Centre AT7 — Attraction in Coventry

This is a copy of the complaint email I have just had to send.

Hi, I am writing this email of complaint due to the poor service we received yesterday (Saturday 20th February 2016).

Where to start?!? Probably at the point we had walked to your centre, me, my partner and our 5 year old son. The pedestrian gate was locked shut, so we had to walk along the car park entrance where there is no pathway. I almost got hit by a car just trying to access your facility.

Then, after calling in at 11am and being informed the splash pool was open at 13:00, 14:00 and 15:00. We decided we would arrive for the 13:00 session. We arrived at 12:55 and were informed that the session was now fully booked, and we would have to wait until 13:45 to be able to pay for the next session.

As the room filled, more and more people arrived for the session, and we were then very anxious as to whether we would be able to make it to the 14:00 session as the staff did not seem to be doing any "First come first served" basis, just telling people they had to wait. I believe they should have allowed us to pay for the session and handed out the wristbands as people arrived so we knew we were secured a spot in the pool.

We then, finally after 50 minutes of waiting, were given the chance to pay for our session and go through to the changing rooms. The hygiene standards of this area left a lot of doubt to the cleanliness of the swimming facilities, but with a very excited 5 year old who had just waited for almost an hour, we could not break his heart by not going through to the pool.

As we proceeded through to the pool area, a sign was up detailing that you had to shower before entering the pool. I was pleased to see this sign up, and it did settle my concerns for the hygiene. However, the area you are made to stand and wait in was extremely cold, and my little boy was shivering and this is a health risk.

Finally, 65 minutes after arriving at your centre, we were able to go into the pool. I was shocked at the size of the pool, but would let this slide as my little boy was just happy to be in the water.

Then, we reach 14:30, the slide is open for all to enjoy. We took our little boy to the slide, only for him to be turned away because he wasn't tall enough. He is 120cm, your height restriction states 130cm. Now, I am all for health and safety, but as I have mentioned previously, when I called in that morning, nothing was mentioned to us about this. I was then left with a distraught boy, and all because your staff had failed to mention this to me.

Whenever we have visited the XCel leisure centre, he has been allowed on their slide without any issue. The slide there is much more complex, and yet he is allowed on it without any concerns as he is a confident swimmer. Yet, your lifeguards failed to check this, and did not even give us the option of having our son on our laps on the slide.

There is nothing on your website detailing the height restrictions, and the staff failed to mention this. The slide is a part of your splash pool, and yet majority of the children who go to the splash pool are not tall enough to go on the slides, which are placed right next to the splash pool, not even near the larger pool.

I have never felt so let down, or appalled by a family centre before, and I hope that you can find some way to compensate and repair this damaged relationship.

I will now be using the Xcel centre, and I do not want to visit your centre again.

And, due to your staff failing to provide any receipt for our visit, I am unable to evidence my visit, but you will be able to see us on your CCTV.

I look forward to...

Please do not opt for membership with any lifestyle leisure centres!!

If you are a toddler parent looking for access to splash pool, please be mindful that you won't get access to splash pool as part of membership. You will be charged to use splash pool for every session.

Every time you need to use the swimming pool, jacuzzi or any other facility that comes along with membership, you need a band from reception that allows you to use the facility for very short periods of time. Moreover you can't get two consecutive sessions for the same activity. That means you'll waste a lot of time rather than having a leisure time.

The staff decided to not let people use the water slides stating the facility is over crowded for the session I was in. Then in the next session they opened the water slides. However, they didn't allow me to use the water slides as it would count as consecutive session.

I joined the membership on date 17/05/25 and cancelled on 18/05/25.

The reason for cancelling my membership is the incorrect information provided by the receptionist while selling the membership!!

I wanted the membership solely for the reason that my toddler can use the splash pool as and when we wish to use it. However I was misguided by not informing that the splash pool is not included in the membership. I specifically asked the staff to explain all rules regulations and policy again and again. Yet the vital informations were concealed!

While buying the membership, I was informed by the staff that I would get the full refund if I opt to cancel the membership within 2 weeks.

I was not informed that I would loose the £20 registration [couple membership] cost if I opt to cancel the membership. £20 is a lot of money to loose for using the facility just once!

The very next day after buying the membership I asked the duty manager at AT7 to cancel my membership and refund my money back as I was not satisfied with the service. She said cancellation can't be done at the reception by the staff and instructed I'll have to submit the cancellation request online and request will be processed online by a remote staff and money will be refunded to original payment method AUTOMATICALLY!!

After submitting the cancellation request online, I received the email response stating, "Please note 14 days cancellation refunds can only be completed in centre". YOU SEE EVEN THE DUTY MANAGERS ARE MISGUIDING.

I'm glad I cancelled the membership, as I can clearly see the staff is not educated enough to inform customers correctly about rules, regulation...

Extremely Disappointing and Poorly Managed Experience

We arrived at the reception at 9:50 AM to buy tickets for the 10:00 swimming session, only to be told it was sold out and that tickets for the 11:00 session could not be purchased until 15 minutes before the session. Fair enough. We informed the receptionist that we would wait at the tables directly in front of her for the 11:00 session. At that point, the tables were empty, so we were clearly the first ones in line.

Others showed up after us and received the same information. However, at around 10:40, a woman who arrived last walked up to the reception. When it was finally our turn at 10:43, the receptionist told us the tickets were already sold out—because that same woman had bought all of them. Despite the fact that the receptionist clearly saw we had been waiting there for nearly an hour, she allowed another customer to jump the queue and purchase all the tickets before the official sale time of 10:45.

This was a complete waste of our time and incredibly disrespectful. There should absolutely be a limit on how many tickets one person can purchase. And if an entire session is going to be taken by one group, then it should be reserved in advance and other customers should be informed—just like it’s done for the splash pool.

The way this situation was handled shows a lack of basic customer service and fairness. We left feeling ignored, frustrated, and...