False information and bad service

My husband talked to a sales person at Virgin Active Waterstone when he went down to sign my debit order. He was promised that if he joins he can test it out for three months in which he can still cancel if he finds it doesn't work for him. When he went back after a month to cancel (not visiting the gym once due to work hours) he was told he had to pay a R 2000 cancellation fee. He tried to pay it and the machines where down. We tried contacting head office to sort the main issue out... every time they said they will come back to us and no one ever did. So three months has gone by and Virgin active is taking the full membership amount, even though he is a vitality member. This is ridiculous. We don't know what to do anymore.