VS028 MCO-LGW 4 DEC 11 (Premium Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin

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a quick 3 day trip back to blighty rapidly turned into a mare. the trip had been rescheduled twice but the correct details were showing online and I had managed to 'reserve' a seat in the bubble. so all was fine...or so I thought. attempting to OLCI brought up the message 'cant do it go to airport'. however being a little suspicious I decided to call CS . it was nearly 9pm saturday night so 2am in darkest Swansea.
'hello ,Im flying tomorrow and cant check in'
'not you're not'
'not what'
'not flying. you dont have a ticket'
'er yes I do i have all the details on the screen in front of me'
'your card was declined,we emailed you and you never replied'
'well i never got an email and another ticket booked at the same time went through so it must be your error'
'no its not its your card.but i can change it for you'
'oh good thanks'
'yes -its $2000'

there then folloed a 90 minute (getting more heated) conversation during which I was repatedly told a) it was my cards fault b) I had been sent an email (which I hadnt) and c) there was NOTHING the supervisor could do.

the next suggetsion was 'go to the airport they will sort it '!! oh yea do I look a mug ??? (ok dont answer that). Classic fob off -as I pointed out, especially as i was then informed there were only 2 seats left. so i was expected to drive 3 hours just to be told no seats or 'its now $3000'. No ta.
conversation gets more heated -lots of 'nothing i can do at all' then suddenly ....'give me 15 minutes I will call you back....which she did and 'all sorted you have a ticket and its the original $250 change' anyway all resolved, go to bed, get up at 5am to check in and .....'no you cant-go to airport'
so another call 'Its not sorted..... ...but give me 10 minutes' ...and lo 10 minutes later it was....with the promise of an email to confirm. 'can you check the address please because I didnt get the last email '........' errr we never sent it ' and the card ???? 'details entered wrongly'
Oh so last night was a pack of fibbies....

so at last I get to check in........downstairs...

ANOTHER call to CS ...nothing we can do go to airport !!!
so 2 hours early off I set
Arrive 5 mins after CI opens..'can I change to upstairs please?'
'ohhh not sure -are you travelling alone'..'yes'
goes to supervisor , shake of head ,me ready to explode,comes back, 'are you definitely travelling alone?'..no the bloody invisible man is with me..'yes'...'ok 76A have a nice flight.........................................................

after which yes it was a good flight, took off on time with a flight time of 8.25. CC were superb as is usual. Food and drink arrived together after about an hour, I had the chicken kebab which I have to say was VERY nice as was the panna cotta. Food has definitely improved. Only bad bit was wine was by the glass and we only got one run and boy did I need more.
Baileys arrived just after food was cleared and then the lights turned down. I may have watched a film but they were so memorable I cant recall what they were.Nova its normal crap self. I probably managed to doze for an hour or so thanks to paul Mackenna and his I can make you sleep,lose weight,be positive and run the marathon tapes.and before long it was brekkie (the average full english) and touchdown at a very cool LGW.

a quick shower and refuel at the Sofitel in the North terminal and it was off to work for a day....oh joy.


All in all a good flight totally ******* up by a huge cock up by VS and a less than helpful CS. its probably only the flying club miles and the great CC that keep me coming back, but this was damn near the straw that broke this camels back.

still at least I got to do it all agin 3 days later

What an absolute nightmare!!!

Glad you persevered and finally got there in the end, but it should never have taken so much energy for you to correct a VS mistake!

Good to hear the flight was good!

Well done for keeping on top of it, most would have given up.

"after which yes it was a good flight"

It sounds as if sitting on the wing would have been a good flight after the preliminary nonsense!!!

(On reflection; sitting on the wing is preferable to the downstairs PE seats on those 744s...)

I really can't understand why, with the economy as it is, Customer Service standards in competitive markets are often so bad. I suspect we'll get to 3 million unemployed soon; surely VAA can find a couple of people from that group who understand the concept.
On the other had, its reassuring to know that if the wife and I turn out to be two of the 740,000 public sector workers that get binned, we can both find jobs in Swansea - and we'd do bloody good jobs too!

Presume you'll feedback - be interested to know how they reply.

Thanks for another TR.

Thanks for the TR, what angst .

I really can't understand why, with the economy as it is, Customer Service standards in competitive markets are often so bad. I suspect we'll get to 3 million unemployed soon; surely VAA can find a couple of people from that group who understand the concept.

Absolutely, when Swansea opened we were promised improvements on all fronts, but recently there have been a raft of issues such as this, betsie's, and I read just recently on FT about someone who also was told by VS he had no ticket (but had had a confirmation, of a CO reward flight). I am beginning to suspect that poor CS as well as poor IT is contributing ...

I recently had another issue with Swansea when at LAX I was taken through secondary interrogation by US immigration, a call to Swansea to find my CDC (which had long gone) resulted in such poor CS we ended up trawling LAX for the VS duty manager, who was brilliant, but Swansea could have made an effort to connect us as requested (and as the duty manager confirmed, would have been perfectly possible).

[buns]

flabound

I recall you posting about the Ticket debacle, so it is good to know that you perservered and managed to get on the flight (at the quoted price) and you managed to get a seat in the bubble

One of those times that the folks on the end of the telephone line did not grasp the issue up front and that made the whole thing worse

Just like you, it is the CC and other face to face staff that all too often make me come back to VS

buns

What a nightmare! Would like to say that this is just a random and isolated error that does not happen very often but sadly this sort of service is being reported more and more on here Come on VS get a bloomin grip and get back to the high standards we all want to be proud of

Flabound - well remember your almost realtime posts on this, it's good to know you did get your flight, and in the bubble.

A company really shouldn't make it that difficult for a customer - VS customer "services" have totally lost the plot recently - big kick up the a*se needed...

It would seem, that as soon as things get "unusual", they simply can't cope..maybe with a smattering of IT inadequacies thrown in for good measure...

Keep the faith - maybe?

I had a similar issue on my SFO trip. I was quite suspicious that I didn't get an eticket confirmation after I did a miles upgrade on the outbound but left it at that. I couldn't check in online but organised DTCI so was assured it was all fine however my 'car-to-clubhouse' in 10 minutes was disrupted because the call centre conveniently forgot to charge the upgrade taxes when pushing the reward through. Then I wait around for 1/2 hour whilst a ticketing guy in Zone A bumbles his way through the charges and announce I have to pay the outbound taxes all again cause nothing went through when on the phone to the call centre.

Whilst nothing as horrific as your experience Flabound, it was a pain in the ass and it should have been sorted by the Call Center and followed up if there was an outstanding balance. Not great CS at all really.

Customer services - surely the ultimate oxymoron???

Glad you finally got to make the flight fla - but oh boy.....

Customer services - surely the ultimate oxymoron???

Glad you finally got to make the flight fla - but oh boy.....

As an aside - my broadband/calls package is almost up for renewal and I'm currently looking at my options. I'm leaving Virgin Media out of the mix precisely because of their poor customer service. I guess media and airline are not connected - or loosely - but even so, I'm guessing I'm not the only person to be put off this way....

Thank you for posting your TR, sorry to read about the poor service you received from the CS.