YMCA of Greater Brandywine

Our family has paid full price for a membership every month for several years, including through the pandemic, when fewer facilities were available for understandable reasons. We have gotten less and less for our money as time goes on. Plus the YMCA summer camps we've sent my son to cost more, and provide fewer planned activities and less supervision, than other summer day camps he has attended over the years. First the outdoor pool at Lionville, which is one of the main reasons we joined, was only accessible with an extra charge. Then the outdoor pool at Lionville closed permanently, but fortunately our membership still included outdoor pools at other branches. The last straw was today when I brought my son's friend to the outdoor pool at West Chester and learned that he could not use the outdoor pool as part of one of the guest passes included in our membership. This would cost $25 and would only cover one day. I had asked about this specific scenario at the Lionville branch and was told he'd be covered by one of our guest passes. I paid the $25 but my husband and I have decided not to renew our membership after this. We can no longer justify the nickel and diming and diminishing benefits of membership.

We were erroneously billed for over a year of membership ($500+). Following my son's completion of a class, I had a conversation with the front desk about cancellation. Subsequently, I checked online and confirmed that my account had no membership. However, they sneakily placed the membership under my child's account (not actually accessible by my child), which was not visible under the parent account. We had assumed the membership had been cancelled, and have been billed monthly ever since. We only recently discovered this, not from the online account (as no membership was listed), but from my credit card statement. The only way I could then infer on the website that we had a membership was because it would not allow me to remove my credit card information (as it was "linked" to an account). Very sneaky practices, and not the way to treat what they refer to as their "valued" customers, especially minors.

The indoor pool is heated, which my son really likes. The locker rooms are clean. We also like that all of the local y's are working together, so when you become a member at one, you can get into any of them. We wish the outdoor pool in West Chester was more affordable, but it is worth it if you go often. Summer camps are also worth going to - there are a lot of fun themes and activities.

I am so frustrated with this location! They told me that the membership that i have with ymca is not valid for this location. How is this possible. Every single Ymca accept the membership from my insurance , but this location accepts the membership from my insurance only if i am more than 65 years old and only if i use only the indoor facility. What does it mean? What about the parking lot, i should pay for the parking lot because is outdoor the facility??? This is the weirdest thing that i have ever heard. Why my insurance told me that i can use EVERY benefit of the membership on EVERY location of the YMCA , and now this location tell me that i can use only the indoor facility and not outside the facility.

Only place within a 50mile diameter that has an array of eGym machines. Top notch!