Virgin Holidays - legal advice needed

art200380

Can anyone offer any advice?

I had a bad experience with Virgin Holidays in January 2007 which was ultimately settled by them issuing me with £350 of Virgin Holiday vouchers in May 2007. At the time I explained that I was also saving Tesco vouchers and I intended on converting these to Virgin Holiday vouchers in the future - and could the 2 lots of vouchers be used together on the same booking.

I was told by the Virgin Customer Services at the time that they could be used in conjunction - to which I asked them to put that in writing - and they did.

I have now come to book a holiday with Virgin for next year and sent off my Tesco converted vouchers and Virgin Holiday vouchers along with a copy of the letter mentioned above. This was explained at the time of booking and the advisor said if I had it in writing then it must be ok.

Yesterday I received my Virgin Holiday vouchers back with a letter from credit control saying I cannot use the 2 vouchers in conjunction and they have applied the Tesco vouchers as they were worth more. There was no mention of the letter from their own Customer Services earlier in the year.

I spent most of yesterday on the phone to them, and it was the usual story - they cannot locate the letter (I have the original here), then it was credit control is closed at the weekend, then it was "our terms and conditions state you cannot use Tesco vouchers in conjunction with any other vouchers". When I asked to speak to the supervisor the lady claimed there wasn't one on duty.

After an hour on the phone I decided to give up and said I would take it further on Monday.

Any advice? I'm thinking either Abta or straight to Small Claims Court to ask for the Virgin vouchers to be cancelled and a cheque for £350 which I would then simply pay off the booking.

Why is dealing with these companies never easy!

Sam_Bee

Deal with it on Monday with the right people - they obviously don't work on weekends.

I would doubt that you will have ANY problems as you have something in writing, but I wouldn't get worked up in the meantime. It's quite normal for most departments to work Mon - Fri, and the relevant one for you is.

P.S If they are THEN being obstinate, come back to us, and i'm sure you'll get lots of pertinent advice!

art200380

Thanks Sam - phoned today - couldn't get through to a supervisor and the lady who I spoke to wouldn't connect me to Accounts as "they are an internal department and they are not permitted to transfer outside calls through".

The lady spoke to accounts and came back on the line and said that "it states in our T&C's that Tesco vouchers cannot be used in conjunction with anything else".

She said they had located the letter they sent me and that it was sent in error.

It was literally like talking to a brick wall!

So the gloves are off - any suggestions for the next step? ABTA or take them straight to the Small Claims Court?

Voyager2002

I think you have done as much as is possible by telephone. Don't waste your time trying to get through to Accounts...

See if you can get contact details for a reasonably senior manager, and send a letter. Be polite, but make it clear that you want them to do what they said they would do (in writing) and make it clear that your next step will be a complaint to ABTA and/or court action. You should get some joy at that point.

rainee

I had a customer service voucher from cosmos and used them with tesco vouchers with no problems.
they cannot really deny you the use of both or were they trying to save their costs?

Sam_Bee

OK - it appears that any deviation off the normal path confuses them. Take Voyagers advice, find a name of a manager, send a photocopy of the original letter, and take it from there. I can't see how they can deny you? I honestly think they just don't understand what they have already offered, and are being thick.

If that doesn't work, take it further.

ABTA is primarily for those with complaints on their return, so speak to them for advice, but at this stage don't commit to them. I don't know the logistics of small claim courts though.

Voyager2002

Sam_Bee wrote: »

ABTA is primarily for those with complaints on their return, so speak to them for advice, but at this stage don't commit to them. I don't know the logistics of small claim courts though.

Small claims court is easy: do a search for moneyclaimonline to get some details and forms. Note that before you pursue this route you MUST try to settle things amicably: so you send the company a letter headed 'letter before action' explaining what you want, and why, and saying that unless you receive a positive response before a given date (at least seven days after the date of your letter) you will be forced to take legal action. It is sensible to send this letter by recorded delivery.

In your case, if it gets to court the company will certainly lose, because they so clearly made a promise to you in writing. So as soon as your letter gets read by anyone with a brain and with discretion, you will get what you are asking. The problem you are facing is that all the people who have discretion to act intelligently are too important to waste time taking telephone calls from customers, and so you have wasted your time talking to people who are not allowed to respond flexibly. A letter cuts through this problem, but you do need to make sure that it gets to the right level of management.

VirginHolidays

Hi,

My name is David Higgins, and I work in the MD's office at Virgin Holidays.

I'm sorry for the poor service and mixed messages we've given out on this occasion - this certainly isn't standard practice on our behalf.

I've spoken with our accounts department, and with our customer service and customer relations teams, and the discount vouchers given following the previous holiday are valid with absolutely anything. We just treat them as a form of payment, so they are definitely valid with the Tesco discount.

I'll make sure this is communicated throughout the company to ensure we don't get any repetition, and I've dropped a PM to the customer with my contact details so I can get everything straightened out on his new booking.

Hope this clarifies the matter, and sorry once again for the confusion.

art200380

David

I have sent you an email with my number - I look forward to your call.

Thanks

Andrew Taylor