Total Telephone melt down?

I have been trying to get anyone at Virgin to answer the telephone today- have to postpone a trip scheduled today out of SFO (very sad but I wil now go next week).

I have now tried (multiple times) all lines in the US- all levels of reservation (Economy and UP), and all three levels of Flying Club numbers. I have waited as long as an hour before giving up in frustration.

I am now on hold with the UK UC line for 10 minutes and counting (glad I have Skype.)

I am assuming something is up. I had some trouble reaching anyone on the phone to upgrade over the weekend as well.

Never had this type of trouble before- especially on the UC line.

Is something going on?

Update- nice lady just answered the phone and said they are very, very, busy. As I believe I have read elsewhere all US calls are now routed to the UK. She says they are having no problems that she was aware of at the moment- just busy.

So, crisis solved but this leaves me with two questions-

1. Why would be on hold in the US for over an hour on the UC line and get through in 12 minutes on the UK UC line? Perhaps it was just the luck of the draw. I will try not to read anything political into it. [;)]

2. Why VS would make anyone wait on the UC line for over an hour? Granted, I am schlepping into UC with points. I would be more than frustrated if it had been a cash purchase. Very poor planning on their part if it was not a technical problem.

I still have to think they might have been having a VOIP issue. I wonder how many times I hit '8' so I bypassed the survey option. Perhaps just once I should have participated.

Good news on the change,though- $50 and we are good.

- Greg

Greg, I believe it's the same issue referenced in this thread. Would be interested in whether you are now placed in an actual holding pattern, like Decker I myself was finding myself being just kicked off the line after it tried to dial through to the UK. The line was quiet, and it took me a while the first time to realize it had actually hung up, but that's what happened. Dumped ... [:0]

I eventually got through using the general Virgin 1-800 US line, which is a great deal more roundabout than calling the direct Gold or UC line, but worked. Used it yesterday morning to finalize some trip details for Thxgiving.

Written to Virgin Customer Service, we'll see what comes back.

In hindsight I shouldn't have started the new thread and yes, it seems to be the same issue. I just couldn't believe that I couldn't get anyone on the line for four hours.

Perhaps I should drink less coffee before I have to call VS.

Originally posted by MarkedMan
Written to Virgin Customer Service, we'll see what comes back.

'We are sorry you had to wait blah blah blah ...

We try to answer all calls asap blah blah blah ...

etc. blah blah blah'

Anything but publishing a single accessible global number for people to use without fuss (plus local for those that wnat them), silly 08000 lines or 'owt!

Originally posted by slinky09

Originally posted by MarkedMan
Written to Virgin Customer Service, we'll see what comes back.

'We are sorry you had to wait blah blah blah ...

We try to answer all calls asap blah blah blah ...

etc. blah blah blah'

[:D]

They should at least figure out they have a bug in the system. I'd love to hear back that they are going to right phone numbering wrongs the world over. For now I'd settle for the US 1-800 gold line actually transferring over to the Premier team like it's supposed to. That'd be be good enough right now.

As it turns out I got a 'please provide more details' message - slightly bizarre as the damn thing hasn't worked for two weeks at least, but I guess they aren't being flooded with email about it. I shall provide detailed reproduction steps, like a good QA analyst would.

My average queue time has been 20 minutes with as much as 40 minutes. I remember the old days when it was the time it took to dial the number. The answer to the problem is simple. Add more people to handle the problem or radically improve the web site to provide more transparency to getting upgrades etc. Their website is too focused on marketing and not on information and solving common requests.

[Darren Wheeler]

But are you prepared to pay the increased fares to have extra staff anwering phones?

[mitchja]

If you where able to do more online yourself (such as book specific fares, upgrade with miles, change fares etc etc) that would put less pressure on the call centres.

OK that probably means a new initially expensive reservation system but other airlines have proved that they can save money in the long term by allowing customers to do more for themselves online.

For both BMI and BA you can cancel/change your fares online without any intervention from the reservation staff.

Regards

US Gold line problem now fixed - haven't tried any other line tho'.

Originally posted by MarkedMan
US Gold line problem now fixed - haven't tried any other line tho'.

Excellent. I will try tonight. And I will even be a good kid and start with the Silver line.

[mcmbenjamin]

Originally posted by mitchja
If you where able to do more online yourself (such as book specific fares, upgrade with miles, change fares etc etc) that would put less pressure on the call centres.

That could also confuse other and lead to other issues thus MORE phone calls.