Virgin Active South Africa
reviews and complaints

Tramshed-Good Evening Morris

Could you please address this issue of loud music at Tramshed in the afternoon. I have raised this concern on several occasions with your staff members. This week I have complained twice, subsequently I had to ask Johnny to intervene.

I feel like we are being disrespected. This is a gym not not a shebeen. We have to scream at one another just to communicate. This is barbaric. Can you kindly ensure that this does not happen again. This noise is destructive to our eardrums. We bring our headsets but still can't hear our own music.

Regards

Charlie

Good day complaining of unlawful and fraud that virgin active is doing to us I have Payed full 3 month money but I haven't used the gym because of I was working far away from my home town.

So now on my cancelation of membership, then I was asked to pay another two month in advance as the cancelation fee.

Please virgin active management could you please stop abusing your client and try to work with us

I am requesting my refund and the cancelation fee I don't have problem with it

I've tried getting hold of the accounts department for two days on every social media network Virgin Active has. I've been told they would contact me and finally a call was made at 1pm on the 2nd day after too many messages to mention had been sent telling me their manager would contact me. I am still waiting. No contact has been made from Facebook, Twitter, emails, Instagram. I'm appalled from this service and can't wait to cancel my membership and see why so many people are doing the same and complaining.

Virgin Active

Complaints department

CANCELLATION OF HI-LO IMPACT CLASS ON WEDNESDAYS AT 18HOO WITH VUYO

This complaint is lodge on behalf of the members that attends the above-mentioned class at Virgin Active Kimberley on a regular basis. Please refer to attached signed petition by members.

The above-mentioned class had been cancelled without any proper consultation with the members that attends the class. We, the members that attended this class, does so for specific reasons and there’s no alternative class that we can attends. The Hi-Lo Impact class is being replaced by a Zumba class that none of us are interested in attending. The members had signed a petition and submit it to management of the Kimberley Virgin Active, but our complaint was just ignored. The Zumba class is currently running on Thursdays at 18h00, and the instructor, Colette is insisting on moving it to Wednesdays. They are refusing to consult with the members of the HI-Lo class, they walked into our class and just announced that there will no longer be a HI-Lo class and that she's doing Zumba from 3rd of May 2023.

After COVID, the number of classes had already been reduced dramatically. This makes it difficult for working members that works until 5 pm every day to utilise the benefits that we are entitled to as members. The attitude of management seems to be that members must just accept and make use of what they think they wants to offer to Virgin Active members without consulting members.

As paid members we feel that the service and benefits that we are receiving is not value for money.

Regards

Members of Virgin Active Kimberley

PS Wilma Van Wyk - [protected]

Hi,

On Thursday, April 27th, I visited two VA outlets with the intention of signing up and was turned away unless I wrote my ID number in their guest book.

This book lies in the reception area where any of their staff (or anyone else for that matter) could access it. It contains other people's personal information that anyone else would access if they were cunning enough to do so.

As someone who is still dealing with the repercussions of identity theft, I completed all other info and then expressed my discomfort on providing my ID number.

Receptionist responds "well then I can't let you in". Disappointing that she couldn't even feign interest in why. I then advised that I will try another branch and her colleague burst out in laughter.

Different approach at 2nd branch, I explained up front that I have concerns providing my ID number as I have had a bad experience from doing so in the past, she too responds, "well then you can't come in because we'll fail audit."

I asked if there was an alternative option such as online booking, she said no. I then left.

Here's my question: Why do you need my full ID number when all I am doing is viewing your branch? In an age where fraud and theft prevails, how do you justify forcing prospective members to give personal data in such a careless manner and having no regard for the concerns that are then raised?

The attitude displayed by your staff showed a lack of care.

So disappointing.

Christopher Smith

Smiffco.[protected]@gmail.com

Intensity# on contract VA-[protected]

Date groined Nov 30, 2023

I going back in November, I paid in full for 1 year on Black Friday special. 1 year all locations included. From the day I goined I have been stopped time and time again. I have explain my situation. I have email and promises that my account will be fixed . To no avail. I believe I should be refunded my money back and discontinue my services. It’s been 6 month with promises. I’m tired of being stopped it’s time consuming and embarrassing.

I called virgin active at around 16:30 on [protected] to query my account and I was attended to by a rude individual by the name of Jenette whose listening skills are questionable, she continuously spoke over me without even giving me a chance to explain my query, I latter on asked to speak to someone else that is willing to assist as she sounded rude and undermining, she then dropped the call on me which I found very Insulting. I have been a virgin active customer for more than 10 years, I have recommended many of my colleagues and friends to take up membership and I really felt that Janets behavior was a spit in my face, I do not think that her behavior represented what your company stands for and especially in a client facing or client liaison role. I would suggest more training for her as such behavior could potentially cost you clientele.

That being said I would like to thank Noxolo for finally assisting with my query after I called back her professionalism and patients is highly appreciated.

Thank you

Good day

I joined Virgin Active in the Bryan Park shopping centre in December of 2022 on the basis that the monthly membership fee would mostly be covered by Discovery Vitality.

Discovery then cancelled my Vitality and the Virgin Active membership could not be activated. I had unfortunately paid an activation fee to the club prior to Discovery having cancelled my Vitality.

Staff at the club have confirmed that the membership was never activated due to the aforesaid reason and that I would be refunded the activation fee. I have, since the 06th of Feb 2023, been attempting to have the Club refund the activation fee.

In the latter regard, I have been in contact with a certain Diovano and Zanele employed by the Club on at least 4 occasions. Zanele had twice advised me over the telephone that the refund would ensue, but it's been 8 weeks since the Club's first confirmations were communicated and to date, nothing has been refunded to my account.

Regards,

Tarnesh Hope Hing

[protected]

My husband has been dealing with a retentions consultant since the 29th November 2022. We started by asking for our membership to be cancelled, he then offered us to stay on for 3 months at a 50% discount. We did not accept this offer and requested him to cancel the membership again on the 31st December via email. He did not cancel the membership and we were debited. My husband then requested that the membership be cancelled again on the 12th January. Again, we were debited for Feb. He spoke to a call centre agent on the 2nd March again to query why we have been debited after requesting that our membership be cancelled on several occasions. We asked him to send us an email confirming that our membership has been cancelled however he did not. My account was then debited again. I then sent an email to the call centre to see if we could resolve this issue with them & they have just ignored my emails. How do we get this situation resolved?

On 23 March 2023 I went to Meyersdal Virgin Active after almost a month. I went to shower and put on my belongings in the locker. When I got back I noticed that my cellphone was missing. I went to the reception and reported that matter to them.

They did not even looked shocked or even took a statement they just asked me where it was and carried on with their duties.

I am totally shocked by the way they handled the matter. And the fact that no one even noticed what happened. They have people cleaning the bathroom permanently it does not make sense.

I will most definitely cancel my membership with virgin active.

This is not the first incident at that gym but it does not seem like they are doing anything about it

It is so uncomfortable, disturbing and ridiculously unhygienic to have people bring their Muthis (African Medicine) in the gym and be allowed to use it In the Sona and by the showers. So Grose and disturbing. I see this a lot in KZN Pietermaritzburg. Virgin Active find a way to stop this before you loose a lot of clients including myself. and put rules by the changing rooms.

I called Virgin Active the end of Jan 23, to cancel my membership with immediate effective. They agreed to cancel the membership. 2 months after the cancellation they are still deducting monthly installments with no explanation. We i call them you will wait for hours for a consultant you will only transfer you to another consultant. Then instead of helping they just drop the phone. Then you have to call back and wait in the que for hours again, only for them to drop your call.

This is unacceptable by virgin active, Can they please cancel my member

I have logged quite a few submissions under the " manage my subscription" tab on the website, it states they will contact me shortly but until today I haven't received one phone call.

I contacted the customer services number a few times also, only to be in a long que. Eventually I got through to an assistant, I explained my circumstances and he said how I should work in future and great I have one person that can and will assist me, BUT I have submitted several emails to him as he has instructed me to do but no feedback whatsoever! And because of this poor follow up I am forced to close down my membership!

To whom it may concern:

As a long time Virgin Active client, I am extremely disappointed – in fact, I am furious. This is not the first time I have highlighted an issue at Polokwane’s Virgin Active at Thornhill. Nothing concrete was done at the time, and now matters have deteriorated even more. We receive no joy from the Manager about issues brought to his attention.

We pay a premium for service and certainly have (basic) expectations. This means that equipment must be in perfect condition and in working order! You advertise “world class facilities and equipment” after all.
The following are the serious problems at Thornhill Virgin Active:

1. WATT BIKES – they are never serviced. They are constantly broken. They are never calibrated. I could not record points to Discovery yesterday because the onboard computer does not work!
2. STEPPING MACHINES – one machine has been broken for a year. The second one freezes. I have been reporting this for over a year, but to no avail.
3. ROWING MACHINES – From an initial 4, we are now down to 2. Is this the policy? Do you simply remove broken equipment, never to replace it?
4. WEIGHT/RESISTANCE MACHINES – There are a number which have been faulty for a very long time.
5. CIRCUIT – for some reason, this has been completely removed.
6. INSTRUCTORS – there are no instructors to advise or guide new clients. The only instructors visible are busy with personal training. I constantly see new clients left to their own devices. This is dangerous practice.
7. CLEANERS – The cleaners have been seen playing on the gym equipment during peak hours. In addition to this, on several occasions, between 17h00 and 19h00, the cleaners decide to wash down the entire floor of the locker rooms making it impossible to use these facilities. Surely this should be done at the quietest time of the day, not the busiest?
8. HYGIENE/CLEANLINESS- clients are left to use the equipment without towels. This is unsanitary and makes it unpleasant for the next person. It is a basic requirement, and it is the staff’s duty to ensure that this is done. No one at this gym checks on anything.

Like many other people, I follow a training programme. I cannot upload workouts to PEAK TRAINING, or I cannot do the required workout simply because Virgin Thornhill ‘s is this negligent with its equipment.
I have now been pushed to the point that I am going to consider other avenues like publicising this below par service on social media. Is this really the accepted norm for Virgin Active? Surely you have a reputation to upkeep? At Thornhill Virgin it certainly feels that paying clients certainly do not matter at all.

I trust that I will shortly receive feedback on how these matters are going to be attended to.
Regards
Michael Wood

Today, 14 February, I went to a 5.15 spinning class. This is the second time that no instructor pitches.
Getting up early and then nobody pitches is proof of bad management.
They have changed the staff. Karbo at the information counter cannot be more unfriendly. She does not even greet you back. A total misery!

A while back, I wanted to clean my spinning bike. I went outside to get the disinfectant bottle, as the dispenser in the class messes on the floor and it makes it slippery, which can lead to someone sliding on it. I was told that I am not allowed to take the bottle inside. Today a spray bottle was standing on the table!
The carpets on the steps are very dirty! Previously this was never the case.
All the changes that were made were definitely not for the best.

Customer service and cancellations is horrifyingly atrocious and pathetic! I have been trying to cancel this stupid gym contract for over 6 months! When I was willing to pay upfront the 6 months outstanding and the stupid cancellation fees, I was asked to stay on at a lower price until dec and then make my decision, because I am a nice person I agreed even though I did not use your gym that entire time! I cancelled the debit order for r540 for the entire account, which goes off of my account every damn month, on 29 november at 13:12:55 and received confirmation that the last debit order for the r540 would be 1 dec! Then it went off again on the 1st of january! I phoned again like a [censored] clearly and asked them to check again (both these call were almost 40mins long, as if I have time or money for this [censored]!) and the once again they confirmed on 4 january 2023 11h16 that the account has been cancelled and the debit order has been cancelled! It is one debit order! But yet again it goes off end of jan! I call in again because wasting my time is just exactly what I would like to do! I could not get through 02 february 2023 for 23 minutes. I called again 03 february 2023 at 08h13 to be told I only cancelled mine and I must get my fiancé to phone in and cancel his! Like he has time to call for 20-30minutes a day to sort this [censored] out and why on earth would I cancel the entire account and the debit order for r540 when I am only cancelling for myself! One debit order goes off, but no I get told its two separate debit orders and he must phone in and I cannot cancel it! So easy to tak eyour stupid money but you cannot just cancel a contract like promised! Disgusting, I will never support this compnay again!

Good day,

I took a membership out for my daughter with Virgin Active on 21/11/2022 and was advised that I will pay the 1st installment on 01/12/2022 but that Dec, Jan & Feb '23 will be on the house as they are running a promotion and my next installment will only be for March 2023.
I have now been debited 03/01/2023 and 01/02/2023 and I have inquired with the agent that assisted us with the membership and he said there were a lot of incorrect debits done in December, they will get back to me but up to date, no response.
I feel this is really unprofessional and bad after service.

Please can Virgin Active Greenstone take the initiative to provide a fan in studio 2 when there is electricity so we can all breathe easily. The air conditioning is having maintenance issues which seems to happen quite often but the least that can be done especially if there is no load shedding is to provide a fan. We as South Africans are dealing with so many challenges. I know there is a fan for the big studio. Please have a fan on standby so that when needed or can at least be used then we can.

I started my membership with virgin active end of October 2022. With the application I informed the branch that I am a vitality client and therefore my payment must be accordingly. They charged me an admin fee of R570 which I paid immediately. The debit order was in place but they took R600 instead of R150. I asked them to correct it with no help. I went to the bank and reversed the debit order. I went to the gym and told them I would rather pay at the gym each month to make sure I pay the Vitality rate of R150. They told me to do nothing in the meantime as they will correct it. They did not, another debit order went off of R600, so I followed the same procedure. No help again. I have phoned, send emails with no reply as yet. They send me an email to tell me that I am in arrears, I replied on the email and told them the whole story but no reply as yet. My last email was on 11 January to tell them I want to cancel my membership as this is not going to work for me. I only went to the gym 4 times since my first application as I do not want to get there, and they might refuse entrance. At the branch I spoke to Neo, Sipho and Portia with no reply. Promises but nothing as yet. I want to cancel everything and will not make use of Virgin Active Vanderbijlpark ever again.

I had re-signed up with Virgin Active this past black Friday (November 2022) after previously being a member at virgin active for nearly 17 years. The signing up process went well and my account was debited on the 1st of December 2022. Upon my first visit to the club the system had picked up that i'd had been blacklisted. The manager at the kingspark branch had assisted me and managed to override the said error and warmly allowed me to use the club and facilities. Thereafter I had visited the La Lucia club and had the same error message, however the club manager Mohammed at virgin active La Lucia (Durban) told me that I had to go home and was extremely rude and arrogant in his approach. I had explained to him that upon my 3 previous visits to the other clubs I was assisted gracefully and was let in to the club but he in turn said that could not have been possible and he went further to take the side of his receptionist in calling me a liar in the presence of my elder brother, his wife and my 3 nieces who were absolutely shocked. They had totally refused to assist in finding a solution but rather bluntly told me to leave. I was then contacted by the pavillion branch and had been told that the La lucia manager had made an application to have my membership terminated further, rather then trying to amicably resolve the issue. After all the difficulty I was informed by the pavillion manager that my account was terminated upon me making an enquiry. I was not notified of any such termination nor cancellation and I had to find out for myself.

The despicable shocking manner in which the matter was handled at the La lucia branch has left my brother, his wife and all my other family members contracted to Virgin active wanting to cancel their membership. as it stands my membership was quietly cancelled without any notice and neither was I refunded my December fee.

I would really like an apology from the manager Mohammed and member of staff "Panni" who labelled me a liar in the presence of my family and other gym members who are willing to be wittness to this.