SouthWest Aquatics — Local services in Winter Garden

Beware. I came close to not sharing this experience, as I am not one to hurt a business, but after speaking with management, I feel this is necessary. Had I seen someone share an experience like this, it would have saved me time, money and disappointment.

I found Southwest Aquatics as I was looking for swim lessons for my 4 1/2 year old. When I called I was told that there was an available spot at 9am which was recommended to be secured immediately as they go fast. I figured I got lucky and registered. I was immediately charged $327 for two weeks of lessons, including the $77 registration fee. We prepared by excitedly purchasing a couple extra bathing suits and some goggles.

If you sign up for Pediaswim lessons at this facility, you will not get any formal orientation or explanation of how the lessons will work. You will be given a time to show up and there is someone booked immediately before you and after you at ten minute intervals. You don't get a formal meet and greet with your lesson instructor outside of the water.

Since you will not be formally orientated with the way the lessons work, I feel that at the very least I should try to prepare you for what to expect. There will be a lot of crying. As soon as you walk in you will notice that the sounds of cries will be a constant sound in the background throughout lessons. There are about 5 to 7 other children getting lessons at the same time. Their ages will range from just a few months to roughly 5 years old. On day one, a lady had her son in the pool with a regular diaper. Why? Because only after the lesson was over did the instructor tell her he needed a swim diaper. Why? Ten minute intervals.

More importantly than anything else, you will see things that are incredibly triggering. On my daughters first lesson we witnessed a crying and visibly distraught roughly 3 year old girl struggling to float face up, fully clothed, tennis shoes and all. She managed to stay afloat and was then flipped by the instructor pulling her feet above her head. Crying and struggling to catch her breath, her wet shirt was placed upon her face. She struggled to remove it. My daughter looked distraught watching as did her parents and I. We saw the young girl each of our four lessons and each time she cried upon arrival until it was time to go.

On our fourth lesson, my daughter went from her instructor to another person whom I assume was in training. She was asked to go between them with about three to four feet separating them. She had a total of thirty minutes in the water (via her previous three lessons here) without a flotation vest, in the entirety of her life before this experience. I saw each of them place a hand on her back to keep her down as she went between them. She struggled to catch her breath and after the 2nd pass she was crying. After the 3rd pass where I clearly noticed she did not catch her breath before going in I stood up and called out to her instructor. No reaction. I called a second time and it was loud enough that others were turning, but not her instructor. My daughter was crying. I called out a third time and finally was approached and immediately asked if we were quitting by the instructor. Yes, we quit. As a parent I should not have been ignored when I was clearly just as distraught as my daughter was being under the water unable to catch her breath.

Will your children learn to swim? Perhaps. Will it be a comfortable and calm learning environment? No. Even though management has no formal process to orient you or prepare you, they also offer no refunds on their registration fee. I still paid over $170 for three ten minute lessons since I was refused a reimbursement on my registration fee of $77. Our last lesson was on a Thursday and I received a call from management on Tuesday. She offered to be my daughters instructor and approach the lessons differently. By this time I had already secured and paid for a private lesson session that promised that what I witnessed at Southwest Aquatics was not the technique that...

Staff can be very mean at times. Our son attended the program here for over a year. We witnessed a lot of occasions where staff members were short, rude, and unaccomadating to other families.

We had our own circumstance recently where a staff member (Gregg) unprofessionally disciplined our disabled son from making noise while in the enclosed pool area with a toy up against the glass sliding door while waiting for his brother to finish his swim lesson. When we approached Gregg to tell him he was in the wrong for yelling at a handicapped child and the he embarrassed him in front of the entire pool area and again emphasizing that he had a mental disability he could care less. He said I wanted him to stop and you were not doing anything to stop him and then walked away while we were talking to him.

We then proceeded inside to complain about the instructor. While we were speaking with a staff member our kids were in the pro shop area and picked up a swim cap that was already on the floor and out of its packaging. The owner of the facility wrongfully assumed that our children had ripped open the swim cap and she physically ripped the cap off our 8 year olds head. She then seemed upset and yelled out "Jesus Christ" because my other son was walking around the office area in my line of sight while we were speaking to an office staff member about what had just happened.

The next day We received a phone call from Lisa to apologize about the incident with Gregg. I told her that you can understand that we've been coming there for over a year and we were now uncomfortable. Instead of telling us that we shouldn't be uncomfortable. She said "are you aware of the reckless behavior of your kids while your wife was speaking with an office staff member". "Your kids ripped apart three swim caps and were running around unsupervised." "We understand you are uncomfortable and will stop charging you and remove your son from the rising stars program". I told her that this was A complete exaggeration of what happened. We walked in to tell them what Gregg had done. They assumed that our children wrecklessly tore open swim caps (which were already on the floor and open before we walked in) and were more concerned about that then the treatment of a disabled child. They were happy to have us leave and the hard work of our son for an entire year just flushed away. The basically opened the door and happily kicked us out.

I warned them that we would write these reviews and they could honestly care less. We have already contacted our attorney and we will be filling a lawsuit through the Americans with disability act for the wrongful treatment and the unwillingness to properly accommodate a child with disabilities. We are also considering filing a suite against the owner for physically ripping a swim cap off our 8 year old head which pulled his hair. Just because she's the owner she had NO right to physically touch our child in that manner.

We would strongly recommend avoiding this place. Other options exist. They have certain staff members who are wonderful and certain swim instructors who are fantastic but I've witnessed too many families getting yelled at and then spoken about behind their backs by the majority of this staff that you really should avoid this...

I'm really heart broken. At first, I was excited to take my daughter and son with down syndrome because he was referred by one of his therapist. The place looks clean, presentable and welcoming. Susan was very pleasant over the phone to get my two kids started on their program everyday Monday thru Friday for 4 weeks 10 minutes each. First week of attending instead of them getting 10 minutes it was about 5 to 6 minutes each. When I mentioned it to the front desk I realized that it was a big mistake. Their swimming instructor was Ms. Joy who is the director. They couldn't really say anything to her because she is the boss. She knows what she is doing and I agreed. I was told that I wouldn't get cheated out of their lessons and she would add more time after the 4 weeks. I could tell that she has the experience but for some reason was not applying it to my kids. Reasons for my assumption: my daughter is a screamer and was apprehensive. My son to say the least was going to be a challenge because of his muscle tone. I would go earlier to observe if this was a common issue. However, I noticed that when the child was easy going she dedicate more time to them. Actually more than the 10 minutes assigned. :( Nonetheless, eventually the following weeks improved a little. Instead of 6 minutes sometimes they were 8 to 10 [rare but yes :) ] minutes each. I figured it was fine since I was assured that Ms. Joy would make up any time missed and they would "graduate" to float and swim to edge. Well that time came and their 4 weeks were up. To my great surprise, they were not granted the extra time that they missed nor "graduate". However, I persisted to keep them there since I had seen progress. The difference now was that it was no longer covered by "a gift for swimming" grant and I had to pay $44 for both 20 minutes in total. I figured this time they would take the instructions more seriously since I was paying customer with my hard earned money. Which I may add is not easy since I'm a single parent and had just started working. My nightmare became worst... nothing changed! One day Ms. Joy missed work and they were assigned to I think her name was Maureen or Katie not sure but I was so glad because she made my kids feel so welcomed that they didn't even want to get out of the pool. I was ecstatic and mentioned to front desk that if it would be a problem to switch instructors. They said they would have to run it by Ms. Joy and he other instructor to get back to me. Well one week later, I didn't show up to their usual Wednesday weekly appointment because I was waiting for their call. Needless to say Thursday I get a call from them. A nasty and rude message from a lady was left..."we didn't see kids last night and we're going to go ahead and take them off the schedule. They haven't been here in a while and we are going to need some sort of consistency so I'm going to go ahead and take them off schedule. " The audacity of these people. They NEVER missed a lesson out of the strict everyday 4 week schedule and when they were doing the weekly they only missed one day which we showed up anyway but they both were sick. That's it! I threw the towel with these people. IF THEY DON'T WANT MY BUSINESS, I DON'T WANT...