To expect the Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic to answer my correspondence and not FOB ME OFF with supposed Customer Services

[wendover1965]

This is a copy of a letter that I have sent to Virgin Atlantic. The story is all there. I have been fobbed off with useless people calling me who haven't got a clue what my query is really about and been told that the Chief Executive and his staff are "TOO BUSY" apparently to keep there customers happy. I was a frequent flyer member in the 1990's but after this shambles Virgin Atlantic will never get any more business from me. My OPINION IS AVOID THE AIRLINE AT ALL COSTS. There are plenty of other Airlines to choose from. Make Virgin Atlantic your last choice of airline not your first

Dear Mr **

(He is apparently the person who looks after customers) Certainly not in my experience

I am writing to you to deal with a complaint which your refunds/customer service team have been unable to find a solution to, in the hope that you can take a view and help with a reasonable outcome.

I booked 2 tickets to Memphis from Manchester on 4th September, 1 for me and one for my 17 year old son. This was in January.

My son decided he did not want to go and wanted to cancel his ticket so I went online to cancel his ticket. Your system would not give me the option of cancelling 1 ticket and said I had to cancel the booking. On the refund form it asked me for a phone number so that someone could contact me regarding the refund. I thought great when they phone I can explain that I only want 1 ticket cancelled. NOBODY called and then I find myself with an email today saying that out of £800 odd tickets I am going to get £152.00 each back. I have asked your customer services team to justify that, they have not explained themselves, I asked for it to be sent in writing to me why I am being charged for taxes when the ticket is not sold. Surely if you resell a ticket the next person pays taxes on it, how can you justify taking taxes from me as. That is twice and it seems conning the consumer springs to mind.

had someone from refunds done their job and called, I would still have a ticket and I would not be £1300 out of pocket, and it has left me in a situation where I cannot now buy another ticket because I can't afford it twice. I was going to visit an old friend who I haven't seen for 20 years and this is now ruined because no-one from your refund team could be bothered to pick up the phone. MY TICKET SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN CANCELLED and your processes online should allow for people to be able to remove some and not all of the party off.

The original person I spoke to at customer services said my ticket HAD NOT yet been refunded, so I saw a glimmer of hope that I could stop the refund of my ticket. I was subsequently told by a chap called J C* (who has no customer service skills at all, he just quotes rules and regulations) that my ticket was cancelled. Which is it you cannot deal with people who give conflicting information.

I am writing in the hope that you can take a view on this because quite frankly had someone from the refund team called. Firstly my ticket wouldn't of been cancelled and secondly my son would of probably kept his if he knew the amount of losses that were involved. He is a 17 year old on minimum wage and cant afford these losses either. Your refund team should have called and didn't and they have created all this. IN FACT I HAVE CONTACTED THEM TWICE TODAY AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T CALLED

I would like a response as soon as possible but all in all so far a very poor show from Virgin Atlantic

I presume a booking is entire booking for a "party", and it may have said that in the T&C. Therefore

1. Your problem is with your son, I think
2. You should have cancelled the booking, and re-booked the seat! if you still wanted to go OR
3. Found someone else to go with in place of your son, and amended the booking. (if possible)
4. Or wrote the sum off to experience.

I think unfortunately YABU.

And why stop at the CEO? Give old Richie B a ring, I'm sure he's got nothing better to do either.

I suspect the people quoting rules and regulations are explaining that you agreed to nonrefundable T&Cs when you bought the tickets and now you’ve chosen to cancel you’re kicking off at them that they’re applying those T&Cs

Of course the CEO doesn’t have time to respond to you. They have a job to do, just like the customer service staff you keep being rude to and about have a job to do.

Perhaps you should seek some financial reimbursement from your son.

In a previous job, I was the person who dealt with the emails and calls directed to the CEO.

Mainly because I knew the ins and outs of how the system operated, I could apply credits, issue refunds, search suspense accounts for missing payments customers said they'd sent. In short, I could actually DO something to resolve the customers' problems on a practical level. The CEO couldn't do any of that, and neither could his PA.

Of course the Cheif Executive won’t personally answer your complaint. No offence, but that ridiculous.

MuseumofInnocence
Is there someone more experienced in communication that could help you with this?

Too late alas, OP said it has already been sent.

OP, your letter was too rambling and the capital letters didn't help. I think you have to be realistic and acknowledge that no CEO is going to spend their day answering rambling, ranty letters. Let's be honest, I wouldn't, would you?

You pressed cancel and they cancelled. Are they supposed to be psychic?

sorry OP, I think you're in the wrong here. Why on earth did you click the confirm button to canx both tickets when you knew you only wanted to canx one??

(And please don't shout in caps that "they were going to call you back to discuss it")

You should have called first. You are in the wrong here, and I imagine the £152 you have been refunded is the taxes part, as your tickets you originally booked were non refundable. Read the small print, chalk it up, try and reclaim on your travel insurance?

Insurance won't pay out because someone didn't fancy going anymore.

I have written to Tim Berners-Lee about the ridiculousness of this thread. The bugger better reply, after all, he invented the bloody internet.

You can’t send letters like that and seriously expect a response. The letter is rude, unprofessional and virtually impossible to understand.

I recently had call to make a complaint to a large bank. I had been having serious issues with them for months and was waiting on a large payment.

Eventually, I wrote to the head of customer services, not the CEO, but the main Board Director, having worked out what his email might be.

I was utterly polite and to the point but very clear as to why I was making a complaint.

I had a response within 10 hours and my payment within 5 days.

What you’re asking may be perfectly reasonable, how you are saying it, is not reasonable. Manners and courtesy cost nothing but pay dividends

I agree Believeability. I once had to complain to Sony. I didn't email the CEO but carefully researched to find out the highest level of management within Customer Services, and emailed that person.

Within hours his PA had contacted me. They not only replaced the product, but gave me a cheque to cover its value too. They also followed up with an email outlining changes they were going to make within the Customer Services Dept because of the unfair treatment I had received.

However. I spent hours putting together my case. I then cut the whole thing in half, made the relevant points into bullet points and outlined in a non threatening way the action I would be taking should this not be resolved in a satisfactory manner.

I know without a shadow of doubt, professionalism, politeness, and courtesy win through. I always get recompense with a valid and fair complaint I send. You cannot rant and rave in a huge email and expect results.

It's worth looking at Money Saving Expert or Which? for templates for complaints letters.

Look, all airlines re shit when something goes wrong. You have got yourself into a right tiz about this. Calm down.

secondly my son would of probably kept his if he knew the amount of losses that were involved. He is a 17 year old on minimum wage and cant afford these losses either

Like, everyone knows you don't get money back when you decide not to take a non-refundable flight.

MEGA LOLZ

when you want to cancel there is not an option to cancel 1 ticket so I was forced to cancel the booking

As others have said, that is the point at which you should have phoned in stead of cancelling both. If you want to do something non standard, it is better to speak to a person as online systms are usually set up to cover just ordinary situations. An expensive mistake.

I got an email saying my booking was cancelled at 06.43 in the morning. I was at my computer and immediately emailed back to say I didn't want both cancelled and would someone ring me. Nobody did.

Most likely it was sent from email address that doesn't accept replies.

I have written to Tim Berners-Lee about the ridiculousness of this thread. The bugger better reply, after all, he invented the bloody internet. Genius! We can all write to him about everything, because it is the internet that is causing everything awful that happens these days. At last the legitimate fall guy...

my son would of probably kept his if he knew the amount of losses that were involved.

When I've bought tickets it has always been very clear that they are non-refundable.

I wouldn’t have a clue who to even call if a customer complaint came my way at work. I also don’t know where to get a fedex form or how to put in a request for visitor office spAce. I don’t know where the building garbage is collected. I don’t know how to allocate funding to different departments. I don’t know how to negotiate a contract with a foreign government. Why? Because we have people whose sole job is to do those things. Those people don’t know how to do my job either. We all have a specialist niche and the company runs much more efficiently because of it.

The ceo will only become involved with a customer service issue that has escalated to viral scandal.

I feel for the OP.

• she doesn’t understand that non refundable tickets are no refundable (or doesn’t even realise that non refundable tickets are a thing)

• she doesn’t get that you don’t interact with a computer in that way, if you cancel, you cancel

• she doesn’t understand that (probably) automatic emails not monitored for reply are a thing

• she doesn’t understand that some explaining the rules is just explaining the rules, not being a c*

• she doesn’t have experience of - or is able to guess - about how large companies don’t actually have the Chief Exec opening their own post

It’s all stuff that’s easy to most of us, but I just get the impression that the OP is somewhat out of step with how many things work today. That’s not Virgin’s fault. It’s a real shame for the OP as it has literally cost her dearly.

OP, I would start again with customer service number and explain that you cancelled 2 when you only wanted to cancel 1, if they say they can’t do anything - ask to speak to a supervisor. If they also can’t help, ask them to tell you what is the next step for you to escalate your request.

But don’t keep blaming them for your mistake.

On Twitter, I expect you’d get a better response if you said “Help! I wanted to cancel one ticket for September 2019 but cancelled 2 by mistake! Can you help me please?”

OP you cancelled the order and are annoyed that they processed your cancellation? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Often at work I get email complaints from people who have so spectacularly got the wrong end of the stick you are unsure how to respond to them politely without basically telling them they are a complete idiot.

I imagine a similar thing is happening over at Virgin Atlantic which is why they are taking a while to get back to you...

I agree with Ellisandra's post. People do make mistakes, and I think it's pretty crap when any large, reputable, non-budget company won't extend a small amount of goodwill to a customer who is distressed and out of pocket after a misunderstanding.

BUT that is very much goodwill, not a legal right, and you're extremely unlikely to get any if you're belligerent and blaming everyone else.

OP, if you're still reading, I hope you get something resolved. You probably think everyone's being unsympathetic, but I'm sure we'd all be pissed off in your situation: you pay for two flights, want a refund on one, then end up with no flights and no refund. It's not Virgin's fault, but it's still gutting.

Ellisandra - that's exactly right.
OP you would be better to admit you've made a mistake and ask for help rectifying it.
They will be more likely to help when you've genuinely made a mistake over ranting and blaming others.
I hope you get some help that way!

YABVU for wanting the CEO of Virgin to personally reply to you

This is insane. You honestly cancelled your booking and then got so angry that they cancelled your booking that you then wrote to the CEO and then got angry he's not responded to you personally?
I'm aghast!