Virgin Active Gym Menlyn — Local services in Gauteng

The gym is clean. The equipment is in working order. But the sign up process was a nightmare and the system seems to be out of order 90% of the time.

It took nearly a month of in fighting between the branch and head office to establish who would get the sales commission before they figured out that they can't activate my membership because of a debt that's 15 (yes, FIFTEEN) years old and not even linked to a contract I signed.

Eventually, a month after I paid my sign up fee, and after providing my father's death certificate, the debt was cleared and I was informed that my membership has been activated.

3 weeks later I still had access issues. It was sorted out after a 30 minute wait, yet even though my card is active, I've only been able to use it once out of my 11 visits since joining. In other words: Out of my 11 visits, only 1 had been logged against my required 36 gym sessions at Vitality. At this rate, I will need to visit Virgin Active 360 times to ensure I don't get penalised by Discovery for not visiting the gym frequently enough.

It's funny how it was expected that I pay my membership fee immediately, yet somehow it was okay for Virgin Active Menlyn to take 6 weeks to action what I paid for, and then have systems...

This Gym has just done a major external upgrade, yet the gym equipment is sub par and often out of service. Eventual repairs to said equipment is always questionable. There are no family change rooms (this has been a promise for years now). I was forced to send my 10 year old into the men's room to change after his swimming lesson, only to have an elderly gentleman approach him and help him dress! The gym staff spoke to this man and excused it as 'he was just trying to help'. We were instructed to use the paraplegic bathroom as a family change room, but this bathroom is constantly being cleaned, so mostly unavailable. And my biggest safety concern is the tiles around the pool are a death trap. In 2017 my son fell multiple times, I've had a dozen near falls, and I have witnessed multiple falls by others. Yesterday my daughter fell twice - and this all while walking carefully. We all know the floors are ridiculously slippery, so we all walk carefully. In 2017 I sent emails and even suggested a product that could be painted on and was told that this product was rejected because it changed the color of the tiles...

I only come to this gym because of my son's swimming trainer! If she goes...

Misleading Promo and Poor Customer Service

I signed up for a membership under a promotion offering 75% off for the first two months. I only received the discount for one month. When I called to ask about it, a staff member took my details and promised to call me back — which never happened. I followed up a week later, only to be told that I had forfeited the second month’s discount because I hadn’t accessed the gym.

At no point during the sign-up process was I informed that there was a requirement to attend the gym a certain number of times to qualify for the discount. This condition was never mentioned to me at any point. It feels incredibly unfair and misleading.

I expected better transparency and customer service. Instead, I was left feeling deceived and disappointed. I hope the gym takes this feedback seriously and improves how they communicate their offers to...