Phone wait times.

[Scrooge]

In SRB's first book he wrote about trying to get through to People Express reservations and not being able.

He came to the conclusion that either management was incompetent or they were so busy he could start an airline and get the customers that couldn't get through to book, I type this as I have now been on hold for 40 minutes.

[Nottingham Nick]

Well said - Dave [y]

The US call system seems a nightmare, but at least it is a 0800 number.
Hanging on in the UK if you are a red member ringing 0870 is very expensive as well as being a pain.

Nick

[Scrooge]

52 minutes to get through to a human, seriously, does VS not need peoples money ?

quote:Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Well said - Dave [y]

The US call system seems a nightmare, but at least it is a 0800 number.
Hanging on in the UK if you are a red member ringing 0870 is very expensive as well as being a pain.

Nick


There are still some standard rate numbers to be found

Plug the premium rate number in here

http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
52 minutes to get through to a human, seriously, does VS not need peoples money ?


Why not use the 'Call Back' facility? Well, I did 15 days ago and I am still waiting for a call!

[Scrooge]

I wasn't offered it.

Talking to my friend there, they said they were amazingly slammed today, so maybe the 52 minute wait time was something out of the ordinary ?

[Scrooge]

I wasn't offered it.

Talking to my friend there, they said they were amazingly slammed today, so maybe the 52 minute wait time was something out of the ordinary ?

Yep it was, today I was on hold waiting for someone....For 2 hours, trying to actually do two things, one that could wait and the other to book 2 J tickets to London for tomorrow for my boss, in the end I booked him with BA, guess VS didn't need the $16k

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
52 minutes to get through to a human, seriously, does VS not need peoples money ?


Why not use the 'Call Back' facility? Well, I did 15 days ago and I am still waiting for a call!

Nicely put! It's certainly different the higher up you get in FC, but methinks VS is not living up to SRB's goals.

[Scrooge]

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
52 minutes to get through to a human, seriously, does VS not need peoples money ?


Why not use the 'Call Back' facility? Well, I did 15 days ago and I am still waiting for a call!

Nicely put! It's certainly different the higher up you get in FC, but methinks VS is not living up to SRB's goals.

I would agree with you, except the 2 hours of holding was for the US gold line, the 52 minutes on hold was for the UK premier line. BA answered in a couple of minutes, got the booking and the money, as a bonus my boss was able to go out of LAS instead of flying down to LAX to get to LHR, but that's a different story

[mitchja]

As already mentioned, at least calls to VS don't cost US members anything unlike every other call into VS other than Premier Team !

I just tried calling to redeem my miles for some Virgin Wines vouchers. I spent 20 minutes waiting to get through to FC on the gold 0800 number (which is 20p a min of Vodafone!). After 20 minutes, I got through and said what I wanted to do, only to be told "Okay, I'll just transfer you to Flying Club" and before I could say anything, I was dumped back at the start of the Flying Club menu options. I went through the same options again, 1 to redeem my miles, the same as last time. Again, after 20 minutes exactly, I got through only to be told I wasn't through to Flying Club! At that point, I lost it, said I had just wasted 40 minutes of my day because their phone system is obviously broken and all I want to do is redeem a small amount of miles! The chap asked what level I was, to which I stated gold and he said he'd try and do it for me. From the sounds of it though, he just typed an email out to someone. Not sure whether it will get done !!

Absolutely joke, 40 minutes wait and £10 extra on the phone bill just to carry out a simple transaction. My complaint is en route to Flying Club that's for sure!

[Nottingham Nick]

Whilst I agree that the way you were treated is pretty poor, why use your mobile to call an 0800 number?

Nick

[mitchja]

If you have to use a mobile and you are on contract, use one of the many freephone dialers out there if you need to dial an 0800 number.

You dial a geographical number first, then dial the 0800 number. As it's a geographical number you dial first, the call will just come off your usual allowance.

Obviously this is not much use for PAYG but even so can work out cheaper than calling an 0800 number.

Whilst I agree that the way you were treated is pretty poor, why use your mobile to call an 0800 number?

Nick

Because I wasn't at home.

Saying that, I would never have expected to be on the phone for close to an hour, just to get a few hundred quid of Virgin Wine vouchers so I would have probably used my mobile anyway.

Two weeks ago when I urgently had to book my wife onto a flight for the following day, I called the US Silver Card number, got through straight away, and then after giving the details to change the existing booking, got disconnected.

I called back on the same number, was through to someone straight away again, went through the same process with the agent, who put me on hold whilst they checked the change of fare, and I promptly got disconnected again.

Fed up - I called the Gold Card number and sat on hold. After 10 minutes waiting, I picked up the other phone and called the Silver Card number in tandem, and they answered immediately again - where's the logic in that?

This time, no disconnect, but surely the Gold number should be answered first, and when there is a queue, those calls should be diverted to the Silver team to answer first.

Bizarre. Although not a surprise as their phone system is clearly not set up well. When calling the gold number, you get a prompt about advanced passenger information twice before you can do anything. Sometimes when I'm on hold, over the top of the music I can hear "message 3 5 is not recorded".

I would also imagine, the problem I had, is the phone system must route gold callers through to anyone in Virgin Atlantic after you've been in the queue for 20 minutes. Hence why I kept being transferred to someone who couldn't help me. Very poor indeed.

On the plus side, I got an email at 0630 this morning with my Virgin Wine vouchers. So I eventually got there in the end.

[mitchja]

*Hopefully* things will improve later this year when the new UK based VS call center opens.

I can't wait for all those lovely South Wales accents, it will remind me of holidays as a child.