Virgin Active Gym Cape Town Foreshore — Local services in City Centre

Dear Virgin Active Team,

On the 22nd of October 2024, I attended the gym for my usual workout at Virgin Active Foreshore, having booked the Rumble class at 17:30. I arrived around 17:10–17:20, changed, stored my belongings, and locked my locker.

Immediately after the 45-minute class, I rushed to the locker room and discovered that my lock had been tampered with. When I entered my code, I found that one of my two bags was missing. My gym bag remained in the locked locker, but my laptop bag was gone.

Shocked, I opened the nearby lockers and found my laptop bag in one of them. I went straight to reception, where the manager, Shireen, filled in an incident form. I asked if they would call the police, as I needed to open a case since the laptop is work property. She advised it would be better for me to go to the station, as it would take a while for the police to arrive.

I have remained calm since the incident, but upon logging a case at the police station, I discovered there have been other reports from Wembley Square regarding similar incidents. I cannot say how often this occurs, but from what I have uncovered, it is indeed a recurring issue. This infuriates me, as there is only a small notice on the locker instructing members to ensure their lockers are locked.

There is no other form of awareness in the gym, whether through posters or on social media, to inform clients that, although rare, these incidents do happen more frequently than any paying customer would like.

It is concerning that some people pay over R2000 for a gym membership at Virgin Active, yet there are no extra measures in place to prevent further locker break-ins. In this day and age, where information about such crimes is readily available, it is Virgin Active’s responsibility to minimise the number of reported cases.

I have been a member of Planet Fitness and Zone Fitness, and I have never encountered this issue at either gym. Yesterday, I returned to the gym seeking to speak to Shireen, but the young lady at reception just before 17:30 informed me that she was not available and did not attempt to find someone else to assist me.

Throughout this ordeal, my colleague has witnessed how everything has been handled up until yesterday.

This is absolutely unacceptable service and customer experience from a brand that prides itself on offering a premium fitness journey. Given the lack of awareness on any social platforms regarding these incidents at Virgin Active, I will take it upon myself to inform the public. Colleagues of mine who attend the gym are also shocked by what happened, and as we know, word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool that can either build or damage a brand. It is now the 24th of October, and no one at Virgin Active has contacted me to follow up—no call, nothing. The situation has been left unresolved.

A thief went through all my personal belongings, invading my privacy, and Virgin Active appears indifferent to this as it has happened to me, a paying client. This may lead me to escalate the matter to the consumer tribunal, as there should be marketing awareness around these occurrences.

I am appalled. And I will not leave this here until the public is aware of this issue and that Virgin Active doesn’t care. Regardless of indemnity, YOU GUYS JUST DON’T CARE.

Also, I would suggest that whoever is placed at reception should at least possess basic people skills. We all pay to be there, regardless of the colour of our skin, texture of our hair, or gender. Thank you for your non-attention to this...

I absolutely loved this gym, but had a fallout with a particular trainer I had hired there. And I basically had to leave this club and move to one I really am not fond of, because of fear of meeting this individual at said club, with his smug attitude, built on non-action by club management who don’t do anything despite this trainer’s inappropriate behaviour. I was threatened by him, so naturally felt uneasy about attending this club. Management provided superficial reassurances that I’d be safe. But, I don’t take chances being female in South Africa. The sad part is that, this club was my favourite in Cape Town. I trained here with two of my sisters. And now we just have to move, because of the gym protecting its trainer, who failed to tell me sessions I paid for in earlier months, that were unused, would expire in September. Who had tried to then also, force me in about May, to pay for an entire whole month, knowing he was going to be on sick leave and then also knowing my schedule couldn’t accommodate regular 4 day per week sessions. I probably have a month’s worth of unused sessions, but he only mentioned the expiry after September when nothing could be done about it. He on the other hand, would not train us until we paid him, so he’d wait for us to pay him after our session had started and then he would not give us our full hour, even though we paid for it. It must be amazing to work for an employer who doesn’t monitor your behaviour and gives you so much backing and supporting that you can act so brazenly and confidently, towards your clients, even when you are in the wrong. Said individual even tried to label me a racist, to deflect attention from his wrongdoing. My contract is up and I’d rather support a smaller gym in Cape Town, where staff don’t walk around so smuggly, acting however they want, because Virgin is ‘too big’ to be encumbered by one solemn member in Cape Town. Smaller gyms are more client-centric and issues such as these are handled faster and with more...

Absolutely great gym! Has a wonderful range of equipment--cardio equipment consists of treadmills, skillmill (this is similar to a treadmill), stationary bikes, watt bikes, assault air bike (love this machine for a great HIIT workout if you're afraid to run on the treadmill), skiers, steppers, rowing machines etc. There is one main functional floor area and there's another open area (outside studio 2) where you can train if the functional floor area is full. There are your basic weighted machines such as leg presses, hamstring curl machine, abductor, adductor, chest press, shoulder press, bicep curl, low row, lateral pull, assisted pull up machine (great to use if you struggle with a normal pull up) and ab crunches. And then there are the free weights section where you'll find the cable machines, smith machine, pre-weighted bars, benches and basic weights. There's a swimming pool and three studios being studio 1 where full body, high intensity training takes place, mind and body studio is where you'll get your yoga and pilates classes and studio 2 is mainly a ride/spinning class. There is also a NU Cafe inside where you can purchase light meals and smoothies. The change rooms have basic lockers, showers, hairdryers and straighteners if you need to freshen up. Wonderful and friendly staff. The gym is generally full peak times (approximately around 6:30am- 8:00am and around 5:00pm- 7:00pm). Only negative is the parking area- the driveway is quite narrow and certain turns are sharp. Cars have to allow either one or the other to pass around the bends because they're so narrow. But overall, the gym itself is...