Virgin Active South Africa
Reviews and Complaints

Good day.

I have cancelled my membership in May 2017. The consultant gave me a penalty amount to be paid because of early cancellation of R594.94.

The following day R 926.90 was deducted from my account.

May subscription fees were deducted from my account on 30 April 2017.

Firstly the wrong penalty amount was deducted from my account.

Secondly on 1 June 2017 another R371 was deducted from my account for club fees. How on earth is that possible if I cancelled my contract in May 2017 and paid way more penalty that I originally should have?

Please sort out your accounts department, refund me and sort out your mess.

My ID No is [protected] - Eugene Steyn

Cell no : [protected]

email : [protected]@erlocksmith.co.za

Thank you kindly

Virgin Active are employing people who do not take accountability or ownership of an issue.
I should be a corporate member for virgin active Twickenham, but they have failed to action this. This has cost me over £300. When I asked at Virgin Twickenham I got excuses after excuses. They employ idiots. I am going to join different gym(not Virgin) I may be paying more but at least they will employ adults.

I do not know if it is incompetence or just arrogance of a big organisation who just simply doesn't care because they are too big?

My advice, "Never join Virgin Active"

Hi

I'm a national member of Virgin Active Health Clubs. I've recently learned that someone has been trying to access the club with my ID number or Gym card. I kept having issues at reception every time I tried to enter the club. A notification appeared on the screen which was an instruction to call the manager. This happened a number of times before they eventually stopped me and requested Identification. Fortunately I had my licence at the time and was able to confirm I am indeed the card holder after answering a series of questions. After a discussion with the manager at the Foreshore Gym, he assured me it was resolved and I wouldn't have any further issues. The problem did subside for a while (1 month) until recently. Obviously the issue was not resolved and although the Foreshore manager was very helpful compared to the rest of the clubs, it's clear to see that nothing was done.

I have lost count of the number of times I have been pulled aside at the gym and had to wait whilst the person on duty tried to figure out what the issue is. I'm a premium member even though I go to the same club 80% of the year and my account is always up to date and I find it absolutely unacceptable that Virgin Active has been so slack and inefficient in resolving this issue. This not only eats away at my training time but it's also not pleasant to be pulled aside almost every time as if I'm not a real member or a defaulter. My understanding is that this process should be very simple and easy to carry out. I swipe my card, the person on duty confirms that the account is paid up and that the photo corresponds with the holder. I do not understand what the complication is!

This has been going on for almost half a year and I am now exhausted from trying to resolve this in the clubs. I've been understanding enough to not complain all this time but I've had enough. To top it all off I called your call center last week Thursday and lodged my complaint with Tohiera. She promised to call me back urgently and needless to say today is Tuesday and there's still no resolution or follow up call. One of the club managers suggested that I might have to carry my ID card every time I attend which I told her "absolutely not". I am not prepared to carry identification to the gym every time I go. This is an internal issue which should be resolved without my involvement.

Can I kindly ask that you please resolve this issue urgently. If you are unable to, please let me know so I can start looking for alternative gyms.

Kind Regards,
Mzimasi Poswa

On thursday evening the 25th of may 2017, I attended the weekly shape class given at the wembley square virgin active in gardens, cape town. This class is held between 17h30 and 18h30 every thursday evening.

On the 25th, about a quarter into the class, I noticed a 30 year old man, in gym clothes sitting on the floor outside the studio looking at his cellphone held right up in front of his face, pointing through the glass into the studio. We are 90% women in this glass doing exercises such as squats and lunches. I found this very uncomfortable and went downstairs where I could find the only floor staff. I told them exactly what was happening and one of the staff went upstairs to investigate, however, when he went up, the man had swiftly moved past us on the stairs and left the club. It was too late to question him as he had already left, but I am quite sure he was videoing us in the studio and as soon as he saw a threat he left.

Even though this might seem like an insignificant thing, it is a form of sexual abuse where women are being filmed by men in a club where the expect to be in a safe environment. I believe it starts with the staff at the club who need to be aware of these incidents as they are extremely common, happening in shopping malls and public spaces everywhere, and take action as soon as they notice suspicious behavior which in this case was very obvious. I pay a lot of money for a safe, healthy environment and it is not my job to be vigilant about these things, it is up to the staff to ensure the safe environment is kept up.

I left the club feeling violated by perverted men and disappointed in the staff who spend most of their time in front of camera screens looking at the activities happening in the gym and did not notice this.

I have been a member at the Waterstone village Gym since the opening and reported the following problems repeatedly to the FO staff, different PT I have been working with and even directly to the Maintenance Manager ...the situation didn't change.
I would like to urge whoever is inspecting the gym for appropriate standards to make a visit to the women locker rooms...the showers heads have not been cleaned since day one and therefore it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a decent shower, actually wasting a lot of precious water. There are a lots of broken tiles in the cubicles, the grouting is filthy and the ceilings are either broken or peeling.
In the toilets the flushes only work on "full power" not giving the option of flushing a small amount of water when you only had a pee...with the dramatic water situation we are experiencing in the area I would expect a bit more action taken by Virgin Gym than to put stickers on every wall asking to save water...
When a piece of equipment is "out of Order', being a running machine, a water fountain or an air dryer, it normally takes weeks to be fixed: this is not the kind of service I expect from a "Flagship" gym with correspondent membership fees.
Hoping to finally see swift actions put in place in order to correct this situation.

Kindest regards

Lisa Benini membership n. [protected]

Good day, I recently contacted the welkom office for membership. I made an appointment to see a sales person by the name fikile. He was busy with other clients that day and a guy called vuyisele helped me. Were I was informed that there is o/s monies on an old account to the amount of r2000 and that I should contact mbd, also an amount over r400 which was due was also paid. The next day I called mbd about the r2000 and they sent me a letter that the account was paid up. The next evening I again went in. They send me away as I didnt have my sons birth certificate. The 3rd evening I finally got membership... My son and I went for less then a week and was informed that there is a problem. I contacted fikile and was told that an account that my ex husband and I had in 2007 was o/s. It was on his name and im not liable for that. Today I contacted the headoffice and was told another story again... That I owe over r3000. The prescription act stipulateds that any debt older than 3 years, that wasnt contacted for nor admission of debt was made needs to be cleared. According to the prescription act 68 of 1969, section 10 (1), a debt is prescribed if:

* you have not acknowledged the debt in the past 3 consecutive years, either in writing or verbally
* you have not made any payment towards the outstanding amount, nor have you promised to pay
* the creditor has not summonsed you for this debt within 3 consecutive years.

I want to get this sorted so my son and I can start to gym again.

Virgin Active Maerua Mall Windhoek Namibia
This morning 19 May I went for my usual exercising. At 5:55 the floor exercise area was completely full. 2 people were taking up nearly 4 blocks of space with up to 6 people sharing the same space in the rest of the area. I asked the 2 people (who packed out 4 steps, their cell phones, etc over these nearly 4 full blocks) whether they can please move their things slightly to give me space to exercise. They refused saying that they are doing a circuit and need all the space. Another lady offered to move nearer to the edge and I squeezed in next to her. We then just asked each other when we wanted to do an exercise (eg leg extended to side) whether it is OK. She was very considerate and kind.
I spent 40 minutes in the floor area. During that time the 2 gentlemen spent less than 10 minutes using any floor space in the floor area. The rest of their circuit was done elsewhere. They used the 2nd set of steps 2x - both times jumping over 10x. They thus used the space for the 2nd sets of steps for 20 jumps each.
Between 5:55 and 6:10 3 of my friends could not find floor space to exercise on and had to find something else to do. Later on there was sufficient space available in the floor area, but until 6:15 it was crowded.
At 6:35 I again approached the 2 gentlemen. The one said his name is Smiley. I said that I found their behaviour inconsiderate as they did not efficiently used the space and were not willing to share as the other people were willing to do. They differed in opinion and felt entitled to "book" the space with equipment while busy elsewhere in the room.
I was told in the bathrooms that the one person is the Manager and the other one a personal trainer, but I do not know if it is true.
Kindly investigate. Surely staff should set the example for sharing and being considerate and surely staff should not choose one of the busiest times to "book" space for themselves.

Good day
I trust you

There are few matters that needs urgent attention

- The new staff is not as friendly and helpful as the old staff use to be

- The suna is not working most of the time

-The showers are not clean as it use to be

-The computers and the mouse which are more dead than alive

Please see that these matters are taken care off

Kindly revert to me ASAP

Thank you

Kind Regards
Mr R Singh

Good day, I have been a virgin active member more than 11 years. I first joined the virgin active in Amzamintoti, then the one in Bluff and finally the one in Umhalanga. I recently relocated to JHB and changed membership to a new virgin active in Lenasia. My first time at Lenasia was purely for enrollment purposes. I was quite amazed at the size of the gym. However on my second time which was for training I was literally shocked at the equipment that was at the gym. The equipment looks like it was taken from the bluff gym about 10 years ago and while bluff gym has had maybe 2 or 3 upgrades of their equipment. I couldn't find weights, the machines that were available count even be used because they were euther missing the hooks for the machines. I was dumb struck just standing there looking at all the people train and thinking of the amount they pay and the ### services they are getting. Im currently thinking if I should ever go back there. the gym is in a critical mess with regards to equipment. Im sure there is a area manger thats inspects most virgin active in JHB and if he cant pick that up, then he is denfinalyl not doing his job. on the other side the gym has so much potential to be the best in JHB. Please assist Im sure im not the first customer to complain and certainly wont be the last.

I am at the end of my tether with the services va sa provides. Every time i make changes to my membership va f* up the entire thing. My son's membership has been cancelled for the second time and i am fighting to get this resolved. They keep giving me the run around. I am truly fed up. The contact centre refuses to give me the name of the consultant who pretended to be smart thinking they received an instruction to cancel. I swear she was drunk or something.

The management of Virgin Active Lonehill is a great disappointment to its members. The spinning class is a mess to start with. The microphone seldom works and when it does it is really not fit for the facility. We have fantastic spinning instructors (Marlaina, Wynand, Kim) but Virgin Active is letting them down by expecting them to deliver a great service in such a challenging environment. There has been no air-conditioning in the spinning class for the last two days - and zero notice has been given to members other then a sign at reception saying that there will be no hot water for two days due to low water pressure. Then 20 minutes into the class it takes 3 staff members to bring in one fan and finally a microphone - the music must stop, the heat is unbearable and the service super pathetic. I can not be more disappointed and sad that this is my local facility. I have lodged previous complaints with the gym before about dirty equipment, air conditioners that is not turned on for no reason at all, dirty bathrooms.. There is really a massive management problem, unmotivated staff, lack of communication all resulting in a lot of unhappy and disappointed members.

I previously lodged a complained against the same gym on 2 February 2017 and have not yet had an acknowledgement or a reply!

Today, 10 May 2017 I arrived at Virgin Active Little Falls at 16h30 - the start of peak hour just to find a personal trainer training three clients behind the treadmills in the new section in an approximate space of 1 m (between the treadmills and leg extension machines) setting up bar bells and benches and kettle bells - not leaving any space to walk. This poses a non-compliance in terms of health and safety regulations with regard to the required walkway in case of an emergency. Needless to say there wasn't any management on the floor to address this issue. Not only couldn't anybody walk in the designated area but some of the the machines were occupied for two hours by this particular personal trainer. This is totally unacceptable and need an investigation and a proper response to my complaint.

Hi. This is the second time I am getting oil on my gym pants because of the machines that are not cleaned after being oiled. 1 st time they said they will talk to cleaning staff but the second time is not acceptable!
Now my new nike gym tights are messed up!
The cleaning staff are supposed to clean the equipment after they oil it. The 1 st time it was still understanding but now the second time it is just unacceptable!
I have been training with virgin active for so long and loved it. But now my brand new r600 nike gym pants has to be thrown away because of oil stains.

Dear Sir/Madam

Membership cancellation with immediate effect.
I have cancelled membership in March, but up until now, my membership is said to be active.
I spoke to Eugene on Tuesday, Last week who spoke of another promotion which was only running on that day. I realised after I spoke to him that it was a trick. He then promised that I will get a call from the local virgin active. I did not get any call until I then decided again to phone head office, virgin active to complete my ultimate cancellation. I then received calls from local virgin active and which is reflected below.
“H Florence, I hope this mail finds you well, as promised on our previous discussion regarding the cancellation of your gym membership, I managed to communicate with our Club Administrator and as stipulated on the mail below, your membership is currently active and therefore needs to be cancelled again as it was retailed after the termination that took place on the 10th of March.
According to the Administrator the contract needs to be cancelled with our National Head office. For more information, please see mail below”
Kind Regards
Agnes Mositoane
Fitness Manager - Roodepoort
T +[protected] W virginactive.co.za

I, therefore, request that no money should be taken from me for membership and that my membership be completely cancelled with immediate effect.

On the 30.12.2016. I entered into a contract with Northgate branch. Sales Representative Mahlatse. Under vitality member with my daughter who was turning 18 on December the 8th. Mahlatse adviced that we sign a contract for under 17 irrespective of her turning 18 in 2 weeks times. So I can still get the benefit for the minors. The system charged her R120.00. Was also advised that after she turns 18yrs. The debit order will be 50% off the membership fee. Which was not the case. Which was my worry. I asked the sales representative that my daughter will be turning 18. Can I just not sign the contract after she's 18. As I was concerned. As all sales people they only interested in their targets. Come January debit order was now R430 for my daughter. From 120 as per contract. I pay R107 for my membership. I asked mahlatse about it. He told me it doesn't reflect on his side as yet. Month yet by and still another R430 was deducted. I still spoke to the Sales Representative. He requested me to send him the proof. Proof send to him and to my surprise Zinhle now telling me that the contract I signed was for minors now my daughter is now 18yrs she' no longer bound by the contract. It had to be changed to the normal contract. No call, no considerations of the vitality status. Just transferred the 2 weeks membership to normal. Are we being trapped by the contract that we signed. Regardless of how transparent we are.
Really not happy with the. I'm sure that Virgin active is very happy as they keep debiting my account

After nuerous mails, quotations for stolen laptop and police case numbers, I am unable to get any feedback from Virgin Active Randburg after my Vehicles back window was smashed and my laptop stolen. That's after the CCTV cameras picked up the driver of the VW Polo and registration number that committed the offence! I did not go to my insurance as Virgin promised to get back to me through their insurers after I submitted my quotation for the stolen laptop. The incident happened on 14 March already and the issue has still not been resolved. There has been two burglary incidents on that morning and the other client has also not heard anything from Virgin Management or their insurers.

I urgently need feedback as I don't want to take this issue further but will have no alternative if not resolved!

Regards
Johan Louw

I received an email from Sipho at VA Vitality for some stupid reason, for a complaint i logged 5 weeks ago about the abovementioned clubs which I have to date not had the courtesy of ANY form of reply or action taken.

My email to Sipho reads as follows:
Dear Sipho,

I refer to the email dd 23/03/2017 which I have no idea what you are referring to in this email.

My complaint was raised with Virgin Active SA 5 weeks ago which has absolutely nothing to do with Vitality as my complaint was in two fold and to date never addressed nor resolved.

Your call centre, or complaint centre is non-compliant and some send you a “not-read” email notification which speaks volumes.
Your Facebook page is ……. Of no value to that of the Members to be honest as no one does anything.

1) The 1st complaint is that of a racial discrimination at your New Market Virgin Active, which has, as I have mentioned before not been dealt with nor addressed. There is an apparent amount of R219.00 in arrears which I was never informed of in writing or at any point in time when I visited any of the two (Meyersdal / New Market) sites.
2) Sundbed, and efficient staff at Meyersdal Club with also no response nor feedback from the Virgin SA Group.

I have in the interim raised an awareness group on Social Media wherein I have ascertained that Virgin Active SA is not remotely interested in complaints and they laugh it off in club level. One of my regular clients informed me of the disgrace and appalling health state of the Germiston Site / Club where the pool, toilets and bathrooms are not in a healthy or clean state. I have therefore instructed the Health Inspectors to visit ANY / ALL Virgin Active sites at random as this is no laughing matter.

One of the staff members who is in fact Personal Trainer at VA Germiston, explained how disputes and complaints are dealt with, and they will vouch for this.
It is as follows: The GM of the site receives a complaint which is then printed and all staff are called to meet with and discuss. Then the GM of this club reads the complaint out load to the entire staff by saying: Haha look how this one is complaining again about our non-service level.

I find this not only appalling but disgraceful to even hear that staff in a capacity of this level deals with complaints in this way. These are but a few that I am busy compiling and preparing in my defence to your so called firm.

Your 11 Alice Lane – Spinning Instructors are also as appalled by the attitude towards them and the issues raised when members complain to them.

Apparently this seems to be the general rule of thumb in your clubs and I’m assuming this would make a very interesting episode on Carte Blanche as we the public have to ensure that members are made aware what they are / are not paying for. Not to mention the cleanliness of your sites / clubs.

So you see Sipho, if you had taken the liberty in reading my Complaint logged 5 weeks ago before you passed it on to your Senior level you would have noted, that we as members are now getting a little tired to say the least about the severe drop in the level of service in the Virgin Active Group, and we the paying members are indeed the ones who pay your salary, so I do find it alarming that not one of your staff members on ANY level has made contact with me to date.

You should perhaps revise the competence level of staff, the attitude and a very big plus | compare your service level to that of Debonairs Pizza.
They are far smaller BUT provide a service level which you as the Virgin Active Group will never reach ito customer service and complaints.

Regards,
MR F C HEUNIS

I am visiting the gym regularly and have been a regular gym at the George branch as well. From being a member at Richards Bay, I do get very irretated as the weights are never on place and always left all over the gym. This is the barbells, dumbbells as well as weight plates. This also includes mats and gym balls and all type of equipment. I never see any Virgin Active staff member correcting this as it happens, they normally chat with some of the members instead of correcting this. So this complaint is then technically against the staff members and the gym itself as nothing is ever in place and I do pay my gym fees for a reason, to get Virgin Active standards, which I'm not receiving. This was getting to a point where I left the gym not even halfway into my session as nothing was available and I had to walk through the entire gym just to get weights, which no one was using.
I do hope to hear some feedback or see improvement from your side.

Good day

Im a member at the virgin active greenstone park

I joined the bootcamp class for the first time on the 28th of feb 2017 at 17:30 - 18:30 which the bootcamp instructor informed us that night that it will be her last class that she will instruct for time being.

The week there after 7 march 2017 17:30 - 18:30 I went to the class again just to find that bootcamp was replaced with the grid. I tried it and decided that if it is now going to be in the place of bootcamp it is all good.

But getting to the class there was a lady with a paper with people's names on it that booked for the class. I asked about it as I didn't know that we needed to book for this class and she informed me that bookings can be made online but there is still spots open for that class on that night I can just add my name and join

I then made an effort to go and check the online system so that I can book for the "the grid " class in advance but the system still showed bootcamp (A non booking class) instead of the grid (A class you gave to book for)

So I didn't make a booking... Just to a arrive on the 14 march 2017 and be informed that I needed to book. I explained why I didn't book and the lady said that they updated the system the day before it should be fine now...

So once again thinking that the system is now up to date I went to the system to make a booking and guess what it still shows bootcamp instead of the grid

Please advise how the system can show classes from a thursday to the next thursday but with incorrect info and then only shows correct info maybe a day before the actual class leaving it up to the member to go and check everyday if it is now correct to either find it incorrect or already full

To whom it may concern

It has been a over an year that virgin active has been operational in ballito and yet there are unresolved issues which no staff or managers seem to be willing to resolve and this will lead to cancellation of memberships and major fights as I have witnessed.

1. The air conditioning never operates properly and due to the size of the gym it is so hot that you could literally have a heat stroke, how must one train under those circumstances? Upon complaining about the issue to management, we are just told that it will be resolved but its been months now and this continues. First complaint was 9 months ago.

2. Lack of free weights and machines available and too many members thus leaving many members standing around sometimes up to 15 mins just waiting for machines and weights. This is just ridiculous as the club chose to take on so many members yet cannot provide enough machines and weights for all members to train comfortably. On some evenings there isn't even parking available, this club is just too small, I have trained at other clubs and did not have this issue. I have actually witnessed arguments and fights due to lack of machines and weights and I myself have been involved in arguments. Will this be resolved only when someone is badly hurt?

Please note that I am not paying r950 per month to deal with such frustrating issues when I love gyming and I do it 5 days week yet now I actually hate going to gym because of these bad experiences at virgin active ballito. We cannot cope on a daily basis with just the regulars coming in so imagine what issues we deal with when its festive periods as the the entire joburg population fills our area which is extremely frustrating.

I await an urgent response regarding my issues experienced as I will continue to take this to higher authority if no joy here.

Regards
Karsen govender
[protected]@gmail.com