Virgin Active South Africa
Reviews and Complaints

Today, 14 February, I went to a 5.15 spinning class. This is the second time that no instructor pitches.
Getting up early and then nobody pitches is proof of bad management.
They have changed the staff. Karbo at the information counter cannot be more unfriendly. She does not even greet you back. A total misery!

A while back, I wanted to clean my spinning bike. I went outside to get the disinfectant bottle, as the dispenser in the class messes on the floor and it makes it slippery, which can lead to someone sliding on it. I was told that I am not allowed to take the bottle inside. Today a spray bottle was standing on the table!
The carpets on the steps are very dirty! Previously this was never the case.
All the changes that were made were definitely not for the best.

Customer service and cancellations is horrifyingly atrocious and pathetic! I have been trying to cancel this stupid gym contract for over 6 months! When I was willing to pay upfront the 6 months outstanding and the stupid cancellation fees, I was asked to stay on at a lower price until dec and then make my decision, because I am a nice person I agreed even though I did not use your gym that entire time! I cancelled the debit order for r540 for the entire account, which goes off of my account every damn month, on 29 november at 13:12:55 and received confirmation that the last debit order for the r540 would be 1 dec! Then it went off again on the 1st of january! I phoned again like a [censored] clearly and asked them to check again (both these call were almost 40mins long, as if I have time or money for this [censored]!) and the once again they confirmed on 4 january 2023 11h16 that the account has been cancelled and the debit order has been cancelled! It is one debit order! But yet again it goes off end of jan! I call in again because wasting my time is just exactly what I would like to do! I could not get through 02 february 2023 for 23 minutes. I called again 03 february 2023 at 08h13 to be told I only cancelled mine and I must get my fiancé to phone in and cancel his! Like he has time to call for 20-30minutes a day to sort this [censored] out and why on earth would I cancel the entire account and the debit order for r540 when I am only cancelling for myself! One debit order goes off, but no I get told its two separate debit orders and he must phone in and I cannot cancel it! So easy to tak eyour stupid money but you cannot just cancel a contract like promised! Disgusting, I will never support this compnay again!

Good day,

I took a membership out for my daughter with Virgin Active on 21/11/2022 and was advised that I will pay the 1st installment on 01/12/2022 but that Dec, Jan & Feb '23 will be on the house as they are running a promotion and my next installment will only be for March 2023.
I have now been debited 03/01/2023 and 01/02/2023 and I have inquired with the agent that assisted us with the membership and he said there were a lot of incorrect debits done in December, they will get back to me but up to date, no response.
I feel this is really unprofessional and bad after service.

Please can Virgin Active Greenstone take the initiative to provide a fan in studio 2 when there is electricity so we can all breathe easily. The air conditioning is having maintenance issues which seems to happen quite often but the least that can be done especially if there is no load shedding is to provide a fan. We as South Africans are dealing with so many challenges. I know there is a fan for the big studio. Please have a fan on standby so that when needed or can at least be used then we can.

I started my membership with virgin active end of October 2022. With the application I informed the branch that I am a vitality client and therefore my payment must be accordingly. They charged me an admin fee of R570 which I paid immediately. The debit order was in place but they took R600 instead of R150. I asked them to correct it with no help. I went to the bank and reversed the debit order. I went to the gym and told them I would rather pay at the gym each month to make sure I pay the Vitality rate of R150. They told me to do nothing in the meantime as they will correct it. They did not, another debit order went off of R600, so I followed the same procedure. No help again. I have phoned, send emails with no reply as yet. They send me an email to tell me that I am in arrears, I replied on the email and told them the whole story but no reply as yet. My last email was on 11 January to tell them I want to cancel my membership as this is not going to work for me. I only went to the gym 4 times since my first application as I do not want to get there, and they might refuse entrance. At the branch I spoke to Neo, Sipho and Portia with no reply. Promises but nothing as yet. I want to cancel everything and will not make use of Virgin Active Vanderbijlpark ever again.

I had re-signed up with Virgin Active this past black Friday (November 2022) after previously being a member at virgin active for nearly 17 years. The signing up process went well and my account was debited on the 1st of December 2022. Upon my first visit to the club the system had picked up that i'd had been blacklisted. The manager at the kingspark branch had assisted me and managed to override the said error and warmly allowed me to use the club and facilities. Thereafter I had visited the La Lucia club and had the same error message, however the club manager Mohammed at virgin active La Lucia (Durban) told me that I had to go home and was extremely rude and arrogant in his approach. I had explained to him that upon my 3 previous visits to the other clubs I was assisted gracefully and was let in to the club but he in turn said that could not have been possible and he went further to take the side of his receptionist in calling me a liar in the presence of my elder brother, his wife and my 3 nieces who were absolutely shocked. They had totally refused to assist in finding a solution but rather bluntly told me to leave. I was then contacted by the pavillion branch and had been told that the La lucia manager had made an application to have my membership terminated further, rather then trying to amicably resolve the issue. After all the difficulty I was informed by the pavillion manager that my account was terminated upon me making an enquiry. I was not notified of any such termination nor cancellation and I had to find out for myself.

The despicable shocking manner in which the matter was handled at the La lucia branch has left my brother, his wife and all my other family members contracted to Virgin active wanting to cancel their membership. as it stands my membership was quietly cancelled without any notice and neither was I refunded my December fee.

I would really like an apology from the manager Mohammed and member of staff "Panni" who labelled me a liar in the presence of my family and other gym members who are willing to be wittness to this.

I send an email to Virgin active to cancel my membership, my husband's member, my brother and my son membership. They only choose to cancel mine and my brother, and didn't bother to reply on email I send to confirm cancellation,and now the excuse is people over 18 where supposed to cancel themselves, but funny my brother is way over 18, we want to rejoin but we will never pay for arrears never, if after 2 years this matter is not taken into consideration, I am going write to the oumbusman

Good day

Can you please assist me.I have been struggling since last year in December.I have cancelled my subscription after the Lockdown 5 since I have lost my job and I was afraid to got to the gym during the pandemic.I went to Maponya Mall to cancel and I was given a phone to call the head office and I did the cancellation in August 2020 and now they are telling me that that I owe R4700 for the service that I have cancelled and did noy use the facilities since then.If you don't want me to come back to the gym I will go to the competitor as I was traying there since it was still Health and Racquet,now after more than 10yrs of being a premium subscriber you giving me a service like this?I called the customer care more than 10 times today and I was taken from pillar to post and I was intending on going back to the gym since the beginning of January 2023,Please assist me

I joined virgin active braamfontein one day ago. I attended the gym to collect my access card, and since I was there I informed the staff that I had a motorbike accident 3 weeks ago and that for 2 weeks I could not walk because of severe hip pain ; I also informed them that when my x-ray results came the doctor noticed that a had a slight pelvic tilt and he gave me a series of exercises to perform at home and he recommended me to attend a gym and specifically use the treadmill on an incline, the elliptical and the rowing machines ; he gave me a complete list of exercises to perform. I left the hospital 5 days ago and the doctors, the chiropractors, the nurses and the interns who attended to me have cleared me for exercise.

But the staff at virgin active braamfontein is more qualified than all the doctors who attended to me and cleared me for physical exercises, and they barred me from using any machine or show me how to use them unless I had a personal trainer. So for me to exercise at virgin active braamfontein I need the authorization of the personal trainer, even though I explained to the staff that I had been cleared, they did not believe me which is insulting.

Did I need to bring my x-ray results and my medical files for me to have access to the machines? I will never because I will never set foot again in a virgin mobile facility. I want my membership to be immediately and permanently cancelled.

If this is the way you are going to treat your clients than good luck with you business.

This morning just after 5 AM we went to train as normal, there was loadshedding and when we got there, we were declined access, we normally train this time if there is loadshedding or not as there is enough sufficient lighting and we only do weights and no power/electricity is needed. We pay for a service and we can't use it as one manager by the name of TK has a different outlook on enough natural light as the other managers on duty. (We have trained at this gym with a lot less natural light than this morning!)

They have chargeable lights that were not charged, I feel declining members access because somebody didn't do their job and charge them is unacceptable. The gym has so many members that train if there is loadshedding or not, why can't they make provision for this. Surely a generator or inverter to run the lights only is a must. I feel like leaving this gym and moving to another in the area that has this!

We were about 8 members at that time that was declined and surely many more before and after us. The feeling of getting to gym and not being sure if today's manager will let you in is unacceptable as it's a waste of people's time and money.

Attached photos of the lighting outside this morning.

My daughter has been going to the Virgin active beachfront gym for a couple of months now, she was at the gym on the 8 of December 2022. She was busy with weight lifting in the one section in the gym, when this older male person came and stood behind her, about a meter away from her and just kept staring at her, it was so bad that she felt uncomfortable and even stopped and put the weights down, she then walked up to him and he turned away and walked off. It was obvious that he was not there to gym. My daughter is only 16 years old, this should not be happing to anyone who uses the gym. Firstly Virgin Active's fees aren't cheap and a person expect a certain level of safety when you go to the gym, surely there should be staff walking around making sure that stuff like this doesn't happen.

I am so disappointed in Virgin Active's service that I'm considering cancelling it and also telling all my friends and family about what happened, people should feel safe to let their children go to gym, this does not make me feel safe.

Membership:[protected]

I have been trying since Aug 2022 to assign the EFT payments I made to my membership and my daughters (ID number [protected]) that is linked to my account.

I have sent the POP to Bonita. [protected]@virginactive.co.za and to Danielle. [protected]@virginactive.co.za in several ways. I have emailed all the POPs from Gmail account and I have sent the POP from banking app.

They did not and have not to date acknowledged payments via email. Instead Virgin active keeps trying to debit my account and return it because I make the EFT payments monthly by the 25th of every month without fail.

I have this in place for a very long time and now it seems your are not able to assign simply payments for my membership.

Can you urgently allocate the payments from Aug'22 to last payment made 25 November'22 to my membership accounts and STOP debiting my account.

If you are not able to do this by 22nd December please cancel this membership and I will find another gym who can give me the service of allocating my payments on time. I am not able to attached the POP to this compliant.

I will post this horrible service on Hello-Peter post the cancellation of this membership 22Dec'22.

I would like to lodge a formal complaint against management at Gatesville Virgin active. On this day 29.11.2022 at round about 10:00am, after my workout I went to the dressing room (Steam room) only to be informed that the steam room is going to be put off. After liaising with the manager at she assured me that it will be put off after my steam session. She left me hanging for 10 minutes, knowing that the steam was already put off. I asked one of the cleaners to call her, as this was very unprofessional, and I wanted a explanation. she informed me that an open aqua class had been organized by one of the instructors without managements knowledge. No notice was displayed as they just decided to inconvenience the member by putting the steam room off because they do not want all that people in the steam room. Why did they give free passes to enter, as this was not an arranged event by management, How can they allow an instructor to make decisions. They toilets and dressing room was left in a mess as puddles of water was left everywhere (safety risk). I don't blame the cleaners because they could not keep up with the big amount of people that was allowed in the aqua class. Manager tried to shift the blame on the instructor, shouldn't management be kept liable for this kind of happenings in the club? After all members should be the main priority, and not an instructors reckless decisions.

Bedfordview branch management is pathetic. Cleaning is not done properly in the spinning studios.

Members do not use sweat towels.

Not enough equipment between the 2 studios.

As members we have to keep running up and down searching for equipment.

Some of the leg raise machines do not work. They have been faulty for months now.

When Katlego phoned me on Tuesday after I complained on Twitter, he still couldn't answer to my concerns!

Virgin Active please get competent staff in the correct positions.

Years ago, you had an amazing manager that all the members were raving about. I can assure you; many members are not happy with the way in which Bedfordview has gone to the dumps. This use to be a flagship gym.

Now it's just an old, dilapidated gym.

Please note that my daughter has been a member of Club V until she turned 8 years old in March 2022. I was unaware that her gym membership was cancelled when she turned 8. When I subsequently tried to take her to gym with me in October 2022, I was informed that her membership had been cancelled and that I would need to do a new kids membership. I was also informed that the sales consultant was not there. My details and a copy of my daugthers birth certificate was taken, and the personelle from the gym advised that a consultant would call me the following day.

A week passed and I went into the gym again to enrol my daugther. This time I was asked to wait. I waitied for 30 minutes. And only thereafter I was told a sales consultant was not there. I again left my details and a copy of my daughters birth certificate but got no response.

On Monday 31 October I went into the gym again to enquire about the memebership. This time, yet again, no one knew anything about the lost documents. I supplied a copy of my daughters birth certificate again. And was advised that a sales consultant will contact me by Tuesday 1 November 2022 by 2pm. No one contacted me.

I asked a friend to check with Virgin Active staff on Wednesday 2 November 2022, and he advised me that the staff at Virgin active want me to come in and supply them with "more documents"

On Friday, 4 November 2022, I went to the gym again to enquire what further documents were needed. I insisted on speaking to the manager who advised that they had she did not know anything about the birth certificate. She stated that they do not have an in house system for filing documents and she did not know who took the document on 31 October. She displayed a very disinterested attitude when I asked her to check the CCTV footage and find who has my daughters document.

She then asked me if I would wait while she checks the footage. I then told her this was unacceptable. That I would sign the new member documents and she could then look at the CCTV footage and find who has the document.

I then met with sales consultant "Kush" who filled out the forms and he promised to call me on Monday 7 November 2022. This never happened.

Again on Wednesday 9 November 2022, I sent a friend to enquire about the membership. IT was only thereafter that "Kush" calls me. He then askes me to sent him another copy of my daugthers birth certificate.

When I attempt to find out as to what happened with the plan for Virgin Active to locate the missing document. He advised that it was not his responsibility. And that the branch manager and regional manager are away, so there is no one available at Virgin Active Ballito who can assist me.

When I asked if there is a chain of command and if there is "someone in charge", he said that he will let his supervisor know to contact me.

I am still unclear on what has happened to 2 copies of my the documet.

Hi!

My wife and I are long standing members of Virgin Active, we origninally got our membership at Kingspark, Durban and subsequently transferred to Amanzimtoti. We have lodged several complaints about the general upkeep of the gym, and no improvements have been made since

The C V machines have a media screen and very few of them work. I espcially enjoy working out and watching sports while doing so

The water tempeture in the pool as well as in the showers is not comfortable most of the times

The mens shower as a sewer smell most often

Management at the gym listen to the complaints and do absolutely nothing about improving the conditions

After the revamp of the spinning studio, which looks great but does not deliver.

The air-conditioning in the spinning studio delivers about 1/3 of the volume that it used to.

This has been brought to the attention of the club but 3 weeks later still nothing has changed.

We have to open the doors after 10 minutes or members are likely to dehydrate.

Sound also keeps going on the blink and needs to be attended to. Very annoying for members and instructors.

To whom it may concern :

I have a Virgin active member for many years and never missed single premium on my account. I went into your cornubia branch 4 months and requested a copy of my contract as I had some queries regarding the contract duration. I was told by the receptionist that the branch manager will request the contract and contact me once it's at the branch. In good faith i left the debit order to run whilst sorting out this query. One month passed with no feedback from anyone. I stopped the debit on the account with the hope that the manager would make contact. Nothing still. I received many calls from your call center and I explained what happened, nobody has gotten back to me. No I received an email threatening legal action if I fail to settle this account. Would you pay for services you not receiving. Your business does not have poor customer services, you have NO customer services. I have no hope that anyone will look into this matter but anyway.

I am a member of Virgin Active. Last Tuesday 29 Sept. my daughter wanted to join the gym. we then completed the documents with the sales consultant and left the gym. on Monday 3 Oct my daughter received a call from the consultant requested all the information that was already provided. the consultant then informed my daughter that she should sign the document when she goes to the gym in the morning. This morning when when were leaving the gym the reception asked that we sign a blank contract. The sales consultant who was assisting us was busy training upstairs and only came down when i asked the reception to call her.

The service received from the staff in general at the Honeydew club is absolutely pathetic and they have a dont care attitude.

Good afternoon, I have send a complaint in and it is still not resolved. The reason is that you have incompetent people working at the gyms. I wonder if the CEO Dean Kowarski knows about this lack of interest in resolving problems from the gym in Montana, Pretoria. Waleed Fortune and her incompetent Patience Maphanga is running this gym into the ground. I have send Waleed a email a month ago and when I called HQ today then only did she read the email. Please give me my money back or give me two years gym membership back as you deducted the money out of my bank account knowing ling that I have cancelled it. Dean Kowarski I hope you read this email and resolve the problem as it seems that no one in you company can. Shocking !