Virgin Holidays have taken >£3k from account. Am at wits end

[chocoLit]

So would I be unreasonable for accusing Virgin Holidays for ruining Christmas?!?

We booked online last night. £3200. Paid full price. Flights & car hire for whole family. Dates Oct 2016. Holiday of a lifetime and not undertaken lightly.

An error message came up on screen asking us to call which I did this morning as soon as I could.

They're now claiming those flights don't exist anymore unless we pay them £1500 more.

OR for only £1k more they'll send us a different way with two stops instead of one.

As for the money, they won't return that sooner that 7-10 working days.

I feel like am being blackmailed here and almost at wits end.

Girl dealing was very pleasant but new to company so wasn't able to help much or any further.

Someone called 'Dave' is to be phoning me back but she's not sure when or what he's going to be able to do!!?

So, AIBU to turn up at Branston's door with the 3DC and have him explain why they're not getting their holiday!!!

Has anyone had this before? Any advice gratefully received.

Sorry! _ I didn't copy and paste and they are both still 100% owned by the Virgin Group - they are the same umbrella company en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Group
And both seem to have same dodgy T&Cs and crap customer service!
I wouldn't touch anything related to a Virgin company ever again.
I used to like them -been with them for years.
Thought they were one of the good guys who cared about their customers - because they have that image - and I think people should know that they are one of the worst companies I have every dealt with .
(Rant over - and sorry again - I see the word Virgin and my blood boils - I do actually post on MN all the time ....using a different user name )

to ihatevirginmobile

They might be owned by the same virgin group, but they are sep companies - i bet they dont get the same perks as the others - like VHols get the same perks as VAtl, but not the same as the Virgin Mobile set, and the 'flexible working' that the people at Virgin Group get www.virgin.com/richard-branson/why-were-letting-virgin-staff-take-as-much-holiday-as-they-want - etc, but those at other companies dont.

tbf most of the staff seemed to be struggling against their fantastic new multimillion pound computer system...which doesn't actually seem to be able to let them DO anything. (one eg change my card details from an expired one so I could pay them)
Most of the staff were pleasant and trying to be helpful...some did seem to lack training -that's not their fault.

(They do seemed to have farmed out some cs overseas -must be for basic things - you have to tell them your problem(s) (again) to then get passed to someone in the UK to tell them again ...and they offer no way with an ongoing problem of bypassing that)
So it isn't the staff I had a problem with (I actually felt a bit sorry for some of them) -I guess it was the management...the organisation....the system - the company!
(Will shut up now )

Money finally showing in account so now I have booked flights on a credit card with BA for

Glad it's getting sorted chocoLit. Aibu is a strange, strange place these days

I'm so glad you have got it sorted x you where NOT being unreasonable at all and some of the replies here are unnecessarily rude x

Glad you got it sorted, i do think virgin handled it well. These mistakes happen with very complicated systems and they offered to sell you the holiday at cost price.

Have a great time, think about Ecuador for next year!

Interestingly I have just been in Waterstones and the person in front wanted a refund for a book that someone else had bought them. It was paid for by card and they would refund unless it was to the same card. Didn't say how long it would take but I guess that is in the hands on the Merchant Services provider.

I think that was amazingly quick to be honest, well done to Virgin. I wouldn't be put off booking with them again given how quickly it was sorted out.

Hang on. They returned your payment, it took 3 days. And you think you should never book with them again?

It seems they dealt with it very well, very quickly and without any real problem.

As I have said before, it could happen with any travel agent. So why the bad feeling?

Pleased it got sorted. Hopefully your kids will have their Christmas surprise after all.
Although virgin sorted it in the end they still TRIED to charge you £1500- that would have left a very bad taste in my mouth too.

They gave the OP the OPTION frazzled.

OP i think saying that Virgin 'finally' paid the money back is pretty ungracious actually. How fast would you really expect it back .

Never book with Virgin

Rubish. Not least because there are a lot of posters who would advise "never book with BA". :)

I've booked multiple times with both and never had a problem that wasn't swiftly resolved.

I agree that 3 days is a pretty good turn around for a refund.

Is getting ridiculous.

OP tried to book a holiday with Virgin Holidays. Instead of receiving her booking confirmation, she receives an error message advising her to ring them.

She rings the next day and is told there are insufficient flights in that fare price bucket available to honour the booking. She is given the option of paying more or cancelling.

OP dithers before contacting VH again and on Thursday she is offered the same package for £150 extra (a tenth of the original proposed increase). She refuses to accept the revised offer and by Saturday morning her money has been refunded back into her account.

I really can't see the problem with Virgin Holiday's customer service in this instance

This

No, I can't see why you wouldn't book with Virgin again either, shit happens and its been sorted very quickly

I can see a problem with this system, that less pushy demanding customers who don't post on MN will end up perhaps taking the £1500 more expensive deal feeling pressured into doing so on the phone the next day, having agreed a different price but feeling unable to negotiate as the Op did.

Now you might say that's their look-out, but that's what's left a nasty tone with me- this company didn't behave in a straight-forward manner. They tried up-selling and when that didn't work, tried some face-saving by slashing the up-selling.

I have found Virgin Mobile to be incomprehensibly incompetent, we use them for our home internet and mobiles (which are on an interconnected package) but every single mobile number has a different bill on a different way and can't be linked up (well two can) and can't be accessed from the same account online either. It's a nightmare. The people on the phone are very nice, but their systems are rubbish and that seems to be true in the holiday business as well.

woo hoo

christmas is saved

Yes, 3 days for a refund is acceptable. Just goes to show what a load of old baloney the posters who were alleging that Virgin couldn't refund the OP's cash any faster than 7 days because of money laundering regs were spouting.

It's amazing what corporations will do when you kick up a fuss.

I do love AIBU - there's another thread where a poster decided to give a company a second chance and was rounded upon for not learning her lesson the first time. And on this one, the poster should have accepted VH's fair second offer. :o

Given there was no guarantee they wouldn't turn round and say 'oh sorry, that price has gone too' then I don't blame her for booking direct with the airline. Let's hope BA don't bump her off the flight ...

Pesto, the problem with Virgin's service is that (1) they took the money without being prepared to honour the contract; (2) they were only prepared to reduce the holiday price after OP made a fuss; and (3) they only refunded the money promptly after she made a fuss. None of that should have happened.

ChocoLit - May I suggest rentalcars.com for car hire? We booked an Alamo car through them in the summer and it was very easy. Bonus of no insurance excess too, and you don't need to faff around with DVLA licence codes either.

the problem with Virgin's service is that (1) they took the money without being prepared to honour the contract;

The payment is automatic. They didn't "take" anything, the OP gave it to them.

(2) they were only prepared to reduce the holiday price after OP made a fuss;

No, the initial person was unable to do anything, as is often the case, and it would have had to be referred further up the management chain. This would be the case with every large company. The "monkeys" on the front line can do very little outside of set parameters.

and (3) they only refunded the money promptly after she made a fuss

You have absolutely no idea whether that is true or not. Unless, of course, you are Dave from Virgin holidays.

Araiba

Lynda. You obviously have never had to deal with Merchant Services or had to sign a contract with then and therefore know fuck all about what is baloney and what isn't.

To spell it out in simple terms.

1. the company making the refund enter the refund on to the terminal 2)the money leaves the companies account immediately
2. the card merchants take up to 10' days to return the money to your account.

I know this having had to tell a customer with a £10k limit that although I declined his transaction because his CCV number was not verified the card company had already taken the money from his card. I could refund him because I hadn't taken payment from him. As the order was £8.5k he couldn't try a second time as the value was going to take him over his credit limit. I had a pissed off customer through no fault of my own. He had to piss his customers off because he didn't have any other way to pay.

And the reason the card merchants give (and also that HMRC have given for ensuring large transactions are repaid using the same method, and that they should not be paid in cash).

Yes. EU money laundering regs.

If it were just the card companies I would think it was an excuse to hold onto the money but when someone like HMRC join in and tell you how you should deal with high value refunds I listen and take their advice.