Originally posted by Gavin
Has anyone else booked a holiday recently and found that getting an Invoice from Virgin Holidays is a bit like getting blood out of a rock!
I have made a few changes to my booking and Virgin Holidays insist that they have now sent me 3 invoices, the last being 3 weeks ago, I am not too worried as I can view my booking on-line, but i would rather have something on paper!
I've experienced the same level of service recently. As an FV if found that if you book on line it'll give you a 5% discount automatically, but won't recognise the need to extend that to a 10% discount (despite having the space for your FV number). This usually requires a follow up, so I emailed them a good few weeks ago, and received the usual "we're terribly busy" email in response, then zero, nada, nowt. I followed up more recently with a phone call (answered very quickly and dealt with efficiently I must add) where the chap at the end of the phone told me the booking had been altered as I had requested and an invoice sent out a couple of weeks earlier. When I checked online (which perhaps I should've done first) I found it had been changed as requested AND it said an invoice had been issued.
Well, I settled for that. The only invoice I then received was the one AFTER I'd settled the account. I did receive the usual rather tatty and terse final payment request, mind you. Some bits of the process still work...
Touch wood I've never had problems with the tickets arriving, but it doesn't leave much margin for correction if they've got anything wrong with them. They did have errors the last time (their processes having failed to ensure that the name my wife gave was the name on her passport rather than the diminutive version of same) which led to a few anxious moments in the days leading to the trip. Phone calls elicited the advice that they would arange for the ticket to be changed at the airport. When we got there....they knew nothing about it. It all got sorted in the end by a very helpful VS staff member who was actually dealing with several people in the same boat.
VH seem to have some very antiquated business processes and practices. The matrix printed request for payment; the credit card surcharge...surely it costs them more to process a cheque (receiving, processing, banking, clearing) than a credit card payment ?
Paul