Is Virgin Money at risk of operational failure?

Daliah

Molehusband said:

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.

That's very true.

I still consider Trustpilot as one of the very worst places, only trumped by that bloke down the pub who's had 5 pints, for a steering for the selection of a financial product (and may be other products, too, but that's off topic).

There are reasons for why some do better and some do worse managing their money. There are also reasons why some fall for rogue positive reviews. At least on the MSE Forum, you have a chance of finding out whose opinions and reports you would consider trustworthy. On TrustPilot, you are just hearing the roar of a bunch of people who, for some reason or other, have had a bad experience and felt like letting off some steam.

[Deleted User]

Exodi said:

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.

CYBG is Virgin Money.

A key purpose of them acquiring and rebranding Virgin was to present a positive impression including premium customer service - otherwise they could have just used either of their B, Clydesdale or Yorkshire brands across the board.

kaMelo

Exodi said:

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.

Not to dismiss those polls but by definition a poll is not a calculation or mathematical equation, it is asking people their opinion on something which is always subjective.
Those with fire in their belly because they feel wronged are far more likely to fill out the poll and trash the company than someone who has had no beef with them who may simply choose to not respond at all..

Ask yourself this, how many times have you taken the time to contact a company and say "good job" in comparison to how many times you've complained? I guarantee the complaints will outnumber the "good job" contacts significantly despite the fact the majority of the time the companies did a good job.

I'm not a trustpilot snob, lol, that's a new one on me,  it's just that Trustpilot is the easiest place for people to vent their frustration even when it's not justified. My own experience with VM customer service is my experience and mine alone, it was never intended to be anything other hence why I used the word "anecdotal" to express this point and not to suggest it was research. Merely it was to point out that if I have bothered to go on Trustpilot to give them a rating (which I haven't) I would have given five stars as my experience is anything but bad.

Notepad_Phil

janetmw said:

...

I thought the interest rates looked quite attractive for my circumstances, so decided to transfer my old Virgin ISA to their new one paying a much higher rate.

Having gone through all form filling online I was told there was a problem and that I should contact them. I didn't fancy being on hold on the phone or sending the form off, so I visited their local branch in person with a completed form. The person in branch couldn't have been more helpful explaining why there was a problem.  (The old ISA is on a different platform to the new one.) She took my form to scan and upload to the transfer department. I was then told because of a backlog it could take up to 20 days to go through. Today, one day after branch visit, I have had a text message stating the transfer has been done. Checking on the app, the money is there!

Hopefully Virgin Money continue to be as helpful.

Yesterday I too decided to transfer my old Virgin ISA across to their Cash Exclusive ISA and got that message too during the opening process - in my case I decided to ring the number they gave as part of the message and was a given the same info as you about needing a signed form, but in my case I decided it was too much hassle and so asked them to just close the new ISA.

Big mistake, it seems that the info they gave you and me is wrong, as this morning I've just received an email to say that the transfer has been completed. Logging onto the old system I can see the old ISA now with £0 in it, but logging onto the new system shows no ISA (I could see it yesterday), so now I'm going to have to ring them up and see what's going on.

  

RG2015

Notepad_Phil said:

janetmw said:

...

I thought the interest rates looked quite attractive for my circumstances, so decided to transfer my old Virgin ISA to their new one paying a much higher rate.

Having gone through all form filling online I was told there was a problem and that I should contact them. I didn't fancy being on hold on the phone or sending the form off, so I visited their local branch in person with a completed form. The person in branch couldn't have been more helpful explaining why there was a problem.  (The old ISA is on a different platform to the new one.) She took my form to scan and upload to the transfer department. I was then told because of a backlog it could take up to 20 days to go through. Today, one day after branch visit, I have had a text message stating the transfer has been done. Checking on the app, the money is there!

Hopefully Virgin Money continue to be as helpful.

Yesterday I too decided to transfer my old Virgin ISA across to their Cash Exclusive ISA and got that message too during the opening process - in my case I decided to ring the number they gave as part of the message and was a given the same info as you about needing a signed form, but in my case I decided it was too much hassle and so asked them to just close the new ISA.

Big mistake, it seems that the info they gave you and me is wrong, as this morning I've just received an email to say that the transfer has been completed. Logging onto the old system I can see the old ISA now with £0 in it, but logging onto the new system shows no ISA (I could see it yesterday), so now I'm going to have to ring them up and see what's going on.

  

I seem to recall successfully opening a VM cash ISA and then being informed that I had to download a form, sign it and send it back.

Exodi

kaMelo said:

Exodi said:

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.

Not to dismiss those polls but by definition a poll is not a calculation or mathematical equation, it is asking people their opinion on something which is always subjective.
Those with fire in their belly because they feel wronged are far more likely to fill out the poll and trash the company than someone who has had no beef with them who may simply choose to not respond at all..

Ask yourself this, how many times have you taken the time to contact a company and say "good job" in comparison to how many times you've complained? I guarantee the complaints will outnumber the "good job" contacts significantly despite the fact the majority of the time the companies did a good job.

I'm not a trustpilot snob, lol, that's a new one on me,  it's just that Trustpilot is the easiest place for people to vent their frustration even when it's not justified. My own experience with VM customer service is my experience and mine alone, it was never intended to be anything other hence why I used the word "anecdotal" to express this point and not to suggest it was research. Merely it was to point out that if I have bothered to go on Trustpilot to give them a rating (which I haven't) I would have given five stars as my experience is anything but bad.

Losing brain cells at a rate of knots in this exchange.

First you ask me to qualify my comment that Virgin Money has bad customer service, which I did. Then you say "nuh, doesn't count, try again" - to which I then posted several high profile polls, including ones used by UK government. You then again say "nuh, doesn't count" - Why? Because you had a good personal experience. For the record: you can have had a good experience with a company but agree they have bad customer service - these things are not mutually exclusive. I've only ever had a good experience with Easjet, but I didn't endorse all the flight cancellations.

Without appearing to read my comment that you quoted, you're repeating your argument that 'only people complaining leave reviews' - suprisingly every single company on trustpilot does not have 1* reviews, and in case it's because *put tinfoil hat on* 'those with good reviews pay for them', I'm not sure how that applies to the IPSOS poll either considering high reviews were also given. I guess something about Starling and Monzo fan boys?

Interestingly there appears to be only fan boys for one company in this thread. I'm suprised we're even having this conversation, less than half of the polled public would recomment VM, this thread seems to be the only place on the internet suggesting VM's CS is very good.

phillw

Exodi said:
Without appearing to read my comment that you quoted, you're repeating your argument that 'only people complaining leave reviews'

I would never leave a review & I've had equally bad experiences with all banks.

My problem with reviews is we have no way of knowing whether the people who would write positive reviews, have been put off from joining in the first place because of the bad reviews. You would need someone who doesn't think it important to read reviews but goes on to write positive reviews.

At that point, I figure that reviews are pointless & just go with the company offering the best rates.

In any case this is a bit off topic, Virgin Money don't appear to be in danger of operational failure.

Molehusband

phillw said:

Exodi said:
Without appearing to read my comment that you quoted, you're repeating your argument that 'only people complaining leave reviews'

I would never leave a review & I've had equally bad experiences with all banks.

My problem with reviews is we have no way of knowing whether the people who would write positive reviews, have been put off from joining in the first place because of the bad reviews. You would need someone who doesn't think it important to read reviews but goes on to write positive reviews.

At that point, I figure that reviews are pointless & just go with the company offering the best rates.

In any case this is a bit off topic, Virgin Money don't appear to be in danger of operational failure.

I agree with you and I was very disappointed when this thread became sidelined with irrelevant chat about apparent bad reviews concerning Virgin Media, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Holidays etc. I started to wonder whether someone was going to post a review about Virgin Mary! This thread is purely about Virgin Money and let's keep it on topic.