Rapidly becoming unsafe

I’ve written to Ignite about this 5 times over the past 4 months. I have made many complaints before and every single one of them has been ignored. Every time I make a complaint, I’m assured that something will be done. But these are just empty promises to buy themselves time. It’s unfortunate because I like the gym. I like the vibe, the people are friendly, even the colour scheme of the gym I prefer over other gyms.

But it’s now becoming dangerous because multiple pieces of equipment and machines are falling apart. I’m specifically talking about Randburg Ignite.

Here is the (worryingly long) list of what’s wrong: The smith machines were broken (cables snapped, nuts and washer came loose) for weeks. One of them was them removed. The rotary calf machine was broken for months and now has been permanently removed (seems clear that they just gave up on it). The cable machine has broken weight selector pins and one of the sides does not even have one, it is gone, so it’s unusable. The cable machine’s clasps all broke. All of them. Only 2 were replaced and one was replaced with a clasp so small that no handle fitting can fit inside that clasp which means it’s useless. One of the cables in the cable machine has a broken friction stay, so the resistance on one side of the cable machine is far more than the other so no-one uses that cable machine because it has a different resistance on each side. There is only 1 tricep rope. Th second one broke. I already told Ignite about this months ago The washers and bolts have come loose in 3 of the benches, so the benches slip and slide when someone is lying down on them. This is immensely dangerous because if that lies whilst you are under a heavy weight, you can seriously injure your neck or spine. The low-Row machine is frequently broken. Two of the barbells are bent. Some of the blue mats have torn apart. Many (around 20-30) of the inner steel collars (in the core) of the weight plates, have come off and have not been replaced.

4 members who train at the same time as me have left and are going back to Virgin Randburg (where all of us started off) in the past month.

It’s sad because I like this gym, but there is no maintenance and measures in place to make it safe and comfortable for members.

The current physical state of the gym is making people leave. And complaints are just ignored so we have no reason to believe anything is or ever will be done about it.

Ignite Randburg has become a place of broken parts. It no longer exudes a place of peak performance. The place feels unhealthy and dangerous and it’s only a matter of time before someone seriously injures themself and the story gets out that Ignite is running an unsafe gymnasium that is dangerous and harmful to the public.

I’m not writing here because I hope or expect to get a response from Ignite. I’m writing this because I feel I have a moral responsibility to other people who might use this gym.