My experience With Virgin Cust Serv? Fantastic.

Sent the following email complaint to Virgin customer services a week or so ago:

Re Booking Reference XXXX Simon Rossi.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to complain about what I feel is an unfair policy of Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Firstly I have to say that I've found Virgin Atlantic staff that I've dealt with over the phone to be extremely friendly and helpful.

My issue however is as follows.

On the 21st of August I made a booking for myself and partner for flights departing on 14th October 2011 to Las Vegas USA. I also booked return from San Francisco back to LHR on 27th October. The booking reference #####.

Later on 21st August I called your booking centre and spoke to the very friendly xxxxxxxx. I requested and paid for exit row seats on the outbound flight, and extra leg-room seats on the return. I paid around £200 extra for this on my debit card.

On 30th August I called your booking centre and spoke to the very helpful xxxxxx, and I paid to upgrade the cabin for our whole journey to Premium Economy. I paid around £600 to upgrade the entire journey. I asked xxxxxx about the extra money I'd paid for the exit row and extra leg-room seats, and she explained this is non refundable.

This non refundability is what I've an issue with. Obviously the extra leg-room/exit row charge is clearly stated in the terms and conditions. And if I'd simply changed my mind then I would have no argument. However I've decided to pay to upgrade the cabin and pay for the privilege, and now Virgin have plenty of time to sell again those seats for which I've paid. As the situation currently stands Virgin will have my money for those seats, and will be able to sell them again. So they will effectively be selling them twice. This seems grossly unfair. I could understand Virgin Atlantic making some sort of deduction from the refund of my money to cover your admin costs. But to simply refuse to refund, when I've paid more money to you to upgrade to a more expensive version of your product, seems like really bad customer service to me. And there can be no justification for this policy for someone in these specific circumstances.

Can you do anything to restore my faith in Virgin Atlantic as an airline that's ' Got It ', rather than 'Had it' !

Thanks very much in advance for your help,
Regards,
Simon Rossi.

Had a call about 10 mins ago from a very friendly lady from customer services. (Forgot to ask her name)
She said that what I'd said was absolutely correct, and they would be refunding the money for the exit row/extra legroom seats to my card. She said that it was originally the case that the purchase of these seats in the economy cabin was non-refundable. But that in cases where the customer has subsequently paid to upgrade they had come to the conclusion that to refuse a refund on the extra legroom/exit row ecomomy cabin upgrade was manifestly unfair.

Great result for me, and three cheers for a prompt and very satisfactory response from Virgin Atlantic Customer Services ^)

Great result...just as it should be.
Its all very well anyone having issues with any product that they prurchase...its the way that the issue is dealt with that really matters.
In this case VS delivered an acceptable result very well.

Cheers
Paul

Wonderful follow up service. Exactly what needs to happen when things go wrong y)
Of course if they ad got it right first time.....lol! Well done VS y)

Nice to hear about great customer service. Well done Virgin

I wish I could agree with your experience with customer service but I have found them to be both patronizing and dismissive.In December last year I tore the ligament in my knee and had difficulty bending it.My insurance company sorted out the medical side and tried to obtain an UC seat for me but flight full in UC [MCO-MAN]. Instead they were charged £1000 for 2 extra seats in economy [on a half empty flight] and when I boarded the flight the seats were not suitable as no modification available to allow me to have a backrest and I was expected to lie flat for the flight with my head on my wife's lap. I was also ordered to sit upright for take-off and when I pointed out that I could not bend my leg to do this I was threatened with ejection from the flight.I was forced to sit with my leg stuck out in the aisle for take-off & landing.I wrote to the CEO & MD but was fobbed off with a very unsatisfactory reply from the "customer services" department.I wrote back to the author of the letter in March 2011 and I am still awaiting a response so my experience with the Virgin customer service is not good.
From reading the forum I have the impression that Virgin are good with their UC flyers but possibly less so with economy and even less so with the MAN-MCO flight as it is now mainly filled with Virgin Holiday passengers.