Meryll83's SBP/Citrico's/Morocco PJ - Update: Trip Report now underway!!

[DigitalLove]

Mummy's Coming!

Aww! I'm SOOOOO pleased for you!! You must be overjoyed!!!

Yayyyyy Mummy!!!

 

[figmentfan814]

I'm so glad that your mom is going to be able to come

 

[lov2b@disney]

How exciting for you!

 

[Goldeelox9]

I knew she would cave in! I am soo happy for you!

 

[Mama of Indybride]

Mummy's Coming!

I knew she would come! What mama wouldn't come to see her baby girl get married!

I'm so excited for you!

 

[meryll83]

Yey!!!!

Thanks everyone, you had more faith than me, but perhaps that's coz I know how stubborn she can be!
Maybe Tinkerbell popped in and persuaded her - or perhaps it was coz I ordered a planning DVD to go to their house to get her in the Disney mood - I was hoping she'd think it just arrived randomly and would think it was a sign!

It took foreeeeeeeeeever to get her added on to the booking last night, and after all that, just tried to check the booking online this morning and couldn't, so rang up and it became apparent that the guy had spelt my mum's surname wrong!!
The service staff I spoke to wanted my mum to call to confirm it could be changed and would only speak to her coz of data protection and blah blah blah - but I was like, NO, it's your fault, I made the original booking not her, and you can see by mine and my dad's bookings how it's supposed to be spelt, so sort it! - and they did Nothing like a bit of aggressiveness on a Saturday morning!!

I need to call Virgin back on Monday as they said I could price match some 14day ultimate passes I've seen cheaper online, but the authorising team aren't in until Monday. I'll also be adding the DDP on for them on Monday too - so jealous!!
Wait til I speak to the guy who b'd up our booking!!!!!!!!
I haven't mentioned yet that after booking yesterday he was confirming it all back to me and then went, oh no, I've booked your mum a seperate room instead of in with your dad! Sigh. the joy of call centres. So I was on the phone for another stretch of forever while he sorted that out. I made him call me back though, I wasn't wasting my phone bill on his error! (even though I had to this morning )

So my mission for the weekend is to find the cheapest priced passes online (they have to be 2009 pass prices to be pricematched) - the ones I saw were £169 I think for 2008, but I told a little white lie that they were 09 but now after this mess up I want the best price match I can!!!!!

 

[meryll83]

OK so £163 is the best for 14 day tickets this year and £175 for next year - I'll see how I get on tomorrow, see if I feel naughty enough to try and persuade him that the £163 price is advertised for next year After all, he did mess up! And they won't price match the dining plan only the tickets, so I might as well get what I can out of them, right?

Did I mention that I booked Randy the other day? Decided to go for it!
He doesn't seem to have taken my deposit money yet though - has anyone else filled out his credit card payment form? How long did it take to process?

I've also just enquired with Beaute Speciale about a few things and will probably get them booked in too - it looks like they don't actually require a deposit

I'm still waiting for an invoice to come through from the booking of our at home reception which we did a couple of weeks ago, apparently the admin person has been off sick, but it should get sorted this week.

So things are getting organised thick and fast at the moment! But still plenty to keep me going for another 18 months

Thinking about booking in a pianist for our at home reception, that we saw at a wedding fayre that we both really loved, but he's pretty expensive, so I wonder whether we should wait that one out a bit in case we happen upon someone else a bit cheaper!!....

 

[Chilly]

That is really great news about your Mum

 

[Beep]

Hey Meryll, how you doing?

That's really good news about your Mom, I'm so pleased for you.

Ok, the DDE. If you have a look on the main front page of Dis and go to the Dining section there is a page in there about the DDE and what restaurants participate and when. Also, if your spouse/partner gets an additional card it is $25 but it has the same numbers on as your main card (ie same membership number) so you aren't eligible for a discount on another 10 guests.

When I booked Randy it took about a month for the deposit to go through because he was so busy but it will go through. He is really flexible on the timings too so if you need to increase the time and it works out at more cost, he won't take the extra deposit for that time. It looks like we are going from 4 hours to 6 hours and he is cool with that.

 

[meryll83]

Ok - wanna know how I got on with Virgin last night?

Here's a clue - this is the complaint letter I'm sending in the post this morning!:

Customer Services Department - Complaints
Virgin Holidays Ltd
The Galleria
Station Road
Crawley
West Sussex
RH10 1WW

7th April 2008

Dear Sir / Madam,
On 7th April 2008, I called Virgin Holidays to add on 14 day Ultimate park hopper passes and the Disney Dining Plan to our Florida Holiday at approximately 4:45pm.
I called the reservations department, asking for ***** on extension *****, as I had added my mum onto our holiday with him on Friday, and he had told me that he could price match our park tickets if I called back on Monday when the relevant authorising team would be in, and at this point he would also add the dining plan, which could have our 10% flying club discount deducted, but no price match. However, I was told that he was unavailable, I was surprised as he had told me to call him back specifically on this day, although he had not specified a time, so perhaps he had finished for the day, anyway I asked the girl I was speaking to (unfortunately I did not get her name – my mistake as this caused numerous problems!) if she would be able to help and she obliged.
I told her that I had seen online ticket prices at £163, she went away and checked and offered a maximum discount of 10% - £176, was this acceptable? I told her that on Disney’s own official website the price quoted was £175, at which point she offered to recheck and came back to me that this price of £175 had been agreed.
At this time, I apologised for being cheeky, but could she call me back on my mobile, as I was concerned that my credit was about to run out. She agreed and the call was terminated, however after about 10 minutes or so, she had not returned my call.
Concerned that she had taken my number down wrong, I redialled reservations, but of course as I could not remember the girl’s name, I had to start from scratch with a new reservationist. This female, however, informed me that we shouldn’t even have had our flying club discount honoured in the first place on initial booking, as the holiday cost was under £1,500. News to me!
At this point let me explain that our initial booking, done a couple of weeks ago consisted of myself and my partner (*****) and when we asked to add my dad on in a separate room, this had to be done on a separate reference number (*****) but the flying club discount was honoured across both bookings. These were booked by *****. My mum was added on by ***** on Friday in a very long phonecall, as although ***** confirmed that my mum would be added into my dad’s room, she again had to have a new reference number (*****) and when relaying back the booking details to me he realised he had made an error and booked my mum an additional room instead of adding her into my dad’s, so this had to be resolved.
I asked ***** to check the transfers had been correctly booked on our initial booking, as when I ended the call with *****, she advised that she had only added transfers one way, not return as we had requested, but she would amend this and then we ended the call. I wanted to make sure she had done this, however when ***** checked, he informed me that NO transfers had been added to this booking (*****) so resolved this issue for me.
Later on Friday evening, I went online to check my mum’s new reservation, only to be greeted by a message that said the passenger surname was incorrect! I called your services team on Saturday morning and discovered that ***** had incorrectly spelt my mum’s surname. I had to battle with the services team to get this amended, as they were telling me that only my mum herself could request this amendment, however when I explained that I had made the initial booking, not her, he could check the correct surnames by mine and my dad’s references and it was Virgin’s error not ours, the man I spoke to assisted in correcting this error.
So, back to my conversation with a new reservationist on the 7th, after being informed that although the initial flying club discount was an error, this would be honoured as it was already booked, but I couldn’t have the flying club discount applied to the dining plan, nor could I have the tickets price matched!
I explained that both ***** and the girl I first spoke to this day had advised this was possible, and I had just had the price match agreed by the girl who didn’t call me back, however this new girl said she was unable to help as ***** was unavailable and she could not find who the original girl was as I didn’t know her name and she hadn’t left any notes on the system. At this point I asked to be referred to a Manager, as I had been told I was getting these discounts and was not happy to accept them now being taken away. The first number she tried had no response so I was told she would try another number for me. This took me to a service manager, again female, however she told me that she was an internal manager and I had been put through to the wrong number, she advised that the services team could help and put me through there.
At this point I was referred to a foreign sounding female, who informed me that she dealt with agents only and would have to put me through to a direct team member. Here I was on hold for about 15 minutes and gave up and hung up.
I called reservations yet again, this time I was told quickly I needed the service team, I again explained someone in reservations had been helping me but hadn’t called me back as agreed, but I was told services team had to add on to existing bookings, so was transferred through.
I believe at this point it was ***** I spoke to in the service team and I seemed to be making progress again, however she then advised that she would need to speak to the support team to authorise the price match and they only worked 9am-5pm so could I call back tomorrow!
I said no I did not want to call back tomorrow I wanted this sorting now, as I had initially rung within the correct timescale (even though I knew nothing of these working hours) and had already had the price match agreed, and had now been on the phone for about an hour trying to sort this out. She reiterated that I must call back tomorrow so again I asked if I could speak to a Manager. She went away and then just came back to reiterate the same point about calling back tomorrow as there was nothing she could do.
I asked if someone could call me back as I had spent enough money today trying to sort this issue which eventually she agreed to but this return call could be anytime between 9am-5pm. I said I was not happy about this and asked wanted to specify a time, as I am at work all day tomorrow, so only my lunch time would be convenient. Begrudgingly, she took this request and the ordeal ended for today.
I am disappointed because not one of your staff seems to have performed in a manner I would call acceptable, whilst the majority of reservations staff have been pleasant, each has made a critical error on our bookings.
There seems to be a misunderstanding over which team, reservations or services, actually takes care of adding the tickets and dining plan on, and I was extremely angry to find that at the end of an hour’s worth of calls I was told that I was too late to sort my query today and to be asked to call back tomorrow, especially when it seemed that the initial girl I spoke to was going to have added on our extras relatively quickly.
I have spent at least £8 on my mobile phone just today calling your company, only to have absolutely nothing resolved and effectively be back at square one tomorrow.
In feeling it absolutely essential to write to you because of these concerns, I have spent another hour of my time relaying this information to you.
I hope that tomorrow will prove to be more fruitful and I will be able to add on the required elements with minimal fuss, but judging by the amount and content of conversations I have had today, I suspect tomorrow may be a new ordeal.
To resolve the problem I would appreciate confirmation that the ultimate tickets can be added to references ***** and ***** as initially agreed at a charge of £175 per person, and the Disney dining plan to be added to each of these bookings also, inclusive of my 10% flying club discount. This was promised to me, and I do not feel it is too much to ask that these features can simply be added, in what to me should have been a 10 minute job.
I would also be extremely grateful if anything can be offered to compensate for the time and money spent trying to resolves the various issues I have had with these bookings.
We have travelled with Virgin Holidays a number of times and have always found the service and information to be exceptional. This particular journey is especially important for us, as we are getting married in Florida, and we feel the service so far has been significantly below the standard we have come to expect, not only from yourselves, but any basic holiday tour operator. This experience has led us to question whether we should use Virgin in future.
I look forward to hearing from you and to agreeing a resolution of this problem. I would appreciate a courtesy call upon receipt of this letter, in order to ascertain whether or not the issue has as yet been resolved by the phonecall I am expecting from your service team tomorrow, or if I require further assistance in this matter.
Yours faithfully



Hope that made sense with all the ****'s, thought I'd better protect some identities and of course, my booking numbers!!

I was sooooooo angry yesterday I wanted to cry, so I vented by writing that letter, and I've just posted it! (After now noticing a couple of grammatical errors, darnit)

 

[meryll83]

Hey Meryll, how you doing?

That's really good news about your Mom, I'm so pleased for you.

Ok, the DDE. If you have a look on the main front page of Dis and go to the Dining section there is a page in there about the DDE and what restaurants participate and when. Also, if your spouse/partner gets an additional card it is $25 but it has the same numbers on as your main card (ie same membership number) so you aren't eligible for a discount on another 10 guests.

When I booked Randy it took about a month for the deposit to go through because he was so busy but it will go through. He is really flexible on the timings too so if you need to increase the time and it works out at more cost, he won't take the extra deposit for that time. It looks like we are going from 4 hours to 6 hours and he is cool with that.

Thanks hun,

Everything feels more complete now she'll be there!

Thanks for the info about Randy, I'll just have to remember that his money is due to come out sometime and not spend it

 

[Chilly]

Just read your letter. Hope you get something sorted with them.

 

[meryll83]

Well no-one rang me back today, so I decided to ring them back, in a lot calmer mood than yesterday!

The first girl I spoke to dealt with this straight away and added on what I asked for, price matching the park tickets (without even having to go off and get any authorisation from anyone!) and giving me the flying club discount off the dining plan! I didn't tell her about yesterdays shennanigans, I just let her get on with as I thought it would just create more problems if I brought it up!
So all was well......

until......

I went to check the updated bookings online to find that she had overcharged me on the dining plan!

Soooo..... I rang back again, specifically asking for her, but was told she was on another call, but as soon as she was free she would ring me.
One hour later....
I rang back again, this time I was put through to the service team as the new reservationist wouldn't help as it wasn't their departments job apparently, and went through the rigmorale again that for data protection reasons only my parents could amend their bookings.
The service member said if my parents rang up and gave passwords, I could then ring to make alterations by quoting these passwords and confirmed that she would put a note on the bookings to correct the price as I explained.

So, to save another argument, I got my mum to call and put passwords on.

Then I rang again, my service team member was now unavailable so I explained the overcharge to the new girl. She then insisted that the pricing was right and that the first service girl and misinformed me and that there was no note agreeing the price!!!!
I instructed her through the screens of the V Hols website so she could see where I was seeing my 'correct' price, and after this she did amend the booking.
So now, finally, we are sorted!! I think...

My mum's booking says half board rather than disney dining plan, but I've been assured by 2 people that this is just how they've had to fiddle the system as the accommodation is only booked on my dad's reference not my mum's and they both definitely have the dining plan.
Hmmmmm, think I'll give it a few days and ring and check this again - I've had about all I can handle in a week!

I thought about writing another letter today, but you know what, I just couldn't be bothered, I'll see if I get a response to my original letter first!

It's not just me is it? It really shouldn't be that much hard work should it???? Gosh I'm exhausted!!

 

[Beep]

OMG YOU POOR THING! That is absolutely diabolical from Virgin. I really hope you get a response, and some pixie-dust, from them. They should give you the whole bl**dy lot for free after that.

How much would it cost to cancel the whole thing and book it all independently?!

I flew with Virgin to Orlando on my (1st) honeymoon back in 1992 and they were excellent. I didn't go with them again for a while due to money but when we did there was a definite difference in service.

When I used them a few years ago I swore I wouldn't go with them again. I enquired about upgrading the flights but decided that it wasn't worth it and didn't go ahead witht it. They called a couple of days later to advising that I would need to either pay for the upgrade there and then or pay at check-in as they had added the upgrade to my flights! I had a battle with them to say I hadn't upgraded and was just inquiring. They implied that unless I paid the difference my booking would be cancelled and I would lose my deposit. Can you believe that?! I eventually sorted it out, and when I finally spoke to a Manager she said that I must have been mistaken as they wouldn't have added the upgrade unless I had instructed them to do so and paid for it there and then.

Disgraceful.

 

[meryll83]

At least it's not just me that's had problems with them then!
I know other people have said that thier after-sales services is bad, but I've had no chice to be honest, as even if nothing else had been amended, they still hadn't booked transfers on to my original booking anyway, so it's a good job I checked!

It's frightening though, because I've worked as a travel agent before I'm very conscious of making sure that everything is correct, but there must be many many people who just make their initial booking and that's that for them, they assume it's all correct.
Not so!!

It would cost £120 each in deposit monies lost, and although we could possibly save this each by doing it seperately, the whole point for us was that we could ensure our flights were booked now and we wouldn't have to wait until 11 months out, normally I wouldn't mind doing this, but as it's for such an important occassion we really wanted to make sure everything was organised as early as possible so we don't hit any of these problems later on down the line.

Granted we've been a litle bit complicated in having a booking where there is no accommodation for part of it due to the cruise, a single room booking that then needed another passenger adding, and then adding tickets and dining plan later on again, but this is their job - why aren't they good at it?????!

 

[Chilly]

I've heard some horror stories of Virgins Customer Service, I don't think I'd ever book direct with them.

I hope you don't have any further problems with them.

 

[meryll83]

We've been with them twice before in 05 and 07 and didn't have any of these issues!

I do agree with many that the standards of service right through from booking to the flights themselves do seem to have dropped over the past few years.

It's a real shame as they really were the leading company at one point I think....

Now I've written down everything that happened yesterday it makes me want to send them another letter, but I'll hold my ground for now, mainly coz I don't have enough time this week to do it!

 

[Chilly]

If you do write again I offer one suggestion (from reading up on complaining when I needed to write a letter of complaint myself).

In the letter you have already sent you wrote:
I would also be extremely grateful if anything can be offered to compensate for the time and money spent trying to resolves the various issues I have had with these bookings.

From what I've read it is always better to specify exactly what compensation you want such as an upgrade or discount.

 

[meryll83]

If you do write again I offer one suggestion (from reading up on complaining when I needed to write a letter of complaint myself).

In the letter you have already sent you wrote:
I would also be extremely grateful if anything can be offered to compensate for the time and money spent trying to resolves the various issues I have had with these bookings.

From what I've read it is always better to specify exactly what compensation you want such as an upgrade or discount.

Yes, I've read that before actually, but I never know what I should really ask for, unless it's obvious - eg. a refund of a certain figure.
Any suggestions of what I should be asking for after reading my experiences?

 

[Chilly]

Yes, I've read that before actually, but I never know what I should really ask for, unless it's obvious - eg. a refund of a certain figure.
Any suggestions of what I should be asking for after reading my experiences?

I don't think in this instance you can ask for too much as nothing has gone wrong on your holiday they've just made booking errors and the cost of the phone calls etc so perhaps you could ask for tickets to Seaworld or something like that