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First UC Booking + Problem with Call Centre

PostPosted: 04 Jun 2009, 19:11
by emmapersky
I booked my first UC flight the other day (very excited, travelling on the upper deck of VS02), and as expect, my card went for referral (my bank seems to have a thing with high value transactions... I wonder why :p). No problem, it's happened before, and normally I get an email from Virgin the following morning that all is fine.

Today, no email with my booking number. So I called the centre, and was eventually put through to 'upper class bookings' where a gentleman told me to hold on while he investigated. He came back and informed me that VIrgin's Meastro card processing was broken, and that they wouldn't be able to process my transaction for sometime, possibly up to one month, whilst it was being 'fixed'. It all sounded quite phoney. I asked him to budge on the CC processing fee, since that was the only other option, and not my first choice, and he said no.

Now, what's a girl to do. She needs booking confirmation, and whilst 15 isn't much compared to the ticket price, it's the principle - why not book with someone else rather than Virgin direct.

Nevertheless, this all sounded like nonsense, so I called up again direct to the UC booking number where the very helpful lady said, no worries about the referral and that she would try to process the transaction again there and then. Of course the transaction was successful and moments later my confirmation email arrived.

I'm really not sure what happened with the first man. It was the first time I have *ever* received less than stellar customer service from Virgin. Has anyone else experienced anything like this....

FWIW I'm flying LON-SFO PE and NYC-LON UC to go on a live streamed to the internets karaoke road trip across the US called the Whuffaoke (http://www.whuffaoke.com) if anyone is interested :p

Emma

PostPosted: 04 Jun 2009, 19:17
by Neil
Unfortunately you seemed to get one of the CS agents that lets Virgin down. The amount of times I have received wrong information from one agent to ring back a few minutes later and get a completely different answer from another, it is something Virgin really need to sort out.

For any UC booking questions I would always call the UC reservations number, where you should get a member of the Premier Team who *should* be more clued up and helpful.

Hope you have a great first UC flight, and know that you will never want to fly down the back (even in PE) again!

Neil

PostPosted: 04 Jun 2009, 19:45
by emmapersky
Yes, this was the team I went through to the second time, although it was the same number as the first. There appears to be some non determinism in the call centre...

Thanks, I know, although I think that budgetary reasons may force me to travel on the right... I guess I value my time away more than the flight itself so will just have to grin and bear PE!

PostPosted: 04 Jun 2009, 19:50
by locutus
Book online, go via Quidco.com, the commission covers the CC charge at least.

PostPosted: 04 Jun 2009, 19:56
by mike-smashing
I wouldn't say I've had a bad experience, but like the way most things seem to be going with VS these days, the Premier Team just doesn't seem quite what it used to be. Not sure why...

Maybe it really is just me, getting old and grumpy?

Mike

PostPosted: 05 Jun 2009, 12:19
by woggledog
There was some mutterings on twitter yesterday about debit card payments not going through :-(

I'd always pay with CC though just in case something goes wrong...

PostPosted: 05 Jun 2009, 13:16
by emmapersky
I was muttering on twitter about this, though a brief search didn't show anyone else - hence why I called back... Twitter is a great resource for confirming problems....

PostPosted: 11 Jun 2009, 06:48
by catsilversword
quote:Originally posted by woggledog
There was some mutterings on twitter yesterday about debit card payments not going through :-(

I'd always pay with CC though just in case something goes wrong...


I bought some flights a few years ago with my cc. Transaction went through with no problems - twice! Seemed to take forever to get a refund, even though they could see it their end....

PostPosted: 11 Jun 2009, 07:12
by Jacki
quote:Originally posted by catsilversword
quote:Originally posted by woggledog
There was some mutterings on twitter yesterday about debit card payments not going through :-(

I'd always pay with CC though just in case something goes wrong...


I bought some flights a few years ago with my cc. Transaction went through with no problems - twice! Seemed to take forever to get a refund, even though they could see it their end....


I get mad when that happens and if they don't reimburse immediately I contact the Credit Card Company and declare a fraudulent transation - seems to speed things up.[}:)]