Virgin Active South Africa
Reviews and Complaints

Virgin Active Complaint

I recently (more specifically 3 April 2018) visited your new VA branch in Loftus Park, as I attend school and my mother works just down the road from my school so we were very excited at the prospect of a gym so near by. Unfortunately this experience has given both of us a very bad impression.

I arrived with my aunt in the morning, and I was assisted, in a rather unpleasant and rude manner, by an employee by the name of Anna. I told her I wanted information on the package prices, classes etc. She then asked me how old I was, and when I told her I was 16, asked if the woman with me was my mother. Once I told her she's my aunt, she told me I could come not inside because she wasn't my mother, and told us that she would provide us with a consultant to answer all our questions. Therefore, we waited.
We waited for approximately 3-4 minutes and another couple came that she helped very attentively. While she helped the couple, there were two men waiting behind her, looking at us, and speaking with each other, after that one of them simply waved at us. Anna seemed to acknowledge their presence by looking back at them occasionally and saying nothing. It took over 15-20 minutes until one of the men came to us, we then assumed that he was our assigned consultant, as he did not even introduce himself. We were quite confused because he had been staring at us for quite awhile without doing anything and had not introduced himself in any manner.

He was told by Anna that we couldn't come in, so I told him I wanted information on the packages and he proceeded to tell us about the student packages, but nothing that was applicable to my mother or I. Afterwards he seemed to not be able to answer my other questions (Those being if there was a family package available, If classes cost extra etc) and cut me off before I could ask others. My aunt proceeded to ask for a pamphlet, and he gave us one, writing down his name, which is Koos, his number, and prices. The rest of the pamphlet had no useful information (Picture in attachments).

All in all I'm exceptionally disappointed at the quality of service, especially after hearing about such positive reviews from frequenters at other branches and I'm reviewing my decision to do business with this establishment. I'm also quite appalled at the fact that I spent nearly 30 minutes at the gym, and got less Information than I could've gotten from your website. I hope that decisive action will be taken, and request feedback on the matter ASAP.

O.N.

Yesterday the 02/04/2018, I went to Cycling Class with my 11 Year old Son. we cycled for +_ 30 minutes, then came the guy by the Name of Thomas Amukelani. He first stop my son bike, who was cycling next to. He then turn his eyes on me by asking, 'is this your son, I said yes, then he asked, 'how old is he, I answered ii years, then he said, he is not allowed to be here. I then stop my bike and tell my son to leave the class.
My concerns are the following:
1. His approach to me was no different to militant Police Man approach.
2. Some of the issues he spoke to me deserve a different approach than the one he apply.
3. It would have been much better he could have call me outside the class, and then explain to me his concern or rules, not in front of everyone in the class, my son was terrified by his approached as yesterday was not the first time that my son has attended the cycling class, since he was 9, 10 and now 11 years, he attended several classes at sunward park, and few in germiston without any disturbance.

In Sunward park, I have told that as long a child is being supervisor by his parents, he may be allowed in cycling but not Treadmill and Weight.

Would you please clarify me and other parents who might have a similar situation.

As parents we take our children to the gym with us for different reasons, surely I don't understand if clubs have different approach to same situation.

I am committed to cooperate with your staff, But please manner of approach is the key to good cooperation.

Regards
Hlengani Manganyi ([protected])

This person works for your company and is sending perverse disgusting messages. He is sick and claims that he is from mulmesbury and he has a high position so it doesn't matter if I complain because according to him all the men at virgin active feels about woman the way he does. I will due to this never join a virgin active gym again. This man is sick and if he does not work for virgin active please let me know so that I can lay a formal complaint at the police.

Hi I'm Jama Ali yussuf I'm one of the members of virgin active i have a complaint about i had helped 4 guys to join the gym the reason I helped them was they had no account numbers or bank account so i let them to use my account there's other guy who I didn't signed for him his name is Jamal I don't know even his face i have a complaint from who assisted him other 4 guys 2 of them they stopped coming to the gym from 2016 their names are Elmi and Mohammed jama mbd are calling me asking those guys money I'm not responsible for thier payments I didn't helped them to pay thier payments I helped them to get started to the gym so I hope you gonna fixed these problems because you have those guys details phone numbers and assylum papers I don't wanna have problems I'm innocent I'm still going to the gym every month

On the 22/12/2018 I visited Virgin Active Sunninghill as I wanted to activate a membership with the club. I was assisted by Matthew Siko, a sales consultant at the club. I had filled out the onboarding documents manually as Matthew had noted that the systems were offline for some reason, and reassured me that he would log a call with his admin team to get it loaded onto the system. To enjoy the full benefits of Virgin Active, I thought it best to activate by Vitality membership as well. My membership was effective and activated as of 1 December 2018 (I have proof therof). Matthew explained on the day that I would need to pay an activation fee of R1865.00 including the card fee, which I was prepared to pay. He further stated that I would receive an amount of R500 back into my account should I reach my Vitality goals. (3 times a month).
This seemed very attractive and on the 29/12/2017 I had paid my activation fee of R1865.00. (I have proof thereof) It is important to note that I had taken out this membership based purely on the fact that it was an attractive package. ie. should I meet my minimum goals of attending gym 3 times a month, there would be a concession on my normal gym fee. Despite this, I have been debited by Virgin Active for the full amount of a usual gym membership despite having activated my vitality and meeting my minimum goals. Ie. R 525.00
I expressed my frustration to Matthew countless times from January to date (mid March) and the only response he has is that I haven't activated my Vitality and hence I do not qualify for the concessions. This being more than two months after I paid the activation fee and activated my Vitality.
There has been absolutely no effort on the part of Matthew and Virgin Active Sunninghill to assist me and my requests have fell on deaf ears. I have called the club countless times with requests that matthew call me back or to speak to the Manager, but they are never available and never return my calls. I haven even requested that the matter be investigated through a consultant at Discovery however this never happen.
Further to this, on 1 March 2018 Virgin Active Sunninghill debited me with an amount of R750.00. Matthew noted that this was because I had cancelled ‘balance' when I wanted to activate Vitality and the cancellation went through however my Vitality hasn't been activated, hence I am now being charged the full amount. Despite my previous dealings with the club Matthew reassured me that this would be sorted out within the week however it is now 19/03/2018 and I still have not been refunded the amounts as promised. Before yet another unauthorized debit order goes off my account, I would like to have this problem sorted!

I request refunds for the following months:
December
January
February and
March.

Matthews conduct and that of Virgin Active Sunninghill does not meet the minimum requirements of the Treating Customers Fairly Campaign (TCF) and should this matter not be resolved as a matter of urgency I will report the matter to the respective Ombudsman for further investigation and further through an open letter.

Should you require further information, do not hesitate to contact me.

Virgin Activ Malibongwe has really terrible service. they sold me a deal with Discovery health on Vitality yet still debited my account for R650. And now they have not refunded my money back. The manager is rude and arrogant and the sales guys have a terrible work ethic. I was supposed to be debited for R2120 on the 1st of March 2018. I was debited for R650. When I called virgin active on the 6th March 2018 I was told that I need to come in to the premises and pay the R2120. Thereafter the R650 will be refunded. When I went to pay them I spoke with the sales consultant Shaun and told him had he told me to come in to pay I would have come in and paid. I will now get a refund of R650 less the 6 days. I must pay for 6 days because they did not give me full information. The Manager Fortune is rude and did not apologise to me or ask Shaun about the misrepresentation of information. I was treated in a very by the way manner. I was told by Fortune that I will be refunded by the 7th or the 14th. Todays the 16th and the refund has not happened. I called and spoke with Fortune who said he will get back to me and did not get back to me. When I called today and spoke with Shaun they have not even authorized the refund.

I must pay for 6 days due to lack of I formation from their sales consultant and I must wait 3 weeks for my money. Where's the justice

On the 3rd of January 2017, i took a contract with virgin active i was promised a cash back in the month of January 2017 from Northgate jhb branch. Luvuyo Soji Consultant code 7377 assured me if i took the contract i will receive a cash back. In January i received no cash back as promised. In the event of lies and deceit from Luvuyo i cancelled the contract. i have been handed over to the lawyers for this account. I tried numerous times to contact the branch manager and the consultant to rectify this and until date i have not gotten any answers as to why i have been handed over to the attorneys.

This is a complaint against Virgin active Cornubia.
The equipment provided in the studio (studio 1) is inadequate for class numbers and is of poor quality.
This is clear for the following reasons:
1. Cornubia gym opened in October 2017, yet in January 2018 the equipment in the studio namely the barbells are no longer usable. Each barbell has a stopper fixed on each end to prevent the chosen weight from moving out of place when a clip is placed on. However, of the +- 23 barbells in the studio, all of them have (supposedly fixed) stoppers which have moved out of place, making the barbell non-symmetric and this is a serious injury risk! At one of the classes in January, the instructor called a manager to report this and nothing has been done since then.
2. The equipment provided is insufficient for the class sizes that the studio accommodates. By equipment, I am referring to Bosu's (of which there are only +-6), Yoga balls (+-22), foam rollers (+-18) and barbell bars (+-22). At one class in which 25 people attended, the instructor had to then give her equipment away to one of the attendees. On another occasion, there was also a shortage of mats.

I have previously written a complaint on the provided complaints cards at the gym and provided my details. This was done in early February and I have not gotten a feedback not has anything been done about the equipment.
In addition, it has been 3 weeks since I last saw complaint cards at the front desk. Without these cards, complaints can't be submitted (the irony). I now have to complain about the (lack of) complaint cards. When I asked a staff member about it... the response was they don't have any, with no attempt to enquire about why I need one or when the cards will be replenished.

The lackadaisical attitude of staff at Cornubia is dreadful and surely better customer service should be provided with the best equipment since it demands hefty monthly fees in comparison to its competitors.

I expect some feedback and better equipment.

Afternoon, on Sunday 11 March at 17.30 i took my brother in law to Virgin Active in Centurion.as a longstanding member i was always aware of the opportunity to invite a guest with for a workout in order to decide if he wants to join the gym. the lady at reception has a terrible attitude, unfriendly and unprofessional. i had an incident with her as well before. The Manager on duty was no where to be found, after i was informed that they dont allow guests any longer. i asked if we were informed of the changes on email or sms...she said no. we stood there for 20minutes and left feeling very disappointed and upset. she even said the guest book is full...? (thought we not allowed to invite guests anylonger). there was also no sales persons on the premises? as a result of this experience, i am reversong my last payment on 1 March to Birgin active and i am cancelling my membership with immediate effect, and due to her terrible attitude as a front face for the company, my brother in law and his family will not be joining the gym. Both families will be joining Planet Fitness. My recommendation as a customer to your business is to remove that lady from the front desk.
.or send her for training and she needs to have a much better attitude. if she handled the situation with a good attitude, friendly and understanding, we would have understood the new rule better and left there smiling. the damage is done as i am a very active business networker and i will ecen publish this message on a site like linkedin...and i will learn now how to use twitter. i cant stand this kind of treatment as a paying customer, especially to a large and profeasional business such as Virgin Active...a global company? Where was the manager on duty? what if there was a crisis...injury...? Thank you Virgon Active for a very unpleasant late Sunday afternoon experience, so unnecessary, but it hapenned and it is a serious matter, even if you dont think so due to the size of the company. Eugene

Good day
So my contract comes to an end April and I called to log the cancellation on the 26/02/2018 as it stipulates you have to give a full months' notice.
When I called I spoke to a guy named Jasten on the 26/02/2018 he said if I want to cancel now there will only be a penalty fee of R280.
And it will be taken off debit order gave him all my details and I asked for the full account to be cancelled, me my son and my husband, all is on my name.
Yesterday this lady calls me Poucha and said my account is in arrears I said no I cancelled it, so she said this Jasten only cancelled my account not my husband or my sons account.
And she said to cancel all thee will be R260 pp and I said HELL NO! I'm not paying that, Jasten said it will be R280 to cancel that's what I will pay.
VIRGIN ACTIVE you need to get your call centre sorted and get this account closed asap I'm not paying you anything more, if Jasten made a mistake then he can pay for it.
Just cancel my account I'm done with Virgen active and will never revere anyone to you.

Good morning,

I want to submit a complaint with respect to the GO52 class not starting on time at Virgin Active Waterstone Village. This is not a once off and 3 out of 4 classes will not start on time. Instructors always seem to be busy with something else and then use the excuse of being busy with customers. If they know they are supposed to run a class surely the common decency to just let reception know they will be late is not too much to ask and if they cannot finish their personal training sessions on time, why do they book it in up to the start of another commitment? Or is it just because it's a kids class that they think it is acceptable that do so? Classes they start 15-20 minutes late and finish before it is supposed to finish! Totally unacceptable!

I would appreciate it if you can get back to me with an answer as how this will be handled in future as I'm sure this does not fit your service levels.

Kind regards
Alanda Goosen

I gave the virgin active consultant at the gym in n1 city Goodwood two friends numbers as a referral for them to join the gym. MR AND Mrs P Moodley, cell 0827728291. They signed up on 28 Feb 18. I did not get a thank you or any form of gratitude for the referral. I have been a member for 13 years. A simple thank you goes a long way. Staff are generally very friendly at this gym.

Regards
Vishal
[protected]

Over the last years on visiting VA Groenkloof, I have become more and more disappointed with its upkeep and standard.
Currently the gym is in very poor condition, hazardous in areas and reflects "seriously" on the "Virgin Brand"
There is absolutely no reason that this gym should be deteriorating and in this condition period.
Apart from the Virgin Brand, it affects your partner brands also.
I have attached images in a very quick photo shoot. I was so appalled I stopped taking further.
There are no apologies that can or should remedy the situation and condition this gym is found in.
I wish to know forthwith what will be done immediately to rectify and improve conditions, general health and safety plus alieviaring the brand damage you have done and are doing.

I have cancelled my gym contract in November, Virgin Active proceeded to deduct a cancellation fee and never cancelled my contract.
The consultant at the cancellations department told me that I needed to pay a cancellation fee of X amount as I still had some time left on my contract before the contract time was over.
They keep running the debit order off my account 4 months now after I cancelled the contract.
I phone them on a weekly basis and no one helps me, I have been referred to the Team Managers who have then referred me to the Quality Manager Edward Steyn.
He e mailed me to say that he will give me feedback by the 22 January...we are now on the 21 of Feb and I still have not heard back from him. I call him on a weekly basis as well and leave messages for him to contact me back.
Till this day he is always in a meeting and never returns my calls, e mail or my Voice messages.
The service I have been receiving is shocking and they now tell me that I am in arrears of R600 due to that fact that I have stopped my debit orders.
They want to tell me that I never cancelled, even after listening to the phone calls on their system they still did not want to admit that they made a mistake and rectify the situation. The manager still told me that I was billed for the cancellation so he doesn't know why it wasn't done.
However I'm still waiting for him to call me back. I'm very upset at the shocking service.
All I need is for them to just cancel the contract and to stop running debit orders.

To whom it may concern,

I have been a member at Virgin Active for 3 years and I have enjoyed every minute, recently I visited one of your new red clubs, Okavango, as I am relocating to Durbanville, thought it was a lovely club, until I had to deal with your very rude and unprofessional sales manager. I wanted to get more information about the club and how to transfer and when I asked questions she shrugged them off and walked away from me and when I tried to call her she just ignored me and walked on.

I did manage to get her name, but unfortunately not her surname. Her name is Julia, I hope that helps.

I hope this gets resolved and that I can get feedback on this matter.

I bought my daughter a student contract from Virgin Active in Claremont, Cape Town. The salesman was fantastic, except where he forgot to mention that as a student, my daughter was not allowed to train between 4pm and 7pm Monday to Friday. My argument now is that because this was never told to me upfront, Virgin Active should carry the loss of this contract, or give my daughter the open contract at their own expense. I was quite bluntly told to "just upgrade the contract for an extra R100 per month"! That's not the answer. Now they want the salesman to phone me to explain the terms & conditions to me. Why explain them after you sold me the contract? This should have been explained prior to my signing the contract.

Accept your responsibility and mistake - and do the right thing. You carry the additional R100 per month as this was clearly a mistake from your side.

My family and I joined Lenasia Virgin Active on the 21.01.2018. The sale agent was excellent, however his senior by the name of Michael was not helpful. Today we spoke and he was so rude that he walked away whilst I was speaking to him about my daughter's student registration. I couldn't believe that attitudes and people like this still exists in these times. There is an issue with my daughter's registration as a student and Michael changed the contract to a normal account without discussing in detail the repercussions of my account with me, when confronted he simply walked away and shortly after left the club. This is truly unacceptable when dealing with customers, he should be removed from dealing with customers if he hasn't received adequate training on customer service. Very bad first impression of Virgin Active.

Please note that in October 2017 I requested online that my membership be cancelled.

To date I have not received any response from your accounts department.

I have been debited November, December and have no doubt that January will also be debited.

May I request that this is resolved immediately and my funds are reimbursed urgently.

Passport number: [protected].

Very urgent,
Hayley Rickard

I am really disappointed in the use age of the facility of the steamroll at the virgin active ballot several times when I want to make use of the steamroll the cleaners came and switch the steamroll of because of cleaning I just think during gym hours the facilities in the gym have to be available for everyone and the cleaners must rescheduled there cleaning hours either early or after gyming hours it is frustrated for everyone please look into this because the facilities must be available

Shahieda, and Virgin Active Team,

I refer to the above and my telecon with Shahieda on 15 January 2018 @ 11:42am.

As mentioned, confirmed and recorded it is herewith noted and recorded that I will not be paying any funds to you Institution as you are probably the worst organisation to deal with and are totally over-rated.

I tried in the last end of 2017 to ascertain what the reasoning for the increased billing was, and also requested copies of the recording, documentation etc which was sent to me confirming the increase and the amount due and payable on a monthly basis. As without fail you have not taken the courtesy nor even bothered to respond to any of these requests and I herewith am not prepared to tolerate your incompetence any longer.

Your attitude is appalling and will in the end be the downfall of the entire VA group as was the case with Health & Racquet back in the day.

You place so much energy on false advertising and empty promises that your ratings on Hellopeter (which you are no longer part of for obvious reasons) and Facebook ito complaints have increased escalated to such an extent where it is out of your control.

Your focus has shifted (typically South African) wherein you focus mainly on your revenue and return, than on client (member) retention than anything else.

I have lodged complaints with Discovery Vitality and Virgin Active UK and will ensure that the complaints are taken note of, as you are damaging not only the image of Discovery but also the brand as a whole. I have also arranged an interview with Carte Blanche as I would like to inform everyone else in South Africa of your "exceptional service level". This email and the contents thereof will also be forwarded to Media24 and I will make it my personal duty and obligation to inform all in sundry of your arrogant and miss-representative advertising campaigns that you run. I will also mention the point and facts where harassment claims in your entity is blatantly ignored and shifted aside for the sake of convenience.

Since the hand over from Sir Richard Branston the VA brand and image has dropped significantly as is transparent with the feedback and reviews I have received from both staff members, personal trainers and members country wide.

If only your customer service was as good as you collections service, your level/amount of members would increase monthly.

Please refrain from harassing me with system generated text messages as received yesterday @ 14:23 as I am not legally bound to your t's and c's as you did not meet the end of your bargain neither did you provide me with the service.

Your "Senior" team is just as ignorant as your staff turnover in Head Office.

I herewith conclude the matter.