My complaint:
What went wrong? Everything. Took over dealing with an issue related to my Mum’s cancelled cruise after listening to her on the phone to Sailor Services for half an hour getting more and more distressed, confused and irate at the fact that her money had not yet been refunded and she was receiving all manner of mixed messages as to whether it would be between emails from and verbal conversations with Virgin Voyages. She was on the phone to Sailor Services several times and for long periods of time, and nobody spoken to could give clear answers or had clear communication with higher ups/other departments as to what was going on. Hours wasted going in circles with people who fundamentally didn’t know the answers to the situation they were dealing with. I took over the last call and used my experience of corporate to ask the right questions, take notes, figure the issue out and then relay it all repeatedly emphasising the key points and questions so they could not be ignored or avoided. As it turned out, the problem was as simple as this: Virgin Voyages cancelled a bunch of cruises and obviously this elicited a customer service overload. They informed customers of this by sending out an email to all impacted stating that they could EITHER rebook before 28th December 2023 or receive a full refund credited automatically to original payment method after 28th December (allowing 7 days for processing – all quite reasonable). The problem started when verbally a sailor services team member stated that my mum’s refund was ed and on track to be processed automatically after 28th December (she didn’t fill out the form to expedite this as it was glitchy and the questions asked weren’t relevant to her – this form needs reworked for better customer experience and to be more accessible in terms of format – and verbally sailor services ed this was fine). Then, she got an email ation of cancellation that stated that she would only be able to take credit to rebook, not get a full refund of her deposit. This led her to believe that the verbal discussion with Sailor Services had not been properly registered, and she would have to call again to sort things out – again. When we called, the Sailor Services advisor could give no clarity on what was going on – she couldn’t see that this misleading email had been sent to my mum, or explain it, and could only offer to put me on hold to transfer me to ‘the back office’, warning me that hold times are long as they are experiencing a high volume of calls. I was on the phone for 1h30 between her and others she tried to transfer me to and got nowhere until I demanded to speak to a supervisor, and waited to do so. The supervisor was able to tell me in under 30 seconds that the second misleading email was just an automated email sent out in error, my refund was on track, and anyone else on the cruise who didn’t organise a rebooking would also be getting their refund processed from 28th December, allowing for perhaps some delay due to a high volume of instances of refunds needing to be processed. This was totally acceptable to me and I decided to leave it there, and was grateful to this supervisor for being clear at last. I understand that when a company has to cancel their planned service, their is a large demand placed on customer services, and lots of queries, but, fundamentally, the Sailor Service advisor I spoke to (Janice) was not equipped to give me the key information that would have got me off the phone in under 60 seconds. Better internal communications required, and more staff support or better training for Sailor Services team members – ASAP. Customers beware – you are not going to get the answers you need very fast calling Sailor Services if Virgin Voyages cancel your booking. My advice would be to call several times or ask to speak to a supervisor immediately if the Sailor Services team member does not know how to explain issues you are raising. Will not be booking with Virgin Voyages again – cancellations are forgivable, even customer service overload and long wait times are forgivable – but what is not forgivable is sending out customer emails that contradict one another and your front line staff being none the wiser about it and unable to explain it. Especially when these emails are to do with customer money and compensation. When that email was sent out in error, all customer facing staff should have been made aware of it so that any customer enquiring regarding it could be given clear, consistent and correct information. When you cancel a cruise and owe people money back, you really cannot afford to be getting customer service so wrong if you want your company image to remain intact. Will be taking this to Trustpilot and other review platforms so that the many people in the same position as my mum are less likely to experience the same. For older generations and people less tech-savvy, this experience can cause serious, serious distress. And this exact demographic makes up a high percentage of cruise customers, which Virgin Voyages should bloody well know. And they should bloody well make sure their systems and processes don’t cause a major part of their client demographic such trouble.
Suggested solution:
By acknowledging the problem and sending apology emails with full explanation and clarity to all impacted, and perhaps some bonus compensation for the trouble.
