Progress

Hi all,

I have good news - i've finally managed to get the deal I wanted with Virgin after much tooing and froing.

After receiving the pitiful reply to my original letter I felt compelled to reply that this was just not good enough so I sent a series of letters:
- the first was an email to the CS operative who sent the original reply
- the second was a hard copy with the copies of my receipts
- the third was another email to Steve Ridgeway asking him whether he was aware just how bad this now was.

In my final letter I reiterated my disappointment with Virgin - that my ideals of what they stood for had been tarnished and that they were no longer the poster boy for customer service in my eyes. For here we were being treated in the same way as any large corporation does when confronted with poor service complaints.

Very quickly I received a call from "Lou" who apologised for my treatment and that they were going to offer me everything that I had requested: a Full refund on my BA ticket, my expenses (phone and taxis) and two Virgin Return Tickets.

I couldn't believe it. I have to say I am happy but at the same saddened that it took such a huge amount of effort to actually get my point heard. This should have been the standard respone but the fact that I had to send so many emails and set up this blog is a disgrace really.

I have also received some emails from other passengers since my refund and it seems that so far I am in the minority in terms of finalising my offer. Virgin has ignored a lot of the complaints so far - a case of he who shouts loudest gets heard.

Let's hope you get your results too.

By the way - the contact was:
Lou Longworth (Miss), Customer Liaison Manager - Louise.A.Longworth@fly.virgin.com
Directors Correspondence Unit - Customer Relations Virgin Atlantic Airways

Tel: 08704 646747
Fax: 08701 434547

Good luck.

Charlie