My name is Jaco Beukes and I opened a gym account for me and my girl friend at the time her name is Tanya Rice...this is many years ago.The very next day I went back to virgin active cresta and cancelled it, we never even used the gym-my reason for the cancelation was that me and the girl broke up. Now the person who helped me gave me a form to complete that had to do with the cancelation. After I gave him the form he assured me that the contract was cancelled...now...in 2009 Virgin active handed me over to a ferm for collection of the funds and I spoke to some lady at the head office whom I wrote a long email to explaining the situation as I did a bove, I had a long and painfull fight with this lady and at the end we got it sorted out and the lady assured me that my name is clean and off the records.I joined Virgin Active last year again and now it seems that it has happened again where Virgin Active wants their money...Now, I dont know what has happened in between but I want this sorted out as soon as possible!!!I cant see why I have to go through all of this again, I did all and everything that Virgin Active wanted from me and more---I filled ij the nesassary paperwork and I have taken days off from work to resolve this and here we are again...I want this to end now because I cant take the arrassment anylonger--someone didn't do their job and now I am the victim of that.It's not my fault Virgin Active cant get inteligent enough employees to work for them, to resolve some as simple as this in 9 years-that is how long this has been going on for.

Feel free to contact me at any time...072-145-1117 Jaco Beukes or e-mail me [email protected]

Regards

Hi there,

I'm a student in Cape Town.

I opened a "student account" with virgin active. The employee implied that this contract would only be active for a year. Little did I know that the contract includes "fine print", which states that if no notice of cancellation is given or if one hasn't paid the due fee at the end of this year, that the contract will be automatically continued for another full year. Under the new Consumer Protection Act that came into effect on 1 April 2011, this is not allowed, and if they include this, then they are required to SPECIFICALLY point this out to you, just a little bit of background information.

However, that is not actually why I'm submitting this complaint. After I cancelled my contract and paid my due fee in the last month of my contract, and after receiving confirmation from 3 employees that my contract was really cancelled, I was certain I was done with Virgin Active. Three months later, I receive notification that my contract was renewed, and that I had a due balance of a few hundred Rands...I spoke to the Virgin Active's accounting department and clarified the situation.

Now, after one and a half years of regular harassment from various "law firms" (which, by the way, are actually really debt collecting agencies) I'm sick and tired of this. I lost my receipt of my last payment, which also serves as a proof of cancellation, a long time ago, and now have to prove to them that I'm innocent, even though it's clearly Virgin Active's fault. I even personally spoke to the manager of the Cape Town Virgin Active, requesting they go back to their vast archive of transactions, which would easily prove I was wronged. However, nothing was done.

So, to everyone out there that is considering opening an account with Virgin Active, beware!!! Even at my past place of employment, there were 5 others that had the exact same problem like me. My mother even cancelled her premium membership with Virgin Active in Namibia as a form of retaliation.

Also, if anyone has any information that could help me get rid of this once and for all, please feel free to share.

Kind regards
Pascale aka Virgin Active Hater

I had a 12 mth contract from Feb09. I used it diligently for around 8 mths. I started to have back problems which resulted in me going for a spine operation. This meant that I couldn’t make use of my contract. But I continued paying the membership fee. I paid for the 12 mths and gave notice to cancel my membership thereafter. On 02032010, I faxed my cancellation letter to the branch. The manager phoned me said that he could freeze my membership for 6 mths instead of me cancelling and thereafter I could continue using my membership. I said to him that I’m in the process of moving house and am not sure which will be my nearest branch. I said to him that this letter must serve as my notice period and he said that it can’t as I need to give a full calendar mth notice and that I was a day late but he would see what he could do and get back to me. He never did and I just checked my acc and another debit has gone out. This meant that I would’ve paid for 14 mths and used just 8. If there was any chance of me going back to Virgin Active, this destroyed that chance and believe you me, I’m gonna spread the word.

After being a member of Virgin Active for many years I have had my membership 'politely' terminated due to insufficient usage. Towards end November 2009 I receive sms saying that I had to use once more by end of month to avoid termination. Being overseas I asked my wife to explain to the gym my circumstance which she did, and they said I could make up usage going forward. I thought all was in order because I attended the Old Eds gym 5 times in January 2010, no one stopped me swiping then? I now believe that the 'system' only reads up to end December and the Jan visits don't count, now thats convenient when you are making up usage as per agreement! Virgin conveniently tries to blame Vitality and says its not them - any decent management team would take collective responsibility when it comes to joint venture agreements. Just think about it guys, when I go to gym I don't say to my mates meet you at Vitality Sandton branch??

I will naturally deal with the Vitality team directly but it is a disgrace that Virgin does not pick up any of the responsibility. The icing on the top was when a young sales lady from Bryanpark Virgin Active phoned me to say don't I want to join again!!

I had a month by month contract with Virgin Active, and due to losing my Job and unable to find work in South Africa cancelled my direct debits and paid all bills outstanding and emigrated to England where I could find work. Now over one year later my parents have started receiving phone calls from MBD attorneys threatening with legal action. I have kept the same Email for over three years but not even once have I had any email saying that I needed to cancel my contract with a written letter (otherwise I would have done so). Since I am now living in Engalnd I cannot personally cancel my contract. There seems to be no other way to get the contract cancelled, or find out what amounts are owed. One would think that if someone has not paid they would have their membership cancelled immediately, and not accumilate like some trust fund to bill you years later (and to be harassed by attorneys). If Virgin had either phoned me, or my family or sent through an Email straight after any payments were not received this situation would not have happened. I see this as a direct ploy to make money out of people and to only inform them of the money due when it has built to a substantail amount.