Virgin Active South Africa
Reviews and Complaints

I am part of virgin active for many years. I decided to try out the Westville branch due to having a pool and wanting to change my membership from overport to Westville. The 1st time I came I did not train due to the fact that it was over packed so I can 5 days later hoping to try out the facilities. I speak to the manager Eric and he gives me so much of attitude as if I was trash. Then while standing and explaining that I do not have a wallet to pay a day pass and I'm coming from far wanting to try out the facilities... He just ignores me and makes me like a fool in front of people. Is this what virgin active Westville is... Pathetic to the core... I haven't seen so unfriendly people like this in my life. As if I am an animal or I can't afford this gym... This Is really really disheartening. Eric deserves to be reprimanded for this type of behavior. Membership number [protected]

Today 14th October 2017 @ around 12h10 I spoke to Shaun who was the on duty manager at Virgin Active Century City Cape Town to inform him that I was harassed by another gym member in the shower area. I usually don't go to gym on a Saturday due to my experience harassment of other gym members but had to stop in on my way from ParkRun as I had a lunch date. What happens is that predominantly 'white' women gym members stand outside of your cubicle attacking you and letting you know that the city is experiencing is water shortages. Now why wouldn't I know that duh? Yet this gym member has pink hair which she obviously dyes so I wonder if she tells her hairdresser not to rinse the dye out of her hair. It is these people who are guilty of water abuse who attack us who have waterless haircuts and drink bottled water. I gave Shaun a description of the woman with the pink hair wearing maroon jeans and am not sure if he spoke to her. I have informed Shaun that I will contact Head Office asking them to post signs just outside the shower area informing members not to abuse, attack or harass other gym members who are also there to enjoy your gym membership. We had a very serious altercation a few months back which Shaun is aware of and it is going to take one of these privileged ladies with to tick off the wrong gym member again resulting in an altercation. We are tired of them. I have witnessed how gym members have to defend themselves when they are harassed about water abuse. I can tell Virgin Active Century City that this was the first and last time I will be attacked by another gym member and I expect to see a sign very soon based on my suggestion above. Who do these women think they are? I will report this to HelloPeter if nothing gets done as others need to see what abuse we endure at Virgin Active, Century City. It is unacceptable!

The wifi at virgin active jabulani in Soweto has not been working for the past three weeks and when I inquire from employees and management no one seems to know when it will be fixed. I am of the impression that since they don't know and they are your franchisee, you should know. This problem stated at the end of September 2017 to my knowledge and to this date I and other people from same gym are facing the same problem of access to the Internet via our phones. When you try to log in to the wife service it state connected but no Internet which clearly show is virgin active Internet because other wife spots am able to access the Internet.

I took out a 1 year gym membership at Virgin Active Durbanville. I went in to make payments . I made full payment for the outstanding balance on the "account". Now 3 months after it Should have been finished they advised me I am 3 months in arrears.

I would like to cancel this contract immediately as I this was not advised from the beginning and I have not used any facilities from Virgin Active for 4 months as I was under the impression I am no longer a member.

Im sending this email about Tarquin Lamas Campbell who works for virgin active in n1 city.. i have strong reasons behind my email. Tarquin Lamas Campbell has started a relationship with one of his clients shanice who would be leaving Namibia too be in cape town very soon. From what i understand team members are not suppose to start a relationship with clients. Moving around with client's details so illegal.. getting into a relationship with clients is illegal cause of the company.. he also does have a DRINKING problem which leads too him been very abusive he was spotted outside n1 city pik n pay abusing a female while he had beers on him. Been part of such a big company you still are THE face of the company even on your day's off.. Tarquin Lamas Campbell has also been phoning me from the virgin active club phone and i have asked him to stop. This calls is also illegal as i want him too stop. Please sort it out if he happens too CONTACT me again i will have to send police over.

Date: 20/09/2017
Membership No: [protected]
Staff/Representative: Saeed Glenn
Description:

I refer to the above and your telecon with me on 20 September 2017 wherein you confirmed and advised that I was granted access on due date again without paying the connection fee & card fee. You also confirmed during this telecon that the amount due and payable amount to R117.50 which will be debited to my account (as provided to you on the given date) on 01/10/2017. REFER EMAIL BELOW.

During the telecon you also confirmed that you will provide me with an email on the same date, confirming the discussion as per your said agreement.

You also informed me that I have to at least visit the gym 6 times before the end of September 2017 to enable me to qualify for a 75% discount which would then amount to R118.00 pm.

On 22/09/2017 around 12:00 pm I call you to notify you that I went to the club (New Redruth – as this was the club agreed to during our discussion) only to find that I was not allowed access nor granted permission to enter the club. You in your lame defence told me that you were about to call me, and inform me that your “system” has issues and you have not bothered informing me of such. I asked you to provide me with an email on due date (22/09/2017) wherein you confirmed that you have cleared the matter around access with the New Market gym, to which you agreed to.

I also told you that I will be accessing the gym over the long weekend and that you have to liaise directly with them to make a note on the system to grant me access until your “system” issues are addressed.

Today 27/09/2017 (a week since our discussion) I tried again accessing the club and was again denied nor granted access to the site. Still had I not (to date) received any form of communication from you as you promised to do. Nor, did you at any point in time inform the club as promised.

This proves that Virgin Active and its proprietaries are not interested nor can they provide an adequate service to clients as yet again is proven in the history of my “non-visits” at the Virgin Active Group.

You expect me as a member to re-join the group where after you confirmed on 20/09 & again on 22/09 that the transaction was processed.
You also expect me to actively visit the club at least 6 times during the month of September, when I don’t even have access to the club, nor am I allowed in to discuss issues with any member of staff.

Your service is appalling and pathetic to say the least and I will therefore go viral and inform all my clients, family members and friends not to join nor to take part in any service offerings from the entire Virgin Active Group, as the service is crap. You do not know what service is and also damage the so called brand of the Virgin Active group as per say.

**I herewith deny you any access to any of my debit order or bank account details, and will personally hold you liable should any amount from your or your firm be debited from my account on 01/10/2017 and thereafter as we do not have any form of an agreement in writing, or in place. You are herewith requested to confirm and acknowledge receipt of this email or I will take legal action against you in a personal capacity and in the firms capacity for any amounts that are debited from my account on any given date.**

I have had as much as I can take from both Vitality and Virgin Active as a whole, and will no longer be entertained either from a “service” point of view or from the historical racist issue which still to date was never addressed.

I await your urgent reply and acknowledgement before COB on 27/09/2017.

Regards,
Mr. FC Heunis

I have been a member at the Waterfall club since June 2017. When I joined, they said, should I gym 10 times or more, that I would get a R1000 cash back begin August. I joined and reached my target even though I only joined halfway through June.

I signed up at your premises for a debit order with one of the ladies, cannot remember her name, and she filled in all the paperwork. End of June there was no deduction from my account but I received an email and a call form Virgin stating my account is in arrears. I then asked them to double check my banking details and nothing happened. I still have proof of these emails

I then had to call Virgin in August to rectify this issue and my account was brought up to date end of August. Now Virgin says that I forfeited my R1000 money back because my account went into arrears to which I do not agree.

My argument is that this was not due to any fault from my side, but was because of your club, and therefore still want my R1000 back.

After numerous phone calls to the Virgin customer service, who kept saying they’ve escalated it to the club, I still haven't received any feedback from the club nor from the customer service people. This after i get promised a turnaround time of maximum 48 hours.

Time elapsed since my first call is roughly 560 hours without resolution.

I have been a loyal member for about 4 years, not skipping payments and when I decided to cancel my membership, virgin active called me 3 times and was promoting that I place my membership on freeze, twice I declined and the 3rd person said he has noticed that I have cancelled my membership and said I can freeze it instead and when I asked him if I would still be able to gym he said yes, and later on our conversation he said after 4 months I will be paying the full price
I went to Virgin active to work out only to find that I can use it, will only be allowed after the 4months

Now they keep on calling me to pay that freeze fee, and are choosing to listen to the part of using the gym after 4 months while ignoring that I did ask him if I can use the facility and he said yes

I doubt I will ever be a member of virgin active, they are deceiving in the way they conduct business

To whom this may concern my name is Fundiswa Noxolo Magwaza, I have just returned to Virgin Active and activated my membership last week. Before that I joined Virgin Active in 2013 October. 6th consulted by Aneeran Govender... at the time my joining fee was 99 and my contract was 269 rand per month for 12 months on debit order - at the time I was a student and was working part-time when things didn't work out financially, I asked a consultant of Virgin Active to freeze my account! (I just wish I had remembered the name of the person I spoke to) but I do remember it was around April 2014 when I left virgin active... I knew I had to freeze my account instead of cancelling it, because I had signed a legal document which stated that if I cancelled before the 6/12/2014 a cancellation fee is payable which I could not afford at the time as I was a student (once again) on a student limited membership. I wanted to return to Virgin Active because Virgin Active is the only do I trust and the only one I'm comfortable and I feel is suitable for me... finding out that I'm owing a amount of 1000 rand at Virgin Active was a bit of a shock as I thought my account was frozen but I have been away for quite some time as it is 2017 now, I understand that people do make mistakes and I guess my biggest mistake was not following through as I had asked for my account to be Frozen (I should have sent an email or some form of document asking for my account to be Frozen so that I would have proof) moving forward I do not mind paying what has been said that I am owing, however I do advise that the customer service in the near future would be better than what I had experienced. It has just been a week since I rejoin Virgin Active. I have not been to gym as yet to actually work out, but within a period of 2 days, my stepfather received about 3 phonecalls from your Consultants telling him that I owe an outstanding fee of R1000 which needed to be paid urgently. The point is when I rejoined I had made an arrangement with a consultant named Pumlani (who helped me with my new contract ) that I will be given a 50% off if I would be able to pay the money the next day, which I was not able to. So in my new contract i put my mother Zanele as my next of kin and gave my home landline number [protected]. my concern is how come the consultants contacted my stepfather, as well as my young sister which I did not even give those details, but was not contacted on the details I had given.
NOTE: That has caused a huge Family Feud.
Without giving too much personal details, a few days ago I received a call from Pumlani himself who consulted me went I rejoined letting me know that if I was not going to pay the outstanding fees which I'm due to pay within the 7 days of joining my membership would be cancelled and I would have to re-register or rejoin again if I wanted to come to gym, so I would just like to say that I'm willing to pay the fees I am said to be owing but I can only pay it on the 16th of October as cash payment but I would be glad if my membership is already cancelled (without any charges) because I don't think I still want to be with Virgin Active after this experience. I still believe that Virgin Active is one of the best gyms and would consider it to anyone. I hope this gets to the manager at the Atrium-overport.

I sent an email at the beginning of May to cancel my contract. Melitha, your employee, made contact via email and confirmed that the contract would be cancelled by the end of May.

I submitted all information she requested, and heard nothing further from her, so assumed that my contract was cancelled as she said it would be.

In July I became aware that this contract was still in effect as MONEY WAS STILL BEING DEBITED FROM MY ACCOUNT!

I made contact with Melitha again, and queried why the contract was still active.

I HAVE JUST BEEN DEBITED AGAIN AT THE END OF AUGUST!

This is theft. I am Utterly HORRIFIED BY The PATHETIC SERVICE offered by Virgin Active, the complete idiocy and incompetence of people working at your company like Melitha, and at this ONGOING THEFT FROM MY ACCOUNT.

I SUBMITTED A REQUEST THAT THIS BE DEALT WITH URGENTLY, THREE DAYS AGO. I HAVE YET TO RECEIVE ANY CONTACT FROM YOUR COMPANY - VIA PHONE CALL, EMAIL OR SMS !

I will be opening a case of theft and seeking legal advice going forward.

My Toyota Hilux were stolen yesterday on 2017-09-04 at Virgin Active in Vereeniging. It happened about 07:30 the morning.

There are secured gates with booms at the premises but the booms are always open and the security does not seem to do anything as they always sit in there security home.

The bakkie was standing about 30m from the security home and the windows of the bakkie was knocked out so if there was anybody that was just a bit alert they would have heard glass been broken.

I am complaining about this because I think this is about the 6 car that I heard off in the past 3 years that is being stolen.

I would appreciate it if this matter can be dealt with, the people at the gym is to scared to park there this days.

Kind Regards.

Morning,

I would like to lodge a complaint. I have been a member of Virgin Active for about 6 – 7 years, and I started at Groenkloof about 2 years ago, and as a loyal member, I would like to draw your attention to several negative features that have crept into the gym over time.
First, I have noticed that the cleaning staff is using the facilities as if they are members. They hang their clothes in the Sona room for which reason I don’t know but I suspect they want their clothes to be nice and warm when they get dressed. They stand around talking very loudly to each other in front of the entrance where the steam room and sona room are just before you enter the shower section. One day I kindly asked the one lady to just move to the side because I wanted to take a shower. She looked at me in a way that was not appropriate, and she clicked her tongue at me.
They usually use the appliances to get ready for their day interrupting people that want to finish to get to work! I do not know what the rules are regarding this but customers come first.

Second, the women's locker room has dilapidated. One of the toilets I used one morning did not even want to flush and someone used it before me and threw a heap toilet paper in the toilet to hide their business. I wanted to wash my hands and no soap I had to use body wash from my vanity to do so. Cockroaches spotted in the lockers and in the toilet section, disgusting.
Thirdly, I installed the application on my phone to book for classes of which I attend from 6 to 7 in the mornings. I would like to know why the instructors are always late. In the week, the instructor did not even arrive and so an alternative person was instructed to attend to the class. He ran around thinking of which exercises to do and the class started 20 – 25 min late. I have also experienced that the instructors do not plan their classes and make up exercises as mentioned when they arrive late.
Most exercises they provide also could hurt people if not done correctly and this is also a concern. My arm started bothering me a while back and I thought maybe that I have slept in a way that cause the pain. After going to the doctor, he informed me that I have Tendinitis. He explained to me it is most often caused by repetitive, minor impact on the affected area, or from a sudden more serious injury. He informed me that it is an inflammation or irritation of a tendon, a thick cord that attaches bone to muscle. He asked me what I have done and I told him that I don’t know I woke up with the uncomfortable pain and I could not use my arm as the pain was getting worse and worse.
He asked me if I lifted something heavy and I told him that the only place where place I lift something is at gym but a light weight. My husband said that he also noticed that the exercises the instructors presented was dangerous if not done right.

Lastly, management, I requested the gym to inform me what the procedure is if I want to introduce my friend to the gym. I told her of the facility and she said she would like to see the classes and so on so that she can decide to join or not. The general club manager informed me as follows by email “If your friend has not been to the club before we can access her on condition that she sees a sales consultant. Otherwise our guest fee is R220 for the day”.

We went to the gym and I explained to my friend that she has to see a consultant after viewing the facility, she confirmed to me that it will not be a problem. So I took her to the gym. When we got there, I explained to the friendly front desk lady the situation and she understood. After waiting 15 to 20min for the consultant, which did not attend to us, we were let in because my friend got irritable.

When she saw in which state the lady’s locker room was and still are she informed me that she is not going to pay club fees if it looked like it did. Why should customers, but we did not, pay R220.00 for a guest fee for the day then? I am not satisfied with the way the general club manager presented her email to me. It felt like they wanted to force a membership on my friend and wanted to make money.
This degradation of service is unfortunate because I greatly enjoy exercising at Virgin Active. I would like to hear from you about your plans for updating and maintaining the gym so that I can decide whether or not to renew my membership for another year. Please send me an email at the address listed below at your earliest convenience.
Thank you very much for your time.

I was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer last week. I will be doing 15 months of aggressive chemo and also a mastectomy on both breasts.
I will not be able to train due to chemo and surgery.
I phoned your call centre and explained my situation.
I was told that I still have 4 months left on my "1 year contract" and they will only be able to terminate my contract after 1 year. I was told that I must continue paying my monthly membership fee even though I am unable to train or use their facilities due to my health.
I have proof of my breast cancer, in the form of doctor reports, pathology results and mammogram results.
I am shocked and upset that Virgin Active have no compassion or empathy for people who are ill and are not able to train.
Virginia Active is all about making money and they genuinely don't care about their clients.

My daughter, a varsity student joined virgin active on a student contrat. She acquired a heart issue and cannot gym. No, i do not want her dead on your treadmill until her issue is under control. I emailed head office to ask if they can look into reduction cancellation fees. The guy said he'd get back to me. I PROVIDED the card, contract and doctors note. Nothing has been done! EXCEPT you upped her fees! this is disgraceful. On a maintenance income and still studying. I am not impressed and i do not ever want to come back to your gym.

On my first day back to gym after a long break I had entered my local club Bluff Durban only to be ushered out by a very rude staff member.The irony was that i was let in by one staff member and as I proceeded to the from desk to swipe in another staff member had asked me to leave only to wait outside for 25 minutes till the clu officially opens.
Even after mentioning to the staff member that I was new to the area and unaware of the opening hours I was rudely asked to leave.

She could not explain a valid reason why I could not train for the remaining time until 6 am when the club opens.

Surely one could understand the frustration of an uninformed LOYAL customer, however Virgin Active Bluff staff have no idea of Customer Centricity !

I went to a kick class today at 18:30, when we were cooling down the instructor decided to tell me his opinion as well as get everyone's (about 40 people) opinion on what I was wearing (waist trainer). He continued to ask people to comment regarding what they think about women who wear waist trainers. He bullied me by isolating me from the crowd and encouraged people to verbally attack me to make a point. And then he kept saying this isn't an attack against you, we are just discussing. It is wrong for an instructor to single me out, verbally attack me and get people to join in as well. I am very disappointed in how unprofessional the instructor was. I will definitely not go back to that gym. And best believe anyone and everyone on my social media will hear about my experience. Its very disappointing to receive such bad service from a company I thought was reputable. I spoke to the manager, doubt she will do anything about it. Maybe give him a little talk. Meanwhile I have been so embarrassed and hurt i would rather drive further to go to another gym.

I would like to complain about a contract i opened for only a year with Virgin Active Red and upon being sent a reminder to renew i specifically asked for a termination and no one answered and i tried 2 accounts to do so without any reply from Virgin Active. After 2 months of paying a cancelled account i blocked my debit orders and i still am harassed to pay that money after producing proof that i tried to terminate unsuccessfully. I wanted to attach the mail trail but cant. Please contact me on +[protected]. Account number is:
Virgin Active Contract : [protected]
I hereby request the amount am billed for which is outside of my contract term be reversed and voided and a clearance certificate issues to clear my name.As far as i know i paid my accoun contract's full term and even more

Having joined VA Pavilion, Durban, I was told that as soon as the first debit order goes off I will receive an sms for the Adidas Voucher of R750 for their online store. The Debit Order went off at the end of the month but I have not received the sms. Please let me know what is happening as I would like to reward myself with a present for my motivation.

Please see below email sent to Wendy Ntutu yesterday afternoon at 03:19PM without any feedback received to date

Good Afternoon

In regards to reinstatement of cancelled Virgin Active Contract: ID Number [protected] – Francois Isaac Fourie

As per my first and initial discussion - as per your records, explaining that I could not recall that the stated terms and conditions of cancelling my contract was conveyed to me whereby I need to yet again pay the Once of Fee for Vitality Member – it was stated that a voice recording will be recalled via the IT Department and avail to myself

To date the latter has not been adhered to, in truth no one has come back to me, nor given any response – I feel disregarded and angered with the attitude of Virgin Active – I don’t understand why I need to phone every few days to follow up on the latter, I feel this is your responsibility i.e. “Customer Care” – a name not being lived up to

To date I think I have spoken to about 6 or 7 Consultants over a period of 3-4 weeks

This is the last time I will be requesting for a Voice recording to be made available to myself where the above has been explained to me and whereby I fully agree to the same – if not I will escalate the matter to higher authority

Further may I request a full list of Virgin Active consultants I have spoken to over the past few weeks including dates and times (Logged Times)

Regards

Hi there.
My wife (ID number [protected]) had a gym membership with Virgin Active in 2008 and decided to stop using it in 2009. Now (August 2017), she re-opened the membership and was advised her membership is suspended due to outstanding arrears dating back to 2009. She was never informed about this before. As far as my the National Credit Act of South Africa the debt is now prescribed as its been more than 3 three year old and there was no attempt made by Virgin Active to recover the arrears. In South Africa its against the law to collect any debt that is older than 3 years. Virgin Active is discriminating against her based on debt which has long prescribed.

If Virgin Active does not write-off the prescribed debt and lift the suspension of my wife's membership I will report this illegal conduct to the National Credit Regulator of South Africa which could carry a fine of up R1 million Rand for Virgin Active.

Regards
Andile Mlindi
Tel: +[protected]
Email: [protected]@gmail.com