Fins Swim Schools Pty Ltd

Unfortunately this place has taken a real backward slide. There is no consistency in instructors and there is a significant lack of professionalism and organisation in admin / returning calls or emails about fees which were often charged incorrectly.

Would not recommend this place to anyone. I tried to enrol my child into the free trial for babies to see if my baby would be ok before i considered enrolling him permanently into swimming classes. The lady called me up the next day to book him in for September. They took my bank details and charged me $42 which i thought may have been a registration fee. When I called them up a few days later asking what this payment was for and the ongoing payment was about as they just send you a link for bank account details so they can continue doing ongoing transaction (with no explanation on the email), the lady said that she had booked my son in for the infant program. When I said I wanted the baby program to trial him out first, the lady said that I needed to send her an email, which i did immediately. Funny enough I have not received a phone call or an email response. I sent another email the following week, again no response. I called them and left a message as this is now 3 (maybe even 4) weeks later and still have had not had a response to date. I want my deposit back Finns swimming, you can't go ripping people off like this. So disappointed and my baby hasn't even started swimming yet!!

Updated to respond.I have been a customer since 2019. I would call and have often tried, but no one picks up the phone or returns calls - what’s the point?I may not be a customer in your database because I have pulled my daughter out.I’m extremely disappointed by FINS. My daughter has attended for the past two years. Despite her swimming coming along in leaps and bounds, she has not once been moved up a class. She has become disengaged by the constant changes in staff and repetitive lessons.The administration of the place is a shambles - no one returns calls and it’s almost impossible to get anyone on the phone. The pool and facilitates are old and dirty. I feel ripped off and strongly feel the place would benefit from change in ownership.

Wow so many negative comments. I don't understand.My son has been here since he was a baby (now three). The staff are amazing and supportive. There is a friendly community.People say the pool is too small?? Hmmmm you'd have to be a total Karen to get annoyed.There is a real emphasis on developing good kicking habits from an early age. Such an important aspect of swimming (I'm a very lazy kicker and wish I'd come somewhere like this when I was a kid).Highly recommend.

Wouldn't recommend coming here, instructors are either disinterested in progressing kids or don't have the required skillset to progress them probably hoping that parents are not paying attention or a just complacent. Additionally they have a very high staff turnover rate for example there has been 5 different instructors for my youngest child within the last 6months alone. They have an excessive 4 week cancellation policy to draw more money from their customers. Very below average experience.

The inconsistency of this swim school is what made us leave. Our son who is now about to turn 3 was perpetually stuck in the same class doing the same thing with other children who were about half of his age. Our regular instructor was competent, however we just never seemed to be able to progress despite having friends whose children (younger than our son) progressingto higher classes with ease and with other instructors. It was only on the odd occasion that we would have a substitute instructor that we were told that our son needed to be challenged and to be moved up. Unfortunately what happened was that our son just got tired and bored of doing the same thing over and over again that he had done since being a baby and he started to act out and not do the lesson properly. This just caused a self destructive cycle of non progression and that he was unable to complete the skills required! He could do them but he was sick of doing the same skills over and over. This was a major frustration for us. We do not feel that our son's progress was managed correctly and he has been held back due to the inconsistent approach across all the instructors. In the end we were sick of paying our money each fortnight and not seeing results. We also found that whenever they would film footage to be reviewed, Damon would just take forever to review it. A poorly managed swim school.

Instructors are amazing and our child loves it however only 1 person can determine whether a child can progress to the next class, we have been waiting 2 months without anyone to record or for Damon to be able to assess.They do get slightly bored of the same thing and we are now not seeing further progression.Many calls go unanswered without any returns.

My three year old daughter loves Monday mornings because we get to go to Fins. The teachers—special shout out to Alicia and Grace—build confidence; teach skills for life; and perhaps most importantly, make swimming fun. I can’t recommend Fins enough.

Terrible customer service, have rung multiple times about lessons for my 2 sons have been promised a phone call back on several occasions (over a period of 2 weeks) had to chase them up constantly then when I was finally told of session times and availability, was so tired of explaining what I needed every time I called I asked them to write it down. I discussed with my partner that night and by the next day they had no more lessons available after what we talked about (how convenient). My 5 yr old son ended up going for assessment and it was so rushed people packing up for the day etc. So distracting for him. Would not recommend this place at all!

I took my two children here for over 2 years, so I feel I gave them a good go. These are the observations I made in that time:1. The business plan seems to include cramming as many kids into the pool at once, so that the different lessons and levels keep bumping in to each other and having to kove about2. The pool is much too short ofr kids over 6 with some swimming ability3. The facilities are disgusting. Dirty toilets, broken locks on doors, no toilet paper. At times cloudy water.4. On two occasions I witnessed vomits in the pool. Staff used a scoop to remove major chunks, but lessons continued and no one was told to get out of the pool5. Customer sevice is appalling and staff retention is short6. Instructors are inexperienced on the whole7. Not Austsim accredited8. Only Damon can move kids up levels. A completely ridiculous system. Staff film the kids who they think should move up then Damon supposedly reviews the videos. Be prepared for Damon to NEVER review the videos, and for your children to wallow at the same level for an inordinate amount of time9. My 7 year old was only ever taught freestyle, with no stroke coreection, and occasional use of back bubbles. We moved to another pool and kids younger than him were learning to tread water, do back stroke, butterfly, and breaststroke. Since moving to the other pool, he has learned these other strokes and has made incredible progress through levels10. My 5 yr old was kept at the same level for 10 months because she was supposedly too small to move up, despite being a great little swimmer and knowing everything at that level. The instructors kept apologising, saying due to her age and size, she would have to stay at the level she was at. Moved to a different pool and she shot up levels, learnt different strokes, and is now doing tumble turns and diving.Frustrated that I wasted so much time and money on Damon and his pool. I didn't know better, but after switching to a new facility (council run and Austswim accredited) my eyes have been opened!100% absolutely do not recommend to others, and sorry that I ever did.