Waterworks Swim School San Francisco

Victoria is a great instructor. I’ve been going to her for adult swim. She’s punctual and encouraging. Also, she’s able to instruct in more advanced techniques that other instructors may not be as comfortable with. Try to book her ahead of time or if able, book her for a set time slot. She is very popular. I’ve seen her with kids before my lessons and she has wonderful interactions with them.
The reason, 4 stars instead of 5 is because the call center needs to work on better communication or updating info on their computer system. I had an incident when there was a lot of miscommunication regarding a re-​scheduling of a lesson. I thought things were squared away, but got a voicemail after my initial call the lesson was continuing with a different instructor. I was able to clear it up the following day, but felt I spent unnecessary time dealing with it. However, the callcenter people are nice and polite.

Extremely pleased with this program. Miss Celeste and the other instructors are warm and friendly. They are great with the kids. I am pleased with the progress my son has made. I will be signing back up for another group of sessions.

I am so disappointed with the customer service and phone support of this company. Today was the final straw. I arrived at the pool, finding it out of service again because of a pH issue. My instructor was there and told me she would let the school know that our lesson didn’t happened today and will be credited. Instead I get an email telling me that I WAS THE NO-​SHOW! This was the 2^nd time the pool is out of service; and the school doesn’t have the decency to call ahead and cancel the class. Pools do not all of a sudden have issues.
In addition to these issues, customer service never picks up the phone in the morning. Earlier this month, I called before 7am (per rules) to cancel my 8:20am class because of an injury. I left messages twice and also asked for a call-​back to confirm since I had issues before with the school. I never got a call-​back; instead I got a no-​show email and forfeited a class. I emailed customer support and raise this issue; to date, I still have not heard from customer service for a class credit.

Update: So I changed my child to Instructor Bianca and what a BIG difference! Bianca always come early and great with kids.
So my child has been with Waterwork Private Lesson for about a month now and what I like about Waterwork is that we can do Make-​Up Class. So for whatever reason I cannot show up to my scheduled time (of course you need to inform them ahead of time, which is 2 hr before the class start), I can schedule another time to make-​up and I do not loss the lesson that I paid for.
Conclusion, choosing a right Instructor is very important! Thank you Bianca for making our experience better.

*Update: Waterworks has worked really hard to improve the classes and iron out the kinks. I really like having a swimming lesson option in the city with some flexibility!
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2 of my kids have been taking lessons twice a week here for about a month. I have been trying to find a program where I can take my kids at the same time and have some scheduling flexibility and this fit the bill, when no other program in SF or close on the peninsula could. They love their instructors, and they have learned a TON. Also, there are only 2 kids in a class, which has really benefited my children, rather than 6 to an instructor. For this program, you buy a package of classes, can use it for any of your children, and if you have to skip a class on your schedule, you don’t have to pay for it. This is HUGE during summer break! There are 2 reasons its not 5 stars. 1) There is no time between classes. When a class is only 20 minutes long, you don’t really want to discuss anything for 5 minutes. A 15 minute class is sort of silly. 2) The instructor for one of my children has had to cancel a few times. One time, she was just a no show, another she was late by about 15 minutes (for a 20 minute class), and never let any of us know, and then another time they called an hour before the class saying she couldn’t make it. I have never been that late or not shown up to a job that many times in a month — I am sort of shocked she’s still employed. On the upside, she’s great with my daughter, my daughter adores her, and really pushes herself in the class. I think once they work out some of these administrative kinks, it will be a much better program than other programs where they make you feel lucky to even be in a class.

We brought our children to the first lesson on 6÷27÷15. It was located in the place used to be The Good Guys, then Tower Records. Of course, the place was renovated into a fitness center and Waterworks rents one of the 3 lines in the swimming pool to teach students. The facility is awesome and clean. The only tips is that you should enter from the side facing the 19^th Ave, then tell the receptionist that you are going downstairs to swim lessons. You have enter through the locker room (bathroom). The instructor Victoria was nice and conducted semi-​private lessons for my son and daughter together. She assessed their swimming levels, instructed them how to blow bubble, breathe, kick. Ask them to practice and give real time feedback. Students get better attention than those from other swim schools such as La Petite or Daly City (Westmoor Highschool location) swim program. Both children loved it and are anxious to come back to swim some more. Overall, we are satisfied with this school.