obnoxious business practices

alafairnadia · November 2006

bizarre question: I got this email from Virgin Atlantic with some fantastic fares for flights to London maybe a week ago. the offer expired yesterday. over the course of the week, I tried to book the flight multiple times, and each time got an error message on their website. I spoke with their reservations department and they told me I had to email customer relations which, of course, only takes email, not phone calls. so I email customer relations and hear nothing. then I call the web support folks and they say that they know there's an issue with the website and that the offer is going to be extended a few days once the issue is resolved. of course, over the course of the next few days, other problems crop up on the website and, sure enough, today, when I tried again, the offer is over.

so I emailed customer relations a "wtf" email, since they never responded to my first email. what else can I do? I mean, I really dislike the fact that a global enterprise just ate up a big chunk of my time with what was essentially a fake offer. (and they also made me think I was going to save a few hundred dollars)

leeho · November 2006

That is really annoying.

carnivore · November 2006

If you write a letter of complaint (a real letter, sent by snail mail, and preferably hand-written, or alternatively, very corporate-looking on your company's letterhead), and CC it to the CEO, I bet you'll get your flight for the advertised price (and maybe even some bonus miles as an apology). I'm not saying that the CEO will ever even see the letter, but having that on there generally gets people to actually think about customer relations.

stacey · November 2006

Sorry to hear that. Maybe you can have Teddyballgame write your letter for you http://www.awesomeburrito.com/letters.html (just trying to make you smile)

alafairnadia · November 2006

stacey wrote: Sorry to hear that. Maybe you can have Teddyballgame write your letter for you http://www.awesomeburrito.com/letters.html (just trying to make you smile)

lol! awesome. I think I'm going to send them a letter, mostly because I'm just so damn irritated.

caaahyoko · November 2006

Also, you could complain to BBBOnline.

I've actually gotten a response back from them!

raw · November 2006

I hate that crap at retail clothing stores where you walk in and buy a t-shirt or a sweater and the cashier jumps all over you about signing up for the storeâ€™s charge card.

Whatâ€™s worse than that? Receiving one of those big box store holiday gift certificates that lose value if not promptly spent. Some holiday gift certificates are designed to motivate the recipient to rush to the store the first week of January to clean up all the Christmas shoppersâ€™ rejected merchandise.

raw · November 2006

Subject: Re: obnoxious business practices

alafairnadia wrote: bizarre question: I got this email from Virgin Atlantic with some fantastic fares for flights to London maybe a week ago. the offer expired yesterday. over the course of the week, I tried to book the flight multiple times, and each time got an error message on their website. I spoke with their reservations department and they told me I had to email customer relations which, of course, only takes email, not phone calls. so I email customer relations and hear nothing. then I call the web support folks and they say that they know there's an issue with the website and that the offer is going to be extended a few days once the issue is resolved. of course, over the course of the next few days, other problems crop up on the website and, sure enough, today, when I tried again, the offer is over.

so I emailed customer relations a "wtf" email, since they never responded to my first email. what else can I do? I mean, I really dislike the fact that a global enterprise just ate up a big chunk of my time with what was essentially a fake offer. (and they also made me think I was going to save a few hundred dollars)

I can't stand it when companies waste your personal time. When recently flying from a European vacation to NYC on British Airways, British Airways lost over $1000.00 worth of my stuff. I received money for my lost stuff after several months, but I had to spend an exhaustive amount of time writing letters, gathering receipts, and making phone calls to British Airwaysâ€™ customer service robots. After receiving the money, I lost more time shopping for replacement stuff. If you counted all of the hours it took to get compensated and re-buy everything, the duration probably surpassed my entire U.K. vacation.

raw · November 2006

I received a "special offer" from Fresh Direct. It seemed like a steal and I was interested. But they only gave me 4 days notice to make my first purchase and my micro-sized urban refrigerator was stuffed with a month's worth of food after a visit to a suburban Trader Joe's store. If Fresh Direct given me at least 30 days to eat through my stash, I would have signed up.

doublediamond · November 2006

also post your complaint on consumerist.com

alafairnadia · January 2007

update on this:

I sent a letter with supporting evidence (aka printouts) to Virgin Atlantic on December 6th or so. I received a phone call today from London. they were VERY upset to hear that I'd booked my trip on BA (doh - I'm leaving in less than two weeks!) but I told them that I'm heading back to London in July (yes, for another Harry Potter convention. yes, I'm a big damn dork) and want to "make it advantageous for you to book with us". I received an email contact and name to email once I know my exact London dates in July. I'll let y'all know how well they do with the offer. they did tell me, though, that I'm not getting business class for $500 in July - it's peak traveling time. but that's ok. i'll take it for $700.

michaelkeys · January 2007

raw wrote: I hate that crap at retail clothing stores where you walk in and buy a t-shirt or a sweater and the cashier jumps all over you about signing up for the storeâ€™s charge card.

Judging from my past in retail I have reason to believe that the staff is "encouraged" by management to get people to sign up and quite possibly get a commision for doing so in the process. I worked for an outfit that had this kind of policy and actually had us selling service plans on merch that had a lifetime guarantee! (caaahyoko knows what I'm talking about.)

obnoxious business practices

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