Palo Alto Family YMCA — Attraction in Palo Alto

After three months of membership at the YMCA, I’ve decided to cancel due to some really disappointing experiences, especially related to the pool. I primarily joined to take my kids swimming, but several issues have made it an unpleasant experience:

Rude Members: On one occasion, I was in Lane 1 with my child since the family pool was closed. A member approached us and asked us to leave, even though the lifeguard had said it was fine that kids can swim in lane 1 when family pool is over capacity. She then jumped into the pool, intentionally knocking into both me and my child. Despite the lifeguards’ support, this incident left us feeling very unwelcome. Inconsistent Lifeguard Rules: Different lifeguards enforce different rules, which creates confusion. Some allow me to swim separately from my kids in Lane 1, while others insist that I stay together with my kid, which makes it impossible for kid to learn and practice swimming independently. There’s also inconsistency about using the spa – sometimes I’ve been able to go in with my kids, but today I was told that anyone under 18 is not allowed, which was a surprise. Overcrowded Pool and Poor Communication: The pool is often full, with lanes packed due to swimming lessons, and there’s inconsistent treatment regarding how many people can swim. Sometimes lanes have 3 people, but other times we’re told to wait due to capacity limits, even though there’s no signage indicating the maximum capacity.

I’ve emailed the YMCA leadership two months ago about adding clear signage to avoid misunderstanding and they promised to address the issue, but nothing has changed yet.

These repeated issues have made the pool experience frustrating and unwelcoming for families, and that’s why I’ve decided to end...

Stone age in online service. Staff on reception is not helpful. The story: they charge my membership from credit card every month. I never received any receipts for this on my email. I have fitness reimbursement program in my company that allows to reimburse certain amount of money for fitness membership, so when it comes to date to apply for it, I started to find a way to get my receipts for last several months. First I looked for something like personal account on their web site, I was sure that I can simply register and get access to all my receipts as it is a standard thing in the morden world. It turns out they don't have such a thing and I asked on reception if they can print receipts for me. They gave me a form to request this information that I should fill out. The next day I was in the center again and decided to double-check if they emailed it to me as didn't receive it and my email address was written on the form by hand so there was a chance of mistake when reading it. They said it takes two week to do it! Two weeks! Can you imagine that such a simple thing that normally takes 5 minutes requires 2 weeks to be done? I asked is there more simple and fast way to do it. The answer was "no because our admin only works once a week and she is not only here for your emails". I can't believe that such a serious service with wide network of locations doesn't have any other ways to get the simplest thing done except for saying you wait for two weeks as the only person who can do it is a misterious admin! In the case of there is a mistake it will probably take them another two weeks to correct it, that for me means I will skip reimbursement window. It is...

I strongly do not recommend you or your family coming here. I have several reasons that you should avoid this place.

-YMCA staff is vague and unhelpful, as they won't do much to help the members and won't make even small changes.

-The service is quite pathetic, coming from my own experience and others as well. Emails are very slow.

-The wifi is not the greatest, often disconnecting randomly and not working properly.

-Swimming pool smells strongly of chlorine and a few of the life guards are inappropriate and like to stare at minors who swim, such as them following minors around and staying near them.

-Gr**ing happens in the swimming pool as well, mainly to underaged kids. If you don't believe this, just contact the Palo Alto Police, and there are several reports of it. If you don't want your kids to experience anything unsettling or uncomfortable by the actions of the staff, please avoid the YMCA pool.

-If you end up deciding to buy a membership here, note that there it is very crowded during the afternoon and evening times especially. Lot's of classes going around in the pool, so it is better in the lap pool.

-To end it on a good note, there are lots of machines here and the facility is mainly clean...