VIRGIN ACTIVE TERRIBLE SERVICE

I'm so disappointed in the level of service delivery I'm receiving from Virgin Active these days. It's safe to say we will NOT be renewing our memberships with them this time.

This is my second premium membership with Virgin Active including my wife and our 2 children(without Vitality) and the reason we chose virgin Active was because their sales sharks preach a professional, efficient and family orientated environment that cares about you as much as you care about your personal wellbeing. These guys are a bunch of money hungry ty****s that feed you excuse after excuse at your expense and then expect you to just accept their short comings like you're on the receiving end. I feel like they've become the KFC of the fitness industry.

I froze my membership on the 27/03/2024 for the month Ramadan as I don't have the time or energy to train in Ramadan. I was informed that the installment wouldn't be deducted from my account as we pay upfront for the month ahead. On the 01/03/2024 lo and behold, my account gets debited. I spend the Monday 04/03/2024 trying to rectify this by calling their customer care Centre (086 number). I brave the queues where I'm placing caller number 56 in the queue. I finally get through to a guy called Brent, he assures me that it will be refunded into my bank account(no time frame provided). For good measure I call back 05/03/2024 to confirm that everything is in order, I speak to a Thaakirah who initiates the process and informs me that I'd be refunded within 5-10 business days and that I'd be debited end of March with 30%of my premium as I chose to freeze my membership for 2 months. On the 11/03/2024 I give VA a call again to find out if there's a possible eta as I had other plans for this money. The call gets cut on numerous occasions before dialing through to a Sanele, ( bare in mind, the only reason I'm getting through to these guys is because I selected the option to "become a member"). Sanele gives me a long story about "they're not able to refund me and that it would be credited to my VA wallet, this information infuriates me and I abruptly ask to speak to a manager or someone with authority. Sanele" puts me through" and magically I get cut off.. I've now spent 35 of my monthly minutes from my cellphone contract just on VA without solving my dispute. 12/03/2024 I try again, this time I come through to a Zinaswa who, after me going the lengthy extent of telling my story to informs me that if I'd like to lay a complaint I'm welcome to do so and provides me with 2 email addresses, I cc the 2nd address into the same email and I proceed to addressing my issue. I engage in a back and forth in email correspondence growing more and more irritated by the day that nobody has raised my issue to someone credible enough to pick up the God damned phone and give me a call. This was their final response : "Hi Rameez

Thank you for getting in touch with us.

Please be advised the refund has been approved however there's been a delay with the payout of the refunds.

It should either reflect in your bank account by next week.

I apologise for the inconvenience.

Regards Kauthar" To me this is unacceptable and I feel like there's been too many slip ups on Virgin Actives behalf on more than one occasion on more than one issue like cleanliness of restrooms, non-functional equipment, unprofessional staff and the list goes on and on but annually for the past 3.5 years there's just been an increase in fees with the same level of service I might as well go sign up at Zone fitness yuck! NOW, VIRGIN ACTIVE SOUTH AFRICA HUMOUR ME WITH A RESPONSE TO THIS, OR ALTERNATIVELY STEP UP AND ADDRESS THE ISSUE I'VE BROUGHT FORTH.