Virgin Active Cresta is totally dysfunctional

Virgin Active Cresta is totally dysfunctional : As you walk in you realise that the A/C is AGAIN off. The air is thick with humidity, probably because of the abnormally high pool temperature.

At the reception you are in a queue, with everyone ahead of you trying repeatedly and unsuccessfully to scan QR codes on their phones. That is after they wasted minutes trying to find the App and log in. My 28-year-old faded access card works first time, every time....

In the mens' locker room you are met by the stench from the toilets, because of insufficient or no extraction.

When you arrive at the exercise equipment you will find that many are unserviceable. One of the two Arm Cycle machines has been broken for more than a month. One of the Reclining Cycles crashes shortly after one has set up a program. One Treadmill is so unstable above a speed setting of 5 that it becomes dangerous to use, while another's gradient setting does not work. The speed sensor on one of the Assault Bikes hasn't been working for years.

So when you eventually find a working peace of equipment, the chances are good that there will be someone sitting on it while talking or messaging on his or her phone. This has become an epidemic!! People will do one set and then spent five minutes, or more, on their phones, before starting the next set.

The weights section looks like a pre-school play room. Few members return the weights and one usually has to remove the previous person's weights from the equipment, before being able to use it. Many weights are returned to the wrong positions. I personally saw one person returning a 37kg dumbbell to where the 10kg dumbbells are kept. There are no, none, zero club personnel at hand to instruct errant members to return there weights or not to waste time on the equipment.

Further regarding the personnel; Often there will only be one or two people behind the reception desk. No one else will be visible on the floor in the gym. Except for 10h00, one weekday in a week, when they all appear to huddle around in a circle near reception to fist-pump or hug or whatever they do, before disappearing again. If one needs help with something, that person has to be paged and one has to hang around waiting for him or her to appear from who knows where.

Paging is another frustration, because no one has been trained to use the PA system correctly. It is usually just an incoherent mumbling.

I can go on, but will just waste me time. Overall the experience is extremely unpleasant.

If there was another Virgin Active, close to where I stay, I will try it. But I would not hold my breath. If there was another gym around, I would have joined it already.