Are Virgin the worst ever company for customer service?

[elkvideo]

After booking my holiday which I got the most fantastic deal, the guy who booked it said if I want to upgrade the outbound call customer service and I will get the same offer. Rung the next day and guess what got the Indian Call centre and they would not give me the offer. Tried three times and ended up not bothering! Every year when we book we always have the same thing, once the booking is made good luck with any changes. I do feel customer service should be a good service that we feel confident about dealing with. I would like to add the Vroom and upgrade my car but do not know if I can be bothered. Last year upgraded my car it took over 50mins.....

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Last year I had correspondence and calls with them re upgrading to Upper class from Premium Economy, they dropped it a few times, I had to restart it each time, I gave up as they didn't want my money!

Recently again calling E,mail s etc re upgrading my hire car, the correspondence has been read but dropped three times so far, i restart they promise to do, and it freezes again!

Presume they have so much money and bookings they do not want more.

 

[Ware Bears]

We are on our 3rd holiday with Virgin Holidays and haven't experienced any problems so far ......... mind you, we don't take any chances and always make sure we are speaking to someone in the UK.

Hope you get it sorted out soon, 1andrea.

 

[virginatlantic]

Any tips on how to talk to someone in the UK?
What is the phone number that would make sure your throught to a UK rep?

I phoned a week ago to add some park tickets to our booking, got India ,was awful, did not understand me well at all , I had trouble too. As someone has stated, its all a bit scripted and put you on hold as they scrabble to find an answer ( I have a very easy to understand southern English accent, clear in other words) I have seen no new invoice to confirm my addition?

Having booked with Virgin since the early 90s, there have been many times I have had to add or change something, its always been easy and a pleasure, but this is the first time I found its an Indian call centre. Virgin may save on the wage bill, but are they then loosing repeat customers? This applies to all call centres holidays or otherwise.

Its not worth in Mr Branson!

We need to keep our jobs here, in all cases, especially in the current times.
After all, the people in UK call centres would be potential customers of Virgin Holidays, no one in the Indian centre is going to spend their wages on a Virgin holiday.

 

[Rosie]

I called VH today as I wanted some information about excursions for our August California trip. Although I called the UK number given here (01293 496917) I went straight through to the Indian call centre. I explained what I wanted to know, the lady seemed to understand and then put me on hold for 20 minutes. when she came back on the line she suggested I call back during the week as this query was taking longer than expected. I asked her why I should do that and suggested that she find the answer and call me back. She put me on hold for another 10 minutes and then came back and said she would call me back today before 5pm. Guess what? she didn't call!
I want to spend around £1000 pounds on tickets and excursions but Virgin can't get it together to sell me their own excursions. Richard Branson would not be impressed, I am not impressed. If they weren't the best value I would go elsewhere.

 

[1andrea]

I called VH today as I wanted some information about excursions for our August California trip. Although I called the UK number given here (01293 496917) I went straight through to the Indian call centre. I explained what I wanted to know, the lady seemed to understand and then put me on hold for 20 minutes. when she came back on the line she suggested I call back during the week as this query was taking longer than expected. I asked her why I should do that and suggested that she find the answer and call me back. She put me on hold for another 10 minutes and then came back and said she would call me back today before 5pm. Guess what? she didn't call!
I want to spend around £1000 pounds on tickets and excursions but Virgin can't get it together to sell me their own excursions. Richard Branson would not be impressed, I am not impressed. If they weren't the best value I would go elsewhere.

I am not surprised! A few days ago I still had to buy our Attraction tickets and Virgin were the cheapest price but I really didn't want to have the hassle of adding them to our booking so I held on and found somewhere cheaper so at least I didn't have to call them again.

I think the fact that I didn't have to to call them again was pleasing me more than the saving!

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

We are on our 3rd holiday with Virgin Holidays and haven't experienced any problems so far ......... mind you, we don't take any chances and always make sure we are speaking to someone in the UK.

Hope you get it sorted out soon, 1andrea.

I wish I could find a way to always speak to someone in the UK! What ever number I call I end up in India!

I sometimes think of printing off all the threads that have been on here about Virgin the last couple of years and sending them off to their customer services dept. They would either not acknowledge me though, or would tell me you can't believe what you read online! From the few times I have written to them with complaints or problems before their answers have been so bland and generic that I decided not to bother any more. They are just not interested. Its not just India, its the UK customer services I have issue with as well.

 

[THE DENTIST]

Hi guys,

We've booked Virgin twice over 6-8 years and not had an issue, however, the Indian call centre comments are spot on. There's a very generic, procedural, stepwise handling of calls that frustrates and delays customers. The staff don't / can't cut to the chase and maybe that's their training so that Virgin are legally covering themselves. There are rarely any managers from England over their shoulder and that's why calls are held until they can contact someone or ask a more experienced colleague- pretending they are checking something etc etc.

VH are clearly upsetting a number of people here and i wonder why you don't DIY the holiday rather than do a package? Isn't it usually cheaper that way?


K

 

[wayneg]

VH are clearly upsetting a number of people here and i wonder why you don't DIY the holiday rather than do a package? Isn't it usually cheaper that way?


K

I have done DIY for years but there are 3 main reasons I have come across why people use VH's.
1 some people are not confident enough to do it themselves and like the security of a one stop shop. 2 even though I love DIY some times VH prices are way cheaper than DIY, last Xmas we did VH with hotel for £580pp Cheapest Virgin flight only £900pp never dropped below that for our dates and sold out in no time. 3 deposit only, some people can't afford to pay all upfront they like to pay a few weeks before flying.

 

[Dimplenose]

I am not surprised! A few days ago I still had to buy our Attraction tickets and Virgin were the cheapest price but I really didn't want to have the hassle of adding them to our booking so I held on and found somewhere cheaper so at least I didn't have to call them again.

I think the fact that I didn't have to to call them again was pleasing me more than the saving!

We still need to buy attraction tickets but there is no way I'm going to amend my VH booking. It seems the bookings go OK it's amendments that mess things up. So that's 4 lots of adult WDW and US tickets that VH aren't going to get the custom for. I don't care if I pay more elsewhere as long as I don't have to phone VH.

 

[tttessa]

I have done DIY for years but there are 3 main reasons I have come across why people use VH's.
1 some people are not confident enough to do it themselves and like the security of a one stop shop. 2 even though I love DIY some times VH prices are way cheaper than DIY, last Xmas we did VH with hotel for £580pp Cheapest Virgin flight only £900pp never dropped below that for our dates and sold out in no time. 3 deposit only, some people can't afford to pay all upfront they like to pay a few weeks before flying.

This applies to us exactly!! We go to USA about every five years, so are not confident to DIY... BUT - I HATE dealing with VH, so we go through a travel agent - face to face in the "shop"!

Was Going Places - now Thomas Cook - we don't need to ring VH about anything, they always match the on-line booking discount AND they have staff who have been most places we want to go. If I want to add tickets, I nip in when I'm in town, change anything - ring/ nip in.. no problems, tickets not here 10 days out ... ring up, they arrive at travel agents for pick up - next day... we paid the same price we were quoted on VH online last year, but had someone else do the running about - result!

Tessa

 

[wideeyes]

Virgin Holidays are appalling at customer service, I have booked with Virgin Atlantic this time as I have used miles and I called yesterday and the lady I dealt with was brilliant however I was put through to the British call centre.

 

[Lizzybear]

I agree it can be really painful trying to get amendments done with VH customer service In 2007 I decided to upgrade from Pop to POFQ and I pretty much had to hang up on the first 2 people I rang as it was clear that they didn't have the foggiest idea what I was trying to do but the third person couldn't have been more helpful and friendly and sorted it for me straight away. I reckon he was the probably the one all the other staff ask for advice from!

 

[gbrchill]

This applies to us exactly!! We go to USA about every five years, so are not confident to DIY... BUT - I HATE dealing with VH, so we go through a travel agent - face to face in the "shop"!

This is us too. We went VH the trip before last and the one before that. Dealt with a travel agent face to face and they did the running around (hanging on the phone) for us. We are going VH again in August and have used a travel agent. I'd pull my hair out if I had to deal with VH directly. As far as I'm concerned the fee that the travel agent earns is money well spent by us.

Shame that VH customer service (post purchase) is so rubbish.

Chris

 

[TraceyL]

The so called 'customer service' is the reason I won't book with Virgin again unless they are by far the cheapest. The last trip we had was one problem after another.
The money it costs in phone calls to people who can't deviate from a script is ridiculous & they simply just don't care about their customers once they have your money

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Has anyone considered taking this to watchdog? Might make them buck up there customer service?

 

[amystevekai&bump]

I had dreadful service from them last year - mainly due to incorrectly priced quotes (without exagerating I received 7 or possibly 8 different quotes all for exactly the same holiday - How hard can it be!!)

In the end I complained and they did give me a discount, but nowhere near the amount of the original quote I was given - I really should have booked that 1st one there and then!!

Anyway, fast forward to today - I've learnt my lesson, but they haven't learnt theirs!!! - I phoned to get a quote for 2010 and not only did I get a 15% discount (which I'm not overly sure I am entitled to) but they also knocked £400+ off the cost of my hotel room as they thought the supplements were incorrect - I didn't argue as it was in my favour - but it sure made the Hard Rock Hotel a lot cheaper than I expected - This time I didn't hesitate and booked it there and then (who knows whether the same quote will come up tomorrow!!)

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

I
Anyway, fast forward to today - I've learnt my lesson, but they haven't learnt theirs!!! - I phoned to get a quote for 2010 and not only did I get a 15% discount (which I'm not overly sure I am entitled to) but they also knocked £400+ off the cost of my hotel room as they thought the supplements were incorrect - I didn't argue as it was in my favour - but it sure made the Hard Rock Hotel a lot cheaper than I expected - This time I didn't hesitate and booked it there and then (who knows whether the same quote will come up tomorrow!!)

Oh thats interesting, I thought the 15% offer ended yesterday. Wonder if they are offering it for booking in December 2010? That might be worth booking . . .

Just on Virgins website and notice they now charge a £1 per person "ATOL contribution fee"!! Is there nothing they wont charge for?! They have been part of ATOL forever to my knowledge, so why do we suddenly have to pay for that?! And is it me but I thought the price of fuel had dropped in the past year - Virgin obviously missed the news as they are charging £200 per person fuel tax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Oh thats interesting, I thought the 15% offer ended yesterday. Wonder if they are offering it for booking in December 2010? That might be worth booking . . .

QUOTE]

Not really sure - I just asked whether I could get any discount as I hadn't been able to book online as part of my trip was an 'independent stay' and there isn't a facility to book that on line. She then mentioned a FVC 15% and asked for my number. I gave her my holiday confirmation number from last year (which didn't qualify for FVC as our old membership had expired apparently), and she said that was fine and gave me the discount as she said she had located my FVC no from that booking??!!! - not sure about the whole thing really - but I ended up with money in my pocket not theirs - which is a first!!

Oh and my holiday booking was for Dec 2010 - Jan 2011 - so hopefully you'll get lucky too!!!

 

[islandmum]

we've found the way round the Indian call centre transfer is to use our contact numbers for our Flyer Gold Card - that gets you straight through to a UK centre, very very efficient and they will do everything from flights, upgrades, lounges, cars, tickets etc etc

So if anyone else has one just use that.

Shame it takes being a gold card holder to get access to customer service that everyone should be able to get - and indeed did used to do.