Virgin PE - UPDATE

[Mrs Dazzle]

Thought I'd let you know I've just got a result from a letter of complaint I wrote to Virgin following on the threads on the discounts being currently offered on Virgin's Premium Economy.

Like a lot of other people, we'd booked our hol/seats months ago at top whack prices. When I saw the threads a few weeks ago about the great prices, thought I'd give it a go and see how accommodating Virgin would be Not. Over the phone, the excuse was it was for "on-line" bookings only. So, did a dummy quote on-line and there were the bargain prices being shown for exactly the same day we fly

Phoned them again and got a quote over the phone (ie NOT on-line booking) - quoted the bargain prices again When I said I was due to pay for my holiday that day and I really wanted to know how I could now get these prices, I was told I would need to speak to a Supervisor who, although very sympathetic, could (or would not) help. She actually recommended I write to Customer Services about it.

Well, once I'd got my teeth into this one, I wasn't going to let it drop - got meself into a write old lather thinking about it. I worked out that if I cancelled my holiday, immediately rebooked it - even taking into account losing our deposits - I would be better off That's what made me really cross

So, Virgin got a letter from me pointing out all the above. I did use the phrase "customer loyalty" a few times - after all, I insisted, here we are, Frequent Virgins, not getting any benefits for booking ages ago to fit in with school hols, etc. etc.

Got a very nice letter back saying blah blah about how wonderful it was to book in advance because you can get the accommodation/flights etc you want (mine were all still available when I checked) and that their booking agents aren't always immediately aware of the special offers ! Anyway, long and short of it "they were sorry I thought they were disciminating against loyal customers and are therefore giving me the new prices" Got my refund of nearly £500 back yesterday

I've written to them today to say my faith has since been restored in Virgin's customer focus . . . let's hope it stays that way

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Ahh, persistence pays off. Well done, and well done to Virgin for (eventually) getting it right. What are you going to do with al the lovely cash you've saved?

Regards

Rob

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Hi Rob - well, I posted a thread a couple of days ago about was it worthwhile staying on site for just one night and, as I suspected, the general consensus was not. Thanks everyone for your thoughts, most appreciated

As we're only in Orlando for a week, we're already staying at HRH for one night for our 2-day visits to USF. Not done IOA before, so this seemed the best way. October will be strange for us as we're used to going May/June when the parks are all open till late, so I thought by staying on-site Disney we could get more benefit two days, but I'm thinking now I'll save the dosh for our trip next year, when we're actually staying in a friend's condo in Fort Myers (we love the Gulf Coast, you see ). We can then perhaps travel to Orlando for 2-3 days staying on-site for a mini-Disney fix

Just pleased with the result - like you say, perseverance pays off (let's hope they don't read this and reclaim their money for causing a fuss ).

 

[Mazzy]

That's Great News!

It just shows what you can do when you put your mind to it! It reminds me of when I had the problems with the withdrawal of captioned videos, it took me months to get something done about it, but I got a result in the end - it feels good doesn't it?

 

[Astrid]

Big sigh of relief that they actually upheld their side of the bargain!!

Well done you! It's so irritating to think that big companies like Virgin must get away with things like this over and over.

Astrid x

PS. Bit obvious I wrote your e-mail before reading this thread isn't it!!

 

[kazzie]

Did you book the flights directly with Virgin or with another company??