Complaint to Virgin and Response

Hello V-Flyers

Whilst you all amble around the new Forum (and whilst I was earlier) I received a note back from VS Customer Relations about a complaint I made. For more details see my TR's that I submitted.

It was with, I must say a heavy heart that I had to sit down and write them a letter on this - as I am sure like many of you being a 'Brand Advocate' it hurts more when you are let down by said brand.

However, after a week wait from submitting via the website Mrs Armstrong and I have been given 12,000 miles each as a gesture of good will - which was fantastic. Simple things I guess, but this basically locks me in on the FC miles for the next few years and with VS...

Its also to know that as a company they listen and send over a personalised response - well done VS..!

Dan

a good response and a way to keep a loyal customer for sure.

we had a similar experience in January this year with a very long wait (5hrs) for our LR back up to MAN from LHR having just arrived from CPT. in November I had rung VS to ask if our now earlier flight ( flight dep from CPT now 3 hrs earlier than when we booked ) would mean our LR would be an earlier one ? The answer was no as the earlier LR was fully booked. at the time this seemed a bit bizarre for a mid morning LHR to MAN but I accepted the answer and decided to try nearer the time.

I tried once more by phone and when we arrived at CPT. Long story short answer was "no" "earlier flight is full"

consequently we decided to do the Arrivals Lounge on landing and take a shower, have a breakfast snack then move onto the second lounge (Aer Lingus ) in readiness for LR. it all worked ok but it was a looooong wait.

I decided to phone the UC customer services on arriving home to ask why the earlier LR was supposed to be full when CC working on our later flight said it left half empty ???

She apologised - gave a convoluted answer and was really apologetic and said she had listened to my phone conversation back in November and it seemed bad customer service to bring a flight forward 3 hrs and not try and accommodate an earlier connecting flight when there was one with plenty of time to get it.

we were awarded 10,000 mils each. so good resolution - but the thing that really impressed me was that she had been able to listen to my original phone call from over 2 months ago. neat !

a good response and a way to keep a loyal customer for sure.

we had a similar experience in January this year with a very long wait (5hrs) for our LR back up to MAN from LHR having just arrived from CPT. in November I had rung VS to ask if our now earlier flight ( flight dep from CPT now 3 hrs earlier than when we booked ) would mean our LR would be an earlier one ? The answer was no as the earlier LR was fully booked. at the time this seemed a bit bizarre for a mid morning LHR to MAN but I accepted the answer and decided to try nearer the time.

I tried once more by phone and when we arrived at CPT. Long story short answer was "no" "earlier flight is full"

consequently we decided to do the Arrivals Lounge on landing and take a shower, have a breakfast snack then move onto the second lounge (Aer Lingus ) in readiness for LR. it all worked ok but it was a looooong wait.

I decided to phone the UC customer services on arriving home to ask why the earlier LR was supposed to be full when CC working on our later flight said it left half empty ???

She apologised - gave a convoluted answer and was really apologetic and said she had listened to my phone conversation back in November and it seemed bad customer service to bring a flight forward 3 hrs and not try and accommodate an earlier connecting flight when there was one with plenty of time to get it.

we were awarded 10,000 mils each. so good resolution - but the thing that really impressed me was that she had been able to listen to my original phone call from over 2 months ago. neat !

That's amazing - I did not know they could do that...!

Its great when a company actually listens to what you have to say, in oppose to just a 'sorry, bye' conversation that I bet we all have had!

Dan

pity ba could'nt do half as well, .......i travel from belfast city to lhr quite often, i would choose to fly ba because when they get it right its great......BUT, when they get it wrong it turns out to be the mother of all foul ups...... as i am rather tall i always book and pay for exit row seats on this route, last year out of maybe ten return trips i was denied the exit seat i had pre paid maybe on three occasions, i really did nothing about it just accepting that from time to time for 'operational reasons' this can happen, so...since jan this year i have been denied at check in my pre paid seat SEVEN TIMES !! so i have started to make my displeasure known to ba customer service, and this is where things go really wrong, the reply i get is just the most annoying, patronising corporate fob off imaginable, and always the same wording, same 'stuff you' overtones and a suggestion that i might like to fill out the online form to 'apply' for a refund for the fee i paid, and no meaningful apology or explanation, so i now fly with aer lingus and so far no problems, my experience with ba in this matter has put me off flying with ba and as a result would avoid like the plague on any long haul i would travel, oh how i so wish a carrier like virgin could start the belfast lhr route but for now aer lingus are doing a better job than ba by a country mile.