Ice Dreams Skating Academy Reviews (18)
View Photos
Ice Dreams Skating Academy Rating
Address: 130 Racco Pkwy, Thornhill, Ontario, Canada, L4J 8X9
Phone: |
Show more...
|
Web: |
|
E-mails: |
Sign in to see
|
Add contact information for Ice Dreams Skating Academy
Add new contacts
Thank you to the Staff and coaches at Ice Dreams Skating AcademyMy family and I have skated out of the Vaughan and North York Location and we have been thrilled with our children's progressSo thrilled that my husband and I started taking skating lessons! We will be referring other friends and family to you
The purpose of this complaint is to let anyone know about the negative aspects of the service this academy offers and the bad experience we had in the North York location as well with their customer service For starters, the information in their webpage is inaccurate and incomplete We donâ t own skates and one thing that I found very attractive in the academy is the rental of the equipmentThe reason of this is because we are introducing our year old son yo skating lessons and we were not sure if he was going to enjoy this sport, thatâ s why we didn't want to make any investment until we were sure he was enjoying his classes In their webpage all the fees are published including the equipment rental, however is not specified that they donâ t have all the sizes and that we need to call in advance to make the request for the equipment We have visited other ice rinks that offer the rental of the equipment on site and they have all the sizes available, we assumed this will be the case and again is not specified in the webpage that we should call in advance to make this request Since we did not know the above, we missed our first lesson without any chance to have any make up class or refund (We did my homework and their policies for refunds and make up class are very well defined, precise and clear, I can see that in that matter they didn't hesitate to put all the information well stated and clear) In our second class there was another disappointment, of course I called in the week to request the equipment, the lady who answered the phone asked me about the size of my child, I told her the size of his regular shoes (-kid size) since Iâ m not expert in skate sizing, she replied that how come a year old can be a full size, I calmly explained to her that for kids there is a different scale (kids size), but anyway, she should know better, this tells me the lack of knowledge regarding small kids sizesAnyways, she asked again the age and let me know that she will figure it out to bring the right equipment for my son, of course I trusted her since they are the expertsI provided my credit card number so she could make the charge of the rentalAlso I was informed that you donâ t have equipment for adults (my husband needed the equipment since we are enrolled in a parent and tot class), so in order to continue with the classes without any more issues my husband had to purchase skates and helmet in order to be able to skate with my son The following Saturday we arrived to minutes before the class started to get settled with the equipment, to be honest, I wasn't sure if their team will bring the equipment requestedThe class starts at 1:pm and the ice dreams staff arrived at that time sharp, one young lady let my husband know that the equipment was in another car, that another person was unloading the equipment and will be given to us promptly, it took around or minutes to get the equipment and I had to go inside of their change room to ask one of them if they had the equipment! Nobody cared but me and my husband! So once the person who was inside confirmed that the equipment was on a bin, we had to rush and put the skates and helmet to our son, and of course, they were too big, the size were Y10, we tied it very tight to avoid any accidents or injuries for him, the helmet same thing, too large, he could barely see and the straps didn't close properly, one side was broken We had the best disposition to finally start with the lesson, once we were able to put the oversize equipment we headed to the ice rink and one young instructor (female) received our son in the ice and snatched him to the other side of the rink, without even asking his name or what class he belonged to!! Once she got to the other side, then she yelled asking what his name was We had our first class with one substitute instructor (hockey instructor) due that the regular instructor was in a competitionThis instructor was very kind and tried to teach our son how to get up from the ice with the skates, he was the first person in the team that I could tell that he knew he was talking about, very professional However he did his best, he tried doing it outside the ice, in the ice, then with a chair and of course I could see that my son is not ready yet, in fact he was the youngest child in the rinkSince we started late and there were not much to do with my son he was teaching some techniques to my husband to make up the lesson, but the same lady that took my son in the rink passed by quickly an in a very rude manner told the coach that we only paid for half an hour, but the coach told her that we had a late start (by the way for her fault of not caring and not giving the equipment on time!) One last thing, I gave the academy my credit card information so they could charge the rental, apparently they lost that information and called again to ask for it without offering an apology, you could clearly see they are more interested in charging that caringThey have no idea about customer service and they should since you are providing a service! If anyone is reading this while researching this academy please beware! There are several bad comments going around online and we should have listened to them before we took the plunge with this unprofessional business
Love the program! Great coaches!
My son really enjoys his lessons and looks forward to them each week. The instructors are great at teaching him and he's made a lot of progress!
We signed up our year old for a winter break skating camp at the Ice Dreams Skating Academy, the program indicated it's good for toddler's first skating experience, we were a bit worried and so only signed him up for half day camps for days so he can get a taste of skating, since he's always been interested in skating and hockey The program consists parts, a sporting hour (play some balls on the ground), eat snacks, and then one hour on iceWe were a bit worried if my son was going to like it since this is the first time we would drop him off for a camp but he was so excited when we got there he didn't even come back to say good bye after we sign him in Ice session was between 11am-12pmWe got there early at 11:to see how he's doing, however, saw him sobbing on iceWe walked closer and saw he didn't have his snowpants onWe immediately asked the instructor why doesn't he have his snowpants on, the instructor says she doesn't know as she is not the one who dressed himSo we took him off the ice, he was only in a thin layer of pants and it was half wet from the ice, we later asked him why he was crying and he said he fell and it hurts, and then they just let him sit on cold ice in his wet pants!! Immediately we asked the supervisor what happened, why was him not in his snowpants, the first response from the supervisor was "Sometimes kids don't want to put on snowpants", even without actually trying to find out what really happened, I never had issues at school with my son not following instructions, so I express that I do not think that's the case, and she kept asking us if the snowpants was in his bag, and I said Yes because I personally packed it! Finally she said she will find out We dressed my son, changed him into dry pants, and trying to pack up to leave, then all the kids came back to dressing room and I saw the two "teenagers" who was supposed to be responsible to dress the kids, so I confronted one of the girl why my son wasn't in his snowpants, immediate response from her was "I have so many kids to change, I told everyone they should put on their snowpants", I was shocked in her responseThere were many kids, true, but there were only a few that are toddlers, most are older kids, yes, you can tell older kids they need to dress in their snowpants and they know what to do, you cannot expect a year old first time skater to follow exact instructions, perhaps you should pay more attention to the youngest toddlers in the group?! It is their responsiblility to dress the kids properly for the class, and they failed to do so and trying to blame the kids?! Anyhow, we later received apologies from the supervisor, but that attitude in handling the whole situation was truly disappointingPerhaps they are good for older kids, but definitely not toddlers Overall I was very dissatisfied with each of people who was involved in this situation: The changing staff missed putting on snowpants, but blaming the kid for it the ice instructor failed to see that a toddler is crying in wet pants sitting on ice - isn't it logical sense that perhaps you should take him off the ice if you see a kid crying sitting on ice with wet pants? The supervisor tries to draw conclusions even before looking into why this happened Too bad for me, now my son is scared of the ice and refuse to even go on ice with me, I hope other people won't make the same mistake I didI definitely won't recommend these guys due to the above reasons
My child learned how to skate with ice dreams skating academy. She enjoyed the summer camp last year, we decided to have her join the camp for the 2nd year
My daughter started this camp for the first time and loves it! The staff are fun and friendly and she is excited to go to camp each morning! I will definitely be signing her up again next year for more than just 1 week. Only minor downfall is that it takes a while to sign out your kid at 4pm, there is always a line.
All the coaches are very patient with the kids! The group sizes are perfect and each child is well attended to!
Amazing skating school. Great coaches that care. My daughter loves going for her skating lessons at Ice Dreams. She has made great progress through out the year. We will definitely be signing up for summer camp this year. If you're looking for a great skating school look no further.
Coaches are really nice, they are extremely patient about little kids, give them enough support to make them comfortable to go on the ice. Really a nice place to start learning skating.
I purchased over $700 in skating lessons for myself and for my daughter. The owner, *** reassured me that during my 6 lessons, I will be placed in an adult-only group and will have a coach. At the second lesson, I was the only adult participant, the other "coaches" who were teaching young children were not helpful, did not assist me or show me techniques. As a result of not having a coach, I fell several times and sustained a serious thoracic spine injury. After I presented extensive medical documentation, *** refused to take accountability or refund me the lessons that were not used. She withheld $80 in administration fees ($40 for myself and $40 for my daughter whom I was no longer able to drive to her lessons due to my injury). She also withheld $63 in private skating lessons for my daughter (lessons which she never took; 3 lessons of 15 minutes each costing $21/lesson), $43 for not providing me with an instructor and not placing me in an age-appropriate group on Dec 27, 2018.
Therefore, I am contesting $186 plus tax ($210.18). The coaches are not certified through Skate Canada's National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), lack experience and the vast majority are high school teenagers with no interpersonal skills let alone coaching skills.
Refund the remainder of my $.
We do regret to hear you were injured during our ice time. We do understand that injury may occur during sports and in order for us to run a functional ice skating academy we have a set policy in place and do not via around this policy. All customers prior to stepping on the ice have a waiver to sign, which you did as well which states, "By signing below, the applicant has read and understands Ice Dreams Skating Academy's Policy." We are strong believers that if we do via around our policies for one family, we must do this for all families. If we did this for all families, we would not have a functional business nor be able to maintain our quality. As per our policy, which states: "A credit will be applied to a skater during camp for severe medical reasons with a doctor's certificate ONLY." "Credits are only held until the next official camp and an administrative non-refundable fee will apply to all credits." When you presented us with chiropractic receipts, which you demanded we pay for you we did tell you the only thing we can do as per our policy is apply a refund for the week you were missing with the administrative fee. You then demanded us to cancel your daughter's lesson, which we also did but as per our policy, "When you register for our Camps, we are holding a spot for you. A $40.00 non-refundable fee will apply for each week of camp if cancelled prior to the start of camp." We also mentioned that the private lesson coach was already accounted for and as per our policy: "All sales are final for Private Lessons, Before Care, After Care, and Lunch & Snack Options during camp." When you enrol for our programs we automatically reserve the spot as that is only fair for our paying customers. This is the reason for our holding fee policy. As for the private lessons the coaches are booked for this prior and already invoice us thus we cannot reverse what is already accounted for. *** did disconnect with you as customers needed to speak with her and she did not feel that the ***, accusations, *** and conversation was going anywhere thus felt email communication was most suitable. Ice Dreams Skating Academy is a long-standing business. As much as we wish we could teach all our skaters whom express an interest in our favourite sport of ice skating for free we have overhead costs. In order for us to continue our business and to pay our staff to continue their efforts in instilling the love of the sport of skating we do have to charge customers and have set policies in place.
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)The business's explanation is a justification of policies that are designed to extort $ out of customers.Ice Dreams Skating Academy sells tuition refund options and price protection fees, whereas other skating clubs even community centres do not engage in such *** tactics. I sent *** screenshots of the cost of private lessons posted on her website ($18/15 minutes) and rather than honoring them, she charged me the new fee ($21/15 minutes) that was higher than what was advertised online.I did not demand that the business pay for my chiropractor receipts. In fact, I submitted a letter from my chiropractor stating that the results of my injuries were due to a fall on the ice while skating; I was the only adult learner on the ice, I did not have an instructor and although I asked the other instructors for help, I did not receive any guidance. Note that the instructors or coaches are mostly high-school students who are not certified through Skate Canada's National Coaching Certification Program. This was not a recreational skate, I paid for lessons that were not delivered. In addition to the letter from my doctor, I attached 3 chiropractic receipts as evidence. *** proceeded to tell me how her mother goes to the chiropractor regularly and the 3 receipts could indicate I just went for adjustments unrelated to the injury! I was appalled at her lack of *** and sympathy, as the owner of the business, I expected a higher level of customer service and empathy. She doe not have a medical degree yet made critical comments on the extent and severity of my injuries. I had to have the chiropractic adjustments done due to a high-level of pain in my spine after falling multiple times on the ice surface without an instructor present and without help from anyone to get up.*** was argumentative on phone calls, ***, talked over me, interrupted me and without notice hung up the phone on me. The vast majority of our communication was through email and she did not apologize or even acknowledged hanging up on me.The $40 non-refundable fee was actually $80 because *** applied it to both myself and my daughter, whom I could no longer drive to her lessons as I was injured. ***. The fees were paid from the same credit card and I cancelled PRIOR to the start of the second week of camp according to the refund policy. I cancelled on Dec 28 for Jan 2-4, 2019 camp.She withheld $80 in administration fees ($40 for myself and $40 for my daughter whom I was no longer able to drive to her lessons due to my injury). She also withheld $63 in private skating lessons for my daughter (lessons which she never took; 3 lessons of 15 minutes each costing $21/lesson), $43 for not providing me with an instructor and not placing me in an age-appropriate group on Dec 27, 2018.Therefore, I am contesting $186 plus tax ($210.18).
It is hard to find a full day skating camp at this affordable rate, especially if you register early to get the early bird discount. Many kids at the same age and level in the camp so my kid is not afraid to go by himself. The best thing is that you can all get private lessons here which is great for working parents as this saves a great amount of time.
Hi! I just wanted to say I so impressed with the program!
You guys are amazing especially Elizabeth. Thank you for taking the time with Michael to make him feel comfortable on the ice! He loves it thanks to you!
We signed up our 3 year old for a winter break skating camp at the Ice Dreams Skating Academy, the program indicated it's good for toddler's first skating experience, we were a bit worried and so only signed him up for half day camps for 2 days so he can get a taste of skating, since he's always been interested in skating and hockey.
The program consists 2 parts, a sporting hour (play some balls on the ground), eat snacks, and then one hour on ice. We were a bit worried if my son was going to like it since this is the first time we would drop him off for a camp but he was so excited when we got there he didn't even come back to say good bye after we sign him in.
Ice session was between 11am-12pm. We got there early at 11:30 to see how he's doing, however, saw him sobbing on ice. We walked closer and saw he didn't have his snowpants on. We immediately asked the instructor why doesn't he have his snowpants on, the instructor says she doesn't know as she is not the one who dressed him. So we took him off the ice, he was only in a thin layer of pants and it was half wet from the ice, we later asked him why he was crying and he said he fell and it hurts, and then they just let him sit on cold ice in his wet pants!!
Immediately we asked the supervisor what happened, why was him not in his snowpants, the first response from the supervisor was "Sometimes kids don't want to put on snowpants", even without actually trying to find out what really happened, I never had issues at school with my son not following instructions, so I express that I do not think that's the case, and she kept asking us if the snowpants was in his bag, and I said Yes because I personally packed it! Finally she said she will find out.
We dressed my son, changed him into dry pants, and trying to pack up to leave, then all the kids came back to dressing room and I saw the two "teenagers" who was supposed to be responsible to dress the kids, so I confronted one of the girl why my son wasn't in his snowpants, immediate response from her was "I have so many kids to change, I told everyone they should put on their snowpants", I was shocked in her response. There were many kids, true, but there were only a few that are toddlers, most are older kids, yes, you can tell older kids they need to dress in their snowpants and they know what to do, you cannot expect a 3 year old first time skater to follow exact instructions, perhaps you should pay more attention to the youngest toddlers in the group?! It is their responsiblility to dress the kids properly for the class, and they failed to do so and trying to blame the kids?!
Anyhow, we later received apologies from the supervisor, but that attitude in handling the whole situation was truly disappointing. Perhaps they are good for older kids, but definitely not toddlers.
Overall I was very dissatisfied with each of people who was involved in this situation:
1. The changing staff missed putting on snowpants, but blaming the kid for it
2. the ice instructor failed to see that a toddler is crying in wet pants sitting on ice - isn't it logical sense that perhaps you should take him off the ice if you see a kid crying sitting on ice with wet pants?
3. The supervisor tries to draw conclusions even before looking into why this happened.
Too bad for me, now my son is scared of the ice and refuse to even go on ice with me, I hope other people won't make the same mistake I did. I definitely won't recommend these guys due to the above reasons.
Thank you to the Staff and coaches at Ice Dreams Skating Academy. My family and I have skated out of the Vaughan and North York Location and we have been thrilled with our children's progress. So thrilled that my husband and I started taking skating lessons!
We will be referring other friends and family to you.
I read these reviews and decided not listen to them especially after going and checking out the session with my child and speaking to the representatives at Ice Dreams Skating Academy. We signed my child up for March Break Camp and he had a great time. Not only did he enjoy it he has improved his skating skills so much. They were right...the consistency of being on the ice really shows. The coaches were so attentive. They even help put on all the kids equipment safely before they go on the ice. We have now signed him up to continue for the spring season as well as for Summer Camp. You will hear from us once we experience the spring and summer camp. Thanks to Ice Dreams we will be enrolling our child into house league hockey which is his goal.
The purpose of this complaint is to let anyone know about the negative aspects of the service this academy offers and the bad experience we had in the North York location as well with their customer service
For starters, the information in their webpage is inaccurate and incomplete.
We donât own skates and one thing that I found very attractive in the academy is the rental of the equipment. The reason of this is because we are introducing our 3 year old son yo skating lessons and we were not sure if he was going to enjoy this sport, thatâs why we didn't want to make any investment until we were sure he was enjoying his classes.
In their webpage all the fees are published including the equipment rental, however is not specified that they donât have all the sizes and that we need to call in advance to make the request for the equipment.
We have visited other ice rinks that offer the rental of the equipment on site and they have all the sizes available, we assumed this will be the case and again is not specified in the webpage that we should call in advance to make this request.
Since we did not know the above, we missed our first lesson without any chance to have any make up class or refund (We did my homework and their policies for refunds and make up class are very well defined, precise and clear, I can see that in that matter they didn't hesitate to put all the information well stated and clear).
In our second class there was another disappointment, of course I called in the week to request the equipment, the lady who answered the phone asked me about the size of my child, I told her the size of his regular shoes (7.5 -8 kid size) since Iâm not expert in skate sizing, she replied that how come a 3 year old can be a full 7.5 size, I calmly explained to her that for kids there is a different scale (kids size), but anyway, she should know better, this tells me the lack of knowledge regarding small kids sizes. Anyways, she asked again the age and let me know that she will figure it out to bring the right equipment for my son, of course I trusted her since they are the experts. I provided my credit card number so she could make the charge of the rental. Also I was informed that you donât have equipment for adults (my husband needed the equipment since we are enrolled in a parent and tot class), so in order to continue with the classes without any more issues my husband had to purchase skates and helmet in order to be able to skate with my son.
The following Saturday we arrived 15 to 20 minutes before the class started to get settled with the equipment, to be honest, I wasn't sure if their team will bring the equipment requested. The class starts at 1:30 pm and the ice dreams staff arrived at that time sharp, one young lady let my husband know that the equipment was in another car, that another person was unloading the equipment and will be given to us promptly, it took around 10 or 15 minutes to get the equipment and I had to go inside of their change room to ask one of them if they had the equipment! Nobody cared but me and my husband! So once the person who was inside confirmed that the equipment was on a bin, we had to rush and put the skates and helmet to our son, and of course, they were too big, the size were Y10, we tied it very tight to avoid any accidents or injuries for him, the helmet same thing, too large, he could barely see and the straps didn't close properly, one side was broken.
We had the best disposition to finally start with the lesson, once we were able to put the oversize equipment we headed to the ice rink and one young instructor (female) received our son in the ice and snatched him to the other side of the rink, without even asking his name or what class he belonged to!! Once she got to the other side, then she yelled asking what his name was.
We had our first class with one substitute instructor (hockey instructor) due that the regular instructor was in a competition. This instructor was very kind and tried to teach our son how to get up from the ice with the skates, he was the first person in the team that I could tell that he knew he was talking about, very professional.
However he did his best, he tried doing it outside the ice, in the ice, then with a chair and of course I could see that my son is not ready yet, in fact he was the youngest child in the rink. Since we started late and there were not much to do with my son he was teaching some techniques to my husband to make up the lesson, but the same lady that took my son in the rink passed by quickly an in a very rude manner told the coach that we only paid for half an hour, but the coach told her that we had a late start (by the way for her fault of not caring and not giving the equipment on time!).
One last thing, I gave the academy my credit card information so they could charge the rental, apparently they lost that information and called again to ask for it without offering an apology, you could clearly see they are more interested in charging that caring. They have no idea about customer service and they should since you are providing a service!
If anyone is reading this while researching this academy please beware! There are several bad comments going around online and we should have listened to them before we took the plunge with this unprofessional business
My husband heard about Ice Dreams through a coworker at work. They were at another skating school and had no success. Their child had such a bad experience but they decided to go to Ice Dreams and try it out. Their child now skates with Ice Dreams 4 days a week and is in the Pre-Competitive Figure Skating Academy. We decided to give it a shot during March Break Camp since the kids are friends.
Everyday it was a struggle having them leave to go home!!! They made so many friends and their coaches/counsellors made them feel so comfortable and confident I have never seen anything like it and we have attended a number of camps.
I am thankful Ice Dreams runs camps all year. My daughter has built a true appreciation for ice skating. She is even attending her friends Medal Ceremony at the end of this season so she can visit the coaches and counsellors. Based on my experience, I would recommend this skating academy as well as their camps to my family and friends.