Meriden Ymca B/A School At Israel Putnam

This branch is run extremely poorly and the communication is not great or consistent whatsoever. I would absolutely not recommend this branch. The CT parks and recs dept offers competitive programs throughout the state and do not recommend a monthly fee. 0/5

This will be a long review. My family and I moved to the Meriden area last summer, and since then, we have been using YMCA services with a family membership, including the before-school program. Until today, the lifeguards had been amazing, and the front desk employees were satisfactory, with minimal interaction. The staff for the before-school program has also been great, and we have encountered no issues. However, I wish there were a zero-star rating for today’s experience. The supervisor and the lifeguard on duty were extremely rude to my two daughters, my son, and my wife. As usual, our family went to the YMCA for open swim in the pool while I worked out upstairs. My daughters enjoy swimming with goggles that have a nose cover, which essentially functions as a mask. On February 15, 2025, we went to the YMCA in Meriden, and the lifeguard approached my wife and told her that the girls were not allowed to enter the pool with their goggles. He claimed that the rules had changed as of February 1. Since my wife had never seen this lifeguard before, she asked him to confirm this with management. He told her to go and check herself and added that the girls would have to take a test to use the pool anyway. Consequently, my wife had to leave the pool area with the girls and speak to someone at the front desk. The staff member there explained that the rules had indeed changed and that no masks were allowed. When my wife asked to have the girls tested without the goggles, the lifeguard refused and insisted they could not use the pool. Afterward, when my wife returned to the front desk to ask for the lifeguard's name to file a complaint, they surprisingly did not know his name and were unwilling to share it. Another staff member approached my wife, claiming she had seen and heard the lifeguards doing everything correctly, even though she was not present during the incident. This person identified herself as the supervisor, and notably, none of the employees had name tags. My son came upstairs where I was working out and asked me to come downstairs due to a disagreement. When I arrived, I witnessed the supervisor being extremely rude and lacking any customer service skills. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was an element of racial discrimination in her response, particularly given her aggressive demeanor and her overprotectiveness of the lifeguard. Feeling extremely unwelcome and uncomfortable, I decided to cancel our membership on the spot. If management is reading this, I urge you to take action regarding these issues. Based on other reviews, it seems poor customer service is a recurring problem. I would even offer my services to help implement training for your staff on how to treat customers appropriately in various situations. The YMCA was a place where we thought we could teach our children how to lead healthy lives, but today’s experience has changed everything.

I love this place thank to this place I know how to swim if I didn’t go to this place I would never know how to swim

Awful customer service. The life guard in charge was horribly unprofessional and rude. The supervisor didn’t want to listen to me and refused to provide her employee’s name, neither her own. They showed being careless to the customers. I had to cancel the membership, even though never had any issue before. I would rate the service 0 if possible.

It can give it zero stars I would! This place is a joke. They are extremely disorganized. I had filled out paperwork for camp. Everytime I would call for an update I would get the runaround. Most of the staff don’t seem to communicate. Paperwork got lost twice! The kicker is even after I cancelled and called even went in PERSON and filled out the cancellation form, my account was still getting drafted, more than ONCE! This place is extremely disorganized, and they don’t seem to really care. It upsets me even more that after multiple calls and visits to make sure all cancellations went through, they magically still kept drafting my account for camp AND monthly membership. Stay far away from this YMCA.