Grotto Climbing & Yoga — Local services in San Diego

Tldr: sketchy owners call woman “emotional” and live up to their reputation of having not paid employees during the pandemic and having not given members a chance to cancel their memberships, and then not giving anyone a refund even though they shut down. Do not recommend supporting them.

The story: I had a groupon that was incorrectly marked as redeemed. Seemed like a backend issue so i contacted groupon support. They said okay no worries just need confirmation from the gym that you never went that day! Easy.

So i email them, explain the situation, and ask “can i just get a simple confirmation”.

The owner, Matt, replies (i assume he meant to change the recipient to his co-owner) “maysam do not reply to groupon emails we dont do refunds” 🙃😂

So i reply back hey i get it but i just need confirmation from you guys so GROUPON can handle the technical error. No response so i try again. And again. And finally Matt replies again “do not reply to this email” again to me instead of maysam lol boomer behavior…

So i call. And i find out its matt whos picked up. So i ask him then, “hey i just need the confirmation” and he says i should email billing, theres clearly some miscommunication, we dont do groupon stuff, contact groupon support—and i say again and again, no i did all that, all i need is confirmation from you. And then he calls me emotional.

Lol

Classic move from a beta male — super not cool… sounds like he’d be a beta sprayer…

Anyways so i just emailed groupon support again to update them whats going on bc im def not gonna talk with him again yuck. Like if dealing with this groupon issue is gonna make or break ur business, you gotta rethink ur business model. 🧐

So yeah, highly do not recommend supporting this business....

The best bouldering in SD, but that’s not saying much.

This gym in particular is a bit small with very few amenities. They have the weights and hangboards outside. It’s nice on occasion but it’s separate from everything else so you can’t really connect with the community. Plus when it rains, they become unusable (for the typical human).

The way the set is extremely infuriating. They take down a wall the day before they set it, so if you come in on a Tuesday a wall is completely stripped. Their grading is lazy and all over the place. They had grades then switched to tape. When the colors of the tape look the same (no I’m not color blind but others are) and the first four grades are different colors anyway, why even have the tape? The setters’ job is to put up routes and grade them, not make it difficult for us to know what we’re climbing.

The setting isn’t fun either. When every crux is the last move, it gets old trying to figure out beta by climbing the route 20 times. And sometimes the beta is just to campus or do something tweaky. Not fun. I’m definitely getting weaker because I don’t want to climb.

The only things going for this gym are the yoga classes and the kilter board. However the kilter board is also separate from the rest of the climbing, so it’s pretty isolating.

All of this for $98/month? No thank you.

EDIT: Kilter board is broken. Only half of the...

Man where do I begin! The Grotto Gym is home. Amazing community, facilities and really knowledgeable staff with very big hearts. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease a few years ago and could no longer climb for awhile. When it happened I still had about 8 months on my Grotto membership. I reached out to their customer service and got in touch with Maysam. He was able to pause my membership till I was 100%. While I was going through recovery I received an email that my grotto gym membership was going to expire. I hadn't been climbing since my diagnosis so it would be pretty much go to waste.

This man Maysam is truly an angel. I briefed him on the situation and he gave me a full year membership and wouldn't start it until I was 100% healthy. A fellow climber he knew was also diagnosed with Lyme disease so he knew first hand just how terrible it is. I'm still out of commission but can't wait to come back. Maysam thank you so much for all your help and encouragement through this very tough time in my life! You are such a blessing to know. Thank you Grotto gym for creating a safe space where folks can climb, create lasting friendships...