My Complaint Letter to VS (re: IFBT)

Based on some great coaching from fellow V-Flyers, I wrote and sent the following via the e-mail "feedback" to Customer Service function at http://www.virginatlantic.com. I will keep you posted as to when or if I get a response!

BD
___________________________________________


Dear Virgin Atlantic,

I recently took a return flight (VS 20 on 20 July 2005 and VS 19 on 28 July 2005) in Upper Class and have posted my impressions of both legs at http://www.v-flyer.com

I am writing to you to discuss a specific disappointment I had with the in-flight service -- specifically, beauty treatments.

I was in 3K and was not chosen for the service. While I have learned from previous flights that it is a random choice (you do not advertise it as such, which is regrettable), what transpired on my flight has led me to write to you and seek some response.

One thing that disappointed me was that upon returning from a treatment, the woman in seat 2A whispered to her husband in 2K that she had "made a deal" with the IFBT to have him chosen next. Sure enough, he got picked. That was unfair to other passengers.

Additionally, I was not provided with a priority card for "next time" but the passenger in 1K was. I asked the FSM if I could also have a card and she said she was sure the IFBT would bring me one; she did not.

Upon leaving the plane, I asked to speak to the IFBT to see if I could get a card, but she had disappeared and I did not want to hunt for her and find myself at the end of the immigration queue.

Can you please address my disappointment regarding your otherwise fine service?

Thanks very much.

Sincerely,

MY REAL NAME

[Scrooge]

Well Todd,that seemed like a well written letter that is sure to get a responce from VS...problem is the responce will be sorry here 10k miles...

bets please on this one

[fozzyo]

Sorry to hear about your dissappointment. If it was me, i'd hope the response would be an apology and two Priority cards (one for each trip).

Foz xxx

Originally posted by jetwet1
Well Todd

Too clever by half.

It does appear to be random choice. I asked the IFBT how she 'picks' people. Basically, she told me "If she don't like the look of you"... you won't get picked!

[Decker]

Well it's not "random" in the strict sense of the word. She chooses based on a number of parameters including limits on number of back massages, priority cards, treatments in CH, FC level and then onto personal preferences. It would be more accurate to say "On any flight only some of the pax will receive treatments as there aren't enought IFBT hours available to cover everyone. You may or may not receive a treatment based on a number of factors, sorry". FWIW if I was an IFBT, personal hygiene would be right up there [}:)].

I'm sure you'll get a few miles and maybe a card or two..

Let us know the outcome..

[mcmbenjamin]

Well I hate to add fuel to the fire but just got off VS46. Offered a treatment, she was busy and came by with cards. I said thank you and noted that many IFBT do not give out cards and this is my first card.

She came back right after landing and gave me another.

I hope all works out

Benjamin

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by mcmbenjamin
Well I hate to add fuel to the fire but just got off VS46. Offered a treatment, she was busy and came by with cards. I said thank you and noted that many IFBT do not give out cards and this is my first card.

She came back right after landing and gave me another.

I hope all works out

Benjamin

So where's the TR then? You've had an hour to do it! [:p]

I GOT MY ANSWER!!!

Here is what i got by e-mail today:

Dear Mr. (MIS-SPELLED LAST NAME [V]):

Thank you for your email.

Please accept our apologies for any difficulties with your recent Upper Class flight. I'm sorry that you were not able to enjoy the inflight beauty treatment. We offer this service on selected flights but there are times when the beauty therapist cannot accommodate everyone. As a gesture for any disappointment, I have gone ahead and credited your Flying Club account with five thousand compensatory miles. The miles you earned on this last trip have already been posted to the account.

We appreciate your business and trust your next flight will offer this
service.

Kind regards,
xxxxx
Customer Relations
**********************************

PRO -- Speedy reply, directly addressed MOST of the issue at hand, 5K miles

CON -- Did not offer me an IFBT priority card (which is what I would have preferred over the miles), and did not apologize for the dodgy "non-random" activity that I specifically described.

All in all, I would give it a 7 out of 10. I write these sorts of talking points, stand-by statements and executive complain responses in my own job and I have to say this one was pure average, which is what you go for, typically, since it's impossible to satisfy most people (thought I would have expected more from Virgin in the form of humor or just directness of tone).

Hope you all enjoyed following this little adventure.







Edit by Mod to remove identity of staffer, as per T&C of posting on V-Flyer.

Nick

Sorry it wasn't everything you hoped for but it's good that they replied so quickly.

[Scrooge]

Sounds like a form letter to me

only 5k miles,man they are getting cheap with the bribe miles

[preiffer]

Glad to hear you got such a speedy response (with at least some resolution)


Let's just be careful that we don't end up building a "compensation table" on the site by accident - I'm not sure that would benefit anyone.

I would also like to suggest that the actual (word for word) content of complaint letters is kept relatively private, certainly until VS have had the opportunity to respond - it's only fair to them.


A complaint letter is typically a personal issue with the company involved, and that company should be given the opportunity to respond in a personal way. I'm presuming that the posting of VS' reply, verbatim, is not breaching any confidentiality on the email such as that contained within the footer.


I'm all for open discussion of VS issues, along with complaints, but I'm a little uneasy at the idea of posting all future complaint letters verbatim "for review" on the site...

[Scrooge]

Whilst I agree that we do not want to turn this into another FT where people post "how much will I get for this" type things,I would also like to point out,that I posted the "here comes 5/10k miles" due to the fact that it seems to me that VS is just using a form letter.

I.E. If complaint is type A send e-mail A
If complaint is type B send e-mail B

ETC

None of the specific questions Todd asked were answered,just a general we are sorry,the same thing was done regarding food complaints,it just comes across to me as a fob of,let's see if we can offer a few miles and get them out of our hair rather than actualy answering and dealing with the questions PAX raise.

Just MHO,oh and as a side note,I never sent VS any e-mails when I had a problem,I picked up the phone and talked to someone,just worked better for me.

[preiffer]

Hi Dave,

Completely agree with your reasoning of the 5/10k issue - I also believe it's a worrying trend that VS seem to be paying lip-service to some key issues at present.

The point was more around posting complaint letters, word for word, before giving VS the opportunity to resolve the issue.

While I agree that discussion on IFBT service, food, the standard customer service "bribes" is valid (and indeed, valuable), I'm not sure what value we (or Virgin) get out of reading complete copies of complaint letters they're about to receive before they can possibly respond.

(We must all bear in mind, that VS may steer away from tackling issues directly if they KNOW their personal response will be published on a public web site, as indicated by BransonDisciple's initial contact with them...)


(I also don't think it's fair on them for us to have a week to pre-judge their reaction...)

Im not sure if CS would have access to any priority cards to send to you??? Email responses can be handled anywhere in this age and is probably a long way away from where the IFBT's hang out/train/work. Im sure that they would have sent you one if they could =)

Just my $0.02

[preiffer]

Originally posted by anteo
Im not sure if CS would have access to any priority cards to send to you??? Email responses can be handled anywhere in this age and is probably a long way away from where the IFBT's hang out/train/work. Im sure that they would have sent you one if they could =)

Hmm... They managed to send me one of the "bedtime story books" for the UCS when they were first launched (for my little sister, before you ask...!)

[Scrooge]

Oh I agree about the outbound letter,but it's interesting to see the inbound one,I must take a few mins and start comparing all the letters that have been posted here from VS,could make for some interesting comparisons.Then again it may not and i'll end up wasting a couple of hours of my life LMAO [:I]

hmmm... I have 4 IFBT cards---do you think they're worth 20,000 miles? I have terrible luck with priority with these--need to be more determined: "Yes I WILL have the hands massage" rather than a fluttery, "Dunno which or when"....

My other always gets the royal treatment (and he has 0 priority cards) as he states clearly and firmly, "wake me up."

Now if I can just remind him to get moving on his Virgin Swings a la Honey Lamb's talented offspring, and score those few additional gold points...I can enjoy my treatments at the Clubhouse every time out.

cheers,

rr

Originally posted by preiffer

I'm not sure what value we (or Virgin) get out of reading complete copies of complaint letters they're about to receive before they can possibly respond.

(We must all bear in mind, that VS may steer away from tackling issues directly if they KNOW their personal response will be published on a public web site, as indicated by BransonDisciple's initial contact with them...)

Here's where I fall down on those issues:

1. Seeing other peoples' letters has helped me write better, more effective ones. Frankly, I learn what to write -- and what not to. It makes me a better, more empowered consumer of VS (as opposed to being a PR for them or unquestioningly loyal). If posting them before they respond poses some kind of ethical dilemma, then I would be willing to post a letter only after i had also received a response.

2. That said, knowing that our letters and their response WOULD be posted in front of a group of rabid (sorry, no frothing of the mouth!) supporters of the brand such as us, it could very well spur them to respond with greater speed and more attention to the actual details. I work PR in my day-to-day job and when I know my company's responses are being tracked with an eagle eye, we tend to try and go out with all of our best efforts. It's human nature, I'm afraid. And corporate cynicism. But whatever it is that drives it, the customer wins more.

I am not afraid of seeing criticism of VS on these board (not saying anyone is...) and if it's done in a spirit of really trying to identify the good and bad of Virgin and helping them to improve their service, I'm all for anything anyone wants to publish here (aside from names, of course).

But I'm a newby, I've said my piece, and I won't pick at this any longer!

BD

My personal opinion is that if issues need resolving its ok to post the responces ( after the recipient has had a chance to deal with the problem ) at the end of the day the customer is supposed to come first cause as we all know the customer is always right, but often mistaken. Positive replies to complaints is good marketing for them anyway.

My only gripe is that too many letters of complaint posts might put people off the forum who are interested in finding out the positive and exiting things that Virgin do and highlight why this is the one company in the UK that actually has FANS and not just users.

Originally posted by easygoingeezer

My only gripe is that too many letters of complaint posts might put people off the forum who are interested in finding out the positive and exiting things that Virgin do and highlight why this is the one company in the UK that actually has FANS and not just users.

Great point -- that makes a lot of sense. Maybe a solution is to corral them into their own subject category (sub-forum) labeled "VS CS BS" In all seriousnes, though, it would help to have a couple well-crafted letters on here as a guide for how to successfully communicate with VS, and perhaps having their own little space in our world would keep them from sending a negative impression about a great company.

BD

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by BransonDisciple


Great point -- that makes a lot of sense. Maybe a solution is to corral them into their own subject category (sub-forum) labeled "VS CS BS"

That isn't a bad suggestion. If we were to do a 'best way to complain' section, however, it would be in the members only Clubhouse section of the site.

That way, the people who help keep the site running by buying memberships would be the ones who may benefit from it.

Click on this link to find out about Clubhouse memebrship.

Nick

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick

If we were to do a 'best way to complain' section, however, it would be in the members only Clubhouse section of the site.

That way, the people who help keep the site running by buying memberships would be the ones who may benefit from it.

Awesome idea -- builds even more of a value proposition for Membership!

BD

[preiffer]

Originally posted by BransonDisciple
Awesome idea -- builds even more of a value proposition for Membership!

While it may enhance the value of membership (although still not personally convinced by the "school of complaints" argument), I would suggest the site provides an awful lot of value to members as it is