Tandridge Leisure Centre — Local services in Tandridge

I have been going with my two year old daughter for the past few weeks, but we’re going to start exploring alternatives as the pool activities are hardly ever working. My good and bad points as follows:

Good points: It’s about £6 for me and my daughter, which for a 1.5hr - 2hr session I think is pretty good.

The changing rooms are pretty clean and spacious. They have quite a few family changing rooms with changing tables and nappy bins, and they have a “no shoes past this point” sign which people mostly adhere to. However, we go first thing in the morning when it’s probably been cleaned from the day before. I can imagine at the end of the day there’s a bit of accumulated grub around as it doesn’t appear to be cleaned throughout the day.

The staff are friendly and helpful (one of the guys on reception helped me out with a token for the lockers when I had ran out of change).

Bad points: This first one starts before you even get in the building - the car park! It’s a bit small, but the main problem is that you have to pay…with cash…like we’re still living in 1972. It’s only £1-2 for a couple of hours, but nowadays few people carry cash and they need to GET THE BLOODY MACHINE TO TAKE CARD PAYMENTS! Maybe there’s another machine that takes card that I’ve missed.

remember that last pound coin you found in your car footwell which sank in to the machine to be able to park? Yeh well that would have come in handy if the bloody machine had taken card because you also need a (albeit returnable) pound coin for the locker. The trolley tokens you can buy do work, but with the car park and the lockers, it’s best to prepare with a bucket full of change before you go like you’re about to hit the arcade on Brighton pier.

the staff are friendly, but being young and most likely inexperienced, they don’t seem the most organised. As we get there early, we can wait in the cafe. But then a queue forms round the front. You would assume the staff would let you know when they’re letting people in and let you go in first, but no, you’re left to discover the queue and then, so you don’t have to go right to the back of the queue, you have to sort of make your own queue from the cafe exit round to the front desk and look like you’re forcing your way in from the side. It’s just awkward an unnecessary.

probably my biggest gripe with this place is that they have some nice toys and facilities, but they don’t ever seem to work. Young kids slide? Cordoned off - the slide surface needs to be replaced. Water jet cannon? Never on. Water bucket waterfall things? Not working. I’ve had sneezes that lasted longer than the amount of time the wave machine is on for. Bearing in mind we get there at 10am, a couple of weeks ago they didn’t turn the wave machine on until about 11.30, and then for only about 1 minute.

Other points The big floaty thing - I’ve never seen it out, so I can’t say whether it looks any good or not, or the amount of time it’s out for. Time limits - you get a coloured wrist band when you go in. They call you when your time is up, although if you go in at 10 you’re more likely to get at least a couple of hours because it’s emptier at the start of the day. They have a steam room and sauna in the main pool area, and seating around the sides of you want to watch but not swim. A couple of weeks ago my daughter was allowed to go down the big slide with me. Then the next week she wasn’t. I’m not sure why the rules suddenly changed overnight, but maybe they decided if we went down one more time she might explode. Oh well, saves me carrying her up the big staircase over and over!

Well, that’s my review. Hopefully it was clear from the above, but if not, I really do not like the car park ticket machine....

The older lady on reception (not the one with the blonde exstentions) is so uninterested and unhelpful. It was our first time visiting as we wanted to join a local leasure centre, so we thought we would book a swim session to see if it was worth purchasing a membership each. I can tell you that after the appalling customer service on reception, we won't be returning.

We parked the car and went to pay but the machine didn't accept the card, which was fine, so we went into the centre and asked if we could potentially get some coins. The lady in question responded and said,'No, but morrisons have a machine'. She then followed up with 'but it's not working' so I asked how we were expected to park if there is no way to be given coins or no tickets that can be given, we basically got a shrug of shoulders. I have to stress that it isn't WHAT she said its the 'how dare you expect me to do what I'm paid to do and actually provide customer services' attitude that came with what she said. We then went back outside, and a man who was also visiting the centre was kind enough to give us a pound coin for parking, as he had heard the conversation.

So we thought great! Let's go swimming! Alas, we were met with another issue! The lockers take coins, and the woman in question made it clear that she wasn't prepared to help in any way. There was, however, a younger girl on reception who really did try to come up with solutions, she was actually great. She mentioned that they have tokens for members and suggested that we might be able to use one of those, at which point the older woman shut the conversation down with an agitated 'no'. Long story short we did manage to get a coin for the locker in morrisons and came back, the lady with extentions was on the reception computer and the woman with the bad attitude was on the computer next to her. So now we are standing there looking at each other, waiting for someone to take payment for the swim session (being ignored). The lady with the extensions then directs us to the other woman after being stood there awkwardly.

You had to have been there to understand the attitude, because in reading this, you might be thinking it's not a big deal. Like I said, it isn't what was said it's how it was said. I was a receptionist for over 15 years, and I can tell you I would have been fired for less. They made us feel like we we had an audacity for asking for any kind of help, very short 1 word 'hurry up' type responses. Generally appalling customer service.

We won't be proceeding with a membership. A terrible way to treat potential...

My son was wanting to go swimming somewhere with a slide and wave machine, as other pools like K2 and Horsham were not open today, I decided to take him here, hoping last years issues would be rectified. I last visited a year before today and once again we were met with a slide which was once again not in use for the entire time we swam , toilets still filthy and all, but one was out of action. Toilets still have the same sanitary bins placed on top of the toilets to indicate they’re out of use. There was one toilet in use with a broken lock on the door. Last year their sink had no taps attached, just a redundant sink and today the pieces were just left next to the second broken sink, first sink is still sat there with two holes where the taps used to be and second sink was the same with half an attachment. The floors were filthy and rubbish left in almost every changing area.

The showers were faulty with few anctually working and when turned on, the spray lasts for 10 seconds until you are required to press it again.

My son was told the wave machine would be on in 5 minutes by the staff, 20 minutes went by, then he asked again, was told to wait longer. They did not bother with the wave at all, for the entire time we were there.

Staff were rude to my children because they dared to ask about the waves , stating “if they break when we turn them on, I’ll blame you!” I have no idea what that even means …. Strange! She also held her fist up to my son, after blowing the whistle because he dared to go behind the rope whilst playing.

Strange behaviour and dirty place with lots of issues.

I called before I arrived, to try and book , in case met with disappointment with “sorry we’re full!” But no answer, several times, so we took the risk. I mentioned this upon arrival Guy on desk sarcastically commented “that’s weird, I have been answering calls all morning”, clearly trying to make me feel like a liar, but a blatant gaslighter who knows they never answer the phone, as clearly that system isn’t fit for purpose either.

I’d suggest opening up an online booking system , but I honestly won’t be returning, so it’s...