Caught hook, line and sinker!
Let me first state I wasn't going to leave a review, but a recent Facebook post made me change my mind.
My daughter was desperate to go swimming again after a long lockdown, which we're all aware off. In April leisure could reopen. We booked Haven Point first because it's great for kids with slides and shallow baby sections etc.
We then decided to try a family run business in Newton Aycliffe, (we're Sunderland based).
I visited the website, clicked the link on the home page to book a swim. Chose family swim from the options (@£25 for 2 adults and 2 kids) added to basket, read the terms and conditions and purchased. End of... Put it in my calendar.
On arrival we were greeted with a friendly young lifeguard/cafeteria worker! Until she asked if we had a Happy Nappy for our 5 month old. Having never heard of it we said we have a swim nappy. At this point we were told about some unwavering "policy" they had which meant you had to use 2 nappies. A swim nappy and a £10.99 Happy Nappy, which they sold from their reception/cafe/swim shop area!
Obviously we protested that you can't just mention a policy after booking and on arrival where we need to pay £11 on top of £25... It's bad practice and more than likely illegal! Obviously as a lifeguard/cafeteria worker, she wasn't authorised to change these scams... I mean policies without the manager approval... So we asked to speak to the manager.
The manageress came out and we aired our grievances... At this point! We were told it's in the confirmation email I will have received... Having not read a confirmation email, I did so.
Confirmation email:
Consisted of the main confirmation. I had booked. I had paid. The time. The price. The date. You probably know the kind of thing I'm talking about...
You scroll down and there's the small print no one reads and a third of the way down, lo and behold, 2 policies. 1) untrained potty toddler can't swim without a happy happy. 2) no refunds...
I pointed out that informing me in a confirmation email after I'd paid and booked was not good enough...
She then went on to break the second policy and offered a refund... Apparently being the owner/manager she can pick and choose which of her made up policies to enforce and break.
We had a very excited 5 year old with us and a 40 minute drive... So obviously the scam... I mean policy had worked as intended as we were of course going to pay.
However, I kindly and politely showed her her own website and asked to be pointed to this invisible... I mean missed information policy happy nappy nonsense... She wouldn't and, I infer quite reasonably, couldn't do this!
I then added a suggestion that her Web developer could easily add this policy in... Maybe as a pop up at booking. To which she responded the web developer was her husband and he wouldn't know how to do that... Obviously another ME problem!
We paid and went through. I should point out the only positive at this point. FREE. Lockers and hairdryers... I say free although we all know at this point I've paid for everyone's locker and hairdryer through my paying for their "policy"!
The pool is nice and warm, but it's tiny and there were four families of 4... You could barely swim an inch without bumping into someone. And it's about 4 foot deep end to end with no shallow end... Luckily my daughter embraced that, but I can imagine that would be scary and or difficult for lots of children, including myself at that age as a non swimmer at the time.
We left and drove home, victims of a policy... I mean scam!
That's not it! As I mentioned in my opening statement, I was not going to leave this negative review... However, my wife left a pleasant warning to other customers about this non existent policy to which the manageress replied with a picture showing this policy at the booking page. WHAT? I hear you cry. You were wrong all this time, after I've spent 6-days reading your T.L.D.R review! To which I reply NO, calm down and let me explain. I had, in my anger and fear of being wrong, gone back onto their website and screen shot every page of it with my 'find in page' set to find "Nappy" which only yielded 1 RESULT. their products page where they sell the nappy, but still don't mention the policy!
Between Monday 10th May when I took my screenshots to Wednesday 12th May, when I'm presuming her "hapless" HTML husband finally added the information... Had finally updated their website... BUT instead of replying saying we took your complaint on board and decided to make the policy more noticeable for our beloved customers, they took the approach of calling us liars or plonkers! Maybe both! Luckily I have evidence to the contrary which obviously we shared!
If that's the way they run and business and treat customers with valid complaints I say avoid.
NB: I found the policy in the About Us section. FAQs section. 5th FAQ down. 🙄