Excellent VS Customer Service

I recently booked a NYC trip for December for my friend and I. Separate bookings as she is originating in Manchester. When quoted for her flights, the Little Red segments kept being quoted separately for some reason. The agent resolved it and eventually confirmed the flight at the same price as mine (originating LHR).

When the confirmation emails came in, my friend had actually been charged for a higher amount than quoted. I called VS Premier Team and the agent there was very helpful. The fare charged was for the Longhaul and Shorthaul flights separately. She disappeared on hold, had a supervisor review it and came back to tell me the flight should have been cheaper than my one! A refund was organised for £140 and I was happy.

Until my friend got her credit card statement... She had been charged the amount quoted originally that we thought we were paying, and the amount on the confirmation email in two transactions! v( I contacted the Premier Team again and a very helpful gentleman took care of the whole thing. He called me back several times until it was sorted. It took several days but because of his professionalism, it really wasn't too stressful an experience. Once it was all sorted, he helped me liaise with the pre-departure team in order to receive 5,000 miles compensation for my friend and 3,000 miles for me.

The booking was a complicated mix of fare codes (upgraded using my miles) so I accept that the error occurred unintentionally. Really happy with the service I have received to rectify it and thought I should share this with my fellow V-flyers. ^)

Now my friend can enjoy her first Virgin flight and only had to pay for it once after all!!

So nice to read about a happy customer ! Sometimes people forget to post the positive things.
Thank You.

Reconfirms, it's not when things go right that you see good customer service, it's how they respond when things go wrong.

But annoying all the same.

Well, it's good it's sorted, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. It should then be sorted on the first call back informing them of the mistake. It shouldn't then take "several call backs" before it's resolved. You then say you had to liaise with another team to get compensation. The first person you spoke to should be empowered to compensate you accordingly if there's been such a problem.

It just seems that when someone does take ownership of an issue and resolve it we now see it as good customer service as generally it's so poor the rest of the time!

Ditto what hiljil said, it's all too easy to forget about highlighting positive feedback, especially in customer service which is a minefield at the best of times. Kudos to VS and have you thought of dropping them a line to let them know?

TTFN

Locutus, the error came about during a complicated booking involving a new fare structure as a result of the fairly new little red operation. I am 100% convinced and satisfied this was a genuine error the agent made when making the reservation. In an ideal world, it would not have happened but I have experienced far worse mistakes involving other airline's booking systems.

This error is clearly (and thankfully) not the norm and therefore it did take some effort from the team to finalise how to rectify it. I simply wanted to share my gratitude for those who helped me.

Bretty, I will indeed be dropping a line to VS in the near future - just as soon as the refund changes from pending to cleared in my friend's account!!

Sorry to bump this one last time. My friend's refund arrived in her account yesterday. It was actioned on the 31st July so takes a long time to be processed. 4-6 weeks!! :0

So we are happy with the overall outcome after my friend was getting decidedly twitchy waiting for the refund. ii)

Throughout the whole thing VS customer service was excellent and one agent in particular went out of his way to assist us - calling me every week. Hats off to him and VS. I will be contacting VS with this praise now too. y) oo)

Celebratory gin now I think!

4-6 weeks ??? Wow that's a very long to give back money that shouldn't of been taken in the first place.

[honey lamb]

I waited 6 weeks for a refund a few years ago. During that time currencies fluctuated seriously and I ended getting €300 less than I would have done if there had been an instantaneous refund v(

I must admit I'm struggling to see where the excellence from VS is in this story.

Ok. I admit not at all good overall. Situation should never have happened in the first place and the 4-6 weeks refund window is ridiculous when the industry average is 3 days from action.

So what I'm really saying is I received great customer service from two individuals (one in particular) to resolve the issue and keep me informed all the way through. I know that's what should happen - but it never does. Don't get me started on the service I have received from some other airlines, not to mention the telecommunications industry!!! The wait time for the refund was clearly out of his control and I'm grateful for his continued efforts.

HL - that's a shocking situation to be in. I hope it was resolved so you weren't out of pocket?

[honey lamb]

HL - that's a shocking situation to be in. I hope it was resolved so you weren't out of pocket?

Oh, I was

I tried to argue the toss but I was told I had been refunded in full (it was a fully flexible fare) in sterling and it wasn't their fault that the market had been so volatile.

My experience of VS has been good but I don't travel that often
I wonder though how VS compare with other airlines in terms of their service?
Do we expect too much? Or are we right to expect more? (Just a thought)

[honey lamb]

My experience of VS has been good but I don't travel that often
I wonder though how VS compare with other airlines in terms of their service?
Do we expect too much? Or are we right to expect more? (Just a thought)

It really is a question of how you approach each flight. The danger of sites like this is that it does raise expectations or else makes us uber-critical. I can remember writing in a TR of how I approached check-in in T3 with my antennae switched on ready to pick up any fault in service and suddenly realised what I was doing. If you look for faults, you will find them. I switched off the antennae and as a result had one of the best flights I had ever had.

As a result, while I do get excited at the thought of each flight and know what the service is in terms of drinks, food etc, I now approach each flight like a blank canvas. I don't expect to be called by name even as an Au. OK, when it happens, it's nice, but supposing I have an unpronounceable name? My Irish maiden name is pronounced differently in the UK than it is in Ireland and it grates when it is pronounced wrongly. If I were travelling with that name I'd rather not be called by name under those circumstances.

What about demanding passengers? Shortly after VS started the Dubai route my son and I flew there in UC. A family of about seven arrived and created such mayhem that the crew could not attend to the other passengers. An hour into the flight and we still did not know which cabin crew had been assigned to us. :0 A quick word to the FSM quickly rectified this and the rest of the flight was great. y)

On the other hand, I have boarded the plane and one look at the FSM and my heart has sunk as on a previous flight, the service has been poor and the same thing has happened.

What about with other airlines? In the past couple of years I have travelled long-haul with BA and SQ and again was totally open-minded. BA disappointed on every occasion. SQ was good but had been trumpeted as the gold standard. It was on the A380 and quite honestly it was no better and no worse than VS. Interaction with the crew was attentive but bland. One was called by name but from a manifest. I'm soon to fly with Emirates and am looking forward to that experience

HL - I think what you said is totally spot on
I have too travelled with SQ. personally I really enjoyed the flight and the CC really looked after me. At that time I was in the early stages of trying to overcome airsickness and I couldn't stomach the thought of a fried breakfast and the CA said I would feel better if I ate and told me if I promised to try to eat something she would bring me something after finishing serving her section. She brought me a fruit salad and it really perked me up. During the night flight a CA gave some snacks to the person sitting next to ne and told them to give the snacks to me when I woke up. I found the CC easy to talk to too. I could go on.
I didn't enjoy emirates however.
Back to VS - the CC have always been really nice to me too and looked after me when I felt rough. One younger CA brought me a cold towel and a ginger ale when I felt sick and came to check on me too
When I was experiencing bizarre tingling in my feet she gave me an ice pack and joked about the sensation being caused by bloating by saying "welcome to the world of being a woman" lol
I sent an email to Crawley towers to thank that crew. I find its too short a moment when exiting the aircraft to say a proper thankyou.
I guess customer service can be perceived differently by different people and your expectations can also affect that.

I must admit I'm struggling to see where the excellence from VS is in this story.

I do too. It seems a mistake was made, a correction was attempted but failed, then it took a good person several days to actually correct the mistake with multiple calls, then six weeks to refund the original error (or more like 8 weeks since the booking itself).

Top job to the person who fixed it, but three errors out of four is not excellent service.

If you fly on UA and need to make a change to a booking in the US that warrant a refund, I've done it and checked, your CC can be credited in a few hours. VS's system here is absolutely pants (we cancelled a reward flight recently and it took five weeks for the refund and that is just awful).

I do wish Mr Kreeger would announce that VS is implementing a version of DL's booking and ticketing system.