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.

i agree its really bad that you got told AFTER booking that the flight was unavailable (although funnily enough magically available again if you pay 1.7k more!!)
however got to ask - why did you pay in full? We use Virgin for big holidays to caribbean/florida nearly every year and always pay deposit per person, then final balance 12weeks prior, if you were going in OCT 16 im just querying why they took full payment?

Also agree with previous poster - wait for after xmas sales, they usually do something in Jan called 'Rockstar sales' and you get money off and alot of extras - one year we had prebooked in Nov and ended up cancelling, losing the deposit and rebooking exact same holiday that day and still saved thousands even with deposit loss, because of the 30% off offer they had on plus free lounge access etc. Maybe tell the kids you are going to book a holiday then book in the sales?

YANBU

As for posters saying - don't worry just book another 3k holiday and sort out out when Vigin refund you.., not Everyone has C cards , or even with a 3k balance spare.
Big companies so often treat the customer like shite . Phone up the call centre again - and say you will wait on hold for Daves manager - I bet someone will become available for you ! Good luck , really hope you get the refund asap so you can book something else -not with Virgin!!

The kids won't go without. It was just supposed to be a nice surprise. A massive treat for next year. A final farewell now Dad's estate all settled.

No. It won't ruin Christmas. I'm aware they're not out to get me etc

It is just another example of a large company taking the piss out of the consumer.

I'm annoyed to the point of angry. It was a great deal which it looks like we won't get now.

I'm worried to the point of upset. £3.2k is a massive amount of money to us.

We won't be booking anything like this again in a hurry regardless of the outcome of this whole sorry mess.

Sodding virgin sodding holidays. I'll show them my sodding mojo (which is what their advert keeps bleating on about)

And Dave still hasn't phoned

Seat prices fluctuate all the time, as the cheaper seats get sold out the airline releases seats at a higher price. If they don't sell as well, prices can come down. Tuesdays are allegedly the best day to book, and Fridays the worst.

No I don't get that. Christmas is only ruined if she allows it to be. Children don't expect a holiday in their stocking do they?

The OP's idealised plan of telling children about it on Xmas day is currently 'ruined' but that is not same thing at all. The holiday could well even get re-sorted before Xmas tbh. If it gets booked after Xmas you could have eg a New Year's day surprise instead. So many possibilties.

What has happened is very disappointing, hugely annoying and will undoubtedly be a pain in arse for OP to have to sort out. Without a doubt. No need to make it worse than that though, is there?

+1 for tweeting about it.

It's the only way to get big companies to listen to you. Keep it factual though and no defamatory or abusive!

Are there terms and conditions when you book. I'd have thought them taking payment was accepting the contract to supply the holiday you'd paid for.

The fact that the holiday us still available at a different price shows its available.

I can't see how they can advertise then sell a holiday, take payment and then want more cash.

They've made an error they need to swallow any loss associated with that error.

Never mind Christmas, it's ruined my day off supposed to be spent watching love actually and wrapping presents.

Stupid Virgin. I'm frightened to leave the phone as they only have house number..

We were thinking of a Virgin holiday in 2017. This has made me reconsider. We'd certainly only pay a deposit now, if we use them at all.

I find contacting the CEO directly, stating clearly 9and briefly) what happened and what you would like to happen next is a very effective way to get results.

CEO of Virgin Holidays is Mark Anderson

e-mail: [email protected]

or on linked-in www.linkedin.com/in/markanderson15

Had a problem with Motorola Customer Services, contacted the CEO (you can google everything these days) and a problem that had been dragging on was suddenly sorted within 24 hours.

Contact him. Keep it brief, tell him what you need to happen next. be polite.

Often works

I still don't understand why you can't just rebook a different holiday using a credit card. You know you will get the money back. Virgin have already confirmed this.

I can understand you are annoyed they are refusing to honour the flights at the price you booked - that is really shitty of them, but I would vote with my feet and give my money to another company. I certainly wouldn't mope around all over Christmas worrying about it.

We discussed only laying deposit but just felt as we had the cash we'd just get it paid and start looking at paying up accommodation & park tickets.

Lesson learnt.

I don't know what you are so worried about. You'll have the money back.

They've probably done you a favour, you'll get a much better deal in the new year.

Not everyone has loads of credit cards with lovely high credit limits they can 'just go and rebook' a holiday on.

It's on Twitter so stand by - maybe they'll get themselves over here!

Hmm. Was thinking of using Virgin for DH's big birthday trip to Vegas next year. This has given me pause

I would call them back and ask to speak to a manager. Don't accept a call back but say you will hold and wait until someone is available to speak with you. Don't accept the promise of a call back (bet it never materialises). If their manager isn't available, ask to speak to his or her line manager. If they refuse, explain that you will therefore have no choice to take to social media.

Mention how disappointed you are and the fact that this feels like extortion given that they will hold onto your money for 2 weeks (when they should be able to refund on same day basis) unless you pay them the extra, and that in the meantime you are losing the opportunity to book replacement flights.

If you can find an equivalent deal available at present (even if on another website) that would help as you can then show that they are costing you the opportunity to book.

Oh for goodness' sake, did barely anyone read the OP?!

She hadn't booked the flights- just tried to: that's why she got the error message telling her to ring them. What it means is that 4 seats (or however many) are no longer available in the price bracket she had booked. Yes, it would have been simpler if the Virgin site had just redirected her to the booking page to rebook at the new, higher price: but it didn't. There's nothing underhand - plane tickets are sold in various price bands, and it's not uncommon for them to sell out It doesn't mean (necessarily) there's no seats left on the plane.

Similarly - Virgin haven't got her money: it's just showing as gone because the bank have confirmed she has it when she tried to make the booking - which hasn't gone through. So it's like when you use your credit card as a deposit on a hire car- it doesn't take the £1000 away, but it authorises it in the event you nick off with the car.

OP's mistake is that, if she could have get the tickets cheaper elsewhere, taking into account the difference, she didn't ask them to refund immediately, at once, not including speaking to Dave. If she'd done that, she very likely would have had the money showing back by the end of this week.

If she couldn't have got them cheaper, including the extra price, then she needed to tell them to go ahead and book, and then would have had the flights etc arranged.

OP clearly got into a state, understandably, given how emotive the issue is because it's connected with her dad etc and hasn't done either of these things, so it's all currently in limbo. She needs to decide to do one or the other and it will be resolved, as some PP have pointed out.

PP frothing at the mouth and berating Virgin here are not helping the situation: Virgin haven't done anything wrong, haven't done anything underhand, haven't done anything you can report them to anybody for It's just that their online booking system is clearly a bit illogical in how it operates, by not telling you once you've hit "pay" that your flights are no longer available and sending you back to rebook, and instead asking that you ring them (as OP did).

Ranting at her about how shite Virgin are is just cranking up the tension for her: this is very easily fixable, before Christmas, and doesn't need to involve contacting the CEO. The ranty actions some PP have suggested would just make her look illogical, deranged and ignorant, and she's none of these things: just stressed and fed up, but with a problem that can be solved very, very easily and simply.

I don't really see the problem!

I mean, yes it's rude to take the money and then say the flight isn't available.

But you wouldn't have had that 3.2k in your account this Christmas anyway, so you weren't relying on it for Christmas present buying, rent or what have you. So how does it ruin Christmas.

Deep breaths OP. You need to be rational and clear about the issue when you speak to Dave (and demand an immediate refund) or he might be less inclined to help.

Whether it ruins christmas or not it's shitty behaviour, same happened when I tried to book a holiday on easyholidays.com only it only wanted an extra £50 and to be fair it did say so before I paid.
But am convinced it was basically blackmail,which worked

I used to work for a Virgin rival. Firstly, I'm surprised this has happened and that the booking was allowed to go through, but errors do happen now and again. So - if you have screenshots etc to prove all this, the easiest thing for them to do would be just let you have the holiday for the price you thought you'd have to pay. The flights won't be full so far out - the price band might have just altered as the flight started to fill.

If I've misunderstood and you haven't actually booked yet, there isn't much that can be done, someone else may well have booked the last seats at that price just before you.

When you get your money back Ring E-shores and ask to speak to Gavin. He is ace. Will shop around to find you best deal at best price and really care about your custom.

Virgin et al are bloody rip off merchants. Wanted over 2k more for a holiday which we booked through Gavin in the end saving 2k!!

Surely a) you can just re book b) tell kids you have booked for October, they hardly need confirmation of flights to believe you

They should be able to refund you more quickly. 7-10 days is not acceptable. Have you been on Twitter?

This is frustrating and not great practice but not worth getting your knickers in a twist about.

Accept refund, chill out, book another holiday after Xmas when very likely prices will fall anyway.