Virgin Active can't go digital and refuses

#VirginActive #discoveryceo Adrian Gore, it is with great distaste and disappointment that I am writing this post. Let me start off by saying we now live in the "digital" age where everything is done this way. There is the odd pamphlet that one would find in their mailbox to remind us that we actually do own one. With this in mind, I belong to Virgin Active on the Bluff here in Durban and have been for a while now, I have forgotten my card on quite a few occasions and had to sign in to a maximum of three times then was told I had to pay ,#VirginActive #discoveryceo Adrian Gore, it is with great distaste and disappointment that I am writing this post. Let me start off by saying we now live in the "digital" age where everything is done this way. There is the odd pamphlet that one would find in their mailbox to remind us that we actually do own one. With this in mind, I belong to Virgin Active on the Bluff here in Durban and have been for a while now, I have forgotten my card on quite a few occasions and had to sign in to a maximum of three times then was told I had to pay R50 for a new card. A couple time I went all the way home to fetch my card but sometimes I just paid the R50. I was not happy to pay but alas I did. My bank FNB and like other banks allow you to add their cards to third party apps like Samsung Pay, Google Pay and so on, to do payments at stores, garages etc. So I found an app "Stocard" on my Samsung app store which allows you to firstly take a front and back picture of your car as well as create the same barcode or QR code on the back of you various store cards like Pick n Pay, Dischem, Builder Warehouse the list goes on. It also allows "Virgin Active", now for someone like me who does not like carrying a wallet and always forgets their card because everything is on my phone, this was perfect. I loaded this and went to my branch and the guy at Virgin Active reception was amazed and said this makes so much more sense, I made my wife and daughter do this and a few friends, life was good again.

Keeping this in mind, an Employee of Virgin Active told me a couple time that Virgin Active wants to stop the digital card access because they are losing money from not making new ones, this person also said the card costs them about 50cents and they charge R50. A couple days ago my daughter was stopped from using her app by the Bluff branch manager. He said it is not secure like using the card, I was not there at that time to speak about it to him. So I asked the reception guy to ask the manager to call me. My point as stated above is that FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS like our banks allow these other apps to use our bank cards, where money is actually involved, and serious ***** could happen, the virgin active card is just an access card to the club which at all times a reception person is viewing your profile and picture when you scan in. They are doing their job, or so I thought because as per attached, you can see the manager response to me saying that the pictures they have are more than 10 years old and cannot be sure of the person coming in and that's why they use the actual card. He also said they do drives to update the pictures so this made me upset because if they are doing drives to do this update, of which i have never seen and I have asked other patrons and friends who go to this club, neither have they. This upset me because why do the reception people make us scan then look at their pc then us then we go in. Also if they are not confirming this then what stops a person giving their card to someone else at gate after they enter so that person can come in because their pictures are more than 10 years old. This manager makes no sense in trying to justify why, even after I told him that a Virgin active staff member told me it was to make money for the club and he responded, "That is not entirely true" , he then told me that going forward I will have to use the card because it is in the terms and conditions of which I understand but the world has changed and moved forward, especially going digital for efficiency, convenience as well as helping the planet by not having to make plastic cards or making any card for that matter. The physical card is for people who prefer to have it or those who don't have the means to keep it digitally. #Bluffview Bluff, Merebank, Wentworth, Austerville, Treasure beach and surrounding areas people who use the club, I am sure if didn't have to carry so many cards including this card because it is on your phone, it would make life a "little" more easier and convenient. I this post is about the use of a digital card, maybe I should add about how many machines ie treadmills, cycles etc that are always not working and come there to wait. Sorry, I digress. Below is the email response I got from the Branch manager. Please help me understand this and why!?!?!