Virgin East Coast 16

Posted on 2016-10-18 13:27 +0100 in Life • 3 min read

It's now almost 2 weeks since I last posted an update here and, frustratingly, I don't really have much progress to write about.

What had been a promising start (well, middle; the actual start of this process was as frustrating as hell; it was only when the MD got involved that things actually started to happen) has turned into more of the same: broken promises and lack of actual results.

Only, this time, I'm not dealing with some call center. This time I'm dealing with the office of David Horne.

Since I last wrote I've emailed Mike Ross three times. The first time was to chase up what was happening with the promised phone call regarding the Ticket Wallet app. Here's what I wrote 12 days ago (on 2016-10-06):

Hi Mike.

Just wanted to try and chase up what's happening with being able to speak with someone about the original problem with the Ticket Wallet app. It's now around 2 months since I missed the single call from Katie Fisher (which I attempted to return every day for a week after, and a couple of times the second week after -- never able to leave a message because there was no voicemail system). It's now also over a month since you said that a David Ridley (you you said was Katie's boss) would contact me and I've still not had any sort of call.

With respect, this is exactly the sort of thing that I initially found frustrating about dealing with Virgin East Coast Trains: the promises of calls to get things sorted that never happen and the constant need, on my part, to chase things up to even try and get something happening.

It's also nearly 4 months since I first ran into the original problem and I'm still no nearer getting an explanation as to what the problem is or any nobody would initially believe the problem I was reporting.

Could I please get an honest update on what's happening with this?

This got no reply whatsoever. Now, I appreciate that people can be busy, but when you have an ongoing issue to resolve with someone it makes sense you at least say something like "I'm sorry, my attention is elsewhere at the moment -- I promise I'll get back to you as soon as possible". That's not an ideal thing to do, especially if your job us customer relations, but at least it lets the customer know you're there and listening.

But, no, nothing.

So 5 days ago I replied to the above, with a little chaser:

Hi Mike. Sorry to trouble you but given it's a week since I wrote, I wanted to chase this up.

And still nothing.

Later this week I'll be on the trains again and, despite getting no sort of reply whatsoever from Mike, I decided to drop a line anyway and ask for seat reservations to be made (as had originally been offered). These were done in no time at all.

While that is great it also tells me something rather odd: my emails are being read and acted upon -- at least when they're a request for a seat reservation -- but they're not being replied to.

And here's the thing that's even more frustrating about this. The email where I requested the seat reservations had this on the end as a PS:

PS: Did you receive the catch-up email I sent last week? Seeing as how I'm about to use the last set of tickets you provided me I'm very keen to get to the bottom of the Ticket Wallet app problem so I can finally resolve the problem of getting WiFi on the train and working without having to spend £10 extra every time.

That has to have been read and... given the lack of reply I can only conclude that it was ignored. I like to think it wasn't really ignored but a lack of reply looks exactly like you're being ignored.

At this point I don't know what to make of this any more. It's a simple problem I'm trying to get to the bottom of. I've been made plenty of good promises, almost all of them broken. On top of that I can't really escalate the issue any more because I'm already receiving the best help that Virgin East Coast's MD can offer, apparently.

Anyone got Richard Branson's phone number?