Saratoga Star Aquatics-Live - Saratoga, California

Maye

I'm writing this review to share my experiences with the management at Saratoga Star Aquatics. While I want to make it clear that the coaches at this establishment show a high level of skill and dedication in teaching our children, the administrative side of things is where the problem lies, and it's been causing a great deal of frustration.

Earlier, I decided to sign my child up for private lessons at the summer camp. I had some credits in my account, and I planned on using these to cover the costs associated with these lessons. However, when I approached the front desk attendant to facilitate this, they were unable to locate the credits in my account. This resulted in me having to pay the tuition for the lessons once again out-of-pocket, and I reached out to the manager to help resolve the situation. The solution, in my mind, seemed fairly straightforward: simply apply the credit I had to the summer camp private lessons, and then refund me the tuition I had paid.

Unfortunately, the issue did not resolve as smoothly as I had hoped. Despite my numerous attempts to get it sorted out - through phone calls, emails, and even in-person visits - it remains unresolved to this day. I've left notes at the front desk, made multiple phone calls, and spent a considerable amount of time trying to get this sorted out, but all my efforts seem to have been in vain. It's incredibly frustrating to experience such poor customer service, especially when it's about resolving an issue that should be a simple task, and most certainly should not require this much time and effort from a customer.

Danna Z.

I feel they deserve 0 stars. I experienced the worst service here. I received a call before the last class in April, informing me that my daughter's class was canceled. The lady at the front desk clearly instructed us not to attend starting from the last week of April, confirming that she had canceled the class for us and we didn't need to take any further action. However, two weeks later, I discovered that they were still deducting fees for the canceled class. When I contacted their customer service, I received a shockingly arrogant reply, stating that we should have filled out a form in advance to withdraw from the class they canceled !!Furthermore, they staunchly refused to refund the fees for the last week of April, claiming that we had received wrong information as there was still a class scheduled for that week. Additionally, they deducted a week's fee from the May refund. Our reasonable request for a refund of all fees deducted after they canceled the class has so far received no response from both phone calls and emails. Their attitude seemed to suggest I had done something wrong, and after accusing me, they disappeared with the extra money they had deducted.

Ray L.

I have signed up the 3-person monthly plan for my wife, my kid and me. We go swimming on weekdays after 9pm so it wasn’t busy. The indoor swimming pool is probably the best and biggest around this area given there aren’t many indoor pools around. The big pool is of good size for adults to do laps and the smaller pool is perfect for kids to have fun/practice/learn swimming. The locker room condition isn’t the greatest, but acceptable. I don’t have experience with swimming classes, but overall it exceeds my expectations.

Xiaoqian D.

If I could give it a 0-star rating, I definitely would. The staff at this swimming facility were unprofessional, and the pool manager was very rude.

I visited the facility in March to enroll my daughter in a 4-week summer camp in July. Unfortunately, they only accept applications in person at the facility, which was quite inconvenient. To make matters worse, the front desk assistant overcharged me by $50, as the fee should have been $820, but I was charged $870. I only noticed the mistake after leaving and had to return to the facility to rectify it. According to their policy in the enrollment form, quote "There will be a $50 fee for all cancellation requests if the cancellation was made 1 month prior to the session's start date."

Fast forward to May, my family decided to travel abroad during the summer, so my daughter wouldn't be able to attend the classes anymore. Today, I went to the facility to cancel the classes. Once again, I had to do it in person, which was quite inconvenient. However, what was truly absurd was that the front desk assistant couldn't find my daughter's name in their system! That means they had charged me without actually enrolling my daughter in the classes. They couldn't find the transaction record either, which made the cancellation process even more difficult. Fortunately, I was able to find the transaction record from my credit card app and had the original customer receipt copy in my wallet. This allowed us to proceed with the cancellation.

I asked if the cancellation fee could be waived, considering the facility's mistake of not enrolling my daughter in the first place, which could have caused her to miss the classes if I hadn't cancelled them today. However, the pool manager was very rude and refused to admit any mistake. She said there was no point in arguing and claimed that they would cross-reference the information in May, even though it was almost the end of May and I had enrolled my daughter back in March. She then insisted that the cancellation fee was $50 per week, even though it wasn't mentioned in the policy form. Consequently, the cancellation fee ended up being $200 instead of $50! During our conversation, she took my cancellation request form and just left, and left me standing at the front desk, unsure of what to expect next. The front desk assistant then informed me that I should wait for further calls from the manager, and I left the facility feeling frustrated and disappointed.

Overall, it was an extremely negative experience, and I cannot recommend this facility at all.

Melissa C.

TL/DR: This place is not equipped or staffed for young kids with little to no experience.
I came here with my 3yo for the mandatory assessment. First of all, I KNOW my daughter should be in the red class because she has only taken group swim classes for a couple of months. Anyhow, it's mandatory so I got her all dressed for a less than a minute evaluation (which she was very upset about btw because she thought she gets to play in the water cause, you know, she's THREE!)
We got there, and it's super unorganized. We were first being told to sit by the side and wait for our names being called, then 5 minutes later was "you here for assessment? Go inside!" There's no introduction, no tour, no explanation of the process or the facility. Just "get assessed and then sign the registration form. But make sure you read everything on the form before signing!"
My 3yo daughter and this other older girl (maybe 4 or 5?) were told to be assessed together. I overheard the father of the other girl saying to the teacher that she has no experience at all and she refused to get in. I encouraged my daughter to get into the pool and she did. The instructor, who's clearly a high school student, asked my daughter to float on her back. My daughter didn't want to do it, and I tried to encourage her by saying, "you have done this before! Just try!" The teacher took her and just made her float; obviously, my daughter tensed up and grabbed onto her arm. After 10 second, the teacher was like, "ya she's red. Just go outside and let them know." Just that couple of minutes of interaction with the teacher confirmed my hesitation. Anyone who has dealt with young kids knows they need to warm up. Let them play in the water for a little bit first! Also, if the kids don't react to your verbal command, demonstrate! My daughter used to take classes from Goldfish, and the instructors always demonstrated while providing instructions because it's hard to gauge young kids' language skills. Last but not least, I KNOW she's red because I told you already! Now I have a toddler who was originally all excited about going swimming, got 10 seconds of time in water, and I need to clean her up.
Then the changing room, it's just wet all over with limited space. Again, it would have worked for kids who can take a shower and change on their own, but hard for parents to work with younger kids.
After we're done, I went to the reception and ask for the next steps. I was instructed to fill in the registration form right there and will receive a schedule. I asked for the class schedule for red and was told to fill in the form. I was like, "how can I register if I don't even know if we can attend any of the classes?" The guy reluctantly listed out every option possible. I thanked him and asked if I can take the registration form home so I can read it over (by that point, I have an annoyed and hungry 3yo and also an impatient baby). He told me I cannot take the form home, and that must be filled in on the spot. That, for me, is the last straw, so we politely excused ourselves and left.
I came back and read most of the online reviews, and they confirms my observation: disorganized front desk, rude lady/manager, and questionable billing practices. Maybe the instructors are great for older kids, but the few I met today and the overall operations of this place is not suitable for young kids who are still trying to establish their comfort level with water.

Wei T.

Rating: 2/5
I'm writing this review to share our experience with the swimming club. We have given a score of 2 for specific reasons, despite some positive aspects. One of the scores is attributed to their convenient location, just one block away from our house. The other score is due to the fact that my favorite childhood athlete is coaching at this club, which is a great influence, even though our children are not yet old enough to benefit from her coaching in SSTA.
However, our overall experience with SSTA has been far from satisfactory, leading us to make the difficult decision to leave the club after three years of swimming lessons for our children.
One major issue that triggered our decision to leave was the extreme poor communication with parents. In July, SSTA decided to upgrade their information system, but they failed to transfer customer data, including credit card information. Despite their claim of sending out emails about the new system, we, like many other parents, missed the communication amidst a flood of junk emails. Consequently, they canceled spots for kids who did not respond promptly. Today, after my husband dropped off our 7-year-old son for his swimming lesson, the club abruptly pulled him out of the pool, causing him to miss a significant portion of the class. They urgently called me to retrieve my credit card information. Not long after, another call followed, informing me that they had given our spot to someone else because the system had assigned it to another family. When I asked why they didn't reach out for credit card information during the three-week transition period or inform my husband when he was present, I received an inadequate response from a young employee who claimed to be only 17 years old. While I sympathize with his age, I believe the responsibility lies with the club's administrators to manage schedules and resolve issues during such transitions.
Furthermore, SSTA has a policy of no makeup classes, which is understandable. However, they missed several weeks of classes this summer on top of that. It became frustrating when they pulled my child out of a class due to their own organizational problems, making it challenging for us to accept the no makeup class policy in such circumstances.
Another concerning aspect is the handling of young kids' situations. When my son was four and just turned five, I encountered a situation where I couldn't wash him in the female bathroom because another parent complained about a young girl being scared. This parent expressed their concern strongly, which frightened my son, leading him to cry. Although the facility manager sided with us and confirmed that children aged 5 and under were allowed, it would have been more considerate for SSTA to prepare a neutral gender shower section to avoid such conflicts.
Despite being loyal parents for three years and even supporting the club during COVID when lessons were not possible, we have reached a point where we can no longer deal with the issues at SSTA. While we acknowledge the positive aspects, the poor communication, missed classes, and handling of certain situations have ultimately driven us to seek another long-term club for our children.
I hope sharing this information helps other parents in their search for a suitable club for their children.

Alexander M.

Coaching for beginner levels (small pool and instructors in the water) was good. Another plus is well heated pool. That’s it about good stuff.

Coaching in full lanes (starting from Navy level) is barely existing. Instructors don’t correct wrong technique and just watching kids.

But what makes this place truly awful is their front desk and policies. Rude, non professional , very rigid (and stupid) policies. It was a pain to make any changes, communicate or just ask simple questions.

k

The biggest issue here is the swimming teacher here is not consistent, the teacher change a lot, sometimes they don’t have teachers and merged two classses, the new teacher have no clue where are the kids were before, therefore a lot of chaos. It greatly slow downs your kids’ pace and progress. My kids are at white class, because of merging classes she is suddenly go back to practice red class stuff. Learned nothing for the consecutive two lessons so far because of that. I strongly suggest the management layer get into this issue, because the younger kids are making less progress it affects your high level classes as well. Think twice before you sign up.