Virgin Active IT Dept - This is NOT rocket science!

Virgin Active's marketing slogan reads, "Happily Ever Active" - pithy and succinct - if only the Virgin Active IT department were so. My club offers a host of classes you can join to fulfil this fairytale lifestyle; it's wonderful but it's also expensive. You are paying top dollar for such facilities and it's frustrating when you can only access a portion of what's on offer due to a relatively simple IT issue. We are not talking rocket science here.

10 months ago I was involved in a bad car accident. I'm now at the stage I can join strength building classes, aqua sessions, and even spinning to help regain strength and fitness and general mobility.

My problem?

I have not been able to book one class because of a simple IT problem: the booking page doesn't recognise my registration details.

I first logged my complaint 2 months ago...and I'm not a step further.

May I bore you with the merry go-round? I'll try and be pithy and quick like the slogan. If you can't book online, a message pops up informing you to seek help with your nearest branch or phone a number. You duly go to your nearest branch who sympathetically say they are unable to help with the problem. You then phone the number. The automated message tells you to press "1" for them to phone back (which never happens by the way). The voice also offers an alternative to email, and provides the address promising to get back to you in 24-28 hours. These phone lines take forever, so you drop the call (after pressing '1' a few times) and email. Quick as a jit an automated response pops into your inbox promising to get back to you in 48 hours. That was 2 months ago.

I chased it up with emails, phonecalls, emails and phonecalls, totalling at least 20 points of communication - and STILL, I am unable to book one, singular class. I have used my own personal airtime to phone notwithstanding the time to follow up on this issue.

Virgin Active has promised to have "escalated" the problem. The first time it was "escalated" was 27 July 2021. 18 days later, and nothing has been done.

There is no shining Knight in my "happily ever active". Instead it's a bit of nightMARE. Can Richard Branson please stop sending Rockets into space and spend a bit more energy on basic IT problems in his company?

I intend to escalate this.