Poor First Experience

This is my first post here and indeed my first attempt to travel with Virgin Atlantic so please be gentle!

I've been planning a long weekend in NYC from 02/08 to 05/08 this year and tried to make a booking through the VA website. When I tried to make bookings for from EDI to JFK on the VS3002/VS045 outward on 02/08 and return on the VS046/3003 none of the options were showing the cheapest fare (£1534)on the website. Knowing of the tie up with Delta I tried their website and they were showing this fare so I decided to call Virgin before using Delta to book.

When I spoke to the chap at reservations he initially found the same but then eventually found that he could book the £1534 fare. He went through, recapped and took payment and shortly after I received the e-ticket. At this point I noticed that he'd put the wrong outbound date (03/08 instead of 02/08) on the ticket. I called them up again and agent I spoke to checked a couple of things then put me on hold for ages. Finally she came back and said that the only way they could change the outbound date was for me to pay approx £800 more or they could cancel the booking. I opted for the cancellation option and was then told that it could take 4-6 weeks for my money to be returned. At this point I asked to speak to her supervisor as I felt that it was very unreasonable that down to their error I would end up either paying more or being out of pocket for a considerable time. The supervisor told me that it's possible I misheard during the recap on the first call and that all he could do was what was already offered.

Am I being unreasonable to expect that this could have been resolved in some other way rather than me simply ending up out of pocket regardless due to their error?

Thanks.

Not to worry applepie2100, we always go gentle on first timers.... And yes I realise the innuendo loaded into that statement

Before someone makes an American Pie joke too will jump back to the OP. B)

Personally I would not accept that and push the supervisor until they change the date to the one that you asked for at the price that they agreed on. If they kick up a stink insist that they listen to the call (the one time it is good they record calls for 'training purposes') and if all is as you say then they really do have to honour it - simple human error on their part.

As for the refund lead time, it is amazing how many bureaucratic hoops they have to jump through to pay people what they are owed..... Funny given the speed with which the money leaves your account, but I guess they have to follow procedure. 4-6 weeks is too long though, they can do much better than that, again call them up and have a proverbial cattle prod at the ready ii)

I do not think you are being unreasonable whatsoever, sounds like VS are being lazy. Poor show VS v(

Don't count on the call being recorded btw. They DO say it in the beginning but from experience in callcenters I know it just means that sometimes a supervisor listens in 'for training purposes' (meaning: to see if you are doing your job good or not). But calls in general don't get recorded. Only difference is sometimes for Sales outcalls when they need a 'YES I want' on tape as prove for a contract. Not sure they do so on these cases...

Goodluck! 4-6 weeks is indeed crazy even for a big company..

It sounds like awful service to me! Even if it was their mistake, they could at least admit it and say sorry! It is always possible to get money back quickly, it just costs more to send it quickly!

For what it's worth, I have an app on my phone that will record all calls. Yes you do need consent, but only implied consent. So as soon as they say "this call may be recorded" you have your implied consent!

There seems to be a problem with many companies that there is no ownership of an issue. The supervisor that you spoke to will have set procedures of what they can do there and then, call length targets etc. so when you have a genuine complaint, no-one does anything, nor does anyone check if your problem ever gets resolved!

(Had massive problems with Vodafone recently, LARGE sum of money taken from credit card unauthorised, no-one could authorise a refund that big over the phone, refunded in two parts, second part gets canceled by computer thinking refund already been sent to that account recently, no-one at Vodafone noticed, then needs a manger to look into the case, manager refuses refund, manager won't talk directly to you, have to wait 72 "working hours"! for manager to look at it again. Manager finally approves it, after sending it up a notch every 72 working hours (so weeks later!) computer refuses again, no-one notices as no-one bothers to check, told to go to a shop to be issued refund, go to shop, they can't see any notes on account, they phone up CS who also seem to know nothing of the case... That went on for a few months! Sorry gone off-topic...)

Hopefully virgin has some common sense, though if they did they would of instantly replayed the call and honoured that price if it was found to be true. I know a V-Flyer managed to get VS to replay a tape when they purchased an UC return, but the agent had quoted a PE price or something that made it much lower that the real price,VS eventually honoured the low price for UC

Yes it's awful service and frankly VS's ability to repay fares or charges is dire and long in need of an overhaul. It can be speeded up - you just have to make a big stink. I would write to the CEO's office.

For comparison, if you cancel a ticket on United via their website, the charge is repaid to your card the same day - VS needs to get better in this regard, quickly.

If I was the OP, I would accept cancellation and then contact my Credit Card issuer for them to reverse the charge on the card. That way things should happen much quicker.

I think that is pretty bad actually.
Yes they are "following" procedures but if you called immediately upon receipt of your e-ticket then they should have given you the benefit of the doubt. However if you called back a week before your flight for example to say you "just realised the date was wrong" then yes fair enough for them to charge you.

Thanks for the opinions folks and I realise that as a first timer on a Virgin forum the the potential for innuendo is all around

I'm awaiting the response to a couple of firm but irate e-mails to customer services/relations and the refunds team so I'll see what comes of those.

It's nice to know that it's not me being unreasonable in thinking that they could have honoured the quoted price and taken the hit for their mistake!

That is such a shame, as big a fan as I am of VA I think over the years one word actually could describe the company and that word is inconsistancy. Everything is either fantastic from start to finish or you feel like someone has given you a black eye. Its just a shame for all those VA staff that seem to go the extra mile to help and maintain the aura of Virgin past. Personally I think everything has been mixed up outsorced etc too much and that VA ethos has been diminished because of it. There seems to be very little cohesion between departments. I hope they get your money back soon and the next time you come in to contact with VA you get one of those many VA staffers who actually want to help.

I agree with easygoingeezer in the sense that there are a lot of VS staff who are proud to wear the uniform and do often go out of their way to help out and provide a good service.
I hope in your case you can get the date changed or at least get a refund within a reasonable amount of time

Thanks folks, I appreciate being a first timer on a Virgin forum there is much to be had in the way of innuendo

Having looked this morning I can now see that the originally requested fare is once again available on the website which is only adding to my fury!

Virgin certainly don't seem to make it easy!

Virgin certainly don't seem to make it easy!

Which is exactly why we booked our trip to Tampa next year with BA. Flights + Car deal was available with a few clicks of a mouse, and booked online within 10 minutes. We were even able to pay in installments with no interest, again online.

VS simply couldn't cope with booking Flights + Car all as one deal, they had to be done separately at greater cost. Virgin Holidays were chocolate fireguard useless.

It's amazing how inept the VS website is, and it must cost them £££ in revenue every day, not to mention the extra expense of bums on seats in Swansea to answer calls which should never be happening. For example I've seen something on the VS Facebook page basically saying that they don't know when people with Little Red connections on their bookings will be able to select seats online. This is basic airline 101 stuff in the 21st century.

In your position, I would also be fuming.

[Scrooge]

This IMHO is a direct result of the Steve Ridgeway years, which in turn can be blamed on SRB, when you have a guy that was in all respects a boat engine mechanic put in charge of an airline by SRB you are asking for trouble.

He was covered by the last economic boom which had people taking out loans against their properties in order to go on holiday.

Once the bubble burst VS was left in a situation it was not prepared for, with polices people would no longer stand for (the 4-6 week refunds being one of them).

With a new person at the helm I hope VS goes back to being the great airline it once was, but I don't hold out much hope.

Well I have some good news! I was contacted by a member of the VS social media team who asked me to pass on a copy of my complaint e-mail. Within a couple of hours it was confirmed that the original agent had made an error with the dates and his call recap which I can totally accept as mistakes happen. He also confirmed that the follow-up call was poorly handled by the supervisor and this is being fed back to his manager.

The end result is that I now have the flights I originally wanted for the price originally quoted and am now really looking forward to the flights

Bring on a couple of hours in the CH!

Excellent, I am very pleased for you.

[honey lamb]

Excellent news ^) ^) ^)

fantastic!! thats why I love VS. ^) ^) ^)

See told you there were a lot that go the extra mile, well done VA.

Very pleased to see the Virgin spirit come through y) .

I have to admit slinky I came close to pinching your favourite seats on the 747!

I have to admit slinky I came close to pinching your favourite seats on the 747!

Great result from the VS Team.Good on you for perseverance as well. oo) oo) oo)

Go on, pinch Slinky's seats...he'll not mind....will he? ) ) ): ):

[honey lamb]

Go on, pinch Slinky's seats...he'll not mind....will he? ) ) ): ):

No he won't.........

........unless he's on that flight! )

I thought UNIQs could pinch them back?

It seems the only way to get a reasonable response these days is to put it in the public eye on FB etc.

I have gone this way several times recently - mostly with one company (Time Warner Cable) as it is the ONLY way they bother to resolve problems.

W.

(Had massive problems with Vodafone recently, LARGE sum of money taken from credit card unauthorised, no-one could authorise a refund that big over the phone, refunded in two parts, second part gets canceled by computer thinking refund already been sent to that account recently, no-one at Vodafone noticed, then needs a manger to look into the case, manager refuses refund, manager won't talk directly to you, have to wait 72 "working hours"! for manager to look at it again. Manager finally approves it, after sending it up a notch every 72 working hours (so weeks later!) computer refuses again, no-one notices as no-one bothers to check, told to go to a shop to be issued refund, go to shop, they can't see any notes on account, they phone up CS who also seem to know nothing of the case... That went on for a few months! Sorry gone off-topic...)

Hi Hamster,

I'm sorry to see that you've had some difficulties with us.

If you're still in need of some help with this, could you email me with your details via the Contact us form here: http://vdfn.co/email and quote the code WRT135 - FAO Lee in the subject line?

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. To make sure it reaches me could you update the thread with this and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can?

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations

Vodafone UK