paultiffen
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2012
- Posts
- 536
Hi,
So after having made numerous bookings for family members using my Velocity points I booked for my sister and her bf to go to the Gold Coast. Normally I would do separate bookings but in this case put it on the same one as was in a rush. I got charged the CC fee but figured it was a website error and would ring up later to correct.
Rang up 13 67 89 and got through to Platinum desk where a team member Heath advised me that it was payable on all bookings where the taxes were payable via credit card. Advised him that they needed to provide at least one fee free option by law (ie Poli) and that there were numerous other bookings that I was not charged on nor do I expect that 7 dollars on 37 of fees is a reasonable CC surcharge if that is the only option available to pay the ticket. After he tried to tell me a couple more times that it should attract the fee and him wanting to get off the line ASAP I gave him an example booking with no fee. He then got out the manual and found the rule that:
- If the taxes are less than the cc fee on a general ticket ie less than 7 dollars then its not charged
- If the taxes are over 50 dollars then it is charged on a reward ticket
As I put them both on the same booking the total was approx 76 dollars in taxes return and I was charged per person 7 dollars for 14 dollars total. ie the credit card fee is 14/76 or 18% - that's worse than cabcharge. What's retarded is that to make separate bookings I would have avoided it even though this is presumably more complicated for Virgin to manage on the system. Heath could do nothing for me and told me to email which is not great in and of itself for a Platinum line - why do I need to go to a separate department and why can't he handle that request directly. When I emailed I received the generic response below. I'm obviously going to change and book separately in future but hopefully this can be a warning of the lack of looking after a customer in general - the general response I would expect is:
- Waive the fee on my file and make a note
- Make the rules more clear on the website as to when the fee is charged in general
- If a fee is charged per person then make the 50 dollar amount also per person
- Train your phone staff to be on top of the rules as to when it's charged
- Give discretion to the first point of contact to be able to handle all requests including refunds
Maybe the Velocity rep can get involved?
Cheers,
Paul
So after having made numerous bookings for family members using my Velocity points I booked for my sister and her bf to go to the Gold Coast. Normally I would do separate bookings but in this case put it on the same one as was in a rush. I got charged the CC fee but figured it was a website error and would ring up later to correct.
Rang up 13 67 89 and got through to Platinum desk where a team member Heath advised me that it was payable on all bookings where the taxes were payable via credit card. Advised him that they needed to provide at least one fee free option by law (ie Poli) and that there were numerous other bookings that I was not charged on nor do I expect that 7 dollars on 37 of fees is a reasonable CC surcharge if that is the only option available to pay the ticket. After he tried to tell me a couple more times that it should attract the fee and him wanting to get off the line ASAP I gave him an example booking with no fee. He then got out the manual and found the rule that:
- If the taxes are less than the cc fee on a general ticket ie less than 7 dollars then its not charged
- If the taxes are over 50 dollars then it is charged on a reward ticket
As I put them both on the same booking the total was approx 76 dollars in taxes return and I was charged per person 7 dollars for 14 dollars total. ie the credit card fee is 14/76 or 18% - that's worse than cabcharge. What's retarded is that to make separate bookings I would have avoided it even though this is presumably more complicated for Virgin to manage on the system. Heath could do nothing for me and told me to email which is not great in and of itself for a Platinum line - why do I need to go to a separate department and why can't he handle that request directly. When I emailed I received the generic response below. I'm obviously going to change and book separately in future but hopefully this can be a warning of the lack of looking after a customer in general - the general response I would expect is:
- Waive the fee on my file and make a note
- Make the rules more clear on the website as to when the fee is charged in general
- If a fee is charged per person then make the 50 dollar amount also per person
- Train your phone staff to be on top of the rules as to when it's charged
- Give discretion to the first point of contact to be able to handle all requests including refunds
Maybe the Velocity rep can get involved?
Cheers,
Paul
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