virgin rip off?

[bobbrian]

PLease help we are booked with virgin for Aug disney all stars first then lazy beach holiday on long boat key. Was on the net when found on l.b. key town site that they are having major beach "refurbishment" works through May to Dec. Basically involves 24 / 7 massive tractors sand pipes along the beach etc. Any way we have contacted VIRGIN TO TRY TO CANCEL THE SECOND PART OF THE HOLIDAY ACCOMODATION and they are saying we can change but we must pay £25 x4 for admin, independent traveler cost £30 x 4 and have also "kindly" stuck on 4 x £32 fuel charges as an afterhtought. Ever felt ripped off? We seem to be stuck with the indian call centre did manage to get through to uk customers but it took an hour on hold! Any suggestions on who to write to or phone for better customer srevices at virgin? If we do manage to cancel without being massively out of pocket I have seen a sweet cottage on Anna Maria island ( TO REPLACE THE BUILDING SITE PART)so this could have a happy ending!!!!!

 

[fizz13]

I wish I could help you but I know what you mean about being ripped off. I booked the dining plan with virgin before I realised they are charging £7 more per day than disney. I rang to cancel and got the £25 admin fee put on, which they would not add to my booking but had to be paid up front. Bit miffed because they make a big deal about price matching.

I would try reading the small print about notifying you of circumstances which may affect your holiday. Maybe there is a loophole in there somewhere. they do love that £25 charge though. Hope you get it sorted,

Claire

 

[Miffy2003]

What about seeing if Virgin can offer you different accommodation for the second part of your holiday?

In practice I don't think they charge an admin fee if you end up booking something that is more expensive - even if only by a few pounds I suspect they are just trying to recoup some money from you if you actually cancel the accommodation?

Good luck. I would not want to spend a beach week with no beach, either!

 

[Claire L]

Just a thought if you have the hire car booked through VH they cannot charge you for the Independent stay part that you mention. I often book with VH and have the car but book hotels myself and it is fine with them no £30 fee as we still have the car booked through them.
Claire

 

[Claire L]

Oh and Miffy is right about the amendment fee being waived if your holiday price increases as last year extended our flydrive by two nights and no amendment charge as the car hire for 2 extra days put the price up by a few quid
Claire :wink

 

[gilld]

Oh and Miffy is right about the amendment fee being waived if your holiday price increases as last year extended our flydrive by two nights and no amendment charge as the car hire for 2 extra days put the price up by a few quid
Claire :wink

Not correct I'm afraid, at least not always. We changed from Turks and Caicos 2006 to Grenada, more than £500 more pp and they STILL insisted on charging £25pp. I got the last laugh though, they had to cancel as the hotel won't be rebuilt in time (it was detroyed in the hurricane) so they had to refund the deposit AND the ammendment fees!

 

[Claire L]

Oh thats odd as I have never been charged an amendment fee even when changing to the earlier flight, it wasn't available when I booked but 2 months later it was so I called and changed it, no probs at all.
Claire

 

[DisneyBB]

I have never been charged for changing my holiday, if the price of the holiday remained the same or increased. Once I did do battle with Virgin travel store (now closed down) as they were insisting on the £25 pp. They even went on to say that they had checked with VH, putting me on hold! Well I phoned VH directly and they stated that we do not charged for increases to the holiday price.

 

[bobbrian]

Thanks for all the comments.

It lookslike they are quite happy to not charge when you are spending more with them but when the cost of the is going down, even when forced to change due to major beach work, and their major profits are being hit for a few pounds they start introducing lots of sudden charges: admin, independent traveller and fuel supplements that were not on the last invoice only days old, to try and limit the impact.

I will continue to keep hastling them for a satisfactory answer, if anyone has any tips let me know and if I get anywhere I'll post again.

Next year we will be looking elsewhere any ideas?

All the best

Brian

 

[mulhjnr]

Brian,

Please read my recent posts about Virgin. It seems that their service depends a lot on who you actually talk to.

I have made a lot of changes recently and our total cost actually went down.

Virgin made all the requested changes and issued a new invoice based on the new reduced total (which I have been able to check online !)

This is my first trip with Virgin and I have to say that to date I have been very happliy surprised - maybe I have just been lucky.

Play the sob-story - first time to Orlando / big surprise for the family / you are just not sure about the accomodation for the second week etc.

Please let us know how you get on.

Pat.

 

[DisneyBB]

Just a thought, but arn't they supposed to inform you of any building work near the hotel? I thought it was a rule that all travel companies had to let you know.

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Write a letter directly to Sir Richard Branson stating all your issues and concerns. he won't actually read it but it will get to the correct department in the UK and they will be able to handle your case more efficiently. Because the letter is addressed directly to Sir Richard Branson it will be taken a little more seriously than one just to Virgin (and the price of a stamp is cheaper than your time and telephone calls).

Good luck.

 

[carolfoy]

To answer DisneyBB, Yes they ARE supposed to let you know but unfortunately theydon't always, we've got major hassles in work with airline network who were supposed to inform our clients about the TERRIBLE building work that was due to start out side of their chosen dubaii hotel but didn't tell us (the travel agents) until after the client had travelled!!! major hassles and ABTA won't get involved, this has been on going for ages with still no satisfactory outcome, MORAL: IF in doubt - change your accomodation, tell virgin (or whoever) that it is their duty to inform of ground works and give an option to change, they do not have to, by law refund money if you do not accept a reasonable alternative.

 

[bobbrian]

Thanks for all your comments.

In the end having had some figures emailed to me I replied with a spreadsheet showing my calculations and questioning the additional supplements they had added to my account.

When I didn't get an immediate reply I looked on the internet for a telephone number contact in the same building and ended up talking to a really nice commercial manager who agreed to pass my message on to the person dealing with our case and their line manager.

I received a call that evening saying that the case would be looked at in detail the following morning and that they would call me.

A little late but they did call and after yet more negotiating and financial correcting advice from me I did finally receive a full refund of the cost of the second accommodation. They removed the administration charges 2 * £25, the fuel surcharges 4 * £32 and half of the independent traveller charges = 2 * £30 which left £60, however I think my calculations must have confused them because in the end we paid the £60 but their new calculation was £85 extra in our favour which I quickly accepted and got them to email the new figures through.

I've had the money refunded to me and have taken the extra £25 as compensation for my time and telephone bill.

My advice is stick to your guns and if need be find alternative ways into the contact centre.

Thanks again

Brian

 

[Miffy2003]

Well done Brian!

 

[Mumof2]

Glad you got it all sorted. Well Done.

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Well done you - so what have you done about the accommodation now?

We've been in a similar situation with Virgin for one our hotels - the Registry Resort down in Naples. We had a letter from Virgin telling us that MAJOR refurbishment works were going to be taking place during the 10 nights we were spending there . . . but they would not affect us! Yeah, right! We'd had a nosey around the hotel the year before and knew that any refurbishment would cause a problem if you were staying there - and why else would they be offering $100 per room per night for onsite restaurants etc.

I had the devil's own job to change hotels with Virgin. They would not have it that my peace and quiet on holiday - let alone the worry before we went - would be compromised. In the end I managed to get hold of a supervisor (this was before the dreaded Indian call centre came in) and told her in no uncertain terms that I would not stay there, even if it meant booking with another company and losing my deposit. They agreed to change it to another hotel, no amendment fees or anything.

I hate to moan about companies, but Virgin used to be so customer-friendly. These days they really are becoming a nightmare.

We had to pay for our holiday last week - paid online using Switch card from the bank. Wouldn't go through. So after a few hours rushing around frantically trying to find out if someone had cloned our bank card and raided the bank (as they had DH's business credit card), the bank assured me everything was ok. So on the phone to Virgin Accounts Dept - usual story "oh the computer must have been playing up . . . ", so Monday morning after checking with the bank again, I phone the card number through when it wouldn't go through again online. Oh, say Virgin, the bank has asked for 'verification'. That's odd I said since I'd only spoken with them a few hours ago and they said it would not be a problem, and they'd marked the account for a big spend going through. Kept checking online every day to see if payment had finally gone through. Thursday afternoon at 5.28 pm (2 mins before department closes) I get a call from Virgin Hols Accounts Dept - really sorry Mrs O, your payment has failed. Panic stations, I had visions of the holiday being cancelled by Virgin because the payment was now 4 days late (because of themselves) - and then Virgin Accounts Dept couldn't do anything that evening because the office was closing (how blooming convenient!). Finally, Friday morning they say the payment has gone through, don't worry about it any more (I worry for the world, I'm afraid ) and have a nice holiday.

Whose fault - Virgin Hols . . . they'd been trying to put the payment through as a credit card payment, not Switch. I told them each time I phoned it was Switch straight out of bank (like we always do) . . . . 4 days of worrying for nothing!

Aarrrrrrgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

 

[kazzie]

That is great news you have manged to change your holiday to your satisfaction

With Virgin it really seems to be the case sometimes of finding a raesonable person willing to put things right.Even after others there have said they can't help

 

[daveyoghurt]

I think it must be pot luck as I've always found the Virgin guys quite friendly, it beats being on hold with TCD for 40 mins each time you phone them...