Virgin Active's Lack of Service got me Banned for Life

After being a member at Virgin Active for over 10 years and also working for them at one point I was extremely exciting when I heard that there was going to open a Virgin Collection Club ( The push one’s ) as I have been to the one in Melrose Arch with a friend before and really enjoyed it.

Needless to say when they opened up I was one of the first new members even though the monthly membership ( R2000 ) was steep to say the least. But with everything extra you get I thought it would be worth it.

Within the first few weeks it was clear that the club was never ready to opened up. The Aircon was not working half the time and it felt like you were training in a sauna. The spa area ( one of the main reasons I joined and most people I think ) was either getting fixed or switched off every other day. Etc

I thought I would ride it out as maybe it will get better and at least you are still getting all the other stuff you pay for like free water, towels, fruits etc.

But then even these started to disappear. I asked the reception about this and she said it gets removed and the club starts to close down a hour before closing. The problem? I can only train the last hour that the club is open due to my work schedule.

So I asked if she can at least ask them to leave stuff like the water and fruit out so I can grab some of that after my workout as I understand that the club big and they have to start cleaning the place early ( even if that meant each of my showers where combined with the cleaner cleaning them each day.

She said ok and so I thought cool, this could work out. Well the next day came and it was the same story. The club started to get closed down a hour before hand and everything I was hoping to get was gone. I asked the reception again about this and she said she will tell the staff not to put stuff away.

Needless to say this went on for a few weeks but nothing ever happened. So after another session when I was not able to get anything of the stuff I pay a ridicules amount of money for and me asking the receptionist again she turned to me and said. Listen, this is how it works. The stuff gets put away and the club is starts to get closed down a hour before we close. That is how it is.

So trying to keep my cool I said in that case I want to cancel my membership and downgrade back to my membership I had before and my local club. No point paying R2000 per month if I get nothing more than what I get at my local club for R300.

She then told me I can’t cancel at which point I corrected her and told her that the contracted stated that I could after 3 months ( yes by this time I have put up with this lack of service and customer service for over 3 months! ). She then said well it doesn’t matter as she can’t do anything about it and I should ring Virgin Active head office.

The following day I did just that and this is when they started giving me the run-around. First they said they could not cancel my membership as it is a Discovery membership ( funny thing I never sign up through Discovery, I signup right at the club ) . But I then rung Discovery and they told me they can’t cancel it and I need to call Vitality. Vitality said they can’t cancel it and I need to contact Virgin Active.

For the next 7 days whenever I had a minute to spare I was running one of these 3 companies and each time nobody could do anything and just passed the buck.

After a week of wasting my time doing this I decided to cancel my 10 year old Discovery Life Policy which already developed a value but I could not see any other way to finally eliminate one of the players as if I don’t have a life policy then Discovery could not be responsible for cancelling my membership right?

So I sent an e-mail this time to VA head office explaining everything ONCE AGAIN from the start and they once again gave me the story that they can’t cancel it, only Vitality can. I told them I no longer a member of Discovery or Vitality.

They then had the Manger of the club contacting me to try and keep me as a member ( He was told about all of this for 3 months straight and only wanted to do something about this now? ).

I told them I am not interested and I want my membership downgrade or cancelled so I can go back to my local Virgin Active.

This went for two days and then I finally did what it seems the only thing is you can do to actually get some customer service from companies in South-Africa. I started threatening them with legal action and bad publicity.

Surprise surprise within 24 hours I finally got some customer service. But not from just anyone. Not from a customer service manager or GM or anything like that. Nope, directly from the head of the legal department, Karen Gordon.

First she said that she will personally make sure my membership is cancelled ( So they could cancel it then? ) and then came the best part. She informed me that I will be banned from Virgin Active for Life!

What? So after being a member for over decade and even working for you. After trying to simply downgrade my membership back to a normal club membership because Virgin Active is not providing the services they sold me on at the Collection club and then after me trying to sort this out myself over a 7 day period spending my time and money making calls and nobody wanting to help me, I GET BANNED FOR LIFE?

But I then started to look around to see if this has happened to anyone else and I kept coming across the name Karen Gordon over and over ( just search for it on HelloPeter ) . It seems she has been treating Virgin Active members and South-Africans who are loyal and long term members like **** for year.

As soon as you do anything she is not happy with she bans you for life from VA instead of trying to fix the problem.

And so it seems Virgin Active have long gone been removed from the Richard Branson view of providing a service that is not just more special and different but also provide the highest quality customer service.

It seems VA South-Africa is now simply run by the attorneys and accountants and that customer service is very far down on the ladder of what is important to them.

So enjoy your membership while it last just make sure you never complain. Not about the fact that someone did not wipe down the equipment. Not that the equipment is not in a good condition and badly maintained. Not about the fact that someone did not book for a spinning class but is now sitting on your bike and the staff does not have the ***** to remove them as you are white and they are black etc . All of these are real things that happened and that people got banned for by Virgin Active and by head of legal Karen Gordon.

And she and VA have been doing this for years as you can see here by just one of the examples :

https://www.hellopeter.com/virgin-active-south-africa/reviews/self-defense-suspension- **********