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#961914 by etk
07 Jul 2023, 14:11
I’m having a bit of a nightmare. Have some klm reward seat flights booked end of august which keep getting changed. I’ve had three calls with VS customer support but am getting nowhere.

Have they now outsourced their call centres overseas? I always found the team in Swansea to be amazing but have really struggled this last week with a call centre somewhere else - the problem is a bit complex and I think the language barrier is not helping!

Do virgin still have a UK call centre I can speak to?
#961916 by Hev60
07 Jul 2023, 16:25
etk wrote:I’m having a bit of a nightmare. Have some klm reward seat flights booked end of august which keep getting changed. I’ve had three calls with VS customer support but am getting nowhere.

Have they now outsourced their call centres overseas? I always found the team in Swansea to be amazing but have really struggled this last week with a call centre somewhere else - the problem is a bit complex and I think the language barrier is not helping!

Do virgin still have a UK call centre I can speak to?


I feel your pain.

If you are lucky and hear a lovely friendly Welsh voice then you have been fortunate and have been connected to Swansea. The support will be both efficient, exemplary and positive.

My recent experience with Virgin Atlantic booking team has been utterly pathetic and so darn frustrating.

The idiots I have spoken to sound to me like they were in a call centre. They were totally incapable of dealing with anything but a straight flight booking, which I could have done online. But I had to phone up in order to use my credit card vouchers. Everything got messed up by the grossly incompetent morons I had the misfortune of speaking to.

I have even taken my complaint to Crawley Towers but unbelievably even though I have screenshot evidence of an overpayment of my fares, they have backed the twerps from what I think was a call centre.

I wish you luck. Just keep phoning and pray you finally get connected to an efficient Virgin Agent ;-)
I do believe they are still around.
#961917 by etk
07 Jul 2023, 19:26
Eek that’s really disappointing. It was always one of my favourite parts of the process - they used to be so good :(
#961919 by ColOrd
08 Jul 2023, 06:51
So my understanding of the set up is:

Off Shore call centre deals with basic sales and servicing calls.

Swansea now is specialist, dealing with Passenger Assistance (disability, accessibility) EU 261 & Claims, Customer Relations (complaints) and baggage.

Crawley now only has exec office complaints (ie if you write to Shai, or it’s an escalation, probably also deal with complaints from high value individuals and MPs celebs etc)

I’ve had to change a few tickets over the last few months and every time I’ve rang I’ve gone to the off shore centre now, I must say, I can’t place where it is, but whilst the advisors lack the spark of Swansea, I actually can’t fault their competence at getting some quite complex changes done with little fuss…and conceptually I normally loathe off shore contact centres with a passion!
#961920 by sixpack
08 Jul 2023, 08:01
I recently had to use the call centre to purchase tickets using CC vouchers. My call was answered off shore but as I wanted to purchase UC tickets the agent told me he was not sufficiently trained to deal with UC enquiries. I was transferred to a knowledgeable agent who dealt with my request very efficiently
#961921 by mitchja
08 Jul 2023, 08:26
Even with the Swansea call cal centre, not all the agents can book Upper Class fares. I've had that a few times when calling not using the Flying Club number. They either transfer you to one of those agents who can book Upper Class fares or they will leave a message for those agents to call you back.
#961925 by dmc
08 Jul 2023, 16:16
Recently I had to call them outside the opening hours (I think it was 1am UK time) and as I was in the US at the time I called the USA call centre number and was very surprised to be put through to someone in Wales! :-D

I think they may have been working from home and possibly this is what happens to overflow calls if the US call centre is busy?

Anyway, that’s another option if needing to call outside regular hours, try the US number.
#961927 by Kraken
09 Jul 2023, 14:52
Having been in the USA in the run-up to Hurricane Irma, it did not matter what number you called - you always got a Welsh voice on the phone (& they were very helpful too).
I have spoken to colleagues who have come to the opinion that the main VS call centre is no longer in Swansea - think 10k miles away and you might be about right.
#962059 by mjb
29 Jul 2023, 07:05
I called yesterday to downgrade 2 reward seats from UC to PE and the agent tried to charge me 20-odd thousand extra miles. When I pointed out that it can’t possibly cost more miles to downgrade cabin class he tried to say that it’s because the cost at the time of booking is different to now. It isn’t.

I called back later and spoke to a very helpful Irish lady and with little fuss the 50,000 miles are back in my account and refund pending for £400 in fees/taxes.

What a mess.
#963197 by MoniqueF
24 Jan 2024, 18:35
etk wrote:Eek that’s really disappointing. It was always one of my favourite parts of the process - they used to be so good :(


It IS disappointing!!! Swansea customer service was top notch! The most pleasant and efficient customer service EVER! The last two times I called, I reached the Philippines, and as hard as they tried…it was incredibly FRUSTRATING to deal because of all the confusion. I was super nice to them because it’s not their fault, but I was desperate for the friendly Welsh accent, a “How can I help” and efficient timely handling of matters. Is there ANY WAY to reach them again? Ever? I’d love a cheat code to reach Swansea the next time
I need to book something where I need customer service involved to check things!
#963199 by moodyblue
25 Jan 2024, 15:40
Last time I spoke to Wales the helpful friendly gentleman explained they operate 24 hrs however Swansea take all the out of hours (for uk) that come from abroad, particularly USA.
I Called just after 5.00am and he assured me calls at that time at least before 6.00am are most likely to be dealt with by Swansea.
Could be worth a try!
#963200 by matt.hibb
25 Jan 2024, 15:46
I've had to call a few times recently during normal UK business hours and I've always got someone in Swansea.

I am gold though, so maybe that makes the difference.
#963203 by cooperman
25 Jan 2024, 17:30
matt.hibb wrote:I've had to call a few times recently during normal UK business hours and I've always got someone in Swansea.

I am gold though, so maybe that makes the difference.


Same here..I was Gold, now dropped to Silver since November last year but both the Gold and Silver phone lines have always been answered by the lovely, efficient,friendly, knowledgeable Swansea team...regardless of time of day, within VS time availablity in UK.
Some still work from home.
I havent tried the "normal line" for a while.

P
#963205 by chumba
25 Jan 2024, 20:05
I often "accidentally" select the option to book upper class, which puts me straight through to Swansea :-D
#963247 by mitchja
30 Jan 2024, 10:58
Rang the Flying Club Gold line yesterday afternoon to book a reward flight and redeem a CC upgrade voucher. I was through to a very helpful and cheerful agent in Swansea in under 2 mins.

The call centre menu system seems to have changed a bit now as it's part menu driven and part voice recognition now. Use the menu to get to redeem points and enter your FC number but then you have to say what it is you want to do (which it should already know as I've just keyed the menu option for redeeming points)?
#963300 by etk
06 Feb 2024, 20:44
Just logged in and saw this thread I started. Bit of an update, I've had to call a few times recently and each time got straight through to Swansea. As always they were brilliant, fixed some slightly complicated problems for me in a few minutes, nice chat, back the way it should be.

As others have said, each time I've called the upper class line, not sure if that makes a difference but am back in love with VS customer service again.
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