Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one night.

[travelislife]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Did you PM the Velocity rep? I think you have gone through the wrong channel here, but good luck with getting a positive response as is always good to see a good outcome. The rep here is usually pretty helpful.

 

[drross]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Ok, complaint letter drafted and sent to John Borghetti's email,

I have previously been invited to send any comments or suggestions to his email and assured that he actually reads them himself, although I could only assumes he has some help that that task

I will let everybody know on the response received

Cheers

really looking forward to any reply you may receive

 

[tm.smile]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Did you PM the Velocity rep? I think you have gone through the wrong channel here, but good luck with getting a positive response as is always good to see a good outcome. The rep here is usually pretty helpful.

Borghetti himself always welcomes feedback and an issue which has already been brought to such a senior person's attention and yet ended up being part of the problem, I think deserves the attention of someone higher up. Sending it to Borghetti ensures this.

 

[Jada]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Just received a call from the Manager responsible from his personal mobile, within 90 minutes of sending the letter.

The manager said he received my letter from John and asked if it was ok to call on a Sunday night.

He has promised to call back tomorrow after he receives responses to two emails he has sent to investigate the complaint.

Thats a great response in any book, I know my company doesn't deal with complaints that well.

Hopefully we have a good outcome tomorrow

 

[amaroo]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Did you PM the Velocity rep? I think you have gone through the wrong channel here, but good luck with getting a positive response as is always good to see a good outcome. The rep here is usually pretty helpful.

When you've been invited to send an email - why wouldn't you!

I have previously been invited to send any comments or suggestions to his email

 

[mannej]

It has been documented on here that JB does deal with feedback that goes to him, even by one of the members who had a go at the fact I suggested to contact JB.

End result so far - OP is happy with the response so far.

 

[medhead]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

However, I think that contacting the VA rep on AFF would have achieved exactly the same outcome, in terms of addressing the issues involved, only not as quickly as the response reported from JB.

 

[Justchecking]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Well it's great the CEO has an open email address for anyone with a personal axe to grind. I wonder how much longer it will remain so given every man and his dog is going to whinge to him about a lack of an op-up. But carry-on...

 

[777]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Well it's great the CEO has an open email address for anyone with a personal axe to grind. I wonder how much longer it will remain so given every man and his dog is going to whinge to him about a lack of an op-up. But carry-on...

I've stayed out of this thread to date but i do think the OP's complaint is about a lot more than "the lack of an op-up". It's about poor service (for whatever reason - i have some sympathy for the staff concerned in the first place making the wrong call), very bad communication, great work to salvage it by proactive staff and then ruining it again by thoughtlessness/ poor communication. I think it's a good one for the company to be aware of because it's potentially a learning moment for all concerned.

I would think complaints along the lines of "I didn't get an op-up but someone else did" directed to the highest levels will rightly be dealt with with a polite but firm form letter.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I've stayed out of this thread to date but i do think the OP's complaint is about a lot more than "the lack of an op-up". It's about poor service (for whatever reason - i have some sympathy for the staff concerned in the first place making the wrong call), very bad communication, great work to salvage it by proactive staff and then ruining it again by thoughtlessness/ poor communication. I think it's a good one for the company to be aware of because it's potentially a learning moment for all concerned.

Indeed. Customer satisfaction is a complex thing, but a large portion of it is affected by expectations, and the ability of the service provider to manage those expectations. So, there were a couple of expectations in this case that were not fulfilled: Firstly, the transfer desk did not seem to raise an issue of them making their flight, therefore the OP had an expectation they would be allowed on the flight. Secondly, there is the issue of the op-up, and then down. If you can't fulfill the op-up, it would be much better not to have offered it in the first place.

So, I think this is a case where Virgin can look at how they manage expectations.

 

[Justinf]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

it's not defamation if it's true.

But the truth needs to be proven and in this case it wasn't. It was one person's word against....nothing, considering the person being accused had no right of reply. The right thing was done by removing the person's name.

 

[medhead]

But the truth needs to be proven and in this case it wasn't. It was one person's word against....nothing, considering the person being accused had no right of reply. The right thing was done by removing the person's name.

It is still not defamation. Exactly as you say, there is one story without the other, so it is just not possible to draw a conclusion either way.


Sent from the Throne

 

[Jama]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I believe the OP has reason to be unhappy with the experience outlined, but I think promoting direct contact with JB only lends itself to abuse and eventually no avenue of escalation for anyone.

Normal channels should be used FIRST in my opinion. Yes, I have made direct contact with JB before, but only AFTER using the usual channels and getting absolutely no reply, which became part of the complaint. However, I did try.

I was also told by several senior people I subsequently dealt with to hang onto their details and make contact if I ever need to. Even though I was invited to make contact, I wouldn't do this under any circumstances unless I had tried the correct channels and was confident there was reasonable justification to do so.

I am sure they would tire of getting involved if everyone made personal contact when there is a department whose job it is to care for this.

 

[MelUser]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I did complain to VA after they refused to sell seats to me and family - 6 pax on their MEL-NAN service. I have never received a response back from their customer care department. My TA also took this up with her VA rep and couldn't get a response either.

As a result of this 8 seats (2 extras came) were bought on Air Pacific and it has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Having said that I think that Long Haul VA to LAX is great although I cannot understand why LAX to MEL direct is not daily and at the very least why there is no flight from LAX to MEL direct on Friday night.

If anyone want to email JB his email address is: [email protected]

I did not complain directly to him as I don't think it's appropriate but he just might be that sort of CEO who is interested in grass roots issues.

By the way I am with the passenger on this one and I don't think there is anything defamatory about telling one's story and naming the characters involved - this is not defamation.

 

[Jama]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I did complain to VA after they refused to sell seats to me and family - 6 pax on their MEL-NAN service. I have never received a response back from their customer care department. My TA also took this up with her VA rep and couldn't get a response either.

As a result of this 8 seats (2 extras came) were bought on Air Pacific and it has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Having said that I think that Long Haul VA to LAX is great although I cannot understand why LAX to MEL direct is not daily and at the very least why there is no flight from LAX to MEL direct on Friday night.

If anyone want to email JB his email address is:

I did not complain directly to him as I don't think it's appropriate but he just might be that sort of CEO who is interested in grass roots issues.

By the way I am with the passenger on this one and I don't think there is anything defamatory about telling one's story and naming the characters involved - this is not defamation.

I don't think posting that email address in an open forum is appropriate. :idea: Most people will just ignore the proper channels and go straight to the top for every little grip, just because they can. This will eventually result in no one having ANY LAST RESORT even for the rare unaddressed issue that may actually warrent it.

 

[straitman]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

By the way I am with the passenger on this one and I don't think there is anything defamatory about telling one's story and naming the characters involved - this is not defamation.

Whether it is defamation or not is actually irrelevant to this discussion. (A discussion for another arena perhaps.)

Forum policy is that naming an individual, as was done, is inappropriate and so the name was removed.

 

[Fruitcake]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Normal channels should be used FIRST in my opinion. Yes, I have made direct contact with JB before, but only AFTER using the usual channels and getting absolutely no reply, which became part of the complaint. However, I did try.

I absolutely agree with this sentiment - but VA would help themselves a lot if lodging a complaint didn't feel like pitching something into a black hole. It wouldn't be too hard to reply within a couple of hours saying, "thanks for the feedback, it's been forwarded to the xyz department, and they will respond to you within 20 days. The reference number for your feedback is xyz" or whatever the stated response time is.

Bonus points if the response is written by a human rather than a robot, and can tell the difference between praise and criticism (at a "deeper level" than the drop down options on the feedback form).

At the moment, in my experience, you don't hear *anything* for weeks. Which leaves you wondering if it's been received at all.

 

[simongr]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I don't think posting that email address in an open forum is appropriate. :idea: Most people will just ignore the proper channels and go straight to the top for every little grip, just because they can. This will eventually result in no one having ANY LAST RESORT even for the rare unaddressed issue that may actually warrent it.

Umm

Virgin Australia Group Executive Team | Virgin Australia

His email address was the first link in a google search...

 

[Jama]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Umm

Virgin Australia Group Executive Team | Virgin Australia

His email address was the first link in a google search...

Yes. I just tried the same 10mins ago and found this.

 

[docjames]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I did complain to VA after they refused to sell seats to me and family - 6 pax on their MEL-NAN service. I have never received a response back from their customer care department. My TA also took this up with her VA rep and couldn't get a response either.

.

How/why did they "refuse"?