Virgin Active South Africa
Reviews and Complaints

Disgusted at how Virgin Active Randburg condoned the actions of personal trainer Bernadette Meyer who took a video of me training at gym and distributed/showed it to other members and trainers. I was advised that she thought it was funny. After admitting in writing that she took a picture and showed it to 3 people and after another person admitted having seen the video Virgin Active apologised. I advised that I wanted her removed/terminated from the gym as I felt very uncomfortable with her continued presence at gym. I am a paying member and Virgin Active should be responsible for bad behaviour of their contractors who abuse members rights to privacy and dignity on their premises. The behaviour was unprofessional and amounted to misconduct and I requested reasons why no actions were taken and was told as per her contract this was considered to be serious but a minor breach of her contract.by Jacques Human, Regional Director. He advised as a member I could change gym if I felt uncomfortable or institute action against her. They took no accountability for the actions of their contractors behaviour which happened on their premises. Videos/pictures are not allowed as per Virgin Active Rules or so you would think...clearly personal trainers get preferred treatment to violated paying members as they walk around in Virgin Active Branding abusing members rights.

I wanted to take out a Virgin Active contract for my son who is a student at university. I phoned Virgin Active in Little Falls and spoke to Nombi about the different contracts and the prices of these contracts. She explained everything to me and said that they have a Premier Student packet for R449 per month. She explained that thismeans that the student will get the same benefits as somebody on a Premier package (normal price R625 per month) but because he is a student, they call it a Premier Student. He will be able to go and excercise any time of the day, any day of the week and at any of the Virgin Active gyms in the country, and this package will cost me R449 per month. This package was much better than the Student Limited package, as the Student Limited package restricted him to only excercise between 08h00 and 16h00 during the day, and then again after 19h00 again at night. I then went ahead and said that I would like him to go onto the Premier Student package, for R449 per month, and then asked her how would they know when he is no longer a student. She said that every year, he will have to proof that he is still a student, and as long as he can proof that, he may remain on the Premier Student package, otherwise he will have to choose a different package.

I then phoned my son, and explained to him what she said. He asked me to phone her back, and to double check what she said, as he also found out on his side, and nobody told him about this package. I then phoned her back, and double checked with her, and again she told me the exact same story.

Today my son went to her to go and sign a contract, and all of a sudden everything was different. They can not offer him this package, as it does not exist. The only options are the Student Limited package, amongst other packages with similar benefits, or the Premier which will cost him R625 per month. Then they wanted him to join for 2 years, and that he can then get for R569 per month.

This is absolutly false "advertising" from Nombi's side. I asked all the relevant questions, not only once, but a couple of times, because I wanted to make sure that I understood her correctly. Not only did I asked the relevant questions, I phoned back, and double checked that I understood her correctly.

Under the consumer act this is unacceptable, and I should get what I was quoted for.
BUT
I found out that the phonecalls are not recorded, so there are no records of what she told me. Isn't this convenient.?

I worked at virgin active in falmer, near brighton as a lifeguard for over a year, and I am writing to complain about their bad working practices, consisting of, working over my 90mins on poolside, double shifts, working two shifts with less than 6 hours between each shift and being wrongly treated with suspensions, when it came to a disciplinary, due to not filling out a health and safety sheet, that technically was meant to be done by the head of lifeguards - as I was booked straight onto a written one:- I am just informing to let you know, that I would strong sagest investigating this company, with external health and safety professionals, as much of the building isn't up to standard (Children's play pen, outside swimming pool edging stones being cracked and loose and faulty electrics) and staff aren't trained properly, and are taking drugs before work, not giving the right contracts out, under payment of persons, there is so much I can name, I really don't have enough time to write it all down. I am strong advising you checking it out, as I have worked there and have seen all the serious problems it has.

I cancelled my Virgin Active gym contracts for myself and my family over 4 months ago due to financial difficulties. Out of the blue Virgin Active start deducting money out of my account again. I find this very unethical and possibly illegal.

My son went and signed a contract at Virgin active for a period of 1 year. He paid 2 months fees. My son is not employed he is a student and he signed this contract without my consent or knowledge. I am a single parent and can't afford to pay this. I don't want my son name to be blacklisted at such a early age. I explained all this to them and they are not willing to assist. He signed the contract in December 2012. I explained that how can they not check is a person is employed and without the parents consent as he is not 21 years old yet. I have the relevant emails .Membership Number [protected] - Shane Barker - Virign Active

Dear Sir or Madam.
On the 07 March 2011 (4 months after starting their contract) I submitted a request to cancel my 1 year gym contract with Virgin Active (with 30 days notice). I had to submit a letter why I'm cancelling the contract and I did. The reason I cancelled the contract is that my position was said to be redundant in my previous company and would ne unemployed the following month. I was then given a reciept (still have it) that my cancellation request is acknowledged and will be confirmed telephonically by one of their consultants. Indeed one of their consultants contacted me the next day and reluctantly confirmed my cancellation.
This month I recieved a letter saying that I owe them R2 274.00 and it's still going up until the year is finished (and even so I must come to them and cancel the contract or the debt will just increase). What can I do to get justice in this situation...clearly these people don't care. my email address is keith.[protected]@tigerbrands.com

I joined the thundesley club in August 2007, I had a membership for myself and my two children. At the time of joining I specified that I could only afford to pay for a year and that I only wanted a year's contract. I therefore only paid for 12 months then stopped paying and stopped using the gym. This morning I have received a letter from a debt collecting agency asking me for £529.50 on behalf of Virgin Active. I am appalled, I am not trained in legal matters and didn't understand the terms and conditions but I did ask the salesperson to clarify the situation and the salesperson who sold me this contract stated that I had only joined for 12 months and would not be liable for any more payments. I only paid for a year because I knew I would not be able to afford any more payments. I have no money to pay this £529.50. I have not used the gym since August 2008 and now I am going to be taken to court because I was mis-sold this contract. I am not hiding or trying to shirk my debts but I think this is unjust and unfair. I have always believed the Virgin group of companies to be fair, honest and just. Am I wrong? I have spoken to a representative at the Thundersley branch (Missie) who informed me that I actually made 13 payments so I was automatically rolled over into another year's contract. Can anybody help me?

Hello, I had taken a one year contract with this health club in 2001 and now 10 years latter I am being harressed to make payment. I should have been contacted in the first year to inform me there was a problem yet now I am been harressed by collection agencies that are handling this matter. I even went back to the company and was told that they found not fault on there side but now ten years later I am being harassed weekly. What should I do? I refuse to pay so many years later. Please help and advise me.

Thank you

Sincerely
Aiza c. Mohamed

My name is Jaco Beukes and I opened a gym account for me and my girl friend at the time her name is Tanya Rice...this is many years ago.The very next day I went back to virgin active cresta and cancelled it, we never even used the gym-my reason for the cancelation was that me and the girl broke up. Now the person who helped me gave me a form to complete that had to do with the cancelation. After I gave him the form he assured me that the contract was cancelled...now...in 2009 Virgin active handed me over to a ferm for collection of the funds and I spoke to some lady at the head office whom I wrote a long email to explaining the situation as I did a bove, I had a long and painfull fight with this lady and at the end we got it sorted out and the lady assured me that my name is clean and off the records.I joined Virgin Active last year again and now it seems that it has happened again where Virgin Active wants their money...Now, I dont know what has happened in between but I want this sorted out as soon as possible!I cant see why I have to go through all of this again, I did all and everything that Virgin Active wanted from me and more---I filled ij the nesassary paperwork and I have taken days off from work to resolve this and here we are again...I want this to end now because I cant take the arrassment anylonger--someone didn't do their job and now I am the victim of that.It's not my fault Virgin Active cant get inteligent enough employees to work for them, to resolve some as simple as this in 9 years-that is how long this has been going on for.

Feel free to contact me at any time...[protected] Jaco Beukes or e-mail me at...jaco.[protected]@gmail.com

Regards

I signed a contract with Virgin Active on Sunday. Due to unforeseen circumstances i was forced to cancel my contract. It states on their Terms & Conditions "You can write and tell us that you want to cancel your membership within 5 business days of signing the contract. We will refund all payments made by you!" I have emailed the manager at the branch and i have faxed the cancellation letter to them. However no response. When i phoned the branch i was transferred from the 1 department to the other. No 1 could assist me instead of telling me when i will be reimbursed they dropped the phone in my ear. My sister cancelled her membership as well but up until today we have not received any response from them.
I want my money to be transferred no later than today! If not i will have to take this matter further!

Hi there,

I'm a student in Cape Town.

I opened a "student account" with virgin active. The employee implied that this contract would only be active for a year. Little did I know that the contract includes "fine print", which states that if no notice of cancellation is given or if one hasn't paid the due fee at the end of this year, that the contract will be automatically continued for another full year. Under the new Consumer Protection Act that came into effect on 1 April 2011, this is not allowed, and if they include this, then they are required to SPECIFICALLY point this out to you, just a little bit of background information.

However, that is not actually why I'm submitting this complaint. After I cancelled my contract and paid my due fee in the last month of my contract, and after receiving confirmation from 3 employees that my contract was really cancelled, I was certain I was done with Virgin Active. Three months later, I receive notification that my contract was renewed, and that I had a due balance of a few hundred Rands...I spoke to the Virgin Active's accounting department and clarified the situation.

Now, after one and a half years of regular harassment from various "law firms" (which, by the way, are actually really debt collecting agencies) I'm sick and tired of this. I lost my receipt of my last payment, which also serves as a proof of cancellation, a long time ago, and now have to prove to them that I'm innocent, even though it's clearly Virgin Active's fault. I even personally spoke to the manager of the Cape Town Virgin Active, requesting they go back to their vast archive of transactions, which would easily prove I was wronged. However, nothing was done.

So, to everyone out there that is considering opening an account with Virgin Active, beware! Even at my past place of employment, there were 5 others that had the exact same problem like me. My mother even cancelled her premium membership with Virgin Active in Namibia as a form of retaliation.

Also, if anyone has any information that could help me get rid of this once and for all, please feel free to share.

Kind regards
Pascale aka Virgin Active Hater

Checked the virgin active website for spinning classes. Website showed that there was a 16:30 spinning class. Arrived at gym and asked to book a bike. A rude receptionist implied i was stupid because how could i not possibly know that there are no classes are held on a public holiday. Thereafter i saw that an instructor arrived but there was no one in the class because reception had told everyone there was no class so everyone made alternative arrangements. Its unacceptable that the receptionist is so rude and that they have no idea what is going on in the gym and subsequently wasting both the customers and the instructors time!

I had a 12 mth contract from Feb09. I used it diligently for around 8 mths. I started to have back problems which resulted in me going for a spine operation. This meant that I couldn’t make use of my contract. But I continued paying the membership fee. I paid for the 12 mths and gave notice to cancel my membership thereafter. On [protected], I faxed my cancellation letter to the branch. The manager phoned me said that he could freeze my membership for 6 mths instead of me cancelling and thereafter I could continue using my membership. I said to him that I’m in the process of moving house and am not sure which will be my nearest branch. I said to him that this letter must serve as my notice period and he said that it can’t as I need to give a full calendar mth notice and that I was a day late but he would see what he could do and get back to me. He never did and I just checked my acc and another debit has gone out. This meant that I would’ve paid for 14 mths and used just 8. If there was any chance of me going back to Virgin Active, this destroyed that chance and believe you me, I’m gonna spread the word.

Since the start of February I have received over 5 separate sms messages (some very offensively toned with threats of black listing) demanding that I pay a Virgin Active Account. These have all come from MBD Attorneys. The interesting thing is that I do not have and never have had a Virgin Active Account. I have notified Virgin Active of this twice and they have so far done nothing about it despite promising to. I have been unwilling to call MBD directly as these debt collection firms usually charge you several rand a minute for listening to recorded messages followed by an insulting interaction with a bored call centre agent. I did however use their on-line contact complaint system, but that is evidently there for decorative purposes only as the messages have since continued.

My request to Virgin Active was obvioulsy far too much like hard work, so I would very much appreciate it if MBD Attorneys would kindly leave me the hell alone as I am not to blame for their administrative incomptence and take exception to being threatened with rudely-toned sms messages.

After being a member of Virgin Active for many years I have had my membership 'politely' terminated due to insufficient usage. Towards end November 2009 I receive sms saying that I had to use once more by end of month to avoid termination. Being overseas I asked my wife to explain to the gym my circumstance which she did, and they said I could make up usage going forward. I thought all was in order because I attended the Old Eds gym 5 times in January 2010, no one stopped me swiping then? I now believe that the 'system' only reads up to end December and the Jan visits don't count, now thats convenient when you are making up usage as per agreement! Virgin conveniently tries to blame Vitality and says its not them - any decent management team would take collective responsibility when it comes to joint venture agreements. Just think about it guys, when I go to gym I don't say to my mates meet you at Vitality Sandton branch?

I will naturally deal with the Vitality team directly but it is a disgrace that Virgin does not pick up any of the responsibility. The icing on the top was when a young sales lady from Bryanpark Virgin Active phoned me to say don't I want to join again!

I had applied for a 12 month contract with Virgin active at Wanderpark Pretoria, at the end of the contract I went to cancel the contract. I was given a receipt as a proof of cancellation, it was on the [protected] the end of my contract. The next day I received a call from Duncan Van zyl he explained to me their options and one of them was that they can Freeze the account I don't have to pay, Once I am ready then they can just activate it again, I specifically explained to him that they can only activate the account if I say so, BUT NO on October they decided to debit, I went to the bank to reverse the amount as I thought it might have been their mistake, but they kept on debiting I went to them to find out why they kept on debiting, Duncan told me to write a letter to show that I cancelled with a proof of cancellation, I did so. But they still kept on debiting, when I went to them again Duncan said I owe them and I have to pay, whether or not I have to pay, Pay for what I asked, and also a lady who works there told me that many people complain and they walk out angry.

I had a month by month contract with Virgin Active, and due to losing my Job and unable to find work in South Africa cancelled my direct debits and paid all bills outstanding and emigrated to England where I could find work. Now over one year later my parents have started receiving phone calls from MBD attorneys threatening with legal action. I have kept the same Email for over three years but not even once have I had any email saying that I needed to cancel my contract with a written letter (otherwise I would have done so). Since I am now living in Engalnd I cannot personally cancel my contract. There seems to be no other way to get the contract cancelled, or find out what amounts are owed. One would think that if someone has not paid they would have their membership cancelled immediately, and not accumilate like some trust fund to bill you years later (and to be harassed by attorneys). If Virgin had either phoned me, or my family or sent through an Email straight after any payments were not received this situation would not have happened. I see this as a direct ploy to make money out of people and to only inform them of the money due when it has built to a substantail amount.

This is my second complain, Last year in JuneJuly I send a letter through to Virgin Active notifying them of my unemployment status and since then I have never received any follow up until this year in January 2010 when I lodge a complain. Virgin has requested a letter from my previous employment which they could have

Why has noone since June 2009 asked for that letter so my account with Virgin can be resolved ? I have notified Inshaaf of Virgin that I am unable to get that letter and they say I cannot even submit an affidavit in this matter. I have a serious concern in that its their fault that they did not contact me for any documentation since last year June and should I have not complained the lady from accounts in the Virgin Active Cape Town will still be informing me how they will hand me to their attorneys if I don't settle my account with no consideration.

I feel Virgin should take this to their blame as I send all communication needed to notify them of my status immediately. Virgin Active only continued to bill me for the monthly instalments without them even giving me a courtesy call in this matter and the only way I found out anything was when I contacted them.

I joined Virgin Active Westville in 2006, but due to ill health after an injury I was unable to continue.I informed the gym personnel and I was made to write a letter of cancellation which was sent to Head Office in Cape Town by fax and snailmail. To my surprise now I keep on getting theatening calls from MBD Attorneys in Johannesburg whereby Virgin Active handed over my account much as I did not utilize their services for the period. Please help me before they blacklist me.

Our agreement was finalised in 2007/8. I cannot live like this anymore.
Ms. Nontsikelelo Makhanya

As a current employee of Virgin Active UK I can completely tell you the role I applied for was more than oversold. As a personal trainer, I have had nothing but inconsistent pay-cheques, demoralising UNPAID days (and days and days) at work and very little thanks from the management clique that hang out in the office all day.

Virgin 'prides' itself on how well it treats its employees. No. It scams its personal trainers at entry level paying you £11 p/hr and taking the rest for the company (looking at minimum £24). An advanced PT (which by the way it takes over 20 clients and delivering 25hours a week minimum, consistently for the period of three months- while hitting sessions sold and new client targets continuously for those months, to even get there. Complicated- YES.) gets £15p/h and elite gets £18.

Take into consideration that an elite PT could actually be the most incompetent, same-programme-using, potentially unsafe personal trainer you have ever seen. Elite PT is not chosen on quality of care or quality of sessions it is purely on sales. Because that is all that Virgin Active the corporate, money-spinning company cares about. Money.

Unrewarding except for some of the fantastic friends you make. Be prepared to spend your time off discussing what you're doing to get out...