Shockingly poor

We finally received a response from Virgin and yes you've guessed it - it was the standard reply. To say we were livid is an understatement, so we drafted this response last week but as yet no reply (surprise surprise!)

Dear Sanchia,

Thank you for your email last week.

We have to say that we are both extremely disappointed and angry by your response -not least because this is clearly the standard reply you have sent to other passengers including the repetition of grammatical mistakes – do you actually proof read your emails?

Quite frankly your offer is insulting, especially as on Saturday 18th February we received a letter from Susan Ratigan offering us two free round trips – the letter indicated that this was for those who were travelling on VS118 but upon asking Susan she confirmed that as we had waited patiently with the other passengers, and were inconvenienced for some considerable time, we would of course be allowed the tickets or a complete refund of our Virgin Tickets. For you to now offer LESS than what was agreed is disgraceful.

You mentioned that you would ordinarily have rebooked your passengers with other carriers or new flights but there were just a “handful of seats”, we refer to our previous email where we explained that when we left on Sunday morning there was actually just a few of the original group left as the rest had clearly found alternative routes home. This highlights that your team had not tried hard enough to place us elsewhere – when we finally gave in to buy a new ticket it took us just TEN minutes, thus proving the point this was not difficult at all.

In addition, your letter says that Virgin realised "from the outset" that the necessary repairs would take "some time" yet it took your team a day and a half to tell us this - your lack of customer respect is astounding. This basic information would have prepared customers to what lay ahead and by not sharing it has merely compounded the aggravation.

You state below that staff were sent to the Hotel but “some” arrived after the coaches arrived – not “some” Sanchia but ALL, and when we say ALL we actually mean just one - a poor inexperienced young lady. And, despite trying to make it sound like it was 5 minutes afterwards it was actually more like FIVE hours which quite frankly is appalling.

It is offensive that you have requested for our receipts for “consideration” only as we believe this should be a given and not just something you wish to peruse. We will be sending copies of receipts to you today for your files but after all this we fully expect ALL expenses to be paid, including the new flights we were forced to pay for.

We look forward to receiving your reply this week - and not in your "usual" 21 days please.

Many thanks,
Charlie Morgan & Ben Fowler