Items bought via Virgin Experience Days not received - customer support non-existent

Yorkie006

Sorry for the long post.
Earlier this year I got some Virgin Experience points for switching a bank account.
I picked 4 items from 2 different companies, paid for them, followed the activation instructions, all orders placed on 11/10/22.

1st company - 2 weeks after placing the order, items not delivered (items were supposed to be delivered within 2-3 working days), contacted company via a 'contact up' form on their website - no response a week later. Found another email on the website (for returns), they quickly responded saying they can't find the order details on their system. Sent them screenshots of order confirmation emails and the online tracking, they said they will send items asap. A week later, still nothing. Items still available to purchase on both the company's and Virgin Experience's websites.

2nd company - No communication from them whatsoever (not even order confirmation email) but 1 item arrived about a week after placing order (website promised delivery within 5 days). 2nd item still missing. Emailed them several times, no response. Tried calling them on the number provided on their website, calls are either ignored or rejected. When they do go to a voice mail, there's a message saying I can't leave a message as the voice mail is full. Got in touch with Virgin Experience after being unable to contact the company, all they told me is to keep trying to call them. I replied that I've been trying for weeks, they said they'll look into it. 10 days later, no update. It's like they're hoping I'll forget about it or give up. The item is still available to purchase on both websites.

Is it normal to have so much trouble getting the items or am I having a really bad luck? It looks like nobody is checking the companies beforehand to see if they can provide the product advertised and a decent customer service if things go wrong. Virgin Experience customer service seems to be useless as well. Lots of reassuring words but no action. 

I really don't know what I'm supposed to do now. Nobody seems to take any ownership of the problem and placing the onus on me as a customer to sort it out myself (which is impossible to do when the company is giving me the silent treatment). Any suggestions? Thanks!

Alderbank

Yorkie006 said:

Sorry for the long post.
Earlier this year I got some Virgin Experience points for switching a bank account.
I picked 4 items from 2 different companies, paid for them, followed the activation instructions, all orders placed on 11/10/22.

1st company - 2 weeks after placing the order, items not delivered (items were supposed to be delivered within 2-3 working days), contacted company via a 'contact up' form on their website - no response a week later. Found another email on the website (for returns), they quickly responded saying they can't find the order details on their system. Sent them screenshots of order confirmation emails and the online tracking, they said they will send items asap. A week later, still nothing. Items still available to purchase on both the company's and Virgin Experience's websites.

2nd company - No communication from them whatsoever (not even order confirmation email) but 1 item arrived about a week after placing order (website promised delivery within 5 days). 2nd item still missing. Emailed them several times, no response. Tried calling them on the number provided on their website, calls are either ignored or rejected. When they do go to a voice mail, there's a message saying I can't leave a message as the voice mail is full. Got in touch with Virgin Experience after being unable to contact the company, all they told me is to keep trying to call them. I replied that I've been trying for weeks, they said they'll look into it. 10 days later, no update. It's like they're hoping I'll forget about it or give up. The item is still available to purchase on both websites.

Is it normal to have so much trouble getting the items or am I having a really bad luck? It looks like nobody is checking the companies beforehand to see if they can provide the product advertised and a decent customer service if things go wrong. Virgin Experience customer service seems to be useless as well. Lots of reassuring words but no action. 

I really don't know what I'm supposed to do now. Nobody seems to take any ownership of the problem and placing the onus on me as a customer to sort it out myself (which is impossible to do when the company is giving me the silent treatment). Any suggestions? Thanks!

To summarize, you were given some Virgin Experience points as a free gift for opening a new bank account.
You used these gifted points to buy 4 items from 2 'different companies'. So far you have only received one item.

Who are those different companies and what are the 4 items?

born_again

Yorkie006 said:

Is it normal to have so much trouble getting the items or am I having a really bad luck? It looks like nobody is checking the companies beforehand to see if they can provide the product advertised and a decent customer service if things go wrong. Virgin Experience customer service seems to be useless as well. Lots of reassuring words but no action. 

Given this was the switching offer, then the companies are vetted. But if the switch offer was really successful, then some companies will struggle to cope with demand & customer service.

Even the best companies get it wrong at times 👀🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Yorkie006

born_again said:

Given this was the switching offer, then the companies are vetted. But if the switch offer was really successful, then some companies will struggle to cope with demand & customer service.

Even the best companies get it wrong at times 👀🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Hi,
I got the points back in April, only decided to redeem them last month as there was nothing on the Virgin Experience website I actually wanted. I found a few things that would make nice Xmas gifts so decided to buy them instead of waiting in the hope that something more useful might come up later on (or risk the points expiring before I had a chance to use them). 
I don't think the switch offer is still there but obviously people may still have unused points from months ago.

The point is, one of the companies didn't even have a record of my placing the order (despite sending me a confirmation email with order reference number) and the other only sent 1 of the 2 items I ordered and is now not responding to any attempts of communication.
VE customer support doesn't seem interested (I believe they're not based in the UK, but somewhere in India or similar) and simply tell me to try to contact the company myself. Just for the record, I had no idea what company I was buying from as the name is not shown on the VE website and the company's name is only disclosed after the order is placed and paid for. I looked them up on trustpilot and the feedback is not good, lots of people complaining about not receiving the items/refunds etc. If I had known who the supplier was, I don't think I would buy from them due to the bad feedback. I could have gotten almost identical items elsewhere a bit cheaper, the only reason I bought them through VE was to use up the points before they expired (only a fool would let £100 worth of point go to waste).

Anyway, if companies have trouble fulfilling existing order, wouldn't it make sense to suspend new ones? All of the items I ordered are still shown as available on VE and the companies' own websites. If I couldn't cope with the amount of orders, I would not be trying to sell more products until I caught up with the demand. Unless of course they don't care as it was 'only' points and then subsequently gift vouchers I paid with and not actual money... But if they promise delivery in 2-3 days and nothing shows up more then a month later without as much as a quick email informing of the delay etc, that's just bad customer service.