Virgin Money (Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Card) - £160 for terrible customer service? Help please!

dm21039

Hi - I wanted to warn about / ask if anyone has had the same experience with Virgin Money.

Once upon a time I signed up for a Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card. It made sense as I had a chance to travel with work, but more recently I have left the UK and have been trying to cancel my card after being a customer for a number of years. Virgin have cut all customer service support apart from their phone line, which I cannot contact from outside the country. This would also affect anyone who can't access a phone to sit on their hold line for hours, or people with disabilities that prevent them from having the conversation on the phone. 

The fun part - *The card now charges an annual fee of £160* - so while I've been trying to cancel my account I got hit by that charge.

I finally got referred to a customer services email address, who told me that "they would reply soon".
4 emails and 16 days later, I asked how long soon might be:

Virgin Money - "We have 56 days to provide a complaint response"

So that's a £160 charge, for a service I'm desperately trying to cancel, which I've apparently paid to wait 56 days for a reply. Imagine that customer service in any other industry? Help me make this make sense! Are there any external banking oversight places I can refer this to? Any other ideas on how I can speed this up? Thanks!

Ebe_Scrooge

dm21039 said:

Virgin have cut all customer service support apart from their phone line, which I cannot contact from outside the country.

Why can't you contact the number from outside the country?  That doesn't sound right.

dm21039 said:

Are there any external banking oversight places I can refer this to?

The FOS are the official people to report complaints to, if you feel you have a genuine complaint.

dm21039

Ebe_Scrooge said:

dm21039 said:

Virgin have cut all customer service support apart from their phone line, which I cannot contact from outside the country.

Why can't you contact the number from outside the country?  That doesn't sound right.

dm21039 said:

Are there any external banking oversight places I can refer this to?

The FOS are the official people to report complaints to, if you feel you have a genuine complaint.

Thanks for the quick reply - my provider here won't connect to their help number, so having to find an alternative. Thanks for the tip on the FOS!

callum9999

dm21039 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

dm21039 said:

Virgin have cut all customer service support apart from their phone line, which I cannot contact from outside the country.

Why can't you contact the number from outside the country?  That doesn't sound right.

dm21039 said:

Are there any external banking oversight places I can refer this to?

The FOS are the official people to report complaints to, if you feel you have a genuine complaint.

Thanks for the quick reply - my provider here won't connect to their help number, so having to find an alternative. Thanks for the tip on the FOS!

It's a bog standard UK phone number, any provider in any country that allows international calls should connect to it perfectly fine. As does Skype and a long list of internet services.

I wouldn't keep waiting for a response to a written complaint - just call them. Though I guess as you've paid the annual fee there's no rush now and you'll have to submit a complaint to try and get it back. It's always worth asking, but from what you've described they'd be able to legitimately deny the refund.

lr1277

Not sure if you mean a contact number for Virgin money or Virgin Atlantic Credit card.

I found this on the internet searching for "Contact Virgin money":

+44 141 621 5798

This is the number when calling from abroad.

Though I couldn't find a geographic number for Virgin Atlantic Credit card. I did look on 'SayNoto0870.com' and searched on Virgin Atlantic, but the only numbers listed in the column for 01 and 02 numbers began with 0344. I don't know if your telephone company allows you to contact such numbers.

If Virgin money can't help, your best bet would be to ask them if they have a geographic contact number for the Virgin Atlantic Credit Card.

There is another way, but this might give away who you are if you are not careful and don't use different usernames on different sites. Even then somebody may put together the problem you mentioned on this site is the same problem a user has mentioned on another site.

Given that warning, you could try a site for frequent flyers or credit card users.

Head for Points is a mixture of the 2. They have forums where you can pose a question. The page for the Virgin Atlantic Credit card is here:

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/forum/cards/virgin-atlantic-credit-cards/

Though if you do register for this site, it may take a few hours or a day or so for your username to be allowed to post. Need the site moderator to ok your user credentials. I registered some time ago, so don't remember the process.

HTH

callum9999

lr1277 said:

Not sure if you mean a contact number for Virgin money or Virgin Atlantic Credit card.

I found this on the internet searching for "Contact Virgin money":

+44 141 621 5798

This is the number when calling from abroad.

Though I couldn't find a geographic number for Virgin Atlantic Credit card. I did look on 'SayNoto0870.com' and searched on Virgin Atlantic, but the only numbers listed in the column for 01 and 02 numbers began with 0344. I don't know if your telephone company allows you to contact such numbers.

If Virgin money can't help, your best bet would be to ask them if they have a geographic contact number for the Virgin Atlantic Credit Card.

There is another way, but this might give away who you are if you are not careful and don't use different usernames on different sites. Even then somebody may put together the problem you mentioned on this site is the same problem a user has mentioned on another site.

Given that warning, you could try a site for frequent flyers or credit card users.

Head for Points is a mixture of the 2. They have forums where you can pose a question. The page for the Virgin Atlantic Credit card is here:

https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/forum/cards/virgin-atlantic-credit-cards/

Though if you do register for this site, it may take a few hours or a day or so for your username to be allowed to post. Need the site moderator to ok your user credentials. I registered some time ago, so don't remember the process.

HTH

It's not a great idea to do Google searches to find contact details for banks etc. Who knows what you'll find.

The best thing to do is just go to their website. They specifically list a contact number for Virgin Atlantic cards from abroad on their contact section and on the back of the card. I won't copy it here because people really shouldn't be trusting strangers on the internet!

cymruchris

Took me about 20 seconds to find the contact phone numbers on the virgin money website - that you can verify yourself - under 'contact us' - see 'calling from abroad'. 

lr1277

cymruchris said:

Took me about 20 seconds to find the contact phone numbers on the virgin money website - that you can verify yourself - under 'contact us' - see 'calling from abroad'. 

Thanks cymruchris. I looked under Virgin money and then virgin atlantic credit card. Did not think of combining the the 2 search terms into one search.

TheLabFather

Have you tried “resolver” which is promoted by mse? I’ve had a quick
look and they cooperate with Virgin Money and a way of getting through to their complaints team by email. 

If you look at trustpilot reviews then you’ll see don’t hold out much hope of a response this century!!!

Can you close online and see if it knocks off a pro rata balance of the fee. Judging by the amount of stress will cause chasing them I’d rather bite the bullet.

callum9999

lr1277 said:

cymruchris said:

Took me about 20 seconds to find the contact phone numbers on the virgin money website - that you can verify yourself - under 'contact us' - see 'calling from abroad'. 

Thanks cymruchris. I looked under Virgin money and then virgin atlantic credit card. Did not think of combining the the 2 search terms into one search.

As I said before, you shouldn't be doing Google searches for these things. I'm good at spotting fake websites, maybe you are too, but a lot of people are not. 

[Deleted User]

TheLabFather said:

Have you tried “resolver” which is promoted by mse? I’ve had a quick
look and they cooperate with Virgin Money and a way of getting through to their complaints team by email. 

If you look at trustpilot reviews then you’ll see don’t hold out much hope of a response this century!!!

Can you close online and see if it knocks off a pro rata balance of the fee. Judging by the amount of stress will cause chasing them I’d rather bite the bullet.

Resolver is promoted by MSE because they get a cut of the money. All it does is forward your email to Virgin and you can do that yourself directly without giving a third party your data for them to use to make money