Perhaps a one-off, but poor experience
(Pasted from Google)
If you have any kind of additional needs at all, from a sports injury to a disability, either look elsewhere or speak to them and see if they have any instructors who are well-suited to your situation for a private lesson, as I unfortunately had a very unwelcoming and somewhat incompetent experience which I do feel could have been easily avoided. 2 stars instead of 1 is because they did agree to a refund pretty fast when I spoke to them.
Booked a beginner lesson, and put in the booking form under the relevant section the fact that I have an injury. I get to the lesson and the instructor hasn’t been notified of this at all, so I do my best to explain. The lesson starts, and I’m finding certain aspects very hard, however it’s been about 5 minutes and I’ve never surfed at all so I can’t tell if it’s my injury making it impossible or simply that I am doing something wrong - the point of an instructor is to help you correct your technique and perhaps adjust for the individual, i.e. to instruct, but he basically wrote me off and said ‘this isn’t safe because you’re injured and you can’t even do this bit’ without any attempt to help me technique-wise. I still don’t know if I was doing things correctly or not! I understand he has other students to attend to and can’t let someone drown or be seriously injured, so has to err on the side of caution, but it was quite clear he didn’t know how to handle the situation.
This I would be willing to forgive if not for the series of comments made blaming me; ‘you should have given more detail in the form’ - what, the form that no one told you about? I could have given them my MRI and doctor’s letters and it clearly wouldn’t have been passed on. ‘You should have known whether you’d be able to do this with the injury’ - how am I meant to know when I’ve never surfed before? ‘You should have booked a private lesson’ - well I would have happily paid for this if someone had advised it! Again, I still can’t know with certainty whether I was struggling because of my injury itself, or purely because I was the most beginner in the group (everyone else seemed to have done at least a lesson or two) and something in my technique was off, but even if it’s purely that I can’t physically undertake surfing at the moment there was no need for the unpleasant comments. I don’t think the instructor should have been put in this position either - someone clearly neglected to pass on the information from the booking form.
I then phone to get a refund because I’m angry and upset that I did my part in telling them about my injury but I was left just sitting alone on the sand for 90% of the lesson; they agree to a refund, however said the following; ‘we don’t read the booking forms because we get so many, if you have an injury you should have phoned us to tell us’ - sorry what? What is the point of having a booking form asking this specific question if no one reads it? It didn’t say anywhere on the form or the FAQs that it was necessary to phone about things like an injury - how am I meant to know that the form I am filling out with this information is never actually going to be read? I was willing to write off the instructor’s comments as someone misspeaking out of frustration, until it became clear that the office I spoke to also wanted to put the blame on me for not knowing that the form I was filling out would never be read.
Their reply;
We apologize for the frustrating experience. We understand the importance of accommodating individual needs, especially regarding injuries. It's concerning that there was a disconnect between your booking information and the instructor's awareness. Your feedback highlights areas for improvement in our communication processes. We value your input and will take steps to ensure better coordination between bookings and instructors. The instructor did read you had surfed before as you did tick that on the form and we did think you would be more than aware of your physical capabilities regarding your injury concern you had prior to your lesson
Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience caused. We appreciate your understanding and hope to have the opportunity to provide you with a more positive experience in the future. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. You were completely refunded in full even after you participated and we did feel the matter was resolved yesterday.
My reply;
Thank you for your prompt reply, however I do feel that this is quite rude and someone is being dishonest. Firstly, the person on the phone yesterday said the booking forms are not read. You’re saying that they read I had surfed before (which is because my friend booked after having a great experience with you in Noosa, but couldn’t put my details separately which is it’s own issue); if the latter is true, why could he not read the injury section? Secondly, I don’t appreciate the remark about being aware of my physical capabilities. I am aware of my own injury that I have been dealing with for several years, in which I have skied, snowboarded, rock climbed, and swam - I have not surfed before and had nothing else to go on. I note that your website says you don’t have to be a particularly strong swimmer or extremely fit, and a glowing review from someone who says they don’t know how to swim. Evidently you are capable of catering to a range of physical abilities, so I’m upset that this was not my experience at all and even more upset that you are again doubling down and trying to blame me for this.
This activity isn’t bookable for now.!
Gold Coast
Mobile Ticket
Offered in: English
2 hours (approx.)
Important Information
