Vitality has become an admin schlep of note that simply isn't worth all of the effort!

I used to find Discovery Vitality's point system relatively easy to understand (this is way back when first I joined them though) - as well as useful i.t.o. the benefits (when you still got for example proper 20% instant discounts and not the new for example 10% "in points" - which often only translates to irrelevant discounts)... but through recent years the points system got more and more complicated (and often very illogical), and the benefits have been sadly degraded to the point where except for decent discount at Virgin Active I'm not finding it beneficial anymore (and the cost of Vitality can thus just as well subsidize the gym-saving in any case!)...

A point in case is that if you go and (walk) a 5km Parkrun - you get 300 points, however if you go and (walk) 10km on the golf course (carrying a golf bag) and then go for a gym session that same day - you only get 100 points in total for both the activities - basically a third of the points of a Parkrun, but for being MORE THAN 3 TIMES as active???

When I raised this question to their call centre the consultant informed me that apparently they do so to "promote Parkrun"... so again it makes it very clear that Vitality's interest isn't Discovery's paying members' health. but (obviously) rather Discovery's interests...

Another very irritating (and very sneaky and unappreciated!) Vitality "habit" is that each and every year they want you to "check your Vitality Age" IN ORDER to then get for example cashback on Healthy Foods etc - but they won't bother to remind you of this year every once it expires (and no Discovery - I don't know the dates of these schleppy admin events of yours!)... a great for them to advertise benefits that you're paying for but not receiving because you have to first go through a ton of admin and schlep before you can actually make use of the "benefits" (i.e. it's clearly not really about your health to them at the end of the day, but rather how much they can get out of your pocket!). I've been the healthiest I've been in years, yet points-wise from what I can see I've got the least amount I've had in years - a very good example of how the Discovery Vitality system has downgraded over the past few years - and that it simply doesn't work anymore...

What got me to the pointing of wasting time in typing this now though was that a few weeks ago I went to (try and) figure out how many points we had for the year, how many we still needed - and what we could do to gain more points. I requested an e-mail in which they were supposed to advise me on this - which never came. I then called their call centre about another matter (cash back not coming through as I was under the impression it should've) - to which someone was going to follow up regarding the Vitality matters as well and call me back - but that also never happened...

I then went and queued for about an hour to get a "Health Check" done - this was a couple of weeks ago but I still haven't received any points for it??!! My wife then also went over this past weekend - queued for about half an hour (excluding driving there, struggling to find parking etc etc - i.e. more than an hour and a half WASTED in total!) - only to hear that there were no more HIV tests available and that they thus couldn't do the flippen Health Check... what a complete waste of time - and this while she did have a baby this year - for which they obviously did HIV tests etc already! It's basically the same principle as with Discovery Insure - where even though they do check up if you get you car serviced on time each year - they still force you to waste more time by having to que at a Tyger Wheel and Tyre, only for someone who doesn't have any clue about cars to check no more/better/else than what the a professional service agent ALREADY checked out you car... and then you go and que again to pay for the "check-up"... it frustrates me to bits!

To cap things off - seeing that my Health Check points still aren't showing - and I for example still don't know how many points my child's vaccinations etc are worth (even after I requested this info more than once) - I wasted more time now on trying to call their call centre yet again - only to hold the line for 15mins only to get cut off... so what more do you want me to do Discovery?!

Please get someone who actually knows what's going on internally to contact me regarding this asap (noting that if you only get back to me by next year I obviously expect you to updated/backdated our points accordingly)... if not I'd gladly cancel all of our Discovery products (health and insurance), and more over to a better, less fussy service provider...