Worst experience ever!

I am extremely disappointed in the entire Virgin Active Company, as a first time joiner I never knew that joining a gym would cause me more stress than helping me relief my stress (the actual reason why I joined the gym).

So about 2 weeks ago I decided that I really want to join a gym because I suffer from anxiety, depression and coping with stress and lets be honest due to Covid and the whole lockdown situation we all picked up a bit of weight. So as advised by a friend I decided to join a gym after I had a serious anxiety attack, and because I have a bit of OCD if I do something/buy something or become part of a group it always has to be the best of the best (no matter the cost) and by the looks of it Virgin Active was the best of the best and I decided not to even look any further.

I signed up online that same day and the following day a very enthusiastic and talkative sales guy phones me. He gave me, what I assume to be, a very well trained sales pitch and I told him that I would only like to sign up at the end of the month (which for me is the 25th of each month because that is when I get paid and this was also explained to him over the phone). He told me that if I sign up that same day that I will be only paying R 99 p/p (the membership was for myself and my mother) for the entire month (a month is according to me a 30 calendar day stretch) and I will be given a 30 day gym program worked out according to my goal by a personal trainer. Thinking that this is the best deal I have ever heard of I immediately singed up, I mean who wouldn't. He took both my mom's and my details and my banking details because I am paying the account and he confirmed my mothers' details telephonically with her as well. While on the phone with my mom he scheduled a date and time which we would need to collect our membership cards from the club of our choice and meet with our personal trainer who was supposed to (according to our telephonic discussion) weigh us both, take our measurements, do the "fat test" and do a fitness test for us and then work out a month's training program for us according to that. Now this sounds like a proper Virgin Active welcome doesn't it?!

So the day that was scheduled between him and my mother was a Sunday @06:30. Please keep in mind that I work from Monday to Friday 06:30 to 16:00 meaning that I have to wake up at 05:20 every morning to take the bus to work and I am exhausted on the weekends, but I was willing to get up early and go to the gym to get my "Virgin Active Welcome" I was promised. So imagine my disappointment when I woke up @05:00 on a Sunday only to get to the gym and be told the below: The person I was supposed to be meeting is in Sales - has got nothing to do with my actual membership The person does not come in on a Sunday at all They were not aware of us coming in or even signing up at all My mother's paperwork was incorrectly signed - so we reprinted, resigned and resubmitted no issue We will now be contacted by a personal trainer after 3 working days - this only happened the following Thursday after I eventually grabbed one of the personal trainers off the floor and told him that he is now going to train me. So now we had our personal trainer and we had our meeting with him, told him about our injuries and our goals in terms of exercise and better eating habits - thinking he will be assisting us with a personalized program as promised... No no no... We were given a generic program that is now being "adjusted" as and where required to accommodate our injuries... and to be honest, what we are doing at the gym is exactly what I do at home, I don't need a gym or a personal trainer for this! And the trainer didn't even pay attention to my mother's back injuries, he made her do push ups and planks with severe back injuries after she clearly told him that she cannot do it! Now she can barely move and I need to now pay for inflammation and pain medication...

Regardless, we kept on coming in and gyming, attending all the classes because what else are we supposed to do? I have never gymed in my life so I don't know how to operate the machines and what machine exercises what part of my body - hence the reason I wanted a personal trainer in the first place!

So frustrated about all of this now for the last 2 weeks I go to yoga last night and I get stopped at the entrance turn stile... What the hell this time?? Our memberships are frozen! What? How?... The receptionist quickly looks, oh no we didn't pay our membership fees. Virgin Active tried to debit my account and the debit order did not go through... Well duh because I already paid my membership fees (the R 99 p/p) and I have a lot of other stuff to pay and did not budget for having to pay my membership fees (R 610 p/p) again in October. I only expected to pay at the end of November as discussed... My evening yoga class was totally messed-up because this caused now more stress as what it was relieving stress...

Worst part is that I actually sent them all of the above as an email and up until today I have not received a response