Virgin Active South Africa
reviews and complaints

Good Day.

Please take note that the swimming pool at Virgin Active ECO PARK Centurion is not properly maintained for almost a year or more. The attach photos shows the amount of sif or bacteria living underneath the pool floors and sides. Been able to swim lengths underneath the water and looking at the pool floor for 128 lengths makes me feel sick after a session.

Please be so kind to resolve this matter before somebody gets sick or infected.

Good afternoon

I am writing with regret pertaining to the service that we are receiving at one of your clubs, New Market in Alberton. The club has aging infrastructure, it's even worse in their spinning facility where all their bikes are broken.

I feel that we are not getting the value for money considering what we pay on a monthly basis.

I am sure you've received such complaints but there's nothing being done to address such.

Kindly assist us

Regards

I have been called in twice to the Managers office (new manage (Elke)) mid August 2019 and also on the 11/12 September 2019 regarding the complaints by personal trainers. The personal trainers complained that I was taking their business since I train with a group of ladies (four, sometimes five) and I was advised to refrain from such activities. However, I have not stop training with the ladies because I did not see anything wrong and still do not see anything wrong with such an activity. People train in groups most of the time and in most Virgin Active gyms, but I have noted that at Sammy Marks, the trainers in particular have an issue when a guy trains with a group of ladies than when it is just a group of guys, which I find it sexist to begin with as anyone can choose to train with whom they freely want to train with, secondly, they instructed me to send people who want to join our group to them or the manager, but in such instances the manager is not available or the acting manager is busy, which I find it challenging on my side when people want to join our group and I do not know where to direct them. I have trained in groups since I was a member in Jan 2018 and I am perplexed why this is an issue now. No one is paying anyone in our group and we train better as a group, I thought a gym environment would allow people to freely choose who they want to gym with but it feels like ladies have restricted options and cannot train with a regular member because personal trainers own them.

I left my Nike slip slops at Virgin Active Alice Lane a couple weeks ago. I went away for 2 weeks straight after, therefore I was unable to collect them from lost and found. I went back twice once I returned from holiday and both times I was turned away as "the manager was not available to sign out lost and found items". I understood and said I would return when he was available to help.

Last night I went straight to the manager and asked to collect my slops. He asked when I had left them there, which I replied "about three weeks ago". He then said that Alice Lane has a policy that if items are not collected within two weeks, they either throw them away or given to charity. I was beyond shocked.

I am aware that it falls under a property law principal, accession, which I fully understand. But HOW is this policy not been made known to the public? If I had known this, I would have called WAY earlier asking them to keep them aside for me.

On top of this, I said to Alice Lane's manager why this policy is not made known to everybody and I do not understand. I asked him if this policy is in our contract which we signed upon joining (as i do not remember this policy) and he said no, but it is in THEIR policy. He was beyond rude and stormed off as I was mid sentence.

I am appalled. Being a Classic Collection member, I pay a hefty monthly fee. I would just expect better service/response to my questions.

On the 5/09/2019 I switched my gym membership to that of a Vitality Gym membership and I was told that I would get the first month (ie September) free and only from October onwards will I get charged the Discovery Vitality gym rate.

An amount of R 855 had already been deducted from my account on the 31/08/2019 and I was told that this transaction would be reversed.

Till date (16/09/2019), I have still not yet been refunded the R 855.

Please address this issue ASAP.

My wife and I left Planet Fitness to join Virgin Active in Key West, we Paid plus minus R 350 per per person per month at Planet Fitness, we are With Discovery Health and are Vitality members, when we join Virgin Active in April they promised us 2 months free before we will pay R137 per person per month, as from day one they Charged us R 1100 per month and the 2 free months never happened, they still deduct R 1100 every month from my wife's account, we went there in person and was told that they will reverse the 2 months they charged us which never happened, they also showed us on the system that we will from now on only pay the R137 per person as promised .

i want to know why i will leave Planet Fitness where i pay far less to go to a Gym where i pay double, i feel they breach their part of the contract and would like to cancel the contract and demand a full payback from Virgin Active.

We pay for the right of use of ALL services at Virgin Active. Much like the POOL, the STUDIO & the RIDE rooms, these are used at our OWN risk.
How can one club (Claremont Virgin Active Cape Town) LOCK AWAY, the assault treadmills in the HEAT room and only allow use during class times.
This makes NO sense, & restricts Virgin active users who enjoy the use of the HEAT rooms during their own private gym time!

Thank you for making our Gim " look pretty" however the most important part of our Gim is being severely neglected.
The weight training equipment was replaced by used re-painted equipment which is unfortunately not usable. The moving parts are either so sticky that they can not be adjusted or so wobly and skew that they are dangerous to use.
Please send inspectors URGENTLY to have a look at what we have e to put up with. I have been a member of this gim for more than 15 years and this is THE worst equipment we have ever had.

From: Madelein Ludick
Date: Tuesday, 20 August 2019, 14:35:11
To: accounts@virginactive.co.za
Subject: RE: FW: [Case: qX5Xhp, Ticket: PTCPa2]

Inshaaf you are a joke.

This must go to the newspapers the lady I spoke on the phone said if I have proof she will correct it.
I send my notification 3 MONTHS before my contract expired.
YOU ONLY PROCESSED my request in February 2019 and then you hand me over.

I am going to take this further, with my recorded conversation between me and her.

Thank you regards
Madelein Ludick

From: accounts@virginactive.co.za [mailto:accounts@virginactive.co.za]
Sent: 20 August 2019 02:15 PM
To: Madelein Ludick
Subject: RE: FW: [Case: qX5Xhp, Ticket: tkVe7e]

Hi Madelein,

Thank you for contacting Virgin Active.

Kindly note, the cancellation request was processed on the 25th February 2019, with 20 business days notice as stated in the contract.

However, the February instalment and March pro rata instalments were unsuccessful and therefore the contract was handed over to VVM attorneys.

Kind Regards,
Inshaaf

The Virgin Active Team
T 0860200911 W virginactive.co.za

Good day i had a problem for quite a while i have emailed and i have called 1 the staff was rude every single time i went to gym they were bot polite that even when we went to open a contract we waited for hours for assistance I've called and I've been emailing no response or they say they will get back to me or that they will call me back.. I've been struggling for about 6 months and fighting for my rights...
I felt that you know i dont need to do this and i dont need to waste my money.. but now i really dont need this.. and i feel that struggling for About 4 months to get people come back to it even just get a response is Unacceptable... please sort this out cancel my account or i will take this further as i was a virgin active fan but due to weak service weak staff you are loosing a great amount off supporters

This gym is disgusting. I've been here 3 weeks now and I see only about 1/4 of clients using sweat towels. Others just leave equipment sweaty. Not on!
Weights are left everywhere and no floor staff sorting it out. Very disappointed in this gym
I've trained at a few Virgin active and this one is the worst I've seen. We pay fees and should get what we pay for.

I went to Virgin Active Thornhill on 24 August 2019 just after 9am. I found space on the floor where I put my keys, card, drink and a step where I wanted to perform my exercises.

I went to the studio to collect a gym ball which was also needed for my rehab exercises. On my way back to my space, I realized the personal trainer took the step I was busy with and removed it to the studio where he was busy with a class. I confronted him and he threatened me to get out of his way. We had words in which he continue walking "removing" me out of his way which I will say was assault as his aggressive behavior towards a paying customer in not called for.

I immediatly walked to the "manager" Leon, and AGAIN he immediatly covered for his staff telling me he will sort it out.

He didnt want me go with him and had a "private" conversation in the small room inside the studio (which I also dont think have a camera (is that procedure correct?)

Why would I be so emotional and upset if there was no reason to be like that? Why would I cut short my rehab session to complain for no reason?

I now understand that the staff will stand together and changed the whole version, which is what you do when you afraid of your reputation.

I also read an article on NEWS24 that virgin active are retrenching personnel, so I am wondering why?

I would like to bring under your attention that I pay for 3 people (not through medical aid) and that we will all be leaving.

I have already cancelled my membership, which I am very relieved about.

Leon told me that he will check the footage, I told him I will wait and watch with him, then only to tell me he needed a password from CHUBB and I cant watch it with him.

No paying member should experience what I did, again today with a manager who doesn't have the skills to assist a customer in need!

This is my statement, I will also open a case of rassism and assult with SAPD, and I will be in touch. I will also contact the local newspaper to interview me.

Have a awesome day

Good day

I would like virgin active to write off my old debt. I had family issues which resulted in me not attending gym and therefore locked out. I would like to rejoin again with my family as I am suffering for renal failure and need to lose weight so that my family can have me around for longer.

All I'm asking is for the old debt to be written off so that we can join again and this time we will he stable as the storm is over in my family

Can Virgin Active Vodaworld please explain why there is never any parking available at the gym area?

This seems to be a daily problem between 08:00am and 12:00pm.There is zero parking available in the entire complex.

On the odd occasion that i can find parking during these times, i find it odd that the gym is almost entirely empty with no more than 20 people making use of it.
All the Parking areas are occupied around the gym, the parking occupied around the gym does not equate to how many people there are in the gym at a given time.Can virgin active confirm if the parking areas around the gym are strictly for gym members?

On the 7th of June i joined Discovery medical id and vitality .My gym monthly subscriptions were suppose to be reduced to R200 a month . The 25th of July Virgin active debited R655 instead of R200 i called and enquired and i was told a refund has been requested on my account and it should reflect after 7 working days .

The beginning of last week i called again to enquire as my refund was not reflecting as yet and i was told my refund has been proceesed and it should reflect by close of business 8/08 . Its been over a 3 weeks and still no refund .Today i called AGAIN AND I WAS TOLD MY REFUND WAS PROCESSED ON THE WRONG ACCOUNT WHAT THE HELL . I NEED MY REFUND TO REFLECT BEFORE CLOSE OF BUSINESS TODAY IM LOGGING ANOTHER COMPLAIN ON HELLO PETER, THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE .

HOW DO YOU DEBIT THE RIGHT ACCOUNT AND REFUND THE WRONG ACCOUNT

Salome- [protected]
[protected]

Hi Attached is my 400r swimsuit that was taken in the ladies room George Virgin Active i had so much plans to enroll my daughter at the Club V and swimming lessons. I am now thinking twice. It was a terrible First experience, i am not one to complain but this was expensive. I really hoped it was in the lost and found coz that what i would have done

Good day

I signed a contract with Virgin Active, Little Falls two years ago agreeing that I would pay R399 per month for my now 17 year old son to train there.

It was a new package that had just come out in the March and we took the offer.

We have been paying R399 every month with no problems, until this month July 2019, when my debit order was R421 instead of R399.

We were never informed in any way that the fee had increased and therefore I did not budget for the extra cost which has now caused me to have problems with my bank balance.

I wish for an explanation why it has increased without informing me.

This is absolutely disgusting service, you are in a way stealing from me.

Please get back to me urgently.

Many thanks
Tracy Pretorius

I am Palesa Moeti, 2 days before the termination of my husbands contract(21&22 July 2019), We made an inquiry about the cancellation fee, we were told to pay R860.00 to terminate the contract. On the 23 July we went to the gym around 4 or 5 o'clock to pay to pay the cancellation, we called the head office via the gym to for cancellation. We specifically asked if the debit order will go through on the 25 for the cancelled membership they said NO, during the course of this week(29 July-3 August) I have been receiving calls stating that I need to R290 for Pro rata. I do not understand how is this possible after the agent stated that no amount will be due to you from that moment forward.I refuse to pay the amount because I was given false information from an agent that was hired by Virgin Active.
ID number:[protected]
Gym: New Market

hope to hear from you soon.

A friend of mine referred me to virgin active and the said particular saleman, who called me and told me about the promotions that were happening at virgin active. He called me for an entire week telling me the promotion was R75 to join and I will get the month of June and July free and start paying in August the once of fee of R919 and my monthly fee which is what we agreed upon. He also mentioned to me that it will be access to all virgin actives besides classic and when I decide to downgrade to just one gym, I can let him know in July before the debit goes off my account and he will sort it out for me. I could only make it to the gym to sign up two days before the promotion ended which was fine. Once I had signed up and my account was debited, Ii was still under the impression it was for R75 only to see my message showing R919 was deducted right there and then. Upon approaching the saleman the same time, he said he thought I wanted to activate the vitality all at once which he didn't bother to ask me at all. When I explained to him I did not budget for this at the time he said he will call his manager and see what can be done. The manager on the other hand seemed uninterested, said there wasn't anything he could do and his hands were tied. If he cancelled the contract it could only be done on the Monday as the call center was closed and by then the promotion would be over and he was to call head office and give me feedback as he acknowledged it was a fault on their side. Few days later the saleman called and said that there isn't anything they can do besides to give me a bag and bottle to compensate for my troubles. I let it go as I understood that these things happen since we are human. Today being the end of July, I asked him to downgrade me to just The Pavillion gym only to be told that I need to pay a once of fee of R200 to do this. This was never told to me at the outset! Had I known when I signed up, at that point I would have already restricted my access to the gym I want to use instead of now paying to do this. When I told him this was not told to me, he said he is very transparent about these things yet he also never told me he is debiting R919 from my account. Upon telling him I will be now lodging a formal complaint, his response was alright ok. The nerve. And to think I have given him referrals and myself work for a franchise of Discovery and if this could happen to me, how many of our clients is this happening too. Yes they say we are given the copy of the t's & c's but should all of this also not be disclosed upfront to clients? As a saleman you are there to create a relationship with a client and give them a a great experience yet all it seemed like, this guy just wanted to make a sale and get his commission at the end of it and didn't care how he had to do it. He even told me about a competition that was running and I needed to add 5 peoples names on a card for the competition only for one of those people to phone me and tell me that he has been phoning them and pestering for them to join. He again didn't tell me that he was going to be calling these 5 people. What transparency is this? Who would actually be dealing with all of this since the manager also doesn't care much. Now I'm left to cough up more money to pay a fee to downgrade which again puts me out of budget and I'm told nothing can be done to waive it. This is unacceptable and totally disgusting for a gym with such high standards. Everything should be disclosed upfront to every gym member when joining! I want some feedback on what is going to happen going forward with the lack of communication from the saleman and manager. My contact number is [protected]