R12,000 fee for an involuntary cancellation?!?!

Yes, you read that correctly! I joined PF in May 2022 with the crucial aspect to use Vitality due to the discounted gym fees. The gym's regular fee was R899 which we could not afford (both my husband and I have memberships), but with vitality, it was R240 per person. However, in August, we changed our discovery plan completely and no one - not at PF or at Discovery told us that it would mean that our membership link is cancelled too.

Fast forward to 6 October when I tried to get into the gym, I could not do so because my account was due by around R2100!! I had no clue what this was about since they had already debited R919 the previous month. Both my husband and I had this negative balance. Of course, I told them that I should be paying R240, not R899. Problem is, PF had been trying to debit R899 for each of us since August without so much as an SMS notification to let us know! How would they expect there to be enough funds to cover it if we don't even know about it????? And there is NO WAY that we can cover that balance of R4200 total.

I spoke to a sales person, of course, who at first confirmed that we would be credited with the overcharged amount. However, she soon lost interest in helping me resolve the issue. I had to follow up with her multiple times per day to try get this issue resolved. Eventually, she just kept telling me I must sort it out with Vitality. Vitality said that I needed to cancel the membership and create a new one with the correct vitality application linked. A clear case of he-said-she-said, leaving me in the middle with no solution at all, and further debit orders probably to be racked up soon.

Today, this sales person told me to contact the PF head office to cancel. I did. They said that either I need to pay over R4000 PER PERSON to cancel the membership or pay R899x2 months. I don't WANT to cancel. They are making me cancel. And I must pay for it. HOW ON EARTH? In fact, I had planned to use the EXACT same gym continuously. It was supposed to be a membership transfer. I would still be a member at the exact same gym but I must pay around R12,500 if I want it cancelled, only to open a new membership, with new activation fees and tag fees.

How does ANY of this make sense? The amounts that were charged were not consented to, and was not even informed of the change - neither by PF or Discovery. If I had been informed, I could have taken this action much sooner to avoid being billed about R2100 PER MEMBER that I REALLY cannot afford. I quite literally do not have that money. There should at least have been an SMS to say that due to changes with discovery, I would be billed R899 per member. I received nothing of the sort.

I told multiple people at PF that I don't have the money for these ridiculous and unfair charges. These debit orders WILL bounce. I do not have over 12k for PF just so that I can reopen a correct membership. This has been such a horrible, stressful experience that I will never use PF again.

Please be sure that I will be broadcasting this review on social media and on google reviews unless this is resolved by Friday.