I’m becoming more and more dispirited over this situation. Given that I dropped off this letter on June 3 (gave it personally to the front desk person, so I know it didn’t get lost in the mail), and 24 hours ago I e-mailed the main recipient to check if she got it, and I have heard nothing, I’m betting we will be cancelling our (thankfully month-to-month) membership.
I’m pissed off and sad at the prospect, because this gym has finally gotten my husband exercising regularly, and he hates the other options available in our area, and doesn’t want to belong by himself (which would also cost us more - two separate gym memberships). I also really love all the amenities, from an easily accessible, year round pool to the included unlimited towels to the funky padded treadmills. I have always known that the YMCA’s childcare kicks this gym’s ass all around the block, but I thought this gym’s daycare was adequate, and the other stuff made up the difference. But they are seriously falling below the level of “acceptable” at this point. And at this point (while I did give a deadline still a week away), I would not be surprised if we simply never get a response.
In the meantime, I haven’t been going to work out, which is what I do instead of taking Zoloft, quite literally, and additionally being in limbo about something absolutely makes me insane. So I’m just . . . . GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Yeah, it’s totally awesome having severe depression. And my husband being in danger of heart disease at the tender age of 37 is freaking sweet. Reflecting on it makes me almost as happy as shopping at Tiffany with a tiny dog in my purse.
Unfortunately, I expect the answer will be “Dear Unauthorized Cinnamon, your child will be one less child in our center. Bye.”
The problem with gyms is that they have a really hard time “adequately” staffing. One day two children show up, the next day its twenty. And tell the parents “I’m sorry, we are over the ratio” and the parents yell and scream “but I paid for this, this is included in my membership.”
Their answer should be “we will start turning away children when our ratio gets too high.” That isn’t likely to happen.
And most gym child care is there to make sure someone calls 9/11 if your kid gets hurt, not to entertain them, again, unfortunately It isn’t surprising that the staff is spending more time cleaning and doing administrative tasks.
Yeah, I meant because of your getting in a huff over something so trivial. Sure the gym doesn’t want to lose memberships but if you’re truly the only person who has complained, as they claim, then they are not going to be hiring more full-time babysitters just for you.
If you care so much about the child:adult ratio, want minimum or low-wage gym staff to be trained as professional nannies (“making eye contact” etc.) and are willing to pay more as you say, then hire your own babysitter for your kids.
Also, your ultimatum style (“outlining specific measures you plan to take to fix each problem, including a timetable of their planned institution…”) probably has the staff there getting a good chuckle.
You need to judge, but it appears that the gym has made the decision that this is an acceptable level of staffing (or at least that they are ok with it.)
Unfortunately, you need to decide if you can live with their decision.
Have you considered forwarding a copy of this letter to head of membership/commissions? This is the person who is going to care if you decide to cancel your membership.
How about taking turns going to the gym with your husband while the other watches the kid? I mean, you’ll probably each go less often - but some exercise is better than none.
Or, one parent pushes the kid in the stroller around the gyms neighborhood while the other goes inside to work out. If thats too easy carry a backpack with some weights in it while you walk. Later, you switch.
Yeah, I know these aren’t ideal solutions but having kids is always a juggle. Me, I work out during my lunch hour. Including the commute, change and shower I only get to do about 30 minutes of actual gym time but I make it count.
Yeah, I’m upset, the same way I get upset if it rains when I’ve planned a picnic or something. Perhaps you didn’t catch my attempt at Groening-type irony in the thread title. I have my standards, and I realize they are mine. I’m not *offended *if the gym doesn’t share them. I’m irritated that it winds up screwing up what otherwise is an ideal solution for us. So shoot me.
I’m giving them a chance to accommodate me, and if they can’t, I will be switching to the Y, where, as I said, the child care goes above and beyond. (Way to exclude the middle, by the way.)
I suppose if I had been vague, you would have been all over me about how I’m just bitching and how are they supposed to do anything if I don’t say specifically what I want.
Look, I found their procedures below my standards. Instead of just leaving, I decided to tell them, clearly and politely, what my problems were and what they could do to keep us as members. Why is this worthy of derision?
Also, my friend (who actually quit, and told them why in the process), got a very concerned call from the person I addressed this letter to, who was asking what they could do to make it better. So while generally I realize I’m just one among many, I thought it worthwhile to inform them of my issues rather than just stomping out the door.
I do realize that this level of childcare may be all that is in their business model, and that is fine. I don’t curse their name because of it. And it is a reasonable level I would feel OK with for my 6yo. If they can’t make any changes, I’ll go elsewhere, which kind of sucks, but that’s life. (Stupid uncooperative life!)
Tastes of Chocolate, I did cc the manager of the whole facility. Evidently he just left his job this month.
This_Just_In…, thanks for the creative suggestions. Switching off might work, but I’d prefer something more frequent and more flexible. We’ll see what we work out . . .
In the meantime, I got an e-mail back! Somehow a letter delivered in person to a human working there managed not to be given to the addressee. :rolleyes: Anyway, she says she’ll have an answer for me by next Wednesday.
When a business doesn’t want to acknowledge a complaint, the first line of defense is to trivialize the complaint or marginalize the complainant by saying that this is unique and not of concern to other customers. It doesn’t mean that it is true–and in fact, if the complaint is genuine, it usually isn’t–but it is a way of forcing customers to accept a situation rather than press.
As for the o.p., she has clearly and eloquently presented her case that the conditions and protections in their child care facility do not meet accepted standards of safety and supervision of small children that are essentially incapable of self-care or communicating a need for assistance. Her ultimatum, such as it is, is couched in terms of a last resort after exhausting all other options for satisfaction, and she has outlined what she feels to be a workable solution and willingness to exchange and consider each party’s point of view on the issue. She’s indicated that her attempts to bring safety issues to the immediate attention of staff have not been adequately acknowledged or acted upon to her satisfaction, and that her intent is to elevate her concerns to a management level that has the authority to deal with these issues. It may be that, as a gym, they aren’t interested in providing for increased supervision for their child care facility (though clearly they are offering this as a part of their appeal and the service is used by a number of customers many of whom might be unwilling to otherwise patronize their services) but she is doing the responsible thing by bringing what are potential liability concerns to the attention of management in a constructive fashion.
Frankly, I’m not certain why a snarky, sniping response is due on an issue that the o.p. (quite rightly) doesn’t consider to be trivial, but I suppose some people just have to be contrary on any subject.
Real problems with childcare should certainly be addressed, but your letter is about the most confrontational, entitled, and pompous thing I’ve read in some time. Do you even get how big of an entitled, dictatorial asshole you must seem to someone reading that letter?
Seriously, is this the way you interact with people. Unilateral demands and threats?
Not at all. This is the way I interact with businesses. Believe it or not, I am actually known in my circle of in-person acquaintances for being warm and empathetic. But these people are not friends. They are representatives of a business with which I have a contract. They weren’t too warm and fuzzy in their Disclaimer of Liability, I assure you.
I didn’t mention it in the OP, but this letter comes after a collegial sit-down with the woman in question upon our signing up with the gym. I expressed some general concerns and asked some questions, and I got friendly, somewhat vague answers. My friend got stonewalling when she voiced a complaint. Given that, I felt I needed to nail things down and tell them exactly what my tolerances are, without ambiguity.
While I concede that there is an ultimatum involved (give me specifics about fixing stuff by this date, or we’re gone), I also invited a dialog and specifically noted that I was interested in hearing their ideas. I don’t see any threats.
astro, I’m sincerely curious, how would you word a letter, assuming you had the same standards as I do, and that you felt you would have to switch gyms if things didn’t change?
I think astro covered the why pretty well. Even if she has a valid complaint, which I have no reason to doubt, the letter comes across so condescending and demanding that I imagine most managers would let the customer walk. They might even look into the child care situation afterward, but any customer who demands a written report “outlining specific measures you plan to take to fix each problem” and proffers a brainstorming session is a customer the company is well rid of.
12:1 is too high for me to have left my toddler in the first place. That’s 24 kids for two people! Are you in a position to use the gym when there are less kids there? Seems like there’s probably a rush hour when the ratio gets too high. I used to use a gym creche when my kid was small - sometimes it wasn’t too many kids, but too many tricky ones. The caregiver would roll his eyes at me, and I’d go away with my kid for a bit until things calmed down.
Its pretty common in casual settings. We do that all the time in the church nursery. Parents are welcome to stay, but you take the volunteers you get and the kids that come provided there are two volunteers.
All day childcare, no way. But for an hour I wouldn’t have an issue with, and didn’t when I left mine with the church nursery. (I also volunteered to help out).
Yeah, one of the trade offs at the Y is they only have child care at certain hours. It makes sense to me, and luckily the hours coincide with my schedule. On the other hand, the slow hours at our current gym are very inconvenient for me, considering nap time and my older daughter’s bus schedule.
I didn’t get that from the letter, but I get so frustrated dealing with people who say “I’ve been treated horribly, but I can’t/won’t tell you what happened, you should just be able to read my mind and fix other people” that I’d be happy to get a letter like UC’s. (I deal with a lot of volunteers, can you tell?)
I, too, am not a fan of the letter. I hate when people use quasi-legalese to sound threatening. It just ends up sounding pompous, especially when your remedy is so glaringly obvious: quit the gym or find other arrangements for your child.
I’d have a great deal more sympathy for you had you written that you have not been able to use your gym’s daycare because it has fallen below your comfort level, which is perfectly legitimate. Instead, you state that you KNOW that there’s a problem, but then go on to say that you’ll give them a few more weeks, or June 30th, whichever comes first, to improve. As a parent, I am scratching my head at that. No one gets a second chance to screw up with my child, off-hours or not.
FYI, your local school system’s ratio of caregivers to children is irrelevant as they are probably not the governing authority here. In Ohio, for instance, it’s the state that issues daycare licenses.
A better route, IMO, would have been to speak to the manager IMMEDIATELY after noticing a problem. Tell him that you were sold on membership based on their self-proclaimed 12:1 daycare ratio. Ask to see their daycare license and inform him that you’ll be contacting the governing authority to ensure that they are not violating the state imposed minimum ratio of adults to children. It they are, they’ll have to answer to the state, which has way more leverage than you. If they aren’t, well, then you have a decision to make. Because they have to follow the state guidelines; they don’t have to make you happy.
The good news is that gyms are everywhere. Personally, I think you should find one that suits you AND that provides adequate care.
I see. So writing a letter with specific, detailed concerns, proposing solutions that she would find acceptable, and inviting management to respond with alternative proposal is being an “entitled, dictatorial asshole”. Interesting.
The format and tone of this letter is very similar to correspondence I write in my professional duties to vendors or service providers which have failed to meet expectations and have not responded to verbal requests or phone messages. And this is the first level of written correspondence, intended to indicate that I am displeased with their level of service or quality of product, but willing to hear their explanation and discuss a mutually-agreed upon path forward. The second letter is more formal, citing the specific requirements or commitments they have failed to address and dictating what and when I would find to be acceptable without inviting discussion or explanation. The third is typically a short note indicating that I’ve handed the problem off to contracts or legal to disposition via adjudication. So I don’t find this letter to be particularly threatening or dictatorial. Indeed, the content and tone indicate restrained irritation that the immediate staff and management have not addressed the issues at hand or made any sincere effort to remediate them.
As for the specific issues addressed in the letter, I’m particularly drawn to the claim that a ladder was erected in an area with children in the immediate vicinity for the purpose of changing ceiling-mounted light bulbs. In addition to whatever child safety concerns this brings up, I count at least two and maybe three 29 CFR Part 1910 OSHA violations if this is in fact true. The o.p. is doing management a favor by pointing out what are both employee and customer liabilities that need to be remedied by training.
I’m sorry, does this also make me an “entitled, dictatorial asshole” for pointing this out?