Poor Service from Virgin Active Gym

Hello,

I've recently experienced poor service from Virgin Active Gym just as I was joining for the first time this Month, September 2020, in Amanzimtoti branch in Durban. As I was registering, one of their representative told me, without verifying with the my medical aid that I will qualify for a 50% discount in premiums (approximately R250) per month since I told him that I'm in Discovery Medical Aid. Ony to discover at a later stage that I'll be paying R530 per month since I don't have Discovery Vitality option in my Discovery Medical Aid. Actually, that information was corrected by their second representative I met on my second visit that I would qualify for a 75% discount since I'm a spouse of the main member of Discovery Medical Aid. So the lack of that information from the first representative also shows poor service in this particular branch of Virgin Active. If I was explicitly told that I don't qualify for a discount with this valid reason, of course, I would not have joined in the first place until I activate this option with my Medical Aid.

I got a surprise simply because the Virgin Active agent was hasty to get me to join for some reason I do not know such that he was unable to disclose to me that actually I'll be paying twice the actual amount we verbally agree upon. Once I was aware of this hidden disclosure I decided not to start the gym until I activate this Vitality option in Discovery. I even wrote them an email through their website to explain that I will join after activating vitality option so for now I'm canceling my membership with immediate effect before starting the training but it was too late for them to stop debit order as I was close to the date of my debit order which was the 15th of September 2020. By the way they gave me an automatic response in their website that they will be responding to me within 24 hrs 0r 48 hrs, something like that.

Subsequently, I went to their branch to request a refund based on the wrong verbal information agreement I was given. I may have signed but convinced wrongly to hastily join the membership without putting the client interest first.

It doesn't take rocket science to see how much I''ll be paying every month because the correct system should respond almost immediately how much I'll from the first month onwards, unless he decided to put a blind eye on that response or even failing to verify from their head office before any form signing on the dotted line. At this juncture I was told that, according to their new policy they do not do any refunds. Okay fine but in this case, I joined under false information provided so I decided to reverse the deduction until my vitality membership is activated then I'll rejoin.

But after more than a week without responding to my email I was phoned by their collections department to pay back the R530 I reversed in the bank. But R530 for what because I did not use their facilities yet except for their free bag and access card they gave me in exchange for R75 I already paid them. What about free first month they give to new members, that also, I was told falls away and I have 15 days to use that R530 membership. I'm sorry I'm not owing them based on the fact that they made me sign under false verbal information.

Initially I was waiting to sort out this error with them but it has been more than a week and they are now driving me from pillar to post and only interested in what is coming to them. It's all about the money in exchange for the unfair treatment of myself as their new client but their service comes last. This is also evident by the fact that the first representative never bothers to contact me to sort this after learning from the second representative. Even today the first representative is not in and second representative said she will come back to me after I made a phone call to the branch, more than five hours is gone since then. The lady from the collections is also so rude because she decided to say bye to me as I was still responding to her on the call. The only significant thing she said is that she will leave a note and it has been five hours since then. It's all about the money!

Thank you.