Virgin Active Gym Sandton — Local services in Gauteng

This gym is great and conveniently located. One thing I hate, though, is being put in a situation where, for most of my life, people have assumed I don’t speak or understand the vernacular. Over the years, I’ve learned to use this to my advantage. However, tonight I found myself fuming (as I tend to at times, having a well-established issue with anger) when another gentleman in the change room, who was in the process of getting dressed, asked one of the cleaning staff at a distance, “Is this the boy you were talking about?” Now, this was said in Sesotho. The other gentleman then asked, "Who?" At this time, I was sitting in a corner of the change room where I always sit when I come to this branch, which, up until this point, has only been for three weeks. This corner is ideally convenient for me because I can see the lockers from the showers and the steam room. This is important to me because of a past experience with theft at a Virgin Active branch and the utter indifference of Virgin Active staff to do anything besides sound off the scripted sound bites they have been trained to recite in similar situations. Back to the change room exchange. As the staff member approached the gentleman who was asking, “Is this the boy you were talking about?” I turned my head and looked at this gentleman, and he realized in that moment I could understand what he was saying. At exactly the same moment, the staff member he was addressing walked up to see who he was talking about and, seeing that I was staring directly at them, panicked and gestured to some kid walking off in the distance toward the steam room. Now, this is a minor thing. However, I have my reasons to be annoyed that I will not go into here. Like most people, I hate being spoken about behind my back. I try to keep my interactions limited to quick pleasantries and do what I’ve come to the gym to do. I assume whatever discussions these gentlemen have had about me are regarding the fact that I carry my gym bag around on the workout floor for the duration of my workouts for peace of mind. This is after the thousands of rands I had to dish out to replace car and house keys, not to mention the clothing that was stolen in the incident mentioned earlier.

A bit of professionalism would be much...

I’ve been trying to change my banking details with Virgin Active for the past 3 months. Every single time I call in and talk to a consultant, they take the new banking information and I assume it has been change yet they don’t do it. The banking information which they have is no longer in use, I’ve explained this to them several times and they keep debiting the account. This is impacting my credit score and credit history negatively because it shows as an unpaid payment. On each month I’ve made payment and sent them proof of payment, yet for 3 months the funds have not been allocated. Yet they do acknowledge receipt and confirm payment. I’m unable to go to gym as my account is in arrears yet I’m paying monthly. I’ve tried to resolve this on several occasions yet I’m still not getting the assistance I need. So in essence, they keep taking payment and confirming receipt of payment without allocating them. They keep taking my new banking details yet they don’t actually update the details. My credit score has gone down and I’m still unable to...

I’m very disappointed by the gym staff, IT department and head office. I became a member in January 2023 and in July 2024 I wanted to transfer my membership and one of the salesmen, Siyanda Khumalo, had handled my account and for some reason put me as a new member which made it impossible for me to transfer the membership immediately (he knew that I was moving to another province).

I’m paying but I cannot workout for a month (which is forever if you’re a consistent person). I contacted the head office but they couldn’t help me and they didn’t even attempt. What’s the point of an HQ if they act powerless when we have issues? These big gym clubs are very exploitative and they don’t care about their members. They will take your money and when you need help they will drag their feet.

Shout out to Nhlaka at Virgin Active Ballito, who did everything to help me but unfortunately the people who had to help me did not care.

I can’t wait to cancel my membership. They will probably make that hard too because of course all they ever wanted...