Virgin Call Centre - fight for refund

[barbarah]

Have been a loyal customer of Virgin's for over 20 years. Member of Virgin Holidays Frequent Virgin Club and Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club with silver membership, but am totally disgusted with their Indian call centre.

Had a message on my phone saying 'Hello this is Virgin Holidays' and then nothing. Did 1471 and rang back immediately and asked what was wrong. Only booking I had at that time was accomodation only booking from Virgin Atlantic's website. Gave reference number and nobody seemed to know so gave up.

Week later got a letter saying due to contractural reasons we can no longer offer you accomodation at hotel in middle of Florida Keys so therefore we are offering you accomodation at start of Florida Keys.

As the Keys are 160 miles long and we had specifically chosen the middle for ease of viewing this meant the new hotel was 80 miles away from that chosen. Not suitable I think!!!

Phoned straight away got the Indian call centre when I said why I was ringing and told I had no choice but to accept it. Asked to speak to someone else and was told the same again. I had no choice and could not have my money back. I told them that a hotel 80 miles away was not an alternative and I could still book the hotel direct and that it was not my fault that they had a contractual problem. Anyway insisted that I spoke to a supervisor and they went away and said that a supervisor would ring me back within 24 hours.

Decided to read their terms and conditions and found their own conditions said I was entitled to a full refund within 7 days of being notified so rang them back and read out their terms and conditions but they would not budge. Said I would have to wait for the supervisor to ring me.

Supervisor (Indian call centre) duly rang back later and again said no refund. I asked if they had read their own terms and conditions (no comment) and said that a hotel 80 miles away was not an alternative. It was only when I repeated that I wanted to go to the hotel I booked and could still book that hotel directly that he said 'oh you still want to go to the same hotel' and then sorry we can't due to contractual reasons (whatever that means).

Would not give in so he said he would have to speak to someone and then came back and said if I emailed a particular email address the refund had been agreed. No sorry or any kind we were wrong you were right, just the usual 'is there anything further I can do for you today' line that is in their script.

No official confirmation of refund yet but can see from my credit card that refund has been made less credit card fee they took originally. Have put in a written complaint, but I do not know whether they will bother to respond.

Moral of the story is do not give up if you know you are right and although a past loyal Virgin fan I will never book a Virgin holiday or accomodation with them again due to their outsourcing to a useless Indian call centre who do not even know their own company's terms and conditions.

 

[Jets fan]

Sorry to hear this but I really dislike the Virgin Indian Call centres as they are useless. Twice they gave me wrong and conflicting flight information. They even tried to charge me £2,300 more for flights that I could see clearly on the Virgin Atlantic website. I also had to repeat everything I said and then he read back the wrong dates and names.

I really believe that Virgin urgently need to review the placing of their call centre in India or people will just get so fed up and go to BA as, let's face it there's not alot of difference price wise. I just happen to prefer Virgin, at the moment.

Glad you got your money back though.

 

[Netty]

Phone virgins head office in the Uk and tell them whats happened and for them not to forward you through to the call centre. ask them to deal with it.

 

[flowrida]

Last time I had to call the Frequent Virgin Club I too got through to the call centre in India. I was lucky, they transferred me back to the UK (probably in error!) and I was told by the UK operator that if you dial the FV numbers you will always get an operator within the UK and apologised profusely if I had been trouble by the Indian call centre!
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[angel659]

Thats terrible. I hate calling the Indian Centre. They seem to run by a script and are not customer friendly people at all. I have phoned FV to ensure I dont get through sometimes the Indian centre has not transfered me over to the UK. If the prices were not cheaper than BA I would certainly be using BA or at least another carrier. Thats awful. Make sure you write a complaint letter about that.

 

[Girlsontour]

I have had similar problems in the past - and yet when i phoned last week to get a price on 2009 holidays i was put straight through (hardly time to breathe before they answered the phone) to UK operators Did anyone see the programme last night about call centres and how UK companies are now moving away from India to........South African call centres I think we might have even more fun in the future

 

[Goofyish]

I have had similar problems in the past - and yet when i phoned last week to get a price on 2009 holidays i was put straight through (hardly time to breathe before they answered the phone) to UK operators Did anyone see the programme last night about call centres and how UK companies are now moving away from India to........South African call centres I think we might have even more fun in the future

I saw that programme - when will companies realise that it is not just the language or accents that are a problem, it's a cultural thing as well. How can someone who lives in a different country, thousands of miles away, with little knowledge of the way of life and everyday problems here in the UK

The First Direct call centre in the UK was just as bad for a number of other reasons! Put me off opening an account with them LOL

 

[barbarah]

Thanks for your advice.

I will still book Virgin flights as I prefer them to BA or others, but never accommodation or a holiday. As long as you book on their website and have no problems then everthing is OK.

I did speak to UK, but they asked what part of Florida was I going to and then transferred me to Indian call centre without any choice.

I think the more of us that show our issues re. the foreign call centres the sooner UK companies might think again.

I will see how they respond to my complaint and based on that will decide whether to take it further with Virgin's customer service department.

 

[babyfelix]

Hi

We also cancelled last week. (I booked one of their error prices but then cancelled when told the price was about 5 times higher) Also got no apology for their error but what annoys me is that I still have to pay the CC charge. Luckily its only a few pounds but it has put me off booking anything with them again.

Kay

 

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Slightly different problem, with car hire, as the web site had a problem, rang up after 15 minutes, i ended up with 2 cars !

Muppets.

The re rang Virgin Atlantic, to try and resolve it, as for some reason, when I booked the flights the car hire from their web site went to Virgin Holidays.

Anyway the nicel;ady at VA re booked a car through them, and linked it to the flights, shge was in the UK, which was 140 quid cheaper, with the extra insurance!. Rang Virgin holidays again, to try and cancel it, you explain it all to one person, then he says I put you on hold, then he comes back, sorry I have to transfer you.

I explain it all again to the next person, he puts me on hold, and then after 10 minutes, you have to email this address ! What a total waste of time.

The previous attempts to sort this was by ringing up the call centre, but they just do not understand what your trying to do, hence I ended up with 2 car booking for one holiday !

I emailed customer.relations@virginholidays.com, to complain, only to get a reply saying they don't deal with this, look at this web page instead.

So thats it. I will never ever fly with Virgin again after this holiday. Its back to BA, cause their web site is a lie, because the great customer service that they harp on about does not exist.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

I agree whole heartedly - We were also FVC members and have used Virgin Holidays for at least 15 years - this is also the LAST time we will ever use them again!!!

Yes the Indian call centre is very frustrating - but the english ones are just as bad!! (I mean how difficult is it to price up a holiday - after all that is their main role - isn't it??? - without exagerating I was quoted 8 different prices for exactly the same holiday (EVERY operator ommited to include different elements each time!!) (and don't get me started on how difficult it is to try and amend anything once you've booked!!! )

Fingers crossed our actual holiday goes smoothly - after all the only reason I booked through VH was to have a stress free time - what a laugh!!

 

[B2B-2008]

I'm glad it isn't just me I have a nightmare trying to get our Disney hotel booking number to book our ADRs. It took me three attempts when I was ready to kill them I got a really nice guy who helped me right away and even took the time to look at my notes and see that we are getting married over there.

The next thing I need to do is put three different booking numbers down for one limo transfer to the hotel. I'm dreading having to talk to some one about this how do I talk to someone in the UK?

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Barbarah - sorry to hear of your problems. Which hotel were you planning to stay at? We loved our stay in the Keys, we stopped on Islamorada and are looking at a few nights this year on Marathon.

I'm afraid we can only echo everyone's frustrations with Virgin Holidays.

Interestingly on the DIBB a member of Virgin Holidays has joined and is trying to defend the company saying they are aware of people's concerns and sorting it all out (ie multiple copies of invoices being sent - they are trying to see this is a recent problem, yet we've been having this problem since we first started using VH over 9 years ago, also the call centre problems are being investigated).

I'm trying desperately hard not to turn this into a Virgin HOLIDAYS (not Virgin Atlantic) knocking thread. but can feel my BP rising just thinking of all the problems we've had with them over the last few years.

Suffice to say, we don't use them anymore. The last time we did - last Easter for a ski trip to Vermont - was because they had awarded us over £700 compensation for the complete hash they made of our previous ski trip to Lake Tahoe. I cannot tell you the stress we had before we'd even left this country because of their total inept way of messing up our booking. It was just as bad last year, so we've walked with our feet and left them well behind, discovering the joys of booking everything independently along the way

Wake up, Virgin Holidays - there are more and more fed up people out here

 

[barbarah]

Hi Mrs Dazzle

We were staying at the Chesapeake in Islamadora.

As we now have our refund even if they have not bothered to respond in writing or email I have rebooked the Ramada in Key Largo for 1 night and the Doubletree in Key West for the 2nd night. My husband preferred this due to driving distance from Fort Myers the previous stage of our long trip. Both hotels got good ratings on Tripadvisor so should be OK. Cost more but should be nice.

My blood pressure must have been through the roof the day I spoke to Virgin as I could not believe how a large company like them could talk to customers.

I guess the only time that we know how good a company are is when there is a problem, but my only bad experiences have been with the Indian call centre and as I was born in India it is not a cultural thing it is just bad attitude and training.

For this trip booked a miles only flight to Las Vegas and wanted a price for a return from Orlando. They quoted me more than a return trip. When I stressed that I was booking the outward travel with them even if it was a miles booking they would not budge so like Wayne I had to book return travel with another airline. How does that help Virgin income?

I like Virgin flights due to price, entertainment and downtown disney facility but other airlines including charters are also offering these now with more legroom so might consider other flights in future.

Will definately never book accomodation or car hire with them again as plenty of other companies out there with good prices and with better terms and conditions.