to be a member of the Bannatyne's gym to sign up to the SwimStar's programme (no mention at registration and even offered a 10% discount to parents who are gym members!) or the SwimStars programme would be terminated.

So, 2 lessons in we are £98 lighter (they still took the DD payment for the next month after cancelling - in the process of a claw back through my bank!!), have a disappointed 4 year old who loved his first lessons, and another search for a swimming lesson programme with space. It's now adding up why SwimStar have spaces when everywhere else has waiting lists... Terrible service and would not recommend.

UPDATE (22 Feb):
Managed to claw back the Direct Debit payment via my bank with no issues, and received a good apologetic reply - and a refund for the 2 cancelled lessons - from SwimStar customer services.

My two toddler boys classes were just last week cancelled by swim stars who stated that from February, all classes will be 1:1 or 1:2 which has increased the price from £45 each to min. £125 each. I also joined that particular gym due to their swimming classes being there.

With just two weeks notice (T&C's state parents have to give 1 month for cancellations) We cancelled the direct debit to prevent the higher mount going out. I then received an email to say we are no longer on the system due to our direct debit cancellation. This now meant that the boys have no classes left. I asked for a refund for January classes which i paid for in advance and the answers I get back are that T's & C's dont allow for a refund! after going backwards and forward, a lady in head office allowed us to squeeze the two remaining lessons in this week but no refund is allowed. (even though they cancelled the classes)
Due to this, I would not recommend swim stars. They aren't fair to their customers and I didn't appreciate them hiding behind their terms and conditions to suit themselves.

My son has been attending lessons every week since October. He has had 5 different teachers in this time. The online portal with progress does not get updated, my sons still says he’s only attended one session and no progress 😡. I have called multiple times to be told they’ll pass it on. I have spoken to the teachers who say they’ll update it but nothing has happened. Management is terrible. In the class there are 4 children but only ever had 3 maximum turn up. I pay direct debit and had issues with my bank due to fraud recently so the direct debit was stopped. Downstairs just cancelled all lessons and emailed me to tell me. I called to get it sorted but was on hold an hour going back and forth. The pool over winter had problems maintaining temperatures and the instructor said it’s not their problem lessons will go on at planned and to buy a wetsuit 😡.
Now they have changed the price to £125 for 1-2 lessons without adequate warning.

Swimming lessons themselves are fine, but the administration and business model are highway robbery. When lessons are cancelled by them you have to contact them for a refund (which I am going to do because these lessons are double the cost anywhere else). Getting in touch with them to request the refund is impossible, which is what they are banking on.

The company can improve by shutting down and stop ripping customers off
No progress on child what’s the point take money no update on what’s happening

If I could give 0 I would. The teacher my daughter has was brilliant. However the customer service from the contact centre is a joke. They never call you back, they do not care about anything other than “stealing” money. Cancelled direct debit with 6 weeks notice instead of 4 weeks which is requested by their complete and utter useless oxygen thief’s in the contact centre. Do not use this company they are below useless. No apologies and no care with customers what so ever.

I cannot fault the lessons or the teachers, both are excellent but the entire company is poorly managed. We have been using them since 2019 and the customer service has just gotten worse every year. If it wasn’t for the actual lessons being so good I would have left long ago. Plus the fact it’s between these guys and our local council ones which have ridiculous waiting lists. We have no other options in our area.

My son started at Bannatyne’s Rotherham with teacher Dave last weeks and is loving it. We’d been going elsewhere for months and had made no progress. The difference of having the teacher in the pool is massive and Dave makes the leaning so fun. Highly recommend :)