Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre — Attraction in Toronto

The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre is not a realistic gym to use for the general public. This fitness centre only benefits UTSC students (as its part of their tuition) and Olympic athletes. Why you ask? Here we go:

1.) I was invoiced twice in one month. I had to email the Director of the TPASC for a refund which took another month to complete as their customer service reps didn't know what to do or how to handle anything. I had signed up for a second month in which their management cancelled my membership and did not offer anything in return until I complained.

2.) Parking is only 2hrs in duration, then a $2 fee applies. No other gym in the GTA charges for parking for its paying members.

3.) You have to sign-in with your membership card twice. Once to use the facility and the second time for the gym. You have to keep your membership card on you to use the gym. While you are working out, your card will eventually get lost especially if you are doing lots of cardio. This happened to me and I was charged an additional 10.00$ for reprinting a card. Again unrealistic.

4.) Customer service is very poor. They were not trained on how to handle irate customers nor does high level management both with paying member complaints. There is always a line up on busy nights for handling customer service requests. The smart thing to do here would be to have a designated customer service rep for PAYING members, and another to deal with other general inquiries. Instead you end up waiting 30 minutes in line which then feeds into your parking time which results in you having to pay for parking fees.

5.) My membership card was never scanning properly in the weight room. I always had to have someone from the front desk of the weight room to enter my account ID manually. This took another 10 minutes which fed into my workout time/parking time.

6.) Lastly after being in contact with the TPASC Director and Sales reps, I was only offered a 1 month free trial. Initially I had requested parking to be free for all paying members and a reduction in membership monthly fees. Monthly fees range from 75$-$120/month per person depending on what package you sign up with. What was the outcome? A bunch of ignored emails that I had escalated to upper management with no resolution at all. Instead of caring about customer satisfaction, they rather just ignore reaching settlements of any kind. TPASC needs to understand that valuing customers is what matters the most and if you cannot meet their needs as a service provider then most likely will lead to more complaints and cancellations of memberships. Worst gym experience of my life in such a short period of time.

A message to the general public: If you are not a UTSC student or an Olympic athelete, you are better off signing up for any other fitness centre eg. YMCA Scarb/Goodlife/LA Fitness/Wynn/Snap/Worlds Gym etc anywhere OTHER...

Visited the Pan Am Center during the Toronto's Doors Open Event that happened from May 24-25.

It seems like every hour there's a guided tour that takes a group around the Pan Am facilities. We came here to check out and see what the Pan Am Center was all about, as we had never been inside before.

The tour took the group through the gates that requires a pass to get through. It looked like people were tapping a card at the gates to get into all the other areas within the center.

The tour guide (she read off a few sheets of paper), brought our group to the rock climbing area, then downstairs to show us where and how people rent stuff, to the changing rooms, the fitness gym area (pretty well packed and stocked with all sorts of gym equipment), the basketball courts & the track course, the mini/small food court, where classes are held and who can rent them, the outside area where people can chill in warmer weather...

We were also told that the 2 new structures that are currently being built is: a structure parking lot and a University of Toronto medical building.

Inside the centre, there's a small food court that houses a Tim Hortons, a Pizza, and something else. They also have this fancy looking TV screen and sensor that helps you choose which garbage you shout sort your trash.

In the main lobby area, there's a Booster Juice, an sports clothing type store, and some clothing stall selling some sort of merch.

We also learned that University of Toronto students get free access to the Pan Am Centre, as well as being able to sign up to various lessons/courses (don't know if that's free too, probably is).

One of the huge banners I saw said that the University of Toronto students pledged to fund ~$25 million dollars to the Pan Am Centre, so that future students will have good facilities to use. Fun fact.

Overall, the swimming pools are huge (lane swimming, swimming classes, dive pool). The Pan Am Centre looks kind of small on the outside, but it's pretty huge on the inside. The changing rooms connect to the fitness section and the swimming section.

Seems like a pretty cool place. The tour guide did a good job with advertising the centre, cause there were a few people within our tour group who were interested in signing up for...

It is family day today. It is so poorly organized. You can't find parking in the first place. I have a swimming pass with the city. After spending a lot of time to find a parking. We were told to register at the line up before they can grant us admission. And the way they told you is :" It should be closed today. We opened it. And it is free to all so that you are allowed to go into the pool. But you have to register first and get a wrist band. " It is by their "grace", you are allowed to swimming. While I left the pool the day before, I have no idea that it will be so chaotic. No notification of whatsoever. Otherwise, I would be bothered to go and encountered the harassment.

I thought in all the days of my life, that you can use your lane pass the lane swimming opens. Is not what a membership pass for?

Today TPASC did a good gesture to general public by granting all free admission. But they discrimanted their own community patrons. Wait, this is not 100 percent true. Because they allow those who have a "higher"membership whose passes include gym access to go in freely. Why? Because they paid more. They dare not to offend them and lose their revenue. It is correct to protect their rights. Why treat city passes like garbage? Isnot TPASC a united facility? Hypocrites

What to say, those who are only interested in swimming, you better upgrade your membership to pay a higher price in order to be able use the facility freely as a decent member even though you do not use the gym. ( Paying a higher a price will give you the prestige and previlege) . Other wise on special occasions, your pass is useless.

The young guy tried his best to stop me from having access to the pool. Does not he have a sense of fairness? What have you achieved by seeing other's disappointment?

It has never happened like this before on family days. It opened to public before, but never refused to let us in. Poor leadership, poor staff who are...