Posts from September 2016

It's now a week since I last wrote an update and, given that I'm sat on a Virgin East Coast train right now, I thought I'd do another.

As mentioned last time, I'm currently waiting for a call from someone at Virgin East Coast regarding the ongoing situation with the Android Ticket Wallet application. It's now over 3 months since I first ran into the problem (and, of course, ran into all the issues of trying to get some sensible help and response from them) and nothing has really improved:

It's now around six weeks since I was promised a call from someone who works on the application; a call that did come the once but I couldn't answer at the time (I'm not the sort of person to fiddle with a phone while driving) and which I attempted to return for the better part of 2 weeks afterwards but never even got an answer to the calls.

It's now also 3 weeks since I was told that I'd get a call from the boss of the person who was originally supposed to call me. I've yet to receive a call from them too. I've mentioned this to Mike Ross on a couple of occasions now and haven't had any sort of direct reply as to what's going on with that situation.

While I am enjoying the benefits of the tickets I was provided as compensation from the earlier troubles (and also very much appreciating Mike's reserving of seats for me when I need them -- I do find that booked seats take a lot of stress out of traveling) I'd really love to get to the bottom of the problem with the Ticket Wallet app.

Frustratingly and amusingly I suspect I'll finally get an answer around the time I don't need to use the train quite so much.

It's now about 3 weeks since my last post about my exploits in getting a problem solved with Virgin East Coast so now's a good time for a little update.

Two things were "outstanding" the last time I wrote about this. One was that Mike (the customer relations manager in the Virgin East Coast MD's office) wanted us to meet up for a coffee and a chat about my issues and how things were progressing, etc. Sadly I wasn't able to make the original date we'd picked out as a possible so another date was arranged. At least, it was kind of arranged. It was noted that this week might be a good time to meet and I'd written back to him to say that Wednesday 21st would be good. Since then I've had no reply at all.

The second thing that is outstanding is having someone call me about the issues with the Ticket Wallet app. I've yet to receive a call from the person who originally phoned me and who I missed (and who I chased up every day for a week afterwards). I was then told by Mike, about 2 weeks or so back, that that person's manager would call me instead and that I should expect a call early last week.

That call didn't happen. Didn't happen early last week, late last week, at all last week. It's now Thursday this week and I've still not had a call.

Just this morning I've chased up both of the above.

It's now over 3 months since I first reported the Ticket Wallet app problem and I seem to be no closer to seeing it resolved, or even having an explanation as to the cause of the problem.

It's just over 3 weeks now since I wrote about how I was finally getting somewhere with my problems with Virgin East Coast, so now seems like a good time to update on what's happening. Here's the things that the PR manager in the MD's office said he'd be sorting, along with what happened afterwards:

Virgin would BACS me the value of the cheque they kept failing to send

This happened and happened quickly too. The money turned up in my account (actually rounded up a little) without any fuss or bother.

That said... I did receive a cheque from them anyway that is written to a value that has no relation to the refund I was entitled to and isn't even similar to the rounded-up value that I received via BACS. I've not done anything with the cheque yet; there was no accompanying letter to say what it was for, nothing to explain why it differed by around £10 (more) from what I was expecting and what turned up in my account, nothing to explain why I was getting it at all.

I emailed Mike (the customer relations manager) last Friday and got a reply last Saturday so say he'd look into it when he got back to his desk this last Tuesday (Monday being a Bank Holiday in England and Wales). I'm writing this on Friday morning and haven't had that update yet (so I have sent off an email to chase this up).

In the mean time I'm doing nothing with the cheque. It seems unfair to cash it if it was a simple error on their part.

Someone with knowledge of the Ticket Wallet App would phone me direct

This happened. Sort of. The day after things started to get resolved I received a call. Sadly I was driving at the time and was in no position to take it. When I finally got home and tried calling back there was no answer. Since then I've tried calling the number every day for the first week and a couple of times in the second week; I've had no answer at all. Neither have I received a call from the person who originally tried calling.

I let Mike know about this in an email about a week back and he said he'd chase it up. So far I've had no word on the subject since (again, I've sent off an email chasing this up this morning).

They'd send me 4 First Class return tickets by way of an apology

This happened and happened quickly. I've no complaints on this score. Also, Mike has been very kind in allowing me to email him direct to arrange seat reservations each time I've needed to use a ticket (once so far, second request went off this morning for the use of the second of the tickets).

The CR manager would keep in contact to update me on how things are being improved

This one not quite so much, but I didn't see this as quite so important and it wasn't something I was looking for. What mattered to me was that the refund I was owed got to me and that the apparent problem with the Ticket Wallet app got fixed.

That said... back in the early 1990s a lot of software that I developed was designed for complaints handling departments (used in some pretty well-known companies too). It was all about keeping customers happy, keeping in contact with them, keeping track of how well you're doing, keeping track of promised contact dates and ensuring they were met (that whole thing of a call to say you've failed is better than no call so you appear to have failed twice), that sort of thing. I guess, from this point of view, I do have an interest in how Virgin East Coast handle their customer relations and what systems they have in place so they appear to be competent.

As for getting to chat: Mike did name a couple of dates when he'd be close to where I tend to be working and suggested we get together for a coffee and a chat about this subject. Given we've both got fluid diaries (his far more than mine, I'm sure) it's all a little up in the air but I think there's a possible date in the next week.

So that's where I'm at: one problem solved (with an offshoot curiosity that I'm trying to get to the bottom of) and one outstanding.

Not perfect. Not terrible either.