Virgin Active - Service

Email with complaint sent to VA Waterstone

Good evening Cindy
In connection with our conversation earlier tonight, the following email! Can you please escalate this issue to Virgin Active SA management!!

We as members welcome the upgrading and we enjoy the Waterstone gym, but we have serious concerns about the way it is managed.

We would like to give you our concerns and also possible solutions.

CONCERNS:

1. We received a message via our spinning instructor that there will not be any spinning classes from coming Monday at the Waterstone gym due to upgrading and that alternative classes will be available at the Sanctuary Gym.
2. This is very poor management to get the message to the members this way and only 3 days before the implementation date.
3. The spinning classes are moved to a lesser gym to accommodate the step classes and Zumba etc. So....spinning members are less important!
4. Waterstone members pay much more than Sanctuary members......We live in the Strand and drive past the Sanctuary every time to go to the Waterstone gym. Don't tell me to go to Sanctuary for 5 weeks.
5. The times given for classes at Sanctuary makes it impossible for working people to attend!
6. Sanctuary's equipment and specially the spinning bikes are less advanced - we at Waterstone pay for more advanced equipment.
7. The Sanctuary is very small and will not be able to accommodate everybody that wants to go for spinning classes.

We would like to help with some ideas and possible solutions to solve this problem, as we will not accept the above. We will not accept this and pay for less for 5 weeks that can even be longer.

SOLUTIONS:

The solution to the problem is to make available a temporary facility to free up the to be renovated space and transfer the classes to the temporary space. For this solution there are various options as you have demonstrated in the past during the Covid episode where you could not accommodate the numbers in the gym.

The spinning studio is only 130 square meters in size so the temporary accommodation should be about the same size

We propose the following
1 Rent a vacant space in the same building and do the classes in that space.
OR
2 Use the basement for the classes as you have done in the past
OR.
3 Erect a space in the undercover parking in front of the gym. This is the most suitable solution as you would only need to drywall around ten parking spaces. This solution requires that you erect a temporary drywall section around ten parking spaces for 5 weeks, Place rubber mats down on the tar and only have the sound equipment moved in and out on a daily basis. The drywall does not have to go up to the concrete slab to enable natural air ventilation.

Use this renovation and temporary accommodation solution as a very good marketing exercise to show everyone you really care and take your members interest seriously.

In conclusion we as spinners feel that we are of a lesser importance to the floor members in studio 1 as we are the only members that need to give up our space for the benefit of floor members to use. Why can't the floor members not move? This decision of waterstone management clearly indicates that they see the floor members of studio 1 as more important than the spinners.

Please reconsider the harsh decision to just cancel the classes and tell the spinners to move to another time and gym that is not of the same standard and in time slots that are in working hours that are impossible for many spinners to meet.


Regards