Who was with me this morning in the queue for swimming lessons?!?

[snowboarder]

OH I've never before had to cope with queuing for an hour and controlling (well, sort of) a toddler! Happy to have signed him up for lessons though. Although apparently the water is v cold, so we'll be getting his wetsuit out I suppose. Has anyone been yet? Hoping to try out soon.

[Gussy]

Hi Snowboarder, which pool did you go to?

[snowboarder]

East Dulwich.....

[Gussy]

Ah ok. I'm bracing myself for the same queues/waiting/toddler fun and games at Peckham pulse next Monday as I'm assuming ED pool is going to be rammed/fully booked now?

[Goose Green Grump]

Me. I queued from 9am til 11:45am. Yes, 2 and 3/4 hours. I've just sent this to Southwark Council and posted it to the Fusion feedback website. In the scheme of things, this isn't as bad as not getting housing benefit paid, or leaking roofs etc. But it still irks me!

Dear Tara Quinn

(cc Cllr Rhoden, & Fusion Leisure - I will send this to them via the online feedback form)

Re: Dulwich Leisure Centre

Congratulations on opening Dulwich Leisure Centre. it looks lovely.

I want to write formally to complain, though, about the Fusion management.

This morning I stood in line for 2 hours and 45 minutes to book my children in to swimming lessons. After one hour, I counted 19 people in front of me, and 22 behind. It took a further 1 hr 45 for the 19 people to be seen in front of me. There were 2 receptionists working on swimming lessons. This meant that it was taking an average of 12 minutes per customer, while the queue of people behind grew. We stood the whole time - including a heavily pregnant woman, a woman with chronic fatigue syndrome, and about 10 toddlers who were incredibly well behaved given the circumstances. A number of people gave up on the queue after queueing for over 2 hours, because of their small children's needs.

I suspect you will say that the computer was broken down, that this was a one-off because of needing to register everyone for the first time, teething trouble etc.

This may sound OK to you. But I want to emphasise that this is not acceptable. Good management could have made that queue move in 45 minutes rather than 2 hours 45 minutes. It seems like your staff think that queuing for this long is ordinary, tolerable, and just one of those 'hazards' every 10 weeks.

I had a lot of time this morning to think of things you could have done differently. A few suggestions.

a. Anticipated the swimming lesson rush. It's the same at Peckham Pulse (also poorly managed). And PLANNED for it with extra terminals or extra staff, a separate queue, heaven forbid even a handheld computer to go up the line with, online booking system, organised re-registration for those of us who've been having to go to Peckham Pulse for the last year instead, etc.

b. Had a paper system ready to go, in case the computers faltered. You could have done the data entry later.

c. Offered children's videos on your lovely flat screen TVs, for the toddlers. Or some puzzles or books for them to read, like in a doctor's surgery.

d. Offered water, or even a free coffee.

e. Apologised to the queue every half an hour and let them know what was happening. Offer feedback forms.

f. Publish a 'lessons learned' on your website by the end of this week - to say how it's going to be different next time.

The receptionists, even the swimming teachers, seemed not able to take simple decisions like this off their own back. There was no sign of a centre manager, coping with probably your biggest public relations disaster this month. 60+ East Dulwich parents singularly unimpressed with the company Southwark council has contracted with to run swimming for our kids. And paying ?50 a term, on top of council tax, for the privilege. Such a shame, given the public investment that has been made in this pool and the eagerness with which we have awaited its opening.

Please tell me that Fusion will be doing a 'lessons learned' and in December I won't have to give up 3 hours of my life again, just so that my kids can learn a life skill in one of the best and riches cities in the world.

And I hope that there is some kind of 'service standard' in the Fusion contract which means that Fusion have a financial incentive to improve.

I look forward to hearing your comments. I would be happy to discuss this by phone too.

yours sincerely

Emily Miles

[snowboarder]

Don't know - there was a big queue but hard to say what age group lessons everyone was booking for. There are only a very few parent and child lessons. Call them to see?

[Claire29]

I sent husband down to sign my eldest up, and he got there just before 9am and he had to wait just over 2 hours to get to the front of the que! He said it was typically manic and that the staff didn't seem to have been trained very well in the computer system (which also crashed for a while.) I'm hoping the temp of the pool is warmer after what i've been reading on hear, otherwise I will have a job getting my son into the pool!

[snowboarder]

GGG - it was weird how long they took with everyone wasn't it. It only took a couple of mins for me to be served - not sure what everyone else was doing. I was one of the harrassed ones with a rampaging toddler....but by arriving only about 10 mins earlier than you seemed to have got away with a much shorter wait. There was a max of 10 people in front of me and it took 50 mins!

[Goose Green Grump]

I think it was those of us that went straight after the school drop off that complicated things... On the plus side I enjoyed meeting lots of people from the local area. Plenty of time for neighbourly chat. I think we'll do well if ever there's a fuel shortage - we've had queueing practice courtesy of Fusion!

[charlottep]

i arrived at 10 to 9 and waited an hour and a half. at one point there were more staff behind the coffee counter than at reception. apparently only two computers were working, no wonder it took so long!

[Zo?]

I admire you all for your perseverence! Afraid I walked through the door, clocked the extent of the queue, promptly performed a neat 360 and went home!

I hope you all managed to get booked on though. If not, have a look at Crystal Palace Pool swimming lessons - there are only 3 children in my daughter's class, big changing rooms, free parking & dinosaurs.

[Gussy]

Been trying to get through on the phone for the last 45mins...can't be bothered anymore. Nice long answerphone spiel to keep you on the phone longer....

[Goose Green Grump]

Just had Dominic, the Centre manager, ring me to apologise...

[The Nappy Lady]

Glad you got an apology Goose Green Grump, but I do hope they are going to do more than just that.

In this day and age it is totally insane for them to manage the process in this way.

For those who didn't get a place, we used Superkids Swimming School and they were very good, classes at a couple of different places in the area and you just phone up to book up, then they send you a form to register. A darn site easier!

Stuff like this really winds me up, I'm a born administrator LOL...anyone got some filing they want doing?!!

p.s. GGG - brilliant name, was it specially commissioned for this palava?

[redjam]

Wow, GGG, your letter is fantastic. I didn't even queue up today and I'm angry on your behalf! Hope your comments get properly noted not just shoved in a file.

[curlykaren]

I'm with Zoe, I walked straight back out and given the lack of space in the pool timetable for general and family swimming I'm not sure my son and I will get a chance to use the pool at all. Shabby stuff.

[Cora]

Brilliant letter. Well done for actually getting it out there!

[Goose Green Grump]

So, I've now also had a good response from Southwark Council (copied in below). Dominic, centre manager, mentioned that he wanted to explore whether he could set up a re-booking system by phone to avoid us all having to go in and queue. I'll believe it when I see it, but at least that sounded hopeful. Am feeling it's good not to suffer in silence!

GGG

FROM SOUTHWARK COUNCIL,

...

As you may have seen from her automated response, Tara Quinn is on leave at the moment so I am responding on her behalf. May I first apologise, unequivocally, for the chaotic situation you and other customers encountered. I understand that Dominic Horner, the General Manager at Dulwich, has called you to apologise and explain how he will make sure things improve, significantly, in the future.

I have copied Tara Quinn in to this email. Yes, there most certainly will be a 'lessons learned' session which I will ask Tara to initiate and lead with Fusion. All your suggestions will be properly considered as part of that exercise. Having invested a great deal in improving the centre (because we know it is well-used and well-loved) there is no excuse, if there ever was, for inconsiderate service to customers.

By way of explanation, rather than excuse, I think that staff were just overwhelmed on the day. It is, however, up to Dominic and his team to ensure that there is a 'plan B' (and 'C'; 'D' and 'E' if necessary) to anticipate and cope with such situations in future.

I hope this rotten experience hasn't marred your future enjoyment of the pool and other facilities at Dulwich. I know we can't give you your three hours back but I trust we may be able to make up for it with many hours of very good experience in the years to come.

If you need anything further please let me know.

Yours sincerely,

Jay Yeats

Head of Leisure & Wellbeing

[Fuschia]

i would be more convinced if i hadn't written a very similar letter in 2007 about queues and unresposive staff at Peckham, while pregnant wth our twins...

[katwhite]

To avoid the chaos - Born to Swim do classes at Deptford pool (wavelengths). The teacher is excellent.

[Ruffler]

I agree with Zoe. My kids learned to swim at Crystal Palace Pool - brilliant teachers, warm training pool and none of the booking nonsense described above.

[Dorothy]

I find this totally baffling, you poor people.

We got to London Swim School (at Crystal Palace pool) - not perfect, but I'm beginning to look at it more favourably after these shocking stories. We book online. Takes seconds.

[BellendenBear]

This sounds very similar to how Fusion operate their swimming lesson sign ups at Peckham Pulse. They seem to operate some kind of wall of silence in the days before opening their books with very little information on how to book and then total chaos on the actual day. The lady next to me in the queue was offered totally different days to me despite wanting exactly the same lessons.

The good news is that now you have a place you will be given priority for booking from now on. So hold on to it! You get given a ticket at the end of the 8th lesson to allow you to book between then and opening to the public.

[pollyhollyb]

We go to Beckenham Spa and you can enrol at any time when you initially join and then re-enrol up to a couple of weeks before the new term starts. Very very easy and none of the pain described above!

[snowboarder]

Whilst it's great there are lessons elsewhere for me it's amazing to just walk 10 mins up the road rather than 15 mins in car somewhere (and inevitable unwelcome sleeping on way home!). First lesson today and we had fun - glad little snowboarder wore his mini wetsuit though - the temp was absolutely fine for grown ups but a bit chilly for little ones.