Virgin Active Abusing their Authority

description of the incident that occurred last week Monday 24 August 2020.

We have both attempted to call Virgin active more than three times in order to cancel our gym memberships however there is no avail. Which is why we went into the gym on Monday initially. After the incident on Monday Portia attempted to call and try cancel the memberships however she could not get through either, which is why we are in this situation. So if someone from the club cannot cancel our memberships and we cannot cancel our memberships how do we go about doing this? This is where the frustration lies.

My brother and I walked into Virgin Active Glenvista on Monday and inquired about cancelling our memberships. We got rudely instructed that we must wait in line which we did. When we were standing together the Woman behind the desk Portia screamed at us and told us to stand separately which should not even be an issue as we live in the same house hold. So due to COVID protocol we can stand together. Either way I moved and let my brother go ahead with the regular COVID screening which I was then shouted at by Portia again because I was not standing further enough away from my brother. Considering the seriousness of their tone and actions we weren’t even instructed to use hand sanitizer and I did not see anyone else use hand sanitizer during this period. I’m sure you would have picked that up in the footage. Nor were we instructed where all the hand sanitizer stations were.

After we had both done our COVID screening we proceeded to type in our ID numbers at the front desk and again no Hand Sanitizer was given to us nor was the Keypad(which you punch your ID number in) wiped down to COVID regulations. Only later we found out that we did not even need to sign in, in order to cancel. However as my brother proceeded to type in his ID number the manager behind the desk screamed in my brothers face that he is not allowed in because he has used his ID number to enter more than 3 times. Which is uncalled for and an improper way to conduct yourself as we weren’t even there to train. You could see by our casual attire and when we walked in we clearly stated that we were only there to CANCEL OUR MEMBERSHIPS.

We were simply there to cancel as stated in the beginning. This is an absolute joke first of all because the gym has been closed for 5 months, how could this have even been an issue? This is not the first time we have received this kind of treatment from your staff. Due to this abuse of authority behind the front desk at Virgin Glenvista we both lost our cool. This is when the whole situation escalated and both parties involved started screaming at each other and used vulgar language. We simply did not understand why we could not just enter the gym to cancel our memberships we weren’t asking for much. It was at this point we asked for the manager and the gentleman we were dealing with screamed in our faces beating his chest saying that he was the manager. Indicating that he can treat any member how he wants because there was no higher authority at the gym at this time. He even said to me what am I going to do, he isn’t going to help us.

After a huge argument between the Manager Michael who initially refused to help us he then let us in and he walks off going upstairs leaving us sitting in the table seating area waiting around. Another woman comes down and asks us why we are sitting and waiting around. We then respond and say we are here to cancel our memberships. The woman then proceeds to say that: “why did we even sign in we can just cancel your memberships from this side of reception” indicating that we did not even have to sign in. This is another tipping point to the whole situation is that your Manager Michael was taking us for a ride and simply messing us around on purpose. Which leads to a huge frustration on our side. Why would he be so aggressive and rude in letting us in and then we find out we did not even have to sign in. Please can someone explain this to me? So Michael the manager on the day was abusing his authority by first of all messing us around and saying we cannot come in and we need to sign in then for another staff member to tell us another story that we didn’t even have to sign in. So we question your training behind the desk because everyone is/was telling us a different story. We even asked for the managers full name so we can lay a complaint and he screams in our faces that he does not have to give us his full name? Is that proper conduct?

I then started recording the Manager Michael as he was unpleasant and not helping at all. He even refused to cancel our memberships and assist us. He even walked off and started doing his own thing like we were not there. This is why we were getting so frustrated. Once I started recording him only then did he start assisting in trying to cancel our memberships. While I was recording he then attempted to hit my cell phone out of my hand and that is when things got really heated. Why is the manager trying to hit my property out of my hand because I am recording him not doing his job? If my phone had got damaged I would have been sitting with an issue. This is not the first time we have experienced staff members from Virgin Active Glenvista abusing their authority. We have never had issues at any other Virgin active. This is the exact reason why we moved to Virgin Meyersdal due to the rude and disrespectful tone we receive from the receptionist and managers and Virgin Glenvista. If we take a look at the footage it is evident that both of us were upset with Michael. I’m sure if we take a look at the footage you will see both of us being relaxed and pleasant with the other staff members who were trying to assist. I can remember even bumping elbows with one of the male staff members saying “it’s cool I’m not ****ed off with you I am ****ed off with your Manager Michael because he is disgusting”

During this period of time, there were 2 members also complaining for the exact same reasons we were. The only difference between my brother and I is that we did not accept the rude tone of voice and lack of respect from the staffs side. So when we reacted that’s when all the issues began.

We came to cancel our memberships and we get treated like little children when we are both paying clients of Virgin active. All we want is our memberships cancelled so we do not get debited then we sit with situations where we have to reverse our debit order and go through headaches.

I have video content of the manager Michael which I would like you to see. Please can something be done regarding his behavior as you cannot behave like he did and abuse authority just because he is a manager.

My brother and I reacted to the response we were given due to the lack of professionalism from your staff. What is not fair is when we re-act in an improper manner the only thing that takes focus is our reaction never the reason why we reacted in the first place. All we want is our gym memberships to be cancelled. When we left the gym the woman behind the desk Portia did not even know how or what to actually do which just shows the lack of training.

We have been told that if we do not fill out the incident report The memberships will not be cancelled and the only report that will be used will be from the several staff members behind the desk which will also be a bias report due to the fact that they will all be protecting each other. This is a huge waste of time for my brother and I because we do not even want to use the facility we just want the memberships cancelled.

We have been waiting now for more than a week to hear from someone to no avail. What more must we do in order for our memberships to just be cancelled.