Desperately need help.. Virgin Holidays!

pleasehelpme27

Hi all,

I am new here but desperate for some help please.

Tonight I booked a holiday through the Virgin website. I paid £700 deposit. The first time I tried to pay it came up with an error after I had entered my OTP & said it hadn't been processed & I needed to call them. Tried to call but as it was after 9 they were closed.

So therefore as it said there had been an error & it couldn't be processed, I went through made the exact same booking again, paid for it & it all went through fine. Got the confirmation number.

I have received 1 confirmation email. I have called Virgin Atlantic (as virgin holidays are currently closed) and virgin Atlantic have confirmed that there is only 1 Virgin Holidays (or in total there's definitely only 1) booking under my details.

However, the money has been taken out of my account twice! It was taken the first time even though it said it hadn't and then obviously the second transaction was successful. I have called the bank to check & they have said both transactions were successful & had gone through & neither were pending. They said, because of this they can't really do anything & it's down to Virgin Holidays to sort.

I have messaged them on facebook & will call them tomorrow but I'm heavily concerned that I'm going to have an absolute battle to get the second (or first I don't care) transaction money back from them. I've checked & it's definitely not that they've applied both amounts to the booking or anything like that.

I even went on the website & clicked through as if I had forgotten my booking reference number to see if they emailed me 2 bookings. I was emailed 1 booking reference number that matched my correct one. & then 2 which are from quotes I received over the phone but did not book & they aren't active bookings as they don't let me log in onto the system.

Please can anyone help to put my mind at rest or help me by giving me a clue what I should say when I call Virgin & speak to them on the phone to ensure this is settled asap. In theory, the bank did say I can raise a claim with them for the second transaction, however it might not be successful & I have to go through the company first.

Really don't know what to do & basically just regret booking the whole thing now so any help you could offer would be so gratefully received. I currently have no money as its taken me over my limit and it's going to be a huge struggle to make it 2 weeks to pay day with nothing at all.

I look forward to any replies. Thank you in advance!

eDicky

Just call Virgin and explain what happened (calmly and clearly), it's not totally uncommon. They will sort out a refund and if for any reason they don't you can then ask your bank for a chargeback, having already made the attempt to sort it with Virgin.

pleasehelpme27

Thank you for your reply!

Sorry I know my post probably comes across as really dramatic but basically I suffer with really bad anxiety & last year was a victim of bank fraud & the bank & company etc really didn’t help me & it took a few months of really battling to get the money back & it made me quite ill.

I know it’s not the same but obviously it means I automatically think worst scenario.

Thanks for your reply - waiting for them to open now!

jpsartre

Did you pay by creditcard? If so, it's quite likely the first charge is merely pending (sometimes called a mock charge) and will disappear in a few days. If you paid by debitcard it's different since there's no pending section and mock charges will come off the account before being reversed.

tryin

jpsartre wrote: »

Did you pay by creditcard? If so, it's quite likely the first charge is merely pending (sometimes called a mock charge) and will disappear in a few days. If you paid by debitcard it's different since there's no pending section and mock charges will come off the account before being reversed.

OP said clearly that they the money has gone out

pleasehelpme27 wrote: »

I have called the bank to check & they have said both transactions were successful & had gone through & neither were pending.

Voyager2002

tryin wrote: »

OP said clearly that they the money has gone out

OP would have called the card issuer fairly late at night, and probably got a badly-trained call centre operative who would not have appreciated the distinction.

mattyprice4004

Voyager2002 wrote: »

OP would have called the card issuer fairly late at night, and probably got a badly-trained call centre operative who would not have appreciated the distinction.

You’ll have to tell us more about this call centre policy of scheduling the badly trained staff on the late shift

Coming from a history of call centre management, the opposite is true - the better staff can manage without the team leaders etc in, so we used to schedule them in when there’s less coverage

tryin

Voyager2002 wrote: »

OP would have called the card issuer fairly late at night, and probably got a badly-trained call centre operative who would not have appreciated the distinction.

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

You’ll have to tell us more about this call centre policy of scheduling the badly trained staff on the late shift

Coming from a history of call centre management, the opposite is true - the better staff can manage without the team leaders etc in, so we used to schedule them in when there’s less coverage

Truth is Voyager2002 has a point. You can never really trust what a customer rep tells you. Some of them are not the brightest people.

pleasehelpme27

Hi all!

Thanks so much for your replies!

I did pay by debit card.

The bank customer service rep I spoke to was very empathetic & helpful & was correct. They both did go through it was an error on their website.

Spoke to Virgin who were very helpful but very much matter of fact: ‘you will receive a refund in 3-5 working days’. At the time I was honestly just relieved to know I’d get the money back but now I’ve thought about it it’s not really good enough that I’m £700 down for an unknown period of time and I have no money at all whatsoever 🤦🏽!♀️.

Never mind. The customer service was good in general, I know they can’t help the time it takes & the woman was super friendly!

mattyprice4004

3-5 days is the time for it to pass through the card payment system - they'll likely refund near-immediately, but your card provider has to verify the refund and apply it to your account.

Not meaning to intrude on your personal situation (and I have been there, many times) but personally I would think twice about booking a holiday if I only had £700 spare to my name - anything in the house / the car / anything else could break, and need replacing with the money.
Again, just my 2p - enjoy your holiday, and I hope the refund comes through quickly

pleasehelpme27

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

3-5 days is the time for it to pass through the card payment system - they'll likely refund near-immediately, but your card provider has to verify the refund and apply it to your account.

Not meaning to intrude on your personal situation (and I have been there, many times) but personally I would think twice about booking a holiday if I only had £700 spare to my name - anything in the house / the car / anything else could break, and need replacing with the money.
Again, just my 2p - enjoy your holiday, and I hope the refund comes through quickly

Thank you! I actually work in a similar environment, just not travel so I know how it works but sadly doesn't make it any easier to swallow lol!

It's a bit difficult to explain but basically I did have more than that spare, I had £1400 in my account & my deposit was only £175 but there were other issues which meant I had less overall available. I also have significant savings but they're not there for something like this & cannot be easily accessed unless I have a decent reason e.g. something breaking or an emergency situation! Otherwise I would spend it all lol!

I do get where you're coming from and I'm getting on top of my money now finally! But I'm in quite a lucky position where I'm living with my parents in order to save for a house deposit & they were happy for me to go ahead and book the holiday so it's all good!

Thank you though, you're definitely right & in the future I'm sure things will be different