Virgin Active Umhlanga - *********** Staff who do not understand TCF and Disclosure

Item: Virgin Active South Africa
Rating: 1
Author: Adrianne G

Dear Virgin Active Gateway Management Please note the ffg: I WANT MY CONTRACT TERMINATED EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. Mohammed Cassim has "sold" this contract to me with false information and I am tired of waiting for this "investigation" to concluded. It is very simple, your sales agent is unprofessional, ********* and most definitely inexperienced in your products/packages. HE IS SO DESPERATE TO MAKE A SALE THAT HE IS EITHER SELLING A LIE OR UNDER AN IMMENSE AMOUNT OF PRESSURE THAT HE IS NEGLECTING TO DISCLOSE ALL INFORMATION. Here are the events leading to myself joining Virgin Active (for the stress free lifestyle that Virgin Active promotes) I met with Mohammed on the 31st of October 2016 (with regard to joining Virgin Active - New Membership) he was expecting me as he signed up my sister and aunt earlier in October (Here he showed his lack of interest in clients once he signs them because he did not even arrange the fitness induction for them. Another agent had to pick up his slack, this was Samir) Even though Mohammed was not recommended by my family I dealt via him because I had already been contacted by him. Mohammed first took me on a tour of the gym (alone), talked about facilities, equipment, Escape Gym being inferior, my studies and whether I would like to join. (My response was that I would need to speak to Adrianne Govender (my mother) as I am a student with no income. We then proceeded back to a cubicle where my mother (the main member of discovery medical aid and a friend waited) Witness 1 (Adrianne Govender) Mother Witness 2 (Nikkita Munsamy) Friend Kindly check your visitor logs to confirm. Once we were seated in the cubicle he began selling this contract He said that Virgin Active Gateway is better than other gyms. TRUE Virgin Active offers a vast range of facilities. TRUE Virgin Active doesn't just sign up then ignore clients, a fitness induction and meal plan is given,etc. FALSE (you have to chase after these things once you've joined) Whilst trying to sign me up he proceeded to try and sign Adrianne Govender and Nikkita Munsamy. Both Declined as Adrianne Govender has an existing gym contract with her Employer and Nikkita Munsamy has one with Virgin Active Mount Edgecombe. Mohammed then proceeded to say that I should join immediately because it's an October special (free bag, free month and fitness induction there after a once of payment for the gym, another once of for discovery vitality activation and R190 pm) I declined because it was the last day of the month and vitality was not activated at that time. Mohammed said that wouldn't be a problem he will lead my mother to a phone where SHE (Adrianne) could speak to a broker for free and activate the Vitality so that I (Geraldine) could join and get Octobers special because it was a never to be repeated special. HERE IS WERE IT IS VERY OBVIOUS THAT HE IS/WAS AWARE THAT I WAS NOT THE MAIN MEMBER AND TO HIS KNOWLEDGE KNEW THAT I WOULD NOT BE PAYING R190PM AND CHOSE TO CONTINUE ROPING ME INTO THIS FALSE/**** R190PM INFORMATION ABOUT MY CONTRACT. I went back a few days later because Mohammed contacted me about a new November special which was very similar to Octobers "never to be repeated special". I went into Virgin Active at Gateway after 4pm and signed up for one month free which was r150 thereafter r190pm which would be deducted from my Standard Bank account together with the Vitality once of payment on the 1st December 2016 thereafter just r190pm subject the increase in 2017. I agreed. Mohammed kept making mistakes on my contract. I signed on the gadget approximately 6 times. Each time for an error on his part. I was given 3 different gym cards in 45 minutes. He briefly read through the contract, showed me the details and i signed one last time still with the knowledge of a monthly premium of R190. I then left to train. I was contacted again by Mohammed because of some problem with banking details of my contract I went in. The next day Mohammed called to say Virgin Active Gateways finance staff are picking up that my ID Number does not correspond with my Standard Bank account and that I would need to go into the bank, get a statement and a letter from the bank stating that it is my account. What an inconvenience since I'm always at the gym after banking hours. I told Mohammed that this is ridiculous and all I spend my time doing is fixing these problems rather than training. Mohammed then said that I should send MY personal bank statement to his PRIVATE email address. Infuriated at this, I asked my sister Jacqueline (a current Virgin Active Gateway member to call Dylan and tell him that these inconsistencies and inconveniences are ridiculous. Also that the fitness induction Mohammed arranged at the 45th minute was absolutely pointless as i received a meal plan and was told to cycle for 15 minutes and run the treadmill for another 15 minutes. Induction over. (What sort of help was this?) Dylan apologized, revealed that he will personally sort this account verification problem out and that it's not the first complaint against Mohammed. From then on everything went well until the 2nd December when my account was debited for r605 (Not what I signed up for) I queried this. I was told that this is because vitality has not been activated. I informed staff that there was more than enough funds for the debits to go of (I will provide bank statements to prove this) I was later informed that I had to come into the gym and make this payment to activate vitality. Mohammed neglected to inform me of this, I thought it would be debited with the monthly premium. It seems like he does not know what he is doing because my aunt who signed up via Mohammed at the beginning of October had the sim**** problem (she was not informed that payment had to made to the gym directly). During the month of December I used the gym, on the 16th I went to pay the vitality. Yusuf Ally assisted me with the conversion. After checking everything, I stopped him at the r425 premium per month. I said it's supposed to be r190. He added that I was not the main member that discount does not apply to me. I told him that Mohammed never told me this, he went on to say that Mohammed stuffed up my contract and that he is new and Mohammeds clients are guinea ***s that he is learning the ropes on. Yusuf then advised me not to pay the vitality because Mohammed sold this contract with complete misinformation and he will get Craig the (MOD) of Virgin Active to call me asap because Dylan was on vacation. Craig never followed up. R605 was once again deducted from my account at the beginning of January. On the 3rd of January I spoke to Devina and explained the situation and said I am wait for Craig to handle this. No calls came through from him, I then handed this over to my mother Adrianne Govender to deal with because I was busy completing my Degree at University and she contacted Craig. Here is the underlying issue: Mohammed Cassim appears to be an *********** salesman for Virgin Active and is proving to tarnish the Virgin Active brand by providing misinformation to get clients and leave them in terrible situations once his sale has been made. I signed up for r190 per month and a once off payment to Virgin Active Gateway to activate the Vitality. However, this is not the situation. If the information given to me upon signing the contract as mentioned above are maintained I would gladly remain a client of Virgin Active Gateway. This seems unlikely as I was sold a load of uninformed bull which results in me demanding for this contract between Virgin Active Gateway and myself (Geraldine Junelle Govender) to be terminated immediately. I have informed my bank to block any further debits from Virgin Active and I expect to be refunded the January deducted amount of r605. Records will show that I have not attended the gym the whole of January because I will not accept this type of ********* business behavior from a sales person who straight out provided misinformation which led to completely false contract agreement. I expect a reply within 48 hours of receiving this e-mail and my falsely sold contract with Virgin Active to be terminated immediately. Please note that Virgin Active South Africa has been contacted. If the contract is not cancelled with immediate effect I will go to ALL social networking platforms as well as Tabloids and I will be contacting Mr Ross Varagher-Thomas to share these atrocious grievances that are disappointing coming from a brand like Virgin Active.

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