Virgin Inactive!!!!
<p>Scheduled spinning classes are a bit of a lottery at Virgin Active Berea in Overport Durban. Their Call Centre in Cape Town is totally unresponsive when trying to complain.</p> <p>On Monday this week there was no Trainer for the 08h15 Spinning Class for the second time in less than a week, and so I requested a response from the MOD (manager on duty). He told the class that management were aware of the fact that the usual trainer, Lello, was away for a few weeks - and that they hadn't been able to get a replacement. When I challenged him about why this had not been communicated to members he pleaded ignorance.</p> <p>On the previous occasion that the trainer had not arrived I asked the MOD why they couldn't at least provide suitable music on a CD in the spinning studio - and let us get on with it. Sharona said that they were not allowed to do this, as they would be liable if they facilitated a spinning class in any way without a qualified trainer being present - and a member injured themselves. I asked Sharona to ask the club manager Blake Biffen to phone me about this.</p> <p>Getting back to this past Monday - after the MOD left the studio one of the other members in the class, Gavin, offered to play a spinning class video off YouTube from his I-Pad. Initially he couldn't get the sound connected to the studio's speakers - but after I phoned Reception again - they sent up a technician who got the sound working. Gavin then propped up his I=Pad so that we could see its screen and we were able to enjoy a 45 minute work out.</p> <p>After the class I phoned the Call Centre and spoke to Lexi who promised to get the manager Wendy to call me back by close of business. That didn't happen - and so I phoned again the next day and was promised that either Lexi or Wendy would call me back.</p> <p>This past Wednesday there was still no Trainer, but one of the staff had been given a CD and she stood at the front and played the CD while issuing instructions to us. This feel flat, and although I stayrd for the whole class, I was very disappointed with the way it was handled.</p> <p>My challenge to Virgin Active top management is this: If you want the members to be active - can't you learn to be active yourselves? Why didn't Blake Biffen phone me back last week? Why have my two calls to the Call Centre been ignored? How can you declare that it is unsafe to facilitate a spinning class without a qualified trainer being present - and then do exactly that on Wednesday this week?</p> <p>I'd love to see management try to defend this complaint. The stage is yours ......................</p>
Dear Mr Parker,
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me this morning and share your experience with me.
Please accept our sincerest apologies for the level of service you have received from Virgin Active during your recent enquiries.
It unacceptable that a group exercise classes does not taking place or a club is not prepared or unaware of a late instructor, as is scheduled on our timetables. We have failed our members even more when we make promises but fail to deliver on a simple promise to return a call, for this I humbly apologise.
As per our conversation, both Shayne and I are in the process of questioning and investigating as to why numerous calls were made by yourself to our contact centre and were never escalated or returned as promised. Please do not think for one minute, because Shayne did not mention this investigation in her original mail to you, that it was of less importance to her, in fact the minute she saw your mail she was able to raise her concerns with me and I was able to launch not only an investigation but also a complete resolution plan with the contact centre to ensure that this does not happen again, I am meeting with the Contact Centre manager to review his action plan on Monday at 12pm.
I understand from Shayne’s mail to you, that she has addressed your Group Exercise class concerns, please rest assured that we are aware that there are improvements that can be made to our current process and that we are on the cusp of launching a new and improved process across all our clubs that also entails a big training element for our staff.
As a gesture of goodwill and to offer our sincerest apology for the fact that the contact centre failed to meet your expectation, please accept one free month as an official apology.
Thank you once again for your patience and ongoing support it is greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
Jacqui Walter
Head of Customer Experience
Dear Mr Parker,
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me this morning and share your experience with me.
Please accept our sincerest apologies for the level of service you have received from Virgin Active during your recent enquiries.
It unacceptable that a group exercise classes does not taking place or a club is not prepared or unaware of a late instructor, as is scheduled on our timetables. We have failed our members even more when we make promises but fail to deliver on a simple promise to return a call, for this I humbly apologise.
As per our conversation, both Shayne and I are in the process of questioning and investigating as to why numerous calls were made by yourself to our contact centre and were never escalated or returned as promised. Please do not think for one minute, because Shayne did not mention this investigation in her original mail to you, that it was of less importance to her, in fact the minute she saw your mail she was able to raise her concerns with me and I was able to launch not only an investigation but also a complete resolution plan with the contact centre to ensure that this does not happen again, I am meeting with the Contact Centre manager to review his action plan on Monday at 12pm.
I understand from Shayne’s mail to you, that she has addressed your Group Exercise class concerns, please rest assured that we are aware that there are improvements that can be made to our current process and that we are on the cusp of launching a new and improved process across all our clubs that also entails a big training element for our staff.
As a gesture of goodwill and to offer our sincerest apology for the fact that the contact centre failed to meet your expectation, please accept one free month as an official apology.
Thank you once again for your patience and ongoing support it is greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
Jacqui Walter
Head of Customer Experience
Hi Cedric,
I have read your Hello Peter post and have spent time looking into the issue.
I am terribly sorry this has happened. Blake and the team have since worked in this and ensured that all the Fitness Instructors are now trained to give a spinning class in the event of a spinning instructor not arriving to teach.
In addition to this the club will ensure that there is suitable music available on the club to support the Fitness Instructor and ensure that a class goes ahead.
Again I am terribly sorry this has happened and I can assure you that the club will make every effort to prevent this from happening in future. However in the event that an instructor fails to arrive, the team will be better prepared.
Regards,
Shayne
Hi Cedric,
I have read your Hello Peter post and have spent time looking into the issue.
I am terribly sorry this has happened. Blake and the team have since worked in this and ensured that all the Fitness Instructors are now trained to give a spinning class in the event of a spinning instructor not arriving to teach.
In addition to this the club will ensure that there is suitable music available on the club to support the Fitness Instructor and ensure that a class goes ahead.
Again I am terribly sorry this has happened and I can assure you that the club will make every effort to prevent this from happening in future. However in the event that an instructor fails to arrive, the team will be better prepared.
Regards,
Shayne
Hi Shayne
Thank you for your response.
Unfortunately you have not addressed all my concerns - and I wonder why this is? Are the following too trivial to address:
· Why did Blake not phone me when requested to do so by Sharona on 31 May?
· Why did Blake not phone me when requested to do so by your Call Centre on 5 June?
· Why did neither Lexi nor Wendy at your Call Centre phone me - when a commitment was made that I'd be called on the day I complained - and subsequently when I followed up after not being called?
· How come the club suddenly changed its policy and decided that the safety of members could be compromised after all - by allowing an untrained Fitness Instructor to conduct the class last Wednesday?
This morning the spinning instructor was not in the studio at 08h15. When I called reception the lady was surprised to hear that she wasn't there, and when I asked her why this was - she said she'd have to check with the MOD. I waited for more than 3 minutes - and then she came back to me and said she'd just seen the instructor entering the club! She only arrived in the class at 08h20.
My question is why is the MOD not aware that the instructor hasn't arrived for a class? Surely he should be watching these details closely? Surely he should have come up to the class at 08h15 and apologised for the fact that the instructor was not present?
This is a very serious breach of VA's service covenant with members. I've been told that your CEO is Ross Faragher-Thomas. Please forward this email to him and ask him to call me, as I'm not happy with the way you have handled this.
Kind regards
Cedric Parker
Hi Shayne
Thank you for your response.
Unfortunately you have not addressed all my concerns - and I wonder why this is? Are the following too trivial to address:
· Why did Blake not phone me when requested to do so by Sharona on 31 May?
· Why did Blake not phone me when requested to do so by your Call Centre on 5 June?
· Why did neither Lexi nor Wendy at your Call Centre phone me - when a commitment was made that I'd be called on the day I complained - and subsequently when I followed up after not being called?
· How come the club suddenly changed its policy and decided that the safety of members could be compromised after all - by allowing an untrained Fitness Instructor to conduct the class last Wednesday?
This morning the spinning instructor was not in the studio at 08h15. When I called reception the lady was surprised to hear that she wasn't there, and when I asked her why this was - she said she'd have to check with the MOD. I waited for more than 3 minutes - and then she came back to me and said she'd just seen the instructor entering the club! She only arrived in the class at 08h20.
My question is why is the MOD not aware that the instructor hasn't arrived for a class? Surely he should be watching these details closely? Surely he should have come up to the class at 08h15 and apologised for the fact that the instructor was not present?
This is a very serious breach of VA's service covenant with members. I've been told that your CEO is Ross Faragher-Thomas. Please forward this email to him and ask him to call me, as I'm not happy with the way you have handled this.
Kind regards
Cedric Parker
Morning Cedric,
I apologies for you feeling that all your issues haven't been addressed. I have simply given you the briefest feedback as I don't feel I need to go through the details as this inconvenience has taken up more than enough of your time.
In addition to this I believe that the questions you raised are management issues and I certainly don't want you to feel responsible for managing these issues. Thus the intention behind my brief feedback was simply to apologies for the inconvenience and not saddle you up with the behind the scenes management action. Irrespective of this I can assure you that your feedback is noted and I have taken the necessary action.
To address your issues however, Blake had not received any of the messages that were left for him. Together, he and I have addressed this.
When the first no-show happened the club ran contingency training hence he fact there was a different solution in place when the second no show happened. The business is currently working and we are about to publish a national operating standard to adequately guide clubs through the correct protocol to follow in the event that an instructor doesn't arrive. This operation addresses all you very valid points and will be launched within the next two weeks.
As for the contact centre not getting back to you as promised, I cannot answer that and have escalated this to Jacqui Walter who will look into this.
Regards,
Shayne
Morning Cedric,
I apologies for you feeling that all your issues haven't been addressed. I have simply given you the briefest feedback as I don't feel I need to go through the details as this inconvenience has taken up more than enough of your time.
In addition to this I believe that the questions you raised are management issues and I certainly don't want you to feel responsible for managing these issues. Thus the intention behind my brief feedback was simply to apologies for the inconvenience and not saddle you up with the behind the scenes management action. Irrespective of this I can assure you that your feedback is noted and I have taken the necessary action.
To address your issues however, Blake had not received any of the messages that were left for him. Together, he and I have addressed this.
When the first no-show happened the club ran contingency training hence he fact there was a different solution in place when the second no show happened. The business is currently working and we are about to publish a national operating standard to adequately guide clubs through the correct protocol to follow in the event that an instructor doesn't arrive. This operation addresses all you very valid points and will be launched within the next two weeks.
As for the contact centre not getting back to you as promised, I cannot answer that and have escalated this to Jacqui Walter who will look into this.
Regards,
Shayne
VIRGIN STILL INACTIVE - IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING AN OLD ****???
Virgin Active continue to make promises without keeping them! After I had eventually spoken to Jacqui Walter, Head of Customer Experience at Virgin Active in Cape Town, she read the post responded by email as shown above. I also had communication from Shayne Klopfe, the KZN Regional Director - as shown above.
After Jacqui's last call to me I emailed her as follows:
Hi Jacqui
Thank you for your email and goodwill gesture.
Can you please let me have the results of your investigation. It is shocking that so many promises were made and not kept. In fact I only got a response when I suggested that I needed your CEO's intervention. This suggests a lack of respect for clients.
Shayne mentioned that Blake had never received a request to contact me. On 3 separate occasions? Very hard to believe! How does he account for the fact that he knew that there would be no trainer available for two weeks - and yet he never bothered to tell the members - or even have someone waiting at the studio to inform them?
I'd appreciate it if you would brief Ross on the problems I've experienced and ask him to call me. I'm sure he'd be keen to know how poor the service is.
Thank you. Have a great weekend!
Kind regards
Cedric Parker
Needless to say she called me to say that the CEO, Ross, was not able to call me at that time - but that he had been made fully aware of the problems that I had experienced. I pointed out that the integrity of Virgin Active was at stake, as she had acknowledged that someone in the company was lying when they said that they had not received a request to contact me.
She also said that she had instructed the club manager at Atrium , Blake Biffen, to contact me to discuss the problems I had exposed - and to give me feedback on a spinning instructor he had promised to evaluate (she was performing way below the standard expected of a professional). She said that the CEO was not opposed to speaking to clients who had bad experiences at Virgin Active - but she pointed out that he would be away for a few weeks. However, she promised to ask him to call me - and top phone me if he was not prepared to do so.
Par for the course - I have not heard anything from Blake, Ross or Jacqui!! As with any company that lacks integrity - they are hoping that the storm will pass - and that the shocking service and treatment of members will be forgotten.
As a post script - the finest spinning instructor I have ever had in the 14 years I have been a member, Thobile Langa, who was taking classes up until this past Friday - has just been dismissed. Members are up in arms about this - and they are circulating a petition to express their dismay at this action. Thobile is always very polite and respectful to members, she's always on time, she runs a superb class - and she is well liked. Just another example of Virgin Active's poor judgement and insensitivity to members' needs.
VIRGIN STILL INACTIVE - IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING AN OLD ****???
Virgin Active continue to make promises without keeping them! After I had eventually spoken to Jacqui Walter, Head of Customer Experience at Virgin Active in Cape Town, she read the post responded by email as shown above. I also had communication from Shayne Klopfe, the KZN Regional Director - as shown above.
After Jacqui's last call to me I emailed her as follows:
Hi Jacqui
Thank you for your email and goodwill gesture.
Can you please let me have the results of your investigation. It is shocking that so many promises were made and not kept. In fact I only got a response when I suggested that I needed your CEO's intervention. This suggests a lack of respect for clients.
Shayne mentioned that Blake had never received a request to contact me. On 3 separate occasions? Very hard to believe! How does he account for the fact that he knew that there would be no trainer available for two weeks - and yet he never bothered to tell the members - or even have someone waiting at the studio to inform them?
I'd appreciate it if you would brief Ross on the problems I've experienced and ask him to call me. I'm sure he'd be keen to know how poor the service is.
Thank you. Have a great weekend!
Kind regards
Cedric Parker
Needless to say she called me to say that the CEO, Ross, was not able to call me at that time - but that he had been made fully aware of the problems that I had experienced. I pointed out that the integrity of Virgin Active was at stake, as she had acknowledged that someone in the company was lying when they said that they had not received a request to contact me.
She also said that she had instructed the club manager at Atrium , Blake Biffen, to contact me to discuss the problems I had exposed - and to give me feedback on a spinning instructor he had promised to evaluate (she was performing way below the standard expected of a professional). She said that the CEO was not opposed to speaking to clients who had bad experiences at Virgin Active - but she pointed out that he would be away for a few weeks. However, she promised to ask him to call me - and top phone me if he was not prepared to do so.
Par for the course - I have not heard anything from Blake, Ross or Jacqui!! As with any company that lacks integrity - they are hoping that the storm will pass - and that the shocking service and treatment of members will be forgotten.
As a post script - the finest spinning instructor I have ever had in the 14 years I have been a member, Thobile Langa, who was taking classes up until this past Friday - has just been dismissed. Members are up in arms about this - and they are circulating a petition to express their dismay at this action. Thobile is always very polite and respectful to members, she's always on time, she runs a superb class - and she is well liked. Just another example of Virgin Active's poor judgement and insensitivity to members' needs.