Virgin Active South Africa
Reviews and Complaints

Good afternoon. I joined Virgin Active Red at the Lifestyle Center in Centurion about 2 months ago. We had to move to Cape Town (Strand) 2 weeks ago. Before the move I went to the Virgin Active Red club and explained to them that the closest club to where we are moving is in Brackenfell or Parow and that I cannot drive there everyday. I asked them what I can do so they said there are 3 options, either join the big Virgin Active in Somerset West (which I can not afford) or drive to Brackenfell (which I can't do or afford) or cancel the contract but then I have to pay 40% of the contract which I feel is unfair because it's not my fault there is no Virgin Active Red close to me (Gordonsbay, Strand, Somerset West or Stellenbosch). I need to know what can be done to assist me? Hope to hear from you soon.
Regards,
Maritza Hon
[protected]

So after seeing that the debit order date that ive been using wasn't working i went in to a branch near me to change to a new debit order that would suit me ..
Having a very busy life I probably went to the gym only once or twice in at least in 8 months .. and not using the account I first used when i got a membership just transferring money every now and then i never noticed that the debit order was never changed (i still have the copy of the day i wanted the amount to go off)

After receiving a text message about 2 days ago about my account being handed over to mbd I realised whats been going on I got statements on my old account and saw that the debit order even stopped going off completely since beginning of this year, so now im getting text messages from mbd wanting me to call them when n barely know whats goin on and what the amount is that i owe Virgin Active .. i would really like a statement from VA via email .. i wasn't aware of what was going on because i dont use the membership, ill pay VA in full when i hear from them first im not running away or anything i just wasn't aware .. i am afraid of scams so id like a statement from VA first

Approximately 1.5 years ago I joined Virgin Broadacres at a cost of R550 per month for a premium access membership for 2 years. This was more expensive than my Planet Fitness membership but as I had moved to the Broadacres area it was more convenient for me. A few months in I decided to get my myself on a hospital plan and I was told by one of the consultants that I should apply for Multiply and if I came to gym 3 times a week I would actually get a discount off my R550 membership. I work for myself and as times were tough I was forced to cut back on expenses and cancel my Medical Aid. Suddenly I received debit orders going through my account for R850?! I was furious especially as due to my stressful situation I was not even attending the gym anymore. When I asked someone to explain I was told (unbeknownst to me) that when I advised the gym I was on multiply I started a "whole new contract" and when I advised I was no longer on multiply then a "new contract" commenced at full premium rate! I was absolutely livid as firstly, I did not want to extend my 2 year membership and had someone had the decency to inform me of this! I was then offered a R742 membership for "off peak access" to the gym? What a cheek after I had just signed up with you a few months before at R550 per month. I am now still paying R742 per month and have probably used your gym twice this year. I think it is absolutely disgusting that you guys just changed our initial contract without advising me and I believe I should still be paying my original R550. I will never join a Virgin again because there is ALWAYS problems with you guys tying people in to contracts that were not even explained. At no point did someone tell me if I now went of Multiply (which I was now paying extra money for) that suddenly I then have a "NEW MORE EXPENSIVE CONTRACT". I would like someone at Virgin to address this as I am most upset. Over a 2 year period (which i initially signed up for at R550 per month), I am now FORCED to PAY YOU and additional R5808.00 (An extra R242 per month X 24 months)? Its daylight robbery.

18th August 2018, I went to Virgin Active Greenstone; attended by Sales Rep name Dumasa. I query about membership we agreed on R453.00 p/m as I am Multiply member. He told me that rest of the August & September will be free & VA will charge from October. also I mention that I am not paying with Debit order will pay monthly eft, he told me No problem however need my banking detail.
1st Problem- I was charged at end of August, when I query with him he said no VA will refund today is 12th Sept. NO REFUND!
2nd Problem- I went to cancel my membership as I am not happy the way VA handle my membership; they saying no I MUST PAY FULL AMOUNT OF 12MONTH!
since membership 20days ago I only visited twice to the GYM.
I feel unfair to me to charge 12 months.
also I like to reiterate that DUMASA(sales Rep) is a UNPROPFFESSIONAL REP ever came across.

Vanderbjlpark gym does not have weekend nor public holiday Zumba and kick classes. I gymed at Benoni and sunwardpark both had Saturday and public holiday classes, which made us fall in love with the gym. Vanderbjlpark is just waste of money, they don't care about their members. They don't have an answer why there are no classes on these specific days, you are pushing us right in to your competitors. Out of 10 you will be lucky if you get a 1 if I were to rate you. You are the poorest service giver in terms of all gyms I ever came across.

I signed up for gym member nearing the end of July with Michelle from the Rosebank branch. I had to enquire myself about the gym bag one gets after signing up. She informed me that I can come fetch the bag at her office in Rosebank. It became evident to me that this arrangement would not work because I can only attend gym in the early mornings and she only gets to the office at 9am. I have waited a whole week for Michelle to drop off my bag at my offices as promised. She has made false promises about the delivery of my gym bag and I cannot accept this level of service any longer.

Good day

I am Reabetswe Sekee and I am currently a Financial Advisor for Discovery Insurance . I hereby write to you today feeling very rattled.

I registered to be a Virgin Active Member about 3/4 weeks ago as our Company (Discovery) had a partners day in our building and all Discovery Partners came to our building in Sandton (1 Discovery, Sandton). I then joined due to the fact that Vitality had a 75% Special for people who wanted to Join Virgin Active . After joining, I went to gym a week later and they denied me access as they said that they could see that I have paid my registration but my funds were not allocated. To make things worse, I had to wait for 3 weeks for that to be sorted but due to the fact that the Virgin active agents gave me a membership card that does not correspond to what they captured on the system, I was told that I have to pay R50 for them to locate me with a new card.

On top of all that, Virgin active has been trying to debit the R799 that I paid as I registered last month. They tried deducting it from my account atleast twice (two or 3 days ago) only to find that my account had no funds, now as we speak, my bank charged me for all the bounced transactions I am in financial distress because of Virgin Active's unauthorised transaction.

As a Financial Advisor, knowing that virgin active is a partner to discovery, How am I going to refer my clients to virgin active if I received such horriffic service ?

I hereby request to be reibursed the amount that the bank charged me or alternatively not pay my montly premium for atleast 4Months.

Your assistance will highly be apprectiated with this regard.

My Contact Number : [protected]
E- Mail Address : rabbi.[protected]@gmail.com/ rabbi.[protected]@dfa.discovery.co.za

Good day,

Me and my husband joined virgin active on Saturday 25 August 2018. We are very much satisfied with the gym such as cleanliness and service we received at Sunward Park Boksburg, Gauteng Virgin active on Saturday morning.

We asked the consultant what promotional gift we would be receiving as all our friends either received a bag, bottle or towel.

The consultant informed that they did not receive any gifts this month so we would not be getting anything.

We left it at that and did not complain.

On Sunday morning, 26 August 2018, my husband took part in the 10km Discovery Vitality Race at the Wanderers Club and I went with as a bystander.

We walked past a Virgin active Tent that informed if you joined Virgin active with them you would receive a bag. My husband went and asked if we will be able to receive a bag as we joined just the day before (showing the email received from Virgin Active to declare our joined membership).

The lady told him "No, as the promotion is only valid for the day". There was another gentleman who also joined the same day as we did and was also very unhappy about it and said that he was not going to leave it there.

Please advise upon my request as we feel that it is unfair to lose out on a joining gift just because the gym did not receive any gifts or that we joined a day before the promotion for Virgin Active.

We would not have joined on Saturday if we knew about the promotion on Sunday. We also did not receive any notifications via advertisements regarding the promotion.

Our membership numbers are:

Contract number: [protected]

Lindie Swart Card number [protected]
Neil Swart Card number [protected]

I will appreciate your feedback.

Regards,
Lindie Swart & Neil Swart

I am member of virgin active gym since the first day virgin active have open in South Africa . today 6pm I showing my friend how nice is my gym that she want to join to Traning with my family when I explain to the gentleman at the entrance my friend wants to experience the gym that she is think to join then the gentleman in the entrance reply's to us that she need to tell him when my friend is going to join or she need to pay R195 to experience the gym. I say to the gentleman my friend need to first experience the gym then Decide if she will join but the gentleman say that is not good enough reason for him to let my friend experience the gym. He insist my friend need to pay R195 to enter the gym. I have introduced virgin active gym lot of times to lot of my friends they all happy and join after this is the first time that virgin active employee doing this is. I was so embarrass. this will be the last time I intoduce any of my friends to join virgin active and i am thinking taking all my family to join other gym. I really hope Virgin active group will handle this matter carefully this action will Chase away a lot of potential customer and existing customer.

I had an email sent to me notifying me that my contract would come to and end May 2018. No where was I called or told that even after my contract ended virgin active would still deduct money from me. I had the last outstanding payment which was R200 cause its a virgin Active red in Braam. Now I receive an email saying I'm owing R876.00 for the other 3 months after my contract ended, mind you the staff NEVER cared to explain all this. this is [censored]TY service from this gym and it isn't the first .

I'm disgusted, I won't allow ANYONE else in my family or close friends join virgin active and receive the nonsense I received!

I had a membership for myself and my daughter at Virgin Active N1 city. When I found out I'll be going to JHB for 7 months I immediately informed the admin manager and the sales representative - which from the word go was a mess of a confusion of who is dealing with my account. Now nearly a year later I find out that my account has been handed over and I can never attend a gym again unless I pay! Also, IF I AM NEVER INFORMED OF A CANCELLATION DOCUMENT, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW ONE MUST BE SUBMITTED? Even when calling Virgin active's call centre the staff are either flippant and rude, my call gets dropped or they're just not interested in the truth! This is daylight robbery and I can't believe a company of this magnitude would not follow HUMAN protocol.

We are members of Northgate and the whole
Family are members my husband and I were going to do swim training the pool is constantly busy as there is a swim school so only 2 lanes for the public so we shared a lane for 25 minutes which is not easy trying to train properly. We were then approached by the Aqua instructor Leeanne and we were told to get out the pool as she has a class starting we advised we were in the midst of training and had even been sharing a lane, she then called the manager my husband had moved then into a free lane. The manager then Approached me and I told him we in the middle of swim training and that we are paying members and we are still busy with session and that we had been more than fair already and had been sharing a lane and had finally got the lane back to complete my session of which he agreed we could continue. While we were talking to the manager the instructor told her students to get in the lane I was swimming in and block me from using the lane so whilst I was swimming I was being aggressively blocked particularly by one member telling me I had no right to swim, she deliberately was moving side to side so I could not even swim around her, then the elderly lady was pushing me around and screaming at me which is completely unacceptable forcing me to literally just get out the pool whilst the instructor watches on. I am sure you can make reference to the video footage. I am disgusted with the behavior of the instructor and her class this is completely unacceptable.
And should not be tolerated, imagine people
Shoving people off treadmills or bicycles cause they feel they are entitled to now train regardless if someone is busy or not it would be caotic. The stand in manager was very nice and even apologized for their behavior and agreed it was unacceptable the instructor is apparently known for her rude behaviour, I want to understand what is Virgin going to do about this and what rights do we then as members. I want to understand what action is going to be taken against the instructor and the member. How can I actually train then after work as a busy working mom if I am forced not to train, told to get out the pool and other lanes are being used by swim schools. The swim schools are not the problem They are always polite and even have 4-6 people at a time
Sharing a lane so are always considerate. Only when
I was forced out did I see there was in fact a free lane at the end of the pool
That had just become available why could the aqua instructor not tell her people to go to that lane the behaviour is disgusting and completely unacceptable and should not be tolorated. I would like feedback as to what course of action will be taken and how this matter will be dealt with.

Due to the water crisis in Cape Town, Virgin Active decided to suspend the sauna and steam baths. Virgin Active has enjoyed the power, water and maintenance saving without compensation for its members. Virgin Active could have made use of their large roofs to collect more than enough water for these facilities.
It has now been too long without these services. I know off many members (if not all of them) that feel the same.
You have one week to respond before further steps are taken.
Francois

When to gym at westville Virgin Active and I was moving oversees so I asked the consultant to please help me cancel the account and I filled in all documents presented to me. Now after 3 years I've gone to a club to start gym to find that they haven't closed the account and i have to pay R3700 + R 799 to join the gym. I have phoned the club and they didn't want to take responsibility for not submitting the documents and i have phone Head Office that told me that I need the document?! And I spent more then 45 min on the phone with them with no help.

I would like to complain about my virgin active account, that was opened early 2009 and I immediately wrote a termination letter of the contract two day's after an agent from virgin active got my details at my work place and he told me my account was cancelled.
In 2017 I started receiving phone calls from virgin active lawyers stating that I owed money to the company, when I asked how was that possible they had no answer's for me. I contacted the virgin active office in Windhoek Namibia asking for an explanation to why I was handed over if my account was cancelled and they also had no answer and I should get in touch with the head office.
And my question still remains to why was my name handed to your lawyer's if my account was cancelled and only now after a whole 10 years, please explain to me why?
My email address is tof.[protected]@gmail.com

I inquired about contracts with Virgin Active Kloof Durban. I made an appointment with the sales consultant on the 27th of July, we met and agreed to go onto the Discovery Vitality option for myself and my daughter. It was R700.00 once off as it was on special and then monthly R150.00 for me and R170.00 for my daughter. We started the application and then realized that we are not linked to my husbands Discovery Vitality. I mentioned several times that we have to be on the Vitality. I was told to sort it out and come back on 1 August. I dealt with Discovery and they explained the process that I have to follow to be a vitality member. I phoned Busisiwe and said that I am having a problem and to ensure that money does not go off my account until it is sorted out. In the mean time, I sorted my Daughter out, Busisiwe cancelled her contract and changed it to another contract under her boyfriends profile. I then asked for mine to be cancelled until I sort my Vitality out. The next day, I saw and amount of R1030.00 deducted from my account. I phoned to ask about it and I was told that she cannot cancel it as I will then have to pay a cancellation fee.
I went in on Thursday the 2nd and asked again to sort this out. I was told that I will be contacted on Friday - that did not happen. On Monday the 6th of August, I phoned twice and she phoned me back saying again that I can go on Vitality and the more I explain to her that it is a process and it will affect the Vitality premium, once I have sorted it, I will get back to her. I asked about the money again and she explained that it is normal gym membership fees that was deducted.
I explained that I did not ask for a normal contract and also my daughters was cancelled before the deduction. The point is that Virgin active does not want to refund my money and they are asking me a cancellation fee for something I did not ask and did not agree to.
This entire deal was based on Vitality and I mentioned that several times and requested several times to ensure funds are not deducted from me until the Vitality is resolved.
I logged a call with the Virgin Active Head office an hour ago where they said that they will send an email to the Depot Manager "Blake", also advised that I will be copied in. Still no email received?
I would like my money to be refunded and will not pay a cancellation fee for something I did not ask and agreed to.

The sales consultant at the Kloof Depot is Busisiwe.

I joined Vatility on the 30 June 2018, active on 1 July 2018. I paid the R700 joining fee at the Amanzimtoti branch. Monlthy premium would be R119.75 a month.
I got debited the amount of R479. Once i queried they said my Vitality has been terminated on 9 July. I gave no consent nor did any inform me. Still active on discovery side.
Sort out urgently as i dis pay the joining fee.

I've been trying to sort out the same issue for months now. I've called and sent numerous emails, in hopes that your agents would help as they promised they would. I pay my account through an FNB ATM. I've been doing it for months and it's been great, until one day i didn't have my membership number and used my name as reference. I got a lot of calls saying i hadn't paid for February and I've emailed my proof of payment numerous times and nobody has ever gotten back to me, instead you carry on calling me every other day asking about that issue I've been trying to sort out. The last time i spoke to someone she said she had sent it for investigation and she'd get back to me as soon as possible and that was more than 2 months ago. I just need thay sorted out ASAP so i can cancel my contract with you!

To whom it may concern. I am furious. I have just popped in after work to pick up my well earned smoothie. I had my 2 year old on my hip. They asked for my card which I gave and then they asked for hers. I said that I didn't have it with me as I was just picking up my smoothie. The lady then said that it didn't matter what I was doing and that she needed her card. I gave them her ID number and they alllowed us in. On my way out, 5 mins later, I asked what would have happened it my daughter was not a member. I asked if she should stay outside on her own whilst I pick up my smoothie. I was told that I would have had to pay a visitor's fee. This is ridiculous. What absolute nonsense !
This is the second such event I have had at this club in the last few weeks. Whilst on school holidays, my husband took our daughter ( with her card) to the gym to play whilst he ran. They were there for about 40 mins. They came home and then I went to gym. My daughter asked to come with. I got to the gym ( with her card) and laughing said to the clubV lady that my daughter was loving gym so much that she came again. With a sullen expression, I was told that there I should a maximum of 2 hours per day per child. I asked to see the manager and waited 45 mins but to no avail. Going to gym should be a pleasant experience and it usually is as most of the staff are lovely and even greet my daughter by name, but the few in between make for a very unpleasant experience.

On the 26th july 2018 between 0530pm and 0630pm I was parked outside virgin active and working out inside, my car was broken into and my gym bag, hand bag and lunch bag were stolen out. I asked the manager if I could get a replacement bag and he said unfortunately no. I would like to ask if there is anyway that I can get a replacement bag please.
Thank you
Anne skeef