Virgin Australia overcharged me $4500

[Dr Paris]

Hi folks

Virgin Australia came to the party, finally, today, and refunded me the amount + the credit card interest.

Relieved they came through.

Anyway, in answer to some people's questions/comments:

• I didn't want to charge back via my credit card, since VA informed me that my Velocity account would be terminated upon a chargeback. I wanted to try and resolve this via diplomatic channels, whereas I normally wouldn't hesitate to run a chargeback on a vendor. I value my VA account.
• The blanked out bits of the original message were largely irrelevant details about the upgrade I requested.
• I agree the upgrade $ offer I made was low, but they had repeatedly told me it was on sale, and I have no reason to assume their system is broken. It made an offer in good faith, which the system seems to have accepted.

Cheers
Paris

 

[Mattg]

Thanks for letting us know how you got on, and good to hear the charges were finally reversed.

I didn't want to charge back via my credit card, since VA informed me that my Velocity account would be terminated upon a chargeback. I wanted to try and resolve this via diplomatic channels, whereas I normally wouldn't hesitate to run a chargeback on a vendor. I value my VA account.

This still concerns me. Why would they terminate your Velocity account just because you disputed a clearly erroneous charge? What was VA's justification for this ridiculous threat?

 

[Dr Paris]

Thanks for letting us know how you got on, and good to hear the charges were finally reversed.



This still concerns me. Why would they terminate your Velocity account just because you disputed a clearly erroneous charge? What was VA's justification for this ridiculous threat?

Not sure -- lots of vendors have a one-strike policy on chargeback, regardless of who is in the right (e.g. Valve's Steam, the video game store, famously kills accounts on any chargeback!) VA seems to have the same policy.

 

[Mattg]

Not sure -- lots of vendors have a one-strike policy on chargeback, regardless of who is in the right (e.g. Valve's Steam, the video game store, famously kills accounts on any chargeback!) VA seems to have the same policy.

I can't see anything in the Velocity terms & conditions that would cover this... Here is the relevant section of the Velocity Frequent Flyer T&Cs covering termination of account:

9.1.2 VRPL will (if VRPL considers it reasonable in the circumstances) attempt to give a Member written notice of its intention to terminate the Membership, and give the Member 14 days to respond to this notice by rectifying the breach (where possible) and providing any reason why VRPL should not take the proposed action. VRPL will review any reasons given by the Member and advise the Member of its decision.

9.1.3 In addition to clauses 9.1.1 and 9.1.2, VRPL may, in its sole discretion, immediately suspend or terminate without notice the Membership of any Member who, in VRPL’s opinion, has breached:

(a) clause 5.6.2 by selling, bartering, attempting to transfer or otherwise dealing with any Member Benefits other than in accordance with these Terms and Conditions;

(b) clause 10.2.4 by making a Points Transfer – Airlines other than in accordance with these Terms and Conditions;

(c) clause 21.2.5 by claiming Status Credits with both Velocity Frequent Flyer and a Program Partner program;

(d) clause 5.6.1 by supplying incorrect or incomplete information; or

(e) clause 14 by failing to comply with any of the terms and conditions for Family Pooling.

Velocity Membership Terms & Conditions

None of the things listed in 9.1.3 relate to credit card chargebacks for a legitimately disputed charge.

 

[Dr Paris]

I can't see anything in the Velocity terms & conditions that would cover this... Here is the relevant section of the Velocity Frequent Flyer T&Cs covering termination of account:



Velocity Membership Terms & Conditions

None of the things listed in 9.1.3 relate to credit card chargebacks for a legitimately disputed charge.

Agreed, and I had a look at this when considering my options. They verbally told me this though, which made me very hesitant!

 

[Milboo]

I’m confused about the termination of account too.

An upgrade is with Virgin Australia as it was a paid for upgrade vs a points one.

VFF would only come into play if you were redeeming a reward or using points.

 

[RooFlyer]

Just because its not in their T&Cs wouldn't stop someone from threatening it.

 

[Pushka]

Hi folks

Virgin Australia came to the party, finally, today, and refunded me the amount + the credit card interest.

Relieved they came through.

Anyway, in answer to some people's questions/comments:

• I didn't want to charge back via my credit card, since VA informed me that my Velocity account would be terminated upon a chargeback. I wanted to try and resolve this via diplomatic channels, whereas I normally wouldn't hesitate to run a chargeback on a vendor. I value my VA account.
• The blanked out bits of the original message were largely irrelevant details about the upgrade I requested.
• I agree the upgrade $ offer I made was low, but they had repeatedly told me it was on sale, and I have no reason to assume their system is broken. It made an offer in good faith, which the system seems to have accepted.

Cheers
Paris

Actually now you mention it, we did a chargeback from Virgin perhaps 2 years ago because they took a very long time to pay us a refund they acknowledged we were going to get. They sent a very threatening letter telling us if we ever did a charge back again they would close our account. Didn’t bother me, I have no status and I don’t think I’ve flown Virgin since.

I can't see anything in the Velocity terms & conditions that would cover this... Here is the relevant section of the Velocity Frequent Flyer T&Cs covering termination of account:



Velocity Membership Terms & Conditions

None of the things listed in 9.1.3 relate to credit card chargebacks for a legitimately disputed charge.

As per above, I can confirm that I did receive such a termination threat letter after I did a chargeback.

 

[Pushka]

Is it even legal for a company to issue such a threat letter when instigating a charge back that is found in your favour?

 

[Cossie]

Well done, glad things worked out ok for you , regardless of the negative ninnies on here!

 

[TomVexille]

Is it even legal for a company to issue such a threat letter when instigating a charge back that is found in your favour?

I assume so as they have the right to refuse to do business with you, as long as they don't breach anti-discrimination laws.

 

[williamsf1]

I’m confused about the termination of account too.

An upgrade is with Virgin Australia as it was a paid for upgrade vs a points one.

VFF would only come into play if you were redeeming a reward or using points.

Agree

VFF is a separate company and they do not just cancel memberships for such reasons. The OP would have been speaking to someone at the airline and not someone from VFF ... Velocity would not have been involved at all with an issue of a bid with $$

As for the OP .... Did VA say the charge was so high due to an error with the bid system or did they give some other excuse?

 

[samh004]

A new member joins the forum and has a rant, often not providing all of the details.

This happens a lot, but new members can often not know what they should and shouldn't share. I've seen countless new members overshare their personal information. There's no right or wrong in such a situation, just a judging of them by the regulars.

That said, the evidence provided up thread made it clear this was VA's problem, not the OP's and I am glad to see it has worked out for them.

I am saddened to see regular members attacking needlessly though.

 

[Pushka]

Agree

VFF is a separate company and they do not just cancel memberships for such reasons. The OP would have been speaking to someone at the airline and not someone from VFF ... Velocity would not have been involved at all with an issue of a bid with $$

As for the OP .... Did VA say the charge was so high due to an error with the bid system or did they give some other excuse?

Well I’m going to back up OP’s claim of termination threat.

 

[Mattg]

Well I’m going to back up OP’s claim of termination threat.

To be fair, I don’t think anyone’s saying that Virgin didn’t threaten to cancel the OP’s Velocity membership. Just that they would have no real legal grounds on which to actually do so.

 

[opusman]

The blanked out bits of the original message were largely irrelevant details about the upgrade I requested

If you're going to post on a forum asking for help from people then you should provide all the information you can, not selectively edit which only makes you look less forthright and honest. Let those whose opinion you seek make their own determination about what details are largely irrelevant.

 

[straitman]

The blanked out bits of the original message were largely irrelevant details about the upgrade I requested.
Cheers
Paris

If you're going to post on a forum asking for help from people then you should provide all the information you can, not selectively edit which only makes you look less forthright and honest. Let those whose opinion you seek make their own determination about what details are largely irrelevant.

Sorry opusman but I disagree with you on this.

IMHO cutting out all the extra waffle is appropriate and useful. Maybe a brief explanation would be useful however I am not convinced that it is really required either.

 

[opusman]

IMHO cutting out all the extra waffle is appropriate and useful. Maybe a brief explanation would be useful however I am not convinced that it is really required either.

He posted a full scan of the letter, with one paragraph obscured. This lead inevitably to questions and doubts about the content of that obscured paragraph. How does that help anyone?

 

[straitman]

He posted a full scan of the letter, with one paragraph obscured. This lead inevitably to questions and doubts about the content of that obscured paragraph. How does that help anyone?

If the irrelevant parts are deleted then people don't need to read them and it is simpler and easier to read.

It's very subjective really and I'm more than happy to agree to disagree.

 

[odysseus]

I don't have a problem with things being blanked out per se - just in this case there didn't seem to be a basis for it. Moreover the conclusion on its own was therefore unexplained, but it was the explanation that was the heart of the issue.