Discovery make it virtually impossible to cancel - or to talk to a REAL person

As a Discovery Vitality member I have been trying to cancel my membership with Virgin Active since October as I am currently living overseas. I completed the necessary paperwork at my home club in Cape Town before I left and thought the matter was dealt with - how wrong I was. While my Vitality membership status has been shifted to 'inactive', I am still being debited for gym membership every month. There is nothing that Virgin Active can do since the issue now rests with Discovery Vitality who have discontinued their email address in the interest of 'better customer service' - REALLY! I was forced to go online and deal with a BOT which sent me around in circles and was completely unable to deal with my situation since I am a Legacy Member . In desperation, after another membership fee deduction was made for January, I called Discovery Vitality yesterday (from overseas at great expense). After waiting 15 minutes to talk to a real person, that person could confirm that my Vitality status was 'inactive' but could not assist me to cancel the debits and said they needed to transfer me to Financial. Another long wait of some minutes and just as my call was answered, I ran out of airtime - the call cost in excess of R250. Both my initial contact at Discovery and the person in Financial that I was talking to when my call dropped out, have all my details as well as my phone number and email address - so one might think that they would follow up - no way. Is this so-called customer service? Since my membership status is inactive, surely the onus is on Discovery to contact me if they need something additional to bring the matter to closure or is it too convenient to simply allow fees to be deducted. I know the calls are recorded - isn't it time someone with an interest in true customer service did the right thing before another deduction is made next month?