Boulder YMCA — Local services in Boulder

I was in Boulder temporarily and signed up for a monthly membership and locker rental for the month of October only, paid my month up front for my membership on Oct 2 using my debit card. I did not want to have my membership on auto pay and clarified that I could pay with my debit card but not keep it on file and Kathy at the front agreed, I even offered to go get cash but she insisted it was ok. I returned a couple days later to rent a locker and had no choice but to put my card on file for the $20/mo locker fee, they said didn’t accept month to month payments for lockers. I knew I wouldn’t be there long but a monthly membership was cheaper than buying day passes and on Oct 11 it was time to move on to Portland, the next leg of my trip. I went to the front desk and told Kathy I needed to cancel my membership and locker as I was leaving Colorado for Oregon. She suggested I keep it and use it in other states and I said that I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to and that I wasn’t returning to Colorado ever (I’m from Texas), making conversation more than anything else and filled out the required form to cancel my membership. She told me to return my locker sticker by the end of the day so when I used the facilities for the last time that evening, I emptied my locker and handed in my sticker to the employee on duty telling her my locker #, that I was leaving the state and wouldn’t be back, and that Kathy told me to be sure to turn in my locker sticker. And that was that.

On Nov 2 I was charged for both the monthly membership and locker fees despite clear communication, returning my locker sticker and signing a cancellation form. I called the same day and initially there was a lot of confusion since I didn’t have the name of the employee I handed my locker sticker to and Kathy remembered things differently but she agreed to cancel the locker fee while looking into the membership fee. Which she did but then charged it to my card again the following day. I called back on Nov 6 and Kathy said she’d made a mistake, cancelled the duplicate charge for the locker and this time cancelled the membership fee as well, and that was that.

Until I looked at my account and saw that the membership fee had been charged again to my card, just after it had been cancelled. Both times unauthorized. Only this time when I called back Kathy didn’t want to help me anymore so gave me an email address for Maggie who she said would get the charge removed. Maggie hasn’t responded to my emails until yesterday after I called Kathy to let her know, only saying she didn’t have the ability to remove the charge and would forward my email to a Kathleen. It’s Nov 14 and the charge is still on my account and I’ve heard nothing from Kathy, Kathleen or Maggie. Will likely have to dispute the charge once it hits 30 days without one of them correcting the mistake. A very unfortunate situation for me, I hope no one else has the same experience. If I had it to do all over again, I’d have paid in cash and not rented the locker since they would t accept...

This review is in regards to the awful experience we had with the Y Riders program last summer. Our 6 year old still refuses to go near his bike after the week he spent there. We requested a refund, but were ultimately denied. Here was the email sent to the YMCA:

After talking with our son yesterday post camp, it seems he did not make any progress in the camp and even after we requested some more assistance, he received little help. We decided not bring him back today (Friday) as it seems the majority of his week was spent sitting around in a parking lot with not much to do. My husband drove by in the morning yesterday and saw most of the Y-Riders kids just sit around and draw with chalk. Our son mentioned that they did this most of the day and that each time he tried to ride the bike, he was just on his own, trying the same thing over and over again with no actual instruction on how to work through these issues.

We are truly disappointed in this experience and do not feel what was advertised about this camp, such as "low teacher to student ratio" or "100% success rate", "very small classes", "individual attention to cyclists" was even close to being accurate.

Other issues of note for the camp this week:

The camp staff did not seem to remember our son nor recognize the parents day to day. On Tuesday when we asked how our son was progressing, they did not seem to have any idea who he was and could not provide an update about his progress, and when my husband came by again later in the morning, they again had no idea who he was, despite having talked to them specifically about helping our son today.

Camp staff seemed generally overwhelmed, and two different staff members voiced concerns directly to my husband about there being too many kids. They also mentioned there was no organized curriculum - no plan to run the day, which is especially disappointing for the price of this program. I do want to note that the first day of camp seemed to go well when Brittany Vella was teaching. Our son had a good time. But it seemed that the rest of the days when Brittany was not there, it was not well organized.

Thursday during the pickup was absolute chaos, and the staff was not doing anything about it, kids running and screaming everywhere and food all over the floor, toys thrown everywhere, etc. This does not seem like a safe and well-organized environment for kids.

At no time during the pickup this week did anyone check my ID. Anyone could have taken my child out of there. This is unacceptable and extremely concerning, and a larger problem that should be addressed immediately.

We will be requesting a refund because the class description did not match the experience. And we hope that this program will be evaluated and improved to make it a better...

My child is in the YMCA summer program and it has been an absolutely terrible experience. The staff are unexperienced and the children are often hardly supervised in the gym. My child has had trouble listening in the program due to the lack of structure and threats from the staff members, such as being kicked out. Lilly Hirst has threatened my child with punishments of staying alone in the gym and cleaning it, and not being able to be with other children. Absolutely not ok! She also sent my child home for saying a bad word, insinuating we allow cursing in our home. That is unacceptable! *the bad word was: loser, Which my child apologized. Another child broke a glass bottle, after my child said she wouldn't break it, and the staff tried to blame her as well, and then they apologized to her. This is all beyond ridiculous! Lilly Hirst was upset with my child for spilling a container or beads and not being "enthusiastic" about cleaning it up, while my child WAS picking them up. That is not ok! Kids spill things and do not have to be excited about cleaning them up. My child was assaulted by an adult member of the Y who hit her, where was the staff?? He is charged with child abuse now and this happened in your facility! My child's group has not gone on any field trips (twice to scott carpenter) That was not what the description of the Ymcas program was. We have spent a lot of money for quality care for our child, and we did not receive that. I am extremely disappointed with the lack of staff, and the staffs lack of experience with children. I am very unhappy with the way this program was ran. My child did nothing but run around in a gym 90% of her time at the Y, and be bullied by the staff because they did not provide a structured program for the children, and could not properly supervise them to keep them safe and out of trouble, as well as lacked the skills to properly take care of children. I am beyond upset with your program and your staff and the treatment of...