Ymca Of The Greater Tri-Valley

I would love to give this place a five star because I love the facility. HOWEVER I can’t in good conscience. I hope management sees this review and takes corrective action against the man I am about to speak about. My first job ever when I was 16 was at the YMCA in Fayetteville NY. Prior to that I volunteered there before I could get a job. I learned the mission, the pillars etc. I recently moved to the Oneida area and wanted my gym membership to be here. Last week I was greeted by an extremely nice receptionist (I think named Joe) who answered all my questions and was extremely personable. A great person to have as the first individual you interact with when entering. As he was helping me get set up, a man walked through the door without scanning. He did not have any clothing indicating that he was a worker. So as anyone at the front desk would do, Joe had asked him about scanning in. The interaction that took place next was absolutely inappropriate and out of line. It turns out that Joe is newer and that the man is an instructor at this location. His name is either Wren or Ren. This man (or boy more so it seems based on his behavior) proceeds to be extremely rude to Joe. Spoke down to him and treated him with not one ounce of respect. To make matters worse he did this in front of me, my partner, and other members passing by. This DISGUSTED me. The fact that someone would act so “above” others and be so disrespectful to a fellow coworker and a newer one at that. This man may very well be kind to the members using the facility because it is his job and acting the way he acted towards Joe would have gotten him fired long ago I’d bet. But the way he treated a fellow employee and not even behind closed doors said a lot about this man’s character. As someone who’s been involved in a work setting at the Y from 14-18 years old this is NOT how we treat other employees and it goes against all YMCA values. I’ll gladly put this right up to a five star review should I find out that this person has been spoken to and corrective action has been taken.

Oneida YMCA has incredibly terrible scheduling. This is the only gym in the area where you can bring your children, yet the times for childcare are minimal and inconvenient. We have shown up multiple times just to realize there is literally nothing I/we can do. By the time your child gets home from school and or/sports practice, child watch and open swim for the day is unavailable. They have no space available and appropriate for kids between the ages of 7-10+ as their interactive room in unattended and they barely hold fitness classes for youth, and if they do it costs extra. By the time you realize that you just paid for a membership that you can't use, they will politely tell you they can cancel your membership but will be keeping your $700+ payment. Truely unfortunate that a place designed for families only caters to the elderly and single persons. This Y really needs to reevaluate their offerings.

I recently scheduled swim lessons for my son the Y in oneida. However, the next day we decided that we couldn’t attend them and asked for a refund and they gladly agreed that they were going to help us with this process. About a month after I still didn’t get any notice about the refund(no emails, no calls, etc) I decided to go back and ask about the process of my refund, but I was so frustrated when they told me that the refund couldn’t be processed. I’m just so mad that I have been waiting for the refund to be processed like they agreed for a whole month and no one has told me that I couldn’t get the refund. If that’s the case then while being cashed out they should have told me that there’s no refund or otherwise the guests themselves should have the right to ask for one.

I love the YMCA, I just wish it were more affordable and accessible. If you are a working person, the shifting hours of operation make it really difficult to make it there, especially if you have younger kids who want to use the pool but also need to be in bed for school the next day. I just cancelled our membership because I didn't feel the cost was justified. We are just not able to get there and make use of the facility. It's a shame. I understand that the YMCA has to juggle classes with open swim and it's hard to make everyone happy. The Y has a ton to offer, it's just hard to take advantage of those options if you are a working person and/or have school-aged kids.

We have had a family membership for 17 years. We first joined when I chose to stay home with our first child. I was starting to become depressed from lack of social interaction and my husband bought our membership. It was an excellent way to make new relationships and get fit. Since that time our kids have done swim lessons, basketball programs, fitness classes and I now teach a class there myself. Great caring staff!