Upgrade to premium and get treated like a peasant.

I've been a Virgin active member for more than a decade. I appreciated their service until the day I decided to become a premier member. Now, I wanted to change to premium so I can go to all the clubs as my lifestyle needed me in more than one location.

I would've thought that the experience would be better, more premium, I would feel accepted into most of the applicable clubs. This however is not the case.

The experience started at the Randburg gym where I asked the lady to upgrade me during my gym session. She was busy with another upgrade so I said I'll come back at the end. She then handed me a phone and called the call centre while at the desk.

Call centre: So noisy that the guy on the other side got my email address wrong. I could not hear him but managed to get the message across. I want an upgrade, please. Gave him my details and got a code on my phone to pay the activation fee and paid it straight away while on the phone via credit card. He kept asking me for proof of which I was saying, it is a credit card through your sms so the payment will go through straight away. He said not to worry, all is sorted. Yay! or was it...

Next visit: Went back to the same club and guess what, not allowed in, my account is in arrears. The staff said, not to worry, the system is slow. give it 5 days. Did that, went back, still arrears. Now, it is approaching two weeks and get this, I'm still at the entrance feeling like I don't deserve to go into the club. Like I'm a cheap skate not able to make the payment when I've already done so. There has been no communication but in any event, this is what takes the cake.THE STAFF ARE USED TO THE SYSTEM NOT ACCEPTING PAYMENT AND THEY COMPLAIN ABOUT THE SYSTEM.

Dear Virgin, please help your staff, they are complaining about your system. A payment system, a proof of payment system, something that is not hard to resolve in my mind. So many other companies have done so but why not such a reputable company.

Upgrade to premium and get treated like a peasant.