Swim school declines cash refund, lessons allegedly cancelled due to coach availability issues
A woman took to Facebook to vent her frustrations after a local swim school denied her request for a full cash refund.
According to Ms Janis Lee, Happy Fish Swim School had cancelled her 10-year-old son’s swim class due to coach availability issues.
Source: Happy Fish Swim School
This was despite the fact that she paid for the lessons up front to secure a slot in the class.
Pays deposit to confirm slot
On 8 April, Ms Lee uploaded WhatsApp screenshots of the school onto the Complaint Singapore Facebook group.
In the first screenshot, dated 2 Feb, Ms Lee can be seen expressing her interest in booking a swimming class for her child at their Jurong East branch.
Source: Janis Lee via Complaint Singapore on Facebook
She chose the 7.15pm timeslot on 17 March, and the school emailed her a confirmation on 2 Feb.
Payment was to be made within 48 hours to secure a slot in the class.
Ms Lee proceeded to pay for the class and was told that a reminder message would be sent nearer to the scheduled class.
Source: Janis Lee via Complaint Singapore on Facebook
Class initially postponed
On 9 March, Happy Fish Swim School informed Ms Lee that her son’s class had been postponed by five weeks.
According to the WhatsApp message, this was because the class “did not meet the minimum required number of participants”.
As such, the new start date would be pushed to 21 April.
Source: Janis Lee via Complaint Singapore on Facebook
The school also stated that the class would “not be postponed again”.
However, they provided Ms Lee with an alternative option on 31 March at 4.45pm, at the Jurong East branch.
Ms Lee did not take up the offer, as her son was unable to attend at the given time.
Class postponed for the second time
On 24 March, Ms Lee received another message from the school.
This time, she was informed that the lesson on 21 April would be cancelled, due to the “unavailability of a coach.”
