Virgin money switching bonus-Be careful

the_gardener

At the start of August i decided to take up the Virgin Money offer of 20,000 free points if I switched my accounts to them.So on that day i opened up a M account and the M saver account and deposited £1000 in as in the terms and conditions online and done the full switch about a week later including direct debits. I then downloaded the Virgin Red app and waited for the points to appear which they didnt.
Near the end of August i contacted them and asked about the points and he said they would take a month to send out the email with the code to redeem points which never appeared.Today I phoned them and said that the points have not appeared and looking into my account they said that someone helped me online to see up the account which they did not.I said to the operator on the phone that no one helped me but someones name appeared on their system that helped me.

Writing this all I can think of is is later on  the day I opened the account after trialing a 2p transfer which went through fine, i transferred a five figure sum from old account to Virgin account and it did not appear until the next day.I contacted them via twitter and maybe called them about the missing 10k which disappeared for about 8 hours and that is the only thing I may have rung them about.A but annoying that i cleared out my call list on phone the other day.

So be careful i am now down either 12 bottles of wine, 200 sausage rolls at Greggs or a limited edition vinyl record that I could have spent my 20,000 free points on.

callum9999

the_gardener said:

At the start of August i decided to take up the Virgin Money offer of 20,000 free points if I switched my accounts to them.So on that day i opened up a M account and the M saver account and deposited £1000 in as in the terms and conditions online and done the full switch about a week later including direct debits. I then downloaded the Virgin Red app and waited for the points to appear which they didnt.
Near the end of August i contacted them and asked about the points and he said they would take a month to send out the email with the code to redeem points which never appeared.Today I phoned them and said that the points have not appeared and looking into my account they said that someone helped me online to see up the account which they did not.I said to the operator on the phone that no one helped me but someones name appeared on their system that helped me.

Writing this all I can think of is is later on  the day I opened the account after trialing a 2p transfer which went through fine, i transferred a five figure sum from old account to Virgin account and it did not appear until the next day.I contacted them via twitter and maybe called them about the missing 10k which disappeared for about 8 hours and that is the only thing I may have rung them about.A but annoying that i cleared out my call list on phone the other day.

So be careful i am now down either 12 bottles of wine, 200 sausage rolls at Greggs or a limited edition vinyl record that I could have spent my 20,000 free points on.

If you fulfilled all the criteria, including (from memory) the two direct debits, you shouldn't be.

Raise a complaint and I'd be shocked if their complaint department doesn't sort it out for you, or worst case scenario, the Ombudsman.

pfpf

oh dear. i bet this is why i am waiting for my incentive to be added (25% shop). i had an issue applying online as no matter what i did once i got past adding my name and address i got a "you look familiar to us" message and to "ring CS".

turns out an account i had with them years ago still had active login details but in no shape or form could CS and I get logged in.

so the CS agent advised opening the account over the phone and once i got the debit card i could use that to reset my login details.

she talked through all the criteria for the switch offer, which i could and have fulfilled and then went through the long process of a telephone application with all the legal jargon.

having chased it up with the switching team on Tuesday all they said was to wait the 14 days (it had only been 7), i asked if i had fulfilled the criteria and was told i had and just had to give them the full 14 days to send my the offer confirmation.

looks like no offer for me and as i now have an account i can't simply begin a new switch

soulsaver

I've gone to a formal complaint. Full story when resolved, one way or other.

soulsaver

pfpf said:

looks like no offer for me and as i now have an account i can't simply begin a new switch

They'll be talking about your old ac being Yorkshire or Clydesdale? That shouldn't affect your VM eligibility.
If your new M plus ac opened after the 18th, why can't you do a switch to get the incentive?

the_gardener

After sending a secure message via my account apparently they have sent it to another department who should get back to me within a week.

pfpf

soulsaver said:

pfpf said:

looks like no offer for me and as i now have an account i can't simply begin a new switch

They'll be talking about your old ac being Yorkshire or Clydesdale? That shouldn't affect your VM eligibility.
If your new M plus ac opened after the 18th, why can't you do a switch to get the incentive?

because it had to be opened online / via the app which i couldn't do. will see what happens after the 14 day wait. did have a virgin account years ago but the dates in the T&C's are fine for me, its the fact i opened over the phone that i am expecting problems with.

soulsaver

pfpf said:

soulsaver said:

pfpf said:

looks like no offer for me and as i now have an account i can't simply begin a new switch

They'll be talking about your old ac being Yorkshire or Clydesdale? That shouldn't affect your VM eligibility.
If your new M plus ac opened after the 18th, why can't you do a switch to get the incentive?

because it had to be opened online / via the app which i couldn't do. will see what happens after the 14 day wait. did have a virgin account years ago but the dates in the T&C's are fine for me, its the fact i opened over the phone that i am expecting problems with.

Replied in the other thread:
If being stingey with me wasn't idicative of their policies, I'd say you'll be alright:
The 'open in app or online' I believe is to stop the branches being flooded with people queuing/ postage admin - not a specific qualifying term.

What's more, it's their processes that stopped you opening online.
Let's hope they'll play fair with you, if not I'd go down the complaint route, too.

cymruchris

soulsaver said:

I've gone to a formal complaint. Full story when resolved, one way or other.

Virgins complaints team are slow. I’ve had several letters apologising for not dealing with my complaint - which still remains unresolved. Don’t expect a quick resolution. 

the_gardener

So Virgin money called me this morning regarding my complaint.After listening to my conversation i had with the operator on the phone who i honestly dont remember phoning up when opening account they have declined my complaint regarding the missing 20,000 points.
Weirdly the operator said that after listening to my call, I did not mention anything about the 20,000 points on the call when asked about why you were switching to virgin.I did mention the better interest rates apparently than my normal bank but not the 20,000 points and that is why I was changing banks.
Now if i was changing a big five figure amount to a bank because of better interest rates than my last bank, would the first thing you mention to the operator is that you would rather the red points to spend on sausage rolls and wine than earning better interest when asked.

soulsaver

the_gardener said:

So Virgin money called me this morning regarding my complaint.After listening to my conversation i had with the operator on the phone who i honestly dont remember phoning up when opening account they have declined my complaint regarding the missing 20,000 points.
Weirdly the operator said that after listening to my call, I did not mention anything about the 20,000 points on the call when asked about why you were switching to virgin.I did mention the better interest rates apparently than my normal bank but not the 20,000 points and that is why I was changing banks.
Now if i was changing a big five figure amount to a bank because of better interest rates than my last bank, would the first thing you mention to the operator is that you would rather the red points to spend on sausage rolls and wine than earning better interest when asked.

So, complain. Go to secure messages, scroll down to complaints and formalise a complaint about not getting the 20000 points. Head it 'Complaint'. Then explain that you've satisfied the eligibility requirement (check you have) but Virgin haven't honoured the offer within the period in the terms.