Happy Fish Swim School - Jurong East — Attraction in Jurong East

My son has finally finished all his lessons with Happy Fish and I thought I should let all other parents out there to know how bad the experience was with Happy Fish so they at least have an idea of what they are signing up for.

Came to know about Happy Fish after receiving a trial voucher through my confinement agency. Booked a slot but didn't use it as it wasn't applicable for weekend class. After trial class we signed up 5 lessons to try for our 8mo baby. That is when the experience with Happy Fish started to be very different.

Before signing up, the staff (a malay guy) at Jurong East was very friendly and due to my husband's work schedule (he's the one going down to the pool with my son), we could only stick to 4pm on Sat. Staff assured us not to worry as rescheduling of classes can be done via their portal easily in case we really need to. After the 1st class, we realized our son was cranky during class as 4pm was his nap time so we thought maybe if possible try to shift to an earlier slot temporarily and my husband will try to rush over after work. But it was full so we tried to rejoin back to the original 4pm slot and that is when we realized how DIFFICULT it was to reschedule. We approached the same staff (Malay guy) who advised us to quickly whatsapp the admin to slot us in. Note: you will receive replies from different admin as there are a few of them so replies might be intermittent so it took a few days to finally sort out the rescheduling of class.

The next incident was the last straw for us. We had to be away for 2 weeks where one class will be affected. I cancelled the class 2 weeks before our trip and chat admin up in advance to reschedule to another 4pm class on Sat. Replies gotten from different admin were the same - telling me I was unable to rejoin to the same timing on the same day (but they were able to do it for me the first time!?), asking me to read the T&Cs (but none of their staffs mentioned this?! Staff at Jurong East even told us we can just do it via portal or text admin to reschedule).

I was busy with our trip and frustrated with the replies from them I forgot about following up with them to reschedule the class until the admin sent a message to remind me our package was ending soon and asked if we would like to sign up for another term (Seriously Happy Fish??? You got the cheek to ask us to sign up for another term when this issue was not settled?). Because of this "reminder", I was reminded on this unsettled issue and had to repeat the situation again, told them how they have done it for me before again etc. It was a repeated cycle and I got frustrated I called into the customer service and had to repeat the whole situation again. Admin then told me will check with management to reschedule my son to the same timing.

Long story short. After all the excuses on how their system is unable to slot my son in to the same timing on the same day and what not, they were able to do it for me after dragging me for another week (they claimed they have to check with management), and also becos I was really so annoyed to communicate with them I told them I will just dispute to CASE so I don't need to repeat my situation for the Nth time.

Unfortunately my son was down with a fever on his last class and I had to cancel again (not again.... SIGH). After the admin did not reply me for 2 days and had to repeat the whole thing again (yes I was kind enough to give them the benefit of doubt that it was weekend they were probably swarmed BUT earlier on I do get replies even on weekend albeit slower), I decided to call in and requested to speak to the same admin. Tadah she told me she can slot me in immediately. So what happened to the technical issue they told me before? What happened to all the other excuses?

So tired of their nonsense. I have all the chat histories on Whatsapp but shall not share online. I'm not one to have a habit of leaving review for any businesses but the experience with Happy Fish was really unpleasant. Sign up at your own risk. We are really glad to be...

Started happy fish during covid period, then after 1 lesson, due to CB, couldn't continue. The admin did pretty much arrangement then and when things got better, it was good. However after 1 term, the initla coach left and Coach Calson was assigned to teach my kid. He improved tremendously under Coach Calson and gained water confidence very quickly. After a few terms, was informed another coach would replaced Coach Calson, and the usual day n time slot be no longer available, as they were closing Happy Fish on every Mondays. After that was basically hell. Liaised non stop with Happy fish admin and tried several coach as we were left with a no. Of lessons still. Either the timing wasn't able to fit into our schedule, or the coach wasn't good.. Quite disappointed with the arrangement then.

However, we chanced upon Coach Terry during one of his weekend class, and immediately switched to be in his class, as he was previously assisting Coach Calson to take over the class. Since then, we have been with Coach Terry. He is a very fantastic coach & really go all the way out to build up my kid stamina and confidence n never stop encouraging him, correcting his swimming tactics. He is so good till we also signed up another kid of ours to be in his class. And we can see my kid has gradually improved n gained water confidence. Well done, coach Terry!

Yes, totally agreed the administrative part of Happy Fish may not be excellent nor flexible, I guess, the most important thing to parents is seeing your kid able to thrive and improve their swim. At least got me, maybe more patience n understanding towards the administrative part. And yes, the terms package is indeed pricy and really at their mercy if we, parents, are informed that the lesson is reschedule to another day/time, which we really can't do much but to trial n error n rearrange our schedule.

On a side note, there was a coach who replaced coach Terry when he wasn't well. Coach Adrian is another fantastic and awesome coach. Just 1 lesson, we can see he is bonding well with the kids & also strict when it comes to their swimming tactics. Another...

Joined ever since my kid was 2+ of age. Coach Coulson is no doubt the best coaches I ever met. My girl improved a lot under him. However, all efforts went downhill when Coach Coulson changed his role in Happy Fish and my girl was passed on to another Coach.

My girl was basically being pushed around to different Coaches due to some Coaches have different styles, skills or levels, which resulted in my girl either not able to catch up or her skills was already in advanced level than other kids. She is basically wasting her time during lessons (demo for kids as she was more advanced OR she need wait for Coach to tell her what she need practice on as other kids are more advance).

This kind of hoping around different classes Coaches went on for almost 2 months and we wasted quite a number of lessons just because the admins of Happy Fish are really having atrocious service. Either they match you with the wrong skillset Coaches or they do not listen to what you are telling them until an admin by the name of Jennie assisted me in getting the right Coach Adrian. He is really patient and I have sticked to him ever since for my girl lesson.

Few things Happy Fish need note:

1. Ever since the app changed it's algorithm, it is not user friendly at all. I depend on the admins of Happy Fish to do the rescheduling as I need to trial and error to find the correct class.
2. Admins need to really read/ listen properly to what we are asking. Most of time, i need to msg and call few times before they understand what I require. Not sure if it is the SOP answers.
3. Coaches have different styles for replacement classes hence I am unsure which style/ teaching method should I adopt to teach my girl.
4. I used to be at Bukit Timah branch and the flow/ strength of the water is good. It is not too rowdy too, probably not as big as other branches. After I switched to Jurong East, probably there are more students, the water strength/ flow is quite small and it is quite rowdy/ messy when it is...