Virgin Active South Africa
reviews and complaints

The Sauna at Virgin Active Beach Front East London is not being put on and this is not okay because it's one of the reasons we chose the Club. They only switch it on when we annoy them with the emergency alarm. Why should we have to go to such measures for a benefit we pay for?

I would like to request that the Sauna be switched on daily as per normal

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am writing to you to raise an issue about: Gym

The issue that I have experienced was: Send cancellation of the expired (expired in June 2021)
contract on 28-July as on their terms and conditions stipulates that you have to inform them 20 days
before expiry. No confirmation of receipt of my message/letter. In August my account was debited and
couldn't reverse on the money app and had to contact my bank for reversal which charges me for the
reversal. On the 02 of September send a follow up message with no receipt of my message, did
another reversal. All they do is to send automated messages week invaluable of debuting the
account. Today again 31 October) an amount of R 823.00 was debited

It occurred on: 2021-07-31

This meant that Very frustrated of this and it affects my credit score and drains me emotionally

Send an apology letter and confirmation that my account Will not be debited and be refunded
On 07 January 2022 my account was debited again after Ms Tshfiwa Makuya consultant at Old Eds (whom I signed contract with) made me complete cancellation form and confirmed that she will send copy to head office and that my account will not debited again and that cancellation copy is proof of that (the contract expired).

Send her of proof and informed her to resolve this to date she never responded. Never thought your company to be so unprofessional and unethical in doing this to people/clients

I look forward to your prompt response on this matter. As recommended by Trading Standards, I would like to keep a complete record of my case, so please reply to this email address.

Yours faithfully,

Dipuo Keshebang

Gym location Old Eds

Membership number [protected]

39 Glenvillas, corner Orchard and Van De Linde 2192,

I look forward to your prompt response on this matter. As recommended by Trading Standards, I would like to keep a complete record of my case, so please reply to this email address.

Good day

Virgin Active sales people came to my work on the 28 November 2021 and asked if I want to register. At the time I was a bit uncertain and registered. I'm a first year student and wont be able to afford this.

The membership number is [protected] and my ID number is [protected].
I've tried to call them on numerous occassions, but to no avail. And when I do get through they put the phone down in my ear.

I requested a call back and the call came through and then they put it down (this happened twice). Strange when I say I want to do a new membership then they proactive in this department.

I 've also tried to email them several times, but to no avail.

I cannot afford to have a default on my credit report. I will pay the cancellation fee if need be. I havent used any of the services yet.

Can you please resolve this and cancel this off my name.

Regards
Dante

My daughter, Ria-Mari van Wyngaard was approached by a sales representative, Bongani, to join the local club at Potchefstroom, The Bult, where she is now a first year student.
In June 2021 Bongani stated that by paying an amount of R390, my daughter could gain access for three months until such time she sorts out her Multiply status to join permanently, thus qualifying her for 25% discount.
In September 2021, we noticed that her Bank account is in arrears and had been debited with several amounts of R390. In July alone Virgin Active deducted R390 on 3 different occasions.
My daughter, on several occasions, inquired from Bongani, and then with local club Manager -so called "Koos" as per his name tag, regarding the status. She was treated with contempt and arrogance and eventually a so-called query-form was filled in that was supposedly to be used to submit the query to head-office.
They also again inquired why, after registering her Multiply status, the debit order amount was still R390 and not R295 (another query was completed)
On 26/10/2021, she and my other daughter again visited the Club and again to inquire the status of the complaint, they were treated as if nothing was wrong and yet again a query was filled in to log the complaint.
Thinking that this is being sorted out by head-office, we were waiting in anticipation to hear from Virgin Active on the so called complaints, only to hear today, 30/11/2021, having received a phone call from collections department, a person by the name of "Luder", that no complaint is logged on the system.
This is the dates of the deductions as per her bank account:
01/07/2021 - R390
15/07/2021 - R390
31/072021 - R390
16/08/2021 - R390
01/09/2021 - R390
01/10/2021 - R390
* Bank Statements can verify this
Complaint 1: As you can clearly see and what is extremely alarming is the fact that Virgin Active deducts money as and when they feel like.
Are there no contractual arrangement to deduct money once per month at an agreed time frame? How is this possible?
Complaint 2: Why did Virgin Active not adjusted her premium after registration of Multiply membership.
Complaint 3: I am really annoyed and upset by the way my daughters were treated with contempt by club management. The so called queries were never filed

I was signed up at Bellairs several months ago on Discovery Vitality. I have had major ops and was advised by 3 specialists to attend Aqua. I signed up with Bellairs for some reason I am down at Northgate. I signed up with your salesman Basil who is based at Bellairs. I have been advised I should make my bookings online when I wish to attend. I find when I do this the class is fully booked. m
Members book and do not cancel therefore I cannot get into the class to do Aqua. Clients should be penalised if they dont cancel within 24 hours. I have been told I should go to the gym instead which I cannot do. Apart from that you can only get 9 in a class and there is only 1 class a day. I noticed the other day a comment similar was made by another member. This is grossly unfair that I sign up for Aqua and cannot get in. I am very happy as there is more chance of getting into Honeydew but again the classes get very full. I cannot make my 36 day attendance to Vitality as I cannot get into the class. Can you not have more than once class a day or use the bigger pool at quieter times. I have reported this to Virgin a very helpful girl named Tanya. I am awaiting an answer to this problem. I have other friends whom I have told to hold on as I dont want them to have the same problem. I also dont know why I am down as Northgate it was Bellairs I Signed up with? This has been going on for months and needs to be resolved. I am not the only unhappy client Joyce Bishop [protected] No one seems to want to resolve the problem in my opinion

Someone from virgin Active called me stating that my account is in arrears by two months. Paid the arrears and sent the proof of payment. A week later I get a call again stating that I'm still in arrears. So I tell the person but I've already paid the arrears and sent the proof of payment. They should have gotten it immediately because we are the same bank. I then called in later the same day and I talked to a Shanice and she checked for me on the system, and told me but my account is not in arrears and they have received the payment. Good.

After a few days I see on my banking app that virgin Active deducted 2 months membership fees of my bank account. I called them and asked them why they just deducting money from my bank without my consent, they tell me that it was a mistake they are going to reverse the payment. So I was happy.

Today I get a call from them again telling me that I am two months in arrears.

It's just going in sircles the whole thing and I'm getting very frustrated.

I want to deal with one person only. This one person saying this and another person saying that just upsets me. Somehow somewhere someone is not doing their job correctly.

Virgin Active is scammers and they should be exposed.

I would like to know how paid members get to use the facilities at normally peak hours every time I try go swim in the last couple of months specifically at bell air the swim school literally take over all lanes sometimes there is one lane but as soon as no one is there the swim schools take it there is never a time in the mornings unless after 8 and never after 5 where the normal paying members can use the pools I work and can not go to the pool
During the day this is really not acceptable I now see most of the gyms in the area have swim schools
Using the facilities so leaving very little use for normal members! When it is raised at the club they always answer if they leave 2 lanes free it is NOt the case ever! In the last week on 2 occasions I counted 4 seperate instructors giving lessons and that was up till 7.30 in the evening how can 1 lane be shared between all paying members? I am a paying member and can never use the facilities [protected]

Potchefstroom
9/11/2021
Open 5am

At 5am, there was loadshedding. We were prohibited from entering the gym siting that it's too dark. It's very risky to allow members to access the gym. Understandably so.
But if you can communicate that there will not be any water via sms or other maintenance issues, why cant you communicate that the gym won't be open during loadshedding.

There is no consistency in the excuses or reasons given by staff members to complaining members. There is a different excuse each time.

Staff members must have a unified consistent.

On the 5the October 2021. I went to Wonderland branch to cancel my membership. I filled the cancelation forms. But to my surprise the debit went on. Could you please indicate by your response that it has been canceled. My card no is [protected] . I'm Mr Noah Madumo.

My two year contract came to an end. Virgin Active continues to take money from my account, despite Sanele Damane sending me a letter of cancellation in January 2021. I am not sure what to do now.

I have been a member of Virgin active and gave notice that our membership is to be cancelled from January 2019. Since then Virgin active have been debiting my account and after numerous phone calls they still continue to do so.

My Name is Crystal Marcus I decided to join Virgin active the beginning of October . I than had a change of heart cause I realize that it will not work for me I called them the 20th October to let them know that i want cancel they told me that i need to pay a cancelations fee, whereas I did not even collected the card nothing i did not use the gym nothing

I think is not fair towards me as a client . This is really treating your customer unfairly .The consultant that was helping me was so rude she even dropped the call in my hear

My Number is [protected]

This was the email I sent to VA Waterstone .

Good evening Cindy
In connection with our conversation earlier tonight, the following email! Can you please escalate this issue to Virgin Active SA management!

We as members welcome the upgrading and we enjoy the Waterstone gym, but we have serious concerns about the way it is managed.

We would like to give you our concerns and also possible solutions.

CONCERNS:

1. We received a message via our spinning instructor that there will not be any spinning classes from coming Monday at the Waterstone gym due to upgrading and that alternative classes will be available at the Sanctuary Gym.
2. This is very poor management to get the message to the members this way and only 3 days before the implementation date.
3. The spinning classes are moved to a lesser gym to accommodate the step classes and Zumba etc. So...spinning members are less important!
4. Waterstone members pay much more than Sanctuary members...We live in the Strand and drive past the Sanctuary every time to go to the Waterstone gym. Don't tell me to go to Sanctuary for 5 weeks.
5. The times given for classes at Sanctuary makes it impossible for working people to attend!
6. Sanctuary's equipment and specially the spinning bikes are less advanced - we at Waterstone pay for more advanced equipment.
7. The Sanctuary is very small and will not be able to accommodate everybody that wants to go for spinning classes.

We would like to help with some ideas and possible solutions to solve this problem, as we will not accept the above. We will not accept this and pay for less for 5 weeks that can even be longer.

SOLUTIONS:

The solution to the problem is to make available a temporary facility to free up the to be renovated space and transfer the classes to the temporary space. For this solution there are various options as you have demonstrated in the past during the Covid episode where you could not accommodate the numbers in the gym.

The spinning studio is only 130 square meters in size so the temporary accommodation should be about the same size

We propose the following
1 Rent a vacant space in the same building and do the classes in that space.
OR
2 Use the basement for the classes as you have done in the past
OR.
3 Erect a space in the undercover parking in front of the gym. This is the most suitable solution as you would only need to drywall around ten parking spaces. This solution requires that you erect a temporary drywall section around ten parking spaces for 5 weeks, Place rubber mats down on the tar and only have the sound equipment moved in and out on a daily basis. The drywall does not have to go up to the concrete slab to enable natural air ventilation.

Use this renovation and temporary accommodation solution as a very good marketing exercise to show everyone you really care and take your members interest seriously.

In conclusion we as spinners feel that we are of a lesser importance to the floor members in studio 1 as we are the only members that need to give up our space for the benefit of floor members to use. Why can't the floor members not move? This decision of waterstone management clearly indicates that they see the floor members of studio 1 as more important than the spinners.

Please reconsider the harsh decision to just cancel the classes and tell the spinners to move to another time and gym that is not of the same standard and in time slots that are in working hours that are impossible for many spinners to meet.

Regards

Hennie and Erica Wiid

We were thrown out of the gym to smaller gym for V-Cycle and step classes were moved to the V-Cycle studio...see photographs

On 19.06.2019 was last day I entered virgin active gym in green point - cape town. The contract was cancelled and debit orders not debited to my account. On 01.09.2021, without being authorized, r700.00 was taken from my account. I disputed it through my bank and moneys automatically returned. I went i. To the gym to mention what was being done, assured me it was a mistake and it would be taken care of and I would be informed. Have not heard a word from them but again this month 01.10.2021 my account was debited again. I proceeded to dispute it and have money's returned to my account. This is all happening after almost two and a half years after contract was terminated and nonuse made of the gym! Can virgin active get their act together? Stop taking moneys they are not entitled to? Give some (promised) customer are and stop creating hassles and costs to clients?
Cellphone: +[protected]
Lucia menicanti

Good day,

I have been a memeber to this Gym in 2019 all was well until i was deployed and i froze my membership to my surprise all of a sudden without my knowledge or consent the membership was reinstated and then the account became in arrear and was handed over to debt collectors attorneys, why was my account reinstated without my knowledge and the account was not in arrears from a monthly membership of R289 to an arrears of R3800 all these months no communication just now the debt collectors harassing me every week. When i lodge my complaint they were going to get back to me within 72 hours, it's two months ago now no one get back to me on my emails i send my calls doesn't get responded to they transfer me then they dropping the calls...i don't see me back here fix your mess

Good day, I have joined Virgin Active in September and was very excited. When i started working out i noticed that i dont receive my vitality points for gym visits. At first i thought it would eventually calculate as i know sometimes it takes some time. But its been a month, and still havent received any points for gym visits. Which also means I loose my weekly goal points, and my change at earning discovery miles, because i dont reach my goals. I have emailed the person numerous times, but to date not received feedback.
After that, i contacted the person who set up my virgin active membership once again, because i had to change banks, and i wanted him to just explain to me how do i update my banking details. Once again, no feedback.
Now, i cannot gym, due to non payment, and i lost the points and goals. I am really dissapointed in this service, as i only joined a month ago.

Facilities not open after close on a year . Notices oN the door stating government rules . This isn't true as the top clubs have their facilities open . Yet customers are lied to and still pay for the services . This has hindered customer well being and health. I urge someone to take this up legally. Virgin may not be under obligation to keep these facilities open . But the lies surrounding it is indeed not good.

This dates back to March/April this year when I needed to cancel my wife's membership. I, as the main member of Vitality, and the payer, went into the gym to cancel my wife's membership as she was not keen on venturing out to train due to COVID and affordability.

The receptionist there said that she needed to come in to cancel it and said nothing about a 30 day notice period. My wife, who is a healthcare worker and works far from home eventually got to the gym only to be told they need a 30 day notice period which was not advised in the first instance. We had then spoken to Ronel who eventually advised that they would refund us the premium that had been debited for the new month, that has not started yet, despite us saying that we do not wish to make use of the facility.

The refund, that was promised to me, is still pending for the last 5 months. I have been receiving no feedback and have to continuously follow up with them and even then there are excuses. There is absolutely no customer service with Virgin Active. Please just give me my refund

ON 20/09/2021 we attended an aerobics class at 17:05 at the East London Beach Front gym, but half way through the class the small speakers used for the music cut off. We did not have music for the better half of the session and for only 5 minutes towards the end. They are currently using small portable speakers whose sound quality is just poor.

This is demotivating as the class duration has already been reduced to 45 minutes and I do not expect this of Virgin Active.

I am waiting on a refund from Virgin Active since July 2021, despite several promises of the process taking 7-10 days. I have tried to cancel my membership and can get no response on any emails that I have sent. I have sent follow up emails regularly at least once a week about both problems and nobody ever comes back to me. This service is unacceptable. Ref : [protected] was given to me which is meaningless as nothing is ever resolved or responded to. I pay a lot of money to this Gym and I am being treated terribly. I was happy to keep my membership going but after this shocking service I am cancelling my membership