Is Virgin Money at risk of operational failure?

Exodi

Deleted_User said:

eskbanker said:

anotheruser said:

subjecttocontract said:

Richard  Branson must be furious......I would be if I were him !
They are not the only organisation benefiting from using the Virgin name who have worse than awful customer service...... Virgin Media are equally atrocious.

Having said that I am currently transferring an ISA to Virgin Money.

Why?
He's built his brand and sold it and continues to do so.
Once it leaves his hands, he doesn't need to care.

There's a distinction between his brand, i.e. the Virgin name, and businesses that are licensed to use it, so, even though Branson may not own stakes in companies like Virgin Money and Virgin Media, he (or rather Virgin Enterprises) will continue to receive royalty revenue from these businesses for use of the name, and therefore if such companies suffer reputational issues, that will reflect badly on the overall Virgin brand name, and he's unlikely to be thrilled about that....

There was speculation that CYBG were considering ditching the brand transition when Virgin Airlines was looking a Pandemic bailout as they were worried about the value of the brand. 

Please could you strictly keep the discussion to Virgin Money customer service? Please and thank you.

kaMelo

Exodi said:

Molehusband said:

Exodi said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Neither Virgin Broadband, Holidays or Mobile have anything to do with Virgin Money.

Whilst VM have a hotchpotch of systems, I have only got praise for them. Their Regular Savers were ace for quite some time (though are now falling behind in terms of AER), and they have enabled instant access savings in their current accounts at 2% for over 2 years whilst the rest of the industry was in sub-1% doldrums. It's only today that a 'proper' 2% instant access savings account has now become available at Gatehouse, so I have now moved my money from VM to Gatehouse as this reduces my monthly admin needs. As and if Virgin offer a market leading product, I will be very happy to go back to them.

It does in so far as people have expectations of the Virgin brand in terms of customer service, which is what this thread is about rather than how good any of their actual products or offers are.

Despite the various Virgin ventures being different entities, they seem to share a common trait of absolutely horrendous customer service.

With all due respect, as had been stated already, this thread is about Virgin Money and has nothing to do with Virgin Broadband, Virgin Holidays or Virgin Mobile. So what Trustpilot ratings these unrelated entities may have is irrelevant to this thread. For one thing I could tell you there's also an unrelated company called Virgin Wines with an excellent rating on Trustpilot, but please let this thread stick to discussion about Virgin Money.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for touching upon something that wasn't strictly vetted by you beforehand.

As others have said - Virgin Money has had good products but their customer service is bad, it always has been, but is unlikely to be an indicator of operational risk. If you don't need to consult their customer service team, you'll have a good time.

Hope this was OK.

Without wishing to get into the bigger debate about Virgin branding, what evidence have you to support that statement?

People are always willing to put the effort into whining, hardly anyone mentions when things go well, ergo Trustpilot reviews are full of angry people whining, not necessarily because Virgin did anything wrong but sometimes just because they didn't get their own way.
My own, anecdotal evidence of Virgin Money customer services is that over the last 5 years they have been excellent on the two occasions I've needed to make contact with them.

Daliah

Exodi said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Neither Virgin Broadband, Holidays or Mobile have anything to do with Virgin Money.

Whilst VM have a hotchpotch of systems, I have only got praise for them. Their Regular Savers were ace for quite some time (though are now falling behind in terms of AER), and they have enabled instant access savings in their current accounts at 2% for over 2 years whilst the rest of the industry was in sub-1% doldrums. It's only today that a 'proper' 2% instant access savings account has now become available at Gatehouse, so I have now moved my money from VM to Gatehouse as this reduces my monthly admin needs. As and if Virgin offer a market leading product, I will be very happy to go back to them.

It does in so far as people have expectations of the Virgin brand in terms of customer service, which is what this thread is about rather than how good any of their actual products or offers are.

Indeed and while everyone understands that Virgin Broadband, Holidays, Mobile, etc are different entities, they are similar in their product vs customer service.

The Daliah and  the OP are perfect examples of this. Daliah mentions that their products are good - and being fortunate enough not to need to involve customer service for anything has had a positive experience. The OP did need to consult their customer service team and... did not have a positive experience.

Now compare it to Virgin Broadband - they have some of the fastest speeds in the country on their own lines, their product offering is undoubtedly fantastic. The problem is if you have a problem. I almost signed up to Virgin Broadband, I cancelled during their cooling off period after spending 8 hours waiting on the phone to them before being put to an Indian call centre who clearly had no access to customer records.

Despite the various Virgin ventures being different entities, they seem to share a common trait of absolutely horrendous customer service.

I couldn't care less about the reputation of Virgin Broadband CS when I decide whether I want to take out a product with Virgin Money. I also don't select my financial products based on downbeat reviews of Virgin Active Gyms, and I am not rushing into taking out a Virgin Money product just because I have heard how fantastic Virgin Upper Class is. But most of all, I am not guided by TrustPilot or other mass complaints boards when selecting a financial product.

WillPS

Daliah said:

Exodi said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Neither Virgin Broadband, Holidays or Mobile have anything to do with Virgin Money.

Whilst VM have a hotchpotch of systems, I have only got praise for them. Their Regular Savers were ace for quite some time (though are now falling behind in terms of AER), and they have enabled instant access savings in their current accounts at 2% for over 2 years whilst the rest of the industry was in sub-1% doldrums. It's only today that a 'proper' 2% instant access savings account has now become available at Gatehouse, so I have now moved my money from VM to Gatehouse as this reduces my monthly admin needs. As and if Virgin offer a market leading product, I will be very happy to go back to them.

It does in so far as people have expectations of the Virgin brand in terms of customer service, which is what this thread is about rather than how good any of their actual products or offers are.

Indeed and while everyone understands that Virgin Broadband, Holidays, Mobile, etc are different entities, they are similar in their product vs customer service.

The Daliah and  the OP are perfect examples of this. Daliah mentions that their products are good - and being fortunate enough not to need to involve customer service for anything has had a positive experience. The OP did need to consult their customer service team and... did not have a positive experience.

Now compare it to Virgin Broadband - they have some of the fastest speeds in the country on their own lines, their product offering is undoubtedly fantastic. The problem is if you have a problem. I almost signed up to Virgin Broadband, I cancelled during their cooling off period after spending 8 hours waiting on the phone to them before being put to an Indian call centre who clearly had no access to customer records.

Despite the various Virgin ventures being different entities, they seem to share a common trait of absolutely horrendous customer service.

I couldn't care less about the reputation of Virgin Broadband CS when I decide whether I want to take out a product with Virgin Money. I also don't select my financial products based on downbeat reviews of Virgin Active Gyms, and I am not rushing into taking out a Virgin Money product just because I have heard how fantastic Virgin Upper Class is. But most of all, I am not guided by TrustPilot or other mass complaints boards when selecting a financial product.

That's very fair and sensible of you - but the whole proposition of brands like Virgin (easy is another one) is that they are supposed to create consumer confidence and imply standards. Virgin themselves quote 'Heartfelt Service' as a brand value, so it's not at all unreasonable to benchmark against that and also see how well other licensees are being held to that same value to evaluate whether or not an uptick should be expected (on the strength of the Virgin brand alone) or whether it's just words.

Daliah

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Exodi said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Neither Virgin Broadband, Holidays or Mobile have anything to do with Virgin Money.

Whilst VM have a hotchpotch of systems, I have only got praise for them. Their Regular Savers were ace for quite some time (though are now falling behind in terms of AER), and they have enabled instant access savings in their current accounts at 2% for over 2 years whilst the rest of the industry was in sub-1% doldrums. It's only today that a 'proper' 2% instant access savings account has now become available at Gatehouse, so I have now moved my money from VM to Gatehouse as this reduces my monthly admin needs. As and if Virgin offer a market leading product, I will be very happy to go back to them.

It does in so far as people have expectations of the Virgin brand in terms of customer service, which is what this thread is about rather than how good any of their actual products or offers are.

Indeed and while everyone understands that Virgin Broadband, Holidays, Mobile, etc are different entities, they are similar in their product vs customer service.

The Daliah and  the OP are perfect examples of this. Daliah mentions that their products are good - and being fortunate enough not to need to involve customer service for anything has had a positive experience. The OP did need to consult their customer service team and... did not have a positive experience.

Now compare it to Virgin Broadband - they have some of the fastest speeds in the country on their own lines, their product offering is undoubtedly fantastic. The problem is if you have a problem. I almost signed up to Virgin Broadband, I cancelled during their cooling off period after spending 8 hours waiting on the phone to them before being put to an Indian call centre who clearly had no access to customer records.

Despite the various Virgin ventures being different entities, they seem to share a common trait of absolutely horrendous customer service.

I couldn't care less about the reputation of Virgin Broadband CS when I decide whether I want to take out a product with Virgin Money. I also don't select my financial products based on downbeat reviews of Virgin Active Gyms, and I am not rushing into taking out a Virgin Money product just because I have heard how fantastic Virgin Upper Class is. But most of all, I am not guided by TrustPilot or other mass complaints boards when selecting a financial product.

That's very fair and sensible of you - but the whole proposition of brands like Virgin (easy is another one) is that they are supposed to create consumer confidence and imply standards. Virgin themselves quote 'Heartfelt Service' as a brand value, so it's not at all unreasonable to benchmark against that and also see how well other licensees are being held to that same value to evaluate whether or not an uptick should be expected (on the strength of the Virgin brand alone) or whether it's just words.

I have always been quite immune to Marketing tactics. I understand not everybody is.

All I can recommend is that people don't let themselves guide by TrustPilot reviews when choosing a financial product, and possibly any other product.

Exodi

kaMelo said:

Exodi said:

Molehusband said:

Exodi said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Neither Virgin Broadband, Holidays or Mobile have anything to do with Virgin Money.

Whilst VM have a hotchpotch of systems, I have only got praise for them. Their Regular Savers were ace for quite some time (though are now falling behind in terms of AER), and they have enabled instant access savings in their current accounts at 2% for over 2 years whilst the rest of the industry was in sub-1% doldrums. It's only today that a 'proper' 2% instant access savings account has now become available at Gatehouse, so I have now moved my money from VM to Gatehouse as this reduces my monthly admin needs. As and if Virgin offer a market leading product, I will be very happy to go back to them.

It does in so far as people have expectations of the Virgin brand in terms of customer service, which is what this thread is about rather than how good any of their actual products or offers are.

Despite the various Virgin ventures being different entities, they seem to share a common trait of absolutely horrendous customer service.

With all due respect, as had been stated already, this thread is about Virgin Money and has nothing to do with Virgin Broadband, Virgin Holidays or Virgin Mobile. So what Trustpilot ratings these unrelated entities may have is irrelevant to this thread. For one thing I could tell you there's also an unrelated company called Virgin Wines with an excellent rating on Trustpilot, but please let this thread stick to discussion about Virgin Money.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for touching upon something that wasn't strictly vetted by you beforehand.

As others have said - Virgin Money has had good products but their customer service is bad, it always has been, but is unlikely to be an indicator of operational risk. If you don't need to consult their customer service team, you'll have a good time.

Hope this was OK.

Without wishing to get into the bigger debate about Virgin branding, what evidence have you to support that statement?

People are always willing to put the effort into whining, hardly anyone mentions when things go well, ergo Trustpilot reviews are full of angry people whining, not necessarily because Virgin did anything wrong but sometimes just because they didn't get their own way.
My own, anecdotal evidence of Virgin Money customer services is that over the last 5 years they have been excellent on the two occasions I've needed to make contact with them.

If that was the case then Trustpilot would be completely irrelevant as every single company would only have 1 star reviews. You can't ask me to provide evidence to support my assertion that Virgin has bad customer service and just write them all off with a "nuh, that doesn't count"

But I'll play the game - Which? rates it as the 4th worst bank for customer service, Lovemoney puts it as the second worse bank overall and the worse online and mobile bank for customer service, IPSOS (independant authority used by the UK government) rated Virgin Money second last (https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/personal-banking-service-quality-great-britain-august-2022.

But I guess that's all irrelevant because you anecdotally had a good phone call with them in the last 5 years and anyone that says otherwise is a serial complainer.

Exodi

Daliah said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Exodi said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Neither Virgin Broadband, Holidays or Mobile have anything to do with Virgin Money.

Whilst VM have a hotchpotch of systems, I have only got praise for them. Their Regular Savers were ace for quite some time (though are now falling behind in terms of AER), and they have enabled instant access savings in their current accounts at 2% for over 2 years whilst the rest of the industry was in sub-1% doldrums. It's only today that a 'proper' 2% instant access savings account has now become available at Gatehouse, so I have now moved my money from VM to Gatehouse as this reduces my monthly admin needs. As and if Virgin offer a market leading product, I will be very happy to go back to them.

It does in so far as people have expectations of the Virgin brand in terms of customer service, which is what this thread is about rather than how good any of their actual products or offers are.

Indeed and while everyone understands that Virgin Broadband, Holidays, Mobile, etc are different entities, they are similar in their product vs customer service.

The Daliah and  the OP are perfect examples of this. Daliah mentions that their products are good - and being fortunate enough not to need to involve customer service for anything has had a positive experience. The OP did need to consult their customer service team and... did not have a positive experience.

Now compare it to Virgin Broadband - they have some of the fastest speeds in the country on their own lines, their product offering is undoubtedly fantastic. The problem is if you have a problem. I almost signed up to Virgin Broadband, I cancelled during their cooling off period after spending 8 hours waiting on the phone to them before being put to an Indian call centre who clearly had no access to customer records.

Despite the various Virgin ventures being different entities, they seem to share a common trait of absolutely horrendous customer service.

I couldn't care less about the reputation of Virgin Broadband CS when I decide whether I want to take out a product with Virgin Money. I also don't select my financial products based on downbeat reviews of Virgin Active Gyms, and I am not rushing into taking out a Virgin Money product just because I have heard how fantastic Virgin Upper Class is. But most of all, I am not guided by TrustPilot or other mass complaints boards when selecting a financial product.

That's very fair and sensible of you - but the whole proposition of brands like Virgin (easy is another one) is that they are supposed to create consumer confidence and imply standards. Virgin themselves quote 'Heartfelt Service' as a brand value, so it's not at all unreasonable to benchmark against that and also see how well other licensees are being held to that same value to evaluate whether or not an uptick should be expected (on the strength of the Virgin brand alone) or whether it's just words.

I have always been quite immune to Marketing tactics. I understand not everybody is.

All I can recommend is that people don't let themselves guide by TrustPilot reviews when choosing a financial product, and possibly any other product.

Some people consider a good customer service experience as a key point in their decision to choose a service or product.

I think it's quite odd that you suggest not using review sites as a tool to get a feel of company (obviously accompanied by other forms of research). Should we instead ask our mates down the pub? Or ask random people on MSE for their anecodatal experiences instead?

Seeing trustpilot snobbery is truly a first for me.

WillPS

We really are vearing off topic now - but I wouldn't trust TrustPilot one bit. The companies who have a decent score on there almost always pay TrustPilot in some way for that score - the reviews themselves are genuine but the ones that you don't see are too, and if you pay TrustPilot you can 'challenge' (which means remove in most cases) negative reviews. It's a swizz.

I suspect financial companies are not allowed to do such things, so are just left with barages of complaints from disgruntled customers. The only exception seems to be the likes of Monzo, Starling and First Direct which have cult-like followings happy to advocate for them for nothing - I've never fully got my head around this but all power to them for managing it as it's very effective cheap marketing.

Daliah

Exodi said:

Daliah said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Exodi said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Neither Virgin Broadband, Holidays or Mobile have anything to do with Virgin Money.

Whilst VM have a hotchpotch of systems, I have only got praise for them. Their Regular Savers were ace for quite some time (though are now falling behind in terms of AER), and they have enabled instant access savings in their current accounts at 2% for over 2 years whilst the rest of the industry was in sub-1% doldrums. It's only today that a 'proper' 2% instant access savings account has now become available at Gatehouse, so I have now moved my money from VM to Gatehouse as this reduces my monthly admin needs. As and if Virgin offer a market leading product, I will be very happy to go back to them.

It does in so far as people have expectations of the Virgin brand in terms of customer service, which is what this thread is about rather than how good any of their actual products or offers are.

Indeed and while everyone understands that Virgin Broadband, Holidays, Mobile, etc are different entities, they are similar in their product vs customer service.

The Daliah and  the OP are perfect examples of this. Daliah mentions that their products are good - and being fortunate enough not to need to involve customer service for anything has had a positive experience. The OP did need to consult their customer service team and... did not have a positive experience.

Now compare it to Virgin Broadband - they have some of the fastest speeds in the country on their own lines, their product offering is undoubtedly fantastic. The problem is if you have a problem. I almost signed up to Virgin Broadband, I cancelled during their cooling off period after spending 8 hours waiting on the phone to them before being put to an Indian call centre who clearly had no access to customer records.

Despite the various Virgin ventures being different entities, they seem to share a common trait of absolutely horrendous customer service.

I couldn't care less about the reputation of Virgin Broadband CS when I decide whether I want to take out a product with Virgin Money. I also don't select my financial products based on downbeat reviews of Virgin Active Gyms, and I am not rushing into taking out a Virgin Money product just because I have heard how fantastic Virgin Upper Class is. But most of all, I am not guided by TrustPilot or other mass complaints boards when selecting a financial product.

That's very fair and sensible of you - but the whole proposition of brands like Virgin (easy is another one) is that they are supposed to create consumer confidence and imply standards. Virgin themselves quote 'Heartfelt Service' as a brand value, so it's not at all unreasonable to benchmark against that and also see how well other licensees are being held to that same value to evaluate whether or not an uptick should be expected (on the strength of the Virgin brand alone) or whether it's just words.

I have always been quite immune to Marketing tactics. I understand not everybody is.

All I can recommend is that people don't let themselves guide by TrustPilot reviews when choosing a financial product, and possibly any other product.

Some people consider a good customer service experience as a key point in their decision to choose a service or product.

I think it's quite odd that you suggest not using review sites as a tool to get a feel of company (obviously accompanied by other forms of research). Should we instead ask our mates down the pub? Or ask random people on MSE for their anecodatal experiences instead?

Seeing trustpilot snobbery is truly a first for me.

I would - nearly - always go by the MSE Forum when it comes to financial products, and absolutely never by Trustpilot, for the reasons already given by somebody else. 

You might consider this snobbery, I consider it sound judgment.

Molehusband

Daliah said:

Exodi said:

Daliah said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Exodi said:

WillPS said:

Daliah said:

Neither Virgin Broadband, Holidays or Mobile have anything to do with Virgin Money.

Whilst VM have a hotchpotch of systems, I have only got praise for them. Their Regular Savers were ace for quite some time (though are now falling behind in terms of AER), and they have enabled instant access savings in their current accounts at 2% for over 2 years whilst the rest of the industry was in sub-1% doldrums. It's only today that a 'proper' 2% instant access savings account has now become available at Gatehouse, so I have now moved my money from VM to Gatehouse as this reduces my monthly admin needs. As and if Virgin offer a market leading product, I will be very happy to go back to them.

It does in so far as people have expectations of the Virgin brand in terms of customer service, which is what this thread is about rather than how good any of their actual products or offers are.

Indeed and while everyone understands that Virgin Broadband, Holidays, Mobile, etc are different entities, they are similar in their product vs customer service.

The Daliah and  the OP are perfect examples of this. Daliah mentions that their products are good - and being fortunate enough not to need to involve customer service for anything has had a positive experience. The OP did need to consult their customer service team and... did not have a positive experience.

Now compare it to Virgin Broadband - they have some of the fastest speeds in the country on their own lines, their product offering is undoubtedly fantastic. The problem is if you have a problem. I almost signed up to Virgin Broadband, I cancelled during their cooling off period after spending 8 hours waiting on the phone to them before being put to an Indian call centre who clearly had no access to customer records.

Despite the various Virgin ventures being different entities, they seem to share a common trait of absolutely horrendous customer service.

I couldn't care less about the reputation of Virgin Broadband CS when I decide whether I want to take out a product with Virgin Money. I also don't select my financial products based on downbeat reviews of Virgin Active Gyms, and I am not rushing into taking out a Virgin Money product just because I have heard how fantastic Virgin Upper Class is. But most of all, I am not guided by TrustPilot or other mass complaints boards when selecting a financial product.

That's very fair and sensible of you - but the whole proposition of brands like Virgin (easy is another one) is that they are supposed to create consumer confidence and imply standards. Virgin themselves quote 'Heartfelt Service' as a brand value, so it's not at all unreasonable to benchmark against that and also see how well other licensees are being held to that same value to evaluate whether or not an uptick should be expected (on the strength of the Virgin brand alone) or whether it's just words.

I have always been quite immune to Marketing tactics. I understand not everybody is.

All I can recommend is that people don't let themselves guide by TrustPilot reviews when choosing a financial product, and possibly any other product.

Some people consider a good customer service experience as a key point in their decision to choose a service or product.

I think it's quite odd that you suggest not using review sites as a tool to get a feel of company (obviously accompanied by other forms of research). Should we instead ask our mates down the pub? Or ask random people on MSE for their anecodatal experiences instead?

Seeing trustpilot snobbery is truly a first for me.

I would - nearly - always go by the MSE Forum when it comes to financial products, and absolutely never by Trustpilot, for the reasons already given by somebody else. 

You might consider this snobbery, I consider it sound judgment.

We're all different when it comes to assessing products (financial or otherwise). So some of us might turn to Trustpilot or similar sites such as Savings Champion, others might ask their friends & family, others will pop into MSE forums and so on. People go where they want and I certainly think it's inappropriate to stick labels such as Trustpilot snobbery on some people.