Virgin Wines rant
 

Here’s a story about a premium brand (Virgin) trying out something in a new market (Virgin Wines in the US) and completely screwing up a basic offer and then compounding it with non-existent service recovery. It’s pissed this loyal Virgin Atlantic customer off enough to want to share. For those interested, read on. For those thinking of shopping with Virgin Wines, buyer beware.

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As a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club member I received an e-mail offer in mid-April of $59.99 (plus $20 shipping) for an introductory mixed case from Virgin Wines, with a sweetener of 2,000 Flying Club miles for signing up. I fly Virgin Atlantic from time to time (they’re the preferred airline of my employer) so I figured this was a good offer.

I placed my order on April 27th and the admittedly nice wine arrived within a few days or so (caveat – I am not a huge wine drinker or indeed that knowledgeable, but like to have something reasonably nice in the house and Virgin seemed like a safe bet).

My miles were taking a bit longer than I expected, so I e-mailed Virgin Wines on May 7th to ask where they were. They replied quickly (just 90 minutes!) apologizing for an error that had occurred and asking me to supply my Flying Club number a second time. I replied with this, and again they responded quickly (later that day) to confirm receipt of the number and to say I’d get my miles within 30 days.

A month later – no miles – so I wrote again to ask where they were. Again they wrote back within minutes to assure me that they had processed the miles request back on May 9th and that my Virgin Elevate miles would be received within 6 weeks of that date.

Needless to say I was concerned – not only had the timescale moved without explanation – but, more importantly, they were saying that they had tried to process Virgin America Elevate miles – a completely separate program run by a separate company and one that I am not even a member of!

I replied straight away to point this out (just in case it was a typo on their part) and to ask why the dates had changed too. I fully expected a reply later that day (based on past performance) to apologize and explain that they would sort out the error without delay.

3 days later and I had heard nothing. This was getting ridiculous. I was now about to write them a fourth e-mail just to try to get them to fulfill a simple sign-up offer for miles. My e-mail asked if they could either sort it out or supply me with the appropriate contact details so I could escalate the matter. I also (in a cheeky but very nice way) that they might like to actually give me a little more on top of the 2,000 miles for all the waiting, monitoring and e-mailing they’d made me do. I also gave them a deadline – I said that I expected to receive my miles within the next 7 days. Not unreasonable, I thought.

Those 7 days have now been and gone, with no word from Virgin Wines nor any miles received into my account.

I appreciate that Virgin Wines is new in the USA, but they have the weight of a big, premium band behind them yet they seem to lack the competence to be able to fulfill the simplest of promotions. What really bugs me though is the attitude that they are showing in not taking any ownership at all in sorting this out.

Personally I’ve always been a fan of the brand, but Virgin Wines so far seems like a lost cause and I think I can probably kiss the miles they promised me goodbye. I’d advise anyone reading against taking up any of their promotions. Maybe next time they'll decide not to even bother sending the wine...?

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

I've been a member of Virgin Wines since November when I had the same offer. My miles were in my account within 5 days.

I have had nothing but the best customer service, and the wines are generally pretty good. I haven't tested out their offer of refunding for wines you don't like, but I bought a case recently that accidentally had 2 bottles of white in place of a red from the same producer. I sent them an email, and within an hour they indicated they were sending out the 2 correct bottles, so we ended up with 2 free bottles of a very nice white (it was actually one we already knew we loved, so we didn't really mind the mix up to start with).

When I signed up I didn't think I would end up getting their cases on a regular basis figuring I would cancel, but it's been so good that we just keep on going with it.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

I used to be a Virgin Wines customer.

I found their wine consistently crap - I tend to drink Spanish reds and despite their glowing and offbeat descriptions each case that arrived was a major disappointment.

I wouldn't touch them again with a bargepole.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

I'm still waiting for my refund from Virgin to come through after they cancelled my flight in 2010. So yeah, if they're still processing that request, it sounds like they've got a bit of a problem with speed of customer service.

Just keep pestering them until they do something about it? Might as well, squeaky wheel gets the most grease and all that.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

Presumably they can only ship to certain states; isn't mail order wine restricted or prohibited in some states? I thought it was unavailable in NY, but I had a quick look online and now NY seems to be on the list of states that vendors can ship to..?

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

MA used to be off the list (and still is for some companies) but others now ship here. Go figure.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

I'm persistant if nothing else....

Good luck with your problem. Is it too late for a credit card chargeback?

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

The company I work for has a Facebook page so that it can interact with its customers. We’re on there pretty much all the time, talking to people and looking out for potential customer service issues that we can react to and solve.

I just realized that Virgin Wines has a Facebook page, so I posted my problem on their wall.

Virgin’s response? They deleted it within a couple of minutes, with no attempt to contact me via Facebook.

Perhaps it detracted from their own post:

Friday Afternoon - Fact or Myth? Wines labelled as ‘huge reds’ are made with grapes that are as big as footballs?

I think it’s clear where their priorities lie, and it’s not with their customers.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

I have tried so hard to love this company, really I have.
They are all form over function, IMO.

I joined the mailing list for Virgin Wines UK in about 2002 or so, it was just fun to read the descriptions and ogle the prices but it never worked out to get an order shipped to wherever we were.

And their snotty airline employees can stuff it.


oooh.. they left your last post up on fb. :D

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

Yes - I posted a second time, on both Virgin Wines and Virgin Atlantic's FB page. The airline just deleted it again after about 2 minutes. Virgin Wines left it up there and responded about an hour later:

The problem is that these are the exact people who I've been trying to contact and who stopped responding. I replied (on FB) to say that they know exactly who I am and how to contact me.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

You on twitter? I've seen a few people grumble to Richard Branson on there who end up getting contacted by folks to fix issues, mostly with airlines/train tickets though, but worth a shot?

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

No - I haven't managed to work Twitter out yet. I don't think I'd be able to twat Richard Branson if I tried. Is it easy? Maybe I should use this as an excuse to sign up...

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

There is a Virgin Wines USA page too: https://www.facebook.com/VirginWinesUSA

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

How right you are - thanks! :)

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

Think I may have just twatted Sir Richard (if I did it properly).... Yay me....

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

yup, message @richardbranson whatever you want to say, in 140 characters...if you use something like Digsby, it can shrink the text down a bit for you.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

I remember calling Virgin Wines one time to find out something and spoke to someone in the UK (in Norwich if I recall correctly), perhaps as they have grown they have shifted where they provide their customer service, and maybe that's had a negative impact, but even in the last 2 months when I have contacted them I have had nothing but excellent service and fast resolution so I'm surprised, but will keep an eye on things.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

Their service was absolutely top notch until I encountered a problem. I can't believe the speed at which they've washed their hands of me. We've gone from e-mails being responded to within 90 minutes (albeit with shifting stories) to ignoring e-mails for well over a week. They seem to be all sweetness and light when seas are smooth but disappear without a trace as soon as a wave appears. :confused:

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

Update: Some five hours after I tweeted Sir Richard, I received a very warm and apologetic call from a very nice customer service manager at Virgin Wines.

9.15pm on a Friday evening was a bit late for a call (had only just got the baby off to sleep), but I appreciated the gesture. She asked for a little more time to look into things and said she would get back to me on Monday.

Perhaps Virgin do listen after all, but it's a shame the amount of noise you have to make first...

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

tonrob, honey, it's time for you to sit down with a nice glass of wine.
You really put your work into this today (bless).

They really owe you a case of wine for all the PR you did for them today (I am not kidding).
x

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

I was more thinking about a pair of Upper Class returns to the destination of my choice - but hey, we can dream!

I actually did share a bottle of a rather nice Pinot Grigio with Mrs tonrob over dinner - one of the ones Virgin had supplied. It would have tasted even nicer if I'd have known that there was the possibility of a few miles to chase it down with. :)

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

good going :)

and sometimes, twitter can be helpful...depending on how the users participate with it.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

I'll say to those disgruntled consumers consider waging social media war with the big boys - the lesson I learned over the last 24 hours is take screenshots of company FB pages once you've posted. There has been some strange editing going on the different Virgin pages' walls - posts disappearing and then reappearing when I called them out for doing this, and then later further deletion and replacing with their own posts to make it look like they had been proactive and helpful when nothing could have been further from the truth.

It's all depressing corporate spin, and what happens when social media is used to market instead of to actually engage in dialogue with your customers - which is a shame, as it's the latter that builds loyalty.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

Reminds me of a story I read about how companies/"celebs" try to bury bad press by engaging agencies with hordes of people to create fake FB/Twitter/etc accounts to flood the media with positive news stories instead. Thus, Googling news stories about an individual/corporation will eventually result in the "good" news first, with the bad news pushed down the page.

Didn't work for Ryan Giggs though.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

One celebrity I know is very proactive on removing anything negative from his Facebook pages. the forums on his own site however are full of negative (and positive) comments though.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

And the story had a happy ending when a $170 case of free wine arrived on my doorstep today! :lol:

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

I called it first... send me a bottle of Spanish red please. :)
Good job, sproutman.

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

Excellent... but did you ever get those damned miles?!?

Re: Virgin Wines rant
 

Yes I did - finally - and they even tried to offer me an additional 200 for my trouble. I was (almost) speechless - had to ask them if they knew what 200 Virgin Atlantic miles were worth. That's when the wine made a hasty appearance.