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Virgin Airlines : Terrible customer communications and glacial response times
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Complaint Closed 13th Nov 2009
Posted by: Caveat Emptor
Date posted: 9th Dec 2008
Date it happened: 26th Sep 2008 		My complaint is about: Virgin Airlines
My thoughts about the situation: Appalling - I'm Exasperated
Reason for posting: I want Virgin to understand how their services levels have declined
ComplaintCommunity™ Rating:
(2 Votes)
Member since: 20th Jun 2008
I hope this complaint will at least get Virgin to question their Customer Service set up. You can only complain in writing (email or post), with no telephone numbers supplied. Turnaround levels are 21 days and the responses do not meet the needs. In addition Virgin staff seek to pass problems on rather than solve them thermselves. Please Virgin, sort this out!

Myself my wife and a colleague returned from Antigua on flight VS034 on 26th September 2008. Virgin diverted this flight without prior notification to Tobago. This diversion was done as a mercy mission for those customers trapped in Tobago due to XL Travel going bust. I tried to contact Virgin for two reasons. Most importantly I required a letter from Virgin confirming the above to be true, since the delay caused by this diversion caused me to miss my connecting flight and necessitated me buying replacement tickets for all three of us. I needed the letter, so I could claim a refund on my travel insurance.



In addition I contacted Virgin to express my extreme displeasure by the Customer service given by Virgin throughout the whole process. The original diversion was caused by Virgin trying for a PR stunt to demonstrate they are customer friendly only make the whole affair more sour. The fact that Virgin prioritized another firms customers over their own for the sake of PR I will leave aside, since business is business – I am more angry by the behaviour of the staff we dealt with.



Firstly there was no advance notification that the flight was due to be diverted available on the Virgin web site or indeed BAA at any time. The first we became aware of the issue was when we arrived at VC Bird airport in Antigua.
When we explained to the check in staff at VC Bird that we were likely to miss our connection, they assured us this would not be a problem and that they would notify Ground staff in the UK. They would have a solution waiting for us when we arrived. This sounded great.
The check in staff further stated if we upgraded to Economy plus we be ensured priority service when we landed in getting us a new connecting flight. At this point I did explain that the flights were not on a single booking, but they said this would not make any difference
On boarding the plane, we explained the situation to the cabin crew to double check our connecting flight to Amsterdam was sorted out. They said they had not been told anything by the Ground staff at VC Bird, but they would also contact the Ground staff at Gatwick. They confirmed everything was sorted and someone would meet us on the sky ramp.
When we arrived at Gatwick there were no ground staff on the Sky Ramp except for one staff member who stated they were only there to sort out wheels chairs. They advised me to proceed to the ticket desk who would quickly sort things out.
To this point we had received polite and seemingly helpful (all be it ineffective) service. When we arrived at the ticket desk things started to get nasty
The queue at the ticket desk was exceptionally long, due to a cancellation of an outbound flight. My wife therefore asked the Virgin Holidays representative on the next door desk one question. She asked if in the representative’s opinion we were best off waiting in the queue to speak to the ticket desk, or whether we should proceed to BA (the airline our connection was with). She was not asking them to get involved or solve anything, just which queue to stand in.
The Virgin Holidays representative became very hostile in an almost alarming fashion. She stated that Virgin Holidays had nothing to do with tickets unless booked through them and she was sick of people bothering her. Her manner has ensured that I will certainly never bother Virgin Holidays again either with a question or indeed with my business.
Based on the continuing bad behaviour from the Virgin Holidays representative I decided it was safer to go to BA, as the queue for the Virgin tickets desks looked at least 30 minutes long and I did not want my wife exposed to anymore poor behaviour from the Virgin Holidays representative
When we talked to the BA ticket team a few minutes later we were treated to the type of service I used to associate with Virgin. They listened to the situation and took the time to properly explain the situation. They confirmed that since the flights from Antigua to Gatwick and Gatwick to Amsterdam were on different bookings they were not able to move us onto a later flight without us paying for new tickets. Not the news I was hoping to hear, but I was glad to get some constructive advice, rather than smiles and platitudes. They also confirmed that neither VC Bird Virgin Ground staff, the Virgin Cabin Crew nor the Virgin Ground staff at Gatwick airport had been in touch regarding the delayed flight (despite numerous empty promises to this effect being made to us).
The BA ticket staff further advised that we go to the Virgin Ticket desk to get a letter from the Virgin ticket desk confirming the reason for the delay in the incoming flight to make our insurance claim more simple. I bought three new BA tickets (business class as we had an 8 hour wait for the next flight) and proceeded to the Virgin Ticket desk
When we returned to the Virgin Ticket desk we waited to speak to a supervisor. We explained the whole situation and stated we just wanted a letter confirming the reason for the delay in the Virgin flight. She said and I quote “They did not have the resources to produce a letter”. When I asked did she mean personnel; she clarified “No, I mean we are physically unable to produce a letter”. She then said we should take some “any concerns” leaflets away and request a letter through that..
At this point I must confess my patience did reach its limit. I asked her whether she had access to headed Virgin stationary and a pen and she confirmed she did. I asked her why she was then unable to physically produce a letter. She declined to answer.


All the way through the process I saw a repeated failure by Customer facing staff. They sought to end the dialogue with the customer as quickly as possible, without seeking to actually resolve the situation at any point. At any stage a representative could have explained we would need to buy a new ticket and claim on insurance and perhaps have provided a confirmation as to why the flight was delayed.

Since this occured I have emailed Virgin twice about this. In each instance it has taken 21 days to respond. The first response was full of platititudes and promised that we would be contacted directly (we have not been). In addition they provided the confirmation letter, but not on Virgin headed paper! When we queried this it took a further 21 days to get a correct letter (04/12). This is too late for us to claim the flights from our insurance.

Please find below the mails received from Virgin

14/11
Our ref: xxxxxxxx

Hello Mr xxxxxxxx

Thank you for contacting us about your flight from Antigua.

I'm very sorry to read about the trouble you and your party faced because of the diversion to your flight. I can appreciate how disappointing this must have been for you and I apologise for it.

I can confirm that your flight was diverted to pick up Excel Airways'
passengers from Tobago. I know how important it was for us to deal with this situation in an effective and appropriate way but from what you've said it looks like we could have done a much better job here.

I must apologise that there was no flow of information between our staff in Antigua, our crew on this flight and our staff in Gatwick. Also it does us no good to read about the way our ground staff treated you when you had asked for a letter confirming the diversion to your flight.

We always train our staff to be very particular about being helpful to our passengers while handling such cases. But this didn't happen. Believe me this is not the kind of service we offer and we're concerned to receive such feedback.

I've informed both our airport and our crew performance managers about this. They will have a word with their staff to make sure that we avoid such instances in future.

I've also noted your comments about the behaviour of the Virgin Holidays staff in London. I've forwarded your email to Virgin Holidays. They will get in touch with you about this separately.

I realise that you missed your connecting flight and had to purchase another flight with British Airways because of this. I'm sorry for this trouble. I do appreciate that you need a letter stating that this happened. I've attached this with my email. I hope this confirmation letter will be of help to you.

It's evident that you feel we haven't met your expectations on this occasion but I assure you this isn't typical of us.

Thank you for writing to us about this and for letting us know how you felt. I know this hasn't left you with a good impression about us. But I hope that you won't judge us on the basis of this experience and will give us a chance to win back your confidence.

Kind regards

xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx(Mr)
Customer Relations Executive

04/12
Our ref: xxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx

04 December 2008


Mr and Mrs xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx



Dear Mr and Mrs xxxxxxxx

Further to your phone call, here are the details you asked for to help with your insurance claim.

Our customer relations team will be in touch just as soon as they can after your file has been reviewed.

Again, I'm sorry for the trouble you had - but I hope we'll see you flying with us again soon.

Kind regards


xxxxxxxx
Customer Relations
Confusingly the email address says xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx, but the mail is signed xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx
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Posted by: CompComm - Admin(1)
Date posted: 13th Jan 2009
Member since: 20th Jun 2008
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Posted by: CompComm - Admin(1)
Date posted: 24th Jul 2009
Member since: 20th Jun 2008
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