DISQUS

Lakshmi Mareddy · 7 months ago

Kevin!
We now love and stick with Southwest. Last year, my dad visited the US and we booked a ticket to Houston from Denver, but hurricane struck Houston. So when we called SW up, they allowed us to change the itinerary and credited the rest of the money (no refunds..) with SW to be used up within a year. All this on the 1800 customer number and within 1/2 an hour. Their website/login is good too and always send email confirmations etc. I am glad I read this article and have obviously deleted Virgin from my airlines list... You are right.. Bad websites can kill business...

Good example of a well run backend is Amazon.com, but their front end sucks.. So does facebook :)

PS: I am a bog fan of OK Cancel!!

jesse · 7 months ago

If you are persistent they will eventually refund your money. Keep reminding them about how many hours you have spent with agents and managers and remind them of how you have eaten their margin and then some, and will continue to do so, until your money is refunded.

Angela Baxley · 7 months ago

Hey, just a thought, but you may want to take it up with your credit card company as well. They will have documented proof that you did not have a charge.

I had a similar problem with Ticketmaster, and ended up with two sets of tickets to the Travis show a month ago. Unfortunately, Ticketmaster is the worst customer service of any company I've experienced and the Bank can't even do anything when it comes to working with them. The show wasn't sold out, the second set of tickets sat unused and the seats empty.

But! Maybe the Bank who issues your credit card can fix this transaction.

Ang

Jared M. Spool · 7 months ago

You're absolutely right.

A great experience is all about the entire experience. The in-flight experience can't be separated from the pre-flight experience.

Having systems that restrict otherwise empowered employees can be a fatal flaw. It sounds like the customer service rep wanted to live to Virgin America's promise, but the IT systems he used made that impossible, thus resorting to hacks to work around the restrictions.

Anyone in the enterprise who thinks their work isn't part of the customer experience probably is mistaken.

Jared

Bruno Figueiredo · 7 months ago

Wow. I'm amazed at the power of Twitter at fixing customer service screwups. I had the same experience before with a couple of companies. All hail Twitter!

cringle · 6 months ago

every airline gives you the ability to access your reservation through their webstie once you've made it. you can review, cancel or change it, once you have your reservation number. if you weren't sure, why didn't you check it online once you got that reservation number, instead of waiting? no airline is going to refund your money or bend the rules because you didn't get an email. if a refund is not specifically part of their fare rules, of course they can't do it. they disclose all of that when you buy it.

kevnull · 6 months ago

Because there was no confirmation number, no reservation number and nothing showing on the website. That's the whole point. There was no indication ANYWHERE.

To quote from the post:
Two days later, we still hadn’t received any confirmation emails. We checked our spam folders to no avail. Coley logged into her VA account and the website said “no pending flights”. No charges had been made to the credit card, either.

cringle · 6 months ago

right. then, you call....

Ryan · 5 months ago

Looks like Virgin group is consistent in making things as difficult as possible in customer support. If you think wrong plane billing is tough, try discussing a wrong phone billing. After 1-2 hours on the phone, with multiple hang-ups, it becomes difficult to talk further. Their customer service needs improvement (or more powers to make decisions).

Their Twitter part is good to hear, and indicates some people out there want to do it right.

marianab · 1 month ago

I wish I had read this prior to booking with this airline. I believe that I booked a flight for 11/22 but have not recieved any confirmations & the web site indicates no flight booked with my confirmation number. It has been 2 days & we have just over a week before we're supposed to depart.

Today I'll try phone communication perpared for the long haul (with a cup of coffee & bathroom near by). I will& let you know results.

marianab · 1 month ago

Operator error on my part. After posting my comment I re-checked the website & my flight confirmation is listed. Also, I'm embarrassed to say, I located the original confirmation in my Junk file which I had not checked.

Perhaps V A is improving their online service.