Anthony Bowen Branch YMCA — Local services in Washington

My partner and I were members at this gym for over a year and really enjoy most of our time at the gym. The guys at the front desk (Jaylen and Kaylen) were very pleasant but oddly enough, there was one woman in particular who we never had a pleasant interaction with. Since my partner and I moved further away, we decided to cancel our membership. We sent out an email to a customer service email address and provided one month notice as we were told to do. Here’s where our experience started turning sour. We didn’t hear back from the customer service email for a few business days after requesting cancellation. It wasn’t until we followed up requesting a status of our cancellation that someone finally replied. They said our cancellation had been processed and that our membership would expire at the end of the month. My partner and I figured that was the end of it as one would naturally assume. Well, the next month came and we were charged unexpectedly. We reached back out to the member services team along with the confirmation email that established our cancellation and requested a refund. We figured they would promptly realize their mistake and provide a refund within a few business days. We were wrong… our first email was ignored, so we decided to sent a couple more follow up emails in the span of 4 business days. One would think someone may have replied already. Well, no one replied. We finally decided to call YMCA and figure out who can assist us getting a refund. I explained my case to the customer service rep and got the email address of a director. We emailed a copy of our emails to the director who promptly and apologetic replies CCing the Member Services Team we have been emailing this whole time. Within the same email the director proceeds to tell us that it it can take up to 90 days for our refund to process and that a member from the services team will be reaching out to get our credit card information to process our refund. We were shocked to receive this email. We replied letting them know that our previous emails have been ignored and that 90 days seems like an excessive amount of time to process a refund. The Member Services Team replies back letting us know that this is basically how they do business but that they will expedite my request for refund. Well, it’s now being a week since our last email exchange and no one has reached out with any details about this pending refund. We are aware we can reach out to our bank and figure this out that way but we were hoping to avoid that hassle. I cannot recommend this gym to anyone because of the cancellation experience, which to be realistic, every member would have to go thru at some point. The only reason why I am not rating them with one star is because the guys at the front desk were very pleasant and we enjoyed the facilities for...

Joined with my partner and had a mixed experience overall. Had some good classes and was able to use the gym for my workout needs, especially the kettlebells and heavy bag. No real spaces or equipment for Olympic lifting like clean and jerks. I’m not sure why they don’t let you use the classrooms when they’re not being used for a class because the areas for stretching and other simple workouts get really packed sometimes.

Ultimately it’s an overpriced gym in my book. I get that it’s a non profit in a hip area but for $100/month or so I think the members deserve some better equipment (for example, the kettlebells were old, cheap, and only went up to 45lbs), a fuller class schedule, and better service overall. However at least it’s not in the $175+ range like other gyms in DC, and you can get a good bang for your buck if you are able to use the gym for your needs.

Based on reviews I read I knew to be wary of their cancellation process. I gave a full 32 day notice of cancellation (the policy is 30 days before your next billing date, which is ridiculous), but when I called to confirm it went through, the initial customer service/front desk staff was dismissive and even a bit rude, and said I was going to be charged. She said the process happens “offsite” and there’s no phone number to reach the department that handles cancellations, which seemed deliberately opaque and convoluted to me.

When I finally got in touch with Tommie the head of member services she was much more professional and supportive and was able to process my cancellation, which I...

(YMCA, I don't need a "oh no please email XYZ address so we can follow up with your feedback" BS that every company posts in response to negative feedback) An absolute NIGHTMARE to cancel. You think Planet Fitness or WSC was bad, try to cancel your membership at the YMCA. One or all of the following will happen: (1) you will never get a response from anyone, (2) the front desk will triage you to an email that is not monitored, (3) you will be charged additional months even if you desperately tried to cancel on time, and (4) they may require you to send in a written and printed (lol) letter requesting the cancellation. The sad thing is, I had okay experiences at the Y and I would have given it a more fair review. I have no idea how businesses think it's a good thing for their long term business plan to sour a positive experience with the worst possible last impression.

If you think you'll ever need to cancel this membership due to life circumstances like moving away, salary changes, etc, be prepared to buckle up and fight for your life to get this cancelled. What did I have to do to cancel after months (and still getting charged)? I tried to email every single email I could find on the internet for people who worked there and blasted out emails constantly until someone bit. It's a shame, for an organization that lauds itself on working within the community, to leave such a lasting negative impression on the very same community...