Is it Time to transfer/withdraw points from Velocity?

[Bibendum]

Hi All,

I need some advice from the brains trust on this forum.

I, like many on here, have hundreds of thousands of points sitting with velocity. With the current COVID-19 situation and virgins financial position I’m concerned that if the airline was declare bankruptcy points may disappear..

What’s the likelihood of this happening and should I withdraw my points by purchasing gift cards to get some cash value at what I have..?

am I making a mountain out of a mole hill.. or is there a real threat to my velocity points been wiped out..?

 

[Mattg]

But Velocity redemptions are available again and they did just win an award, so they're not lying. Also Velocity isn't under administration (so no jobs at risk at the moment).

Velocity may not be in administration, but they're sure acting like they are!

 

[ff-jr]

Marketing Depts are going to market.

Your disdain for marketing implies that you probably work in sales

They're just putting their best foot forward. Every business does this every day. No deception, just communicating that flight redemptions have reopened. Simples.

 

[SydneySwan]

Your disdain for marketing implies that you probably work in sales

I used to work in operations for a software company and was often disdainful of both Marketing AND Sales. Marketing once generated a brochure about an interface to connect two products but the interface didn't exist (marketing rep had misunderstood a diagram from a technician about how a client's systems may be interfaced). Someone in Sales in another continent then managed to sell it to a different client sight unseen. Operations were then expected to implement the interface that didn't exist. Development spent 18 months writing it at huge cost as the client was a very important worldwide client. This was in the early 90s when systems were generally 'closed' rather than come with APIs as is common nowadays.

Apologies for the jargon.

 

[me-h]

Suprisingly, my coleman headlamp from the velocity store showed up today! I ordered it a few days before they closed the store back whenever that was, and had received the email after the store closure reassuring me my order would still be honoured, but it had been so long by now I'd given up on it and figured i'd need to at some point ask Virgin about whether I'd get the points back instead. I'm QF loyal so only had a pittance of velocity points from the odd random flight over the years, the headlamp was about the only thing I was able to buy with them.

 

[jakeseven7]

Suprisingly, my coleman headlamp from the velocity store showed up today! I ordered it a few days before they closed the store back whenever that was, and had received the email after the store closure reassuring me my order would still be honoured, but it had been so long by now I'd given up on it and figured i'd need to at some point ask Virgin about whether I'd get the points back instead. I'm QF loyal so only had a pittance of velocity points from the odd random flight over the years, the headlamp was about the only thing I was able to buy with them.

At least you saw the light in time and got your points out!

 

[bigbadbyrnes]

Your disdain for marketing implies that you probably work in sales

They're just putting their best foot forward. Every business does this every day. No deception, just communicating that flight redemptions have reopened. Simples.

You got me. I've actually worked in both - but also read enough Dilbert comics to know bulldust when it's being kicked up.

And I agree - you have to expect VA putting out the best possible news, they're right to do so. They're not going to send an email saying 'welp, we're toast' even if that were true. To know where the truth really lies, one must take in info from a range of sources and do one's best to synthesize. Don't get caught in a bubble!

 

[oz_mark]

I would personally prefer they just told the truth - even if it's bad news - as I value honesty very highly. Sending out stuff like this just undermines the credibility of everything they put out in the future.

In what way was it not the truth? (even if it was tone-deaf)

 

[yogi_b]

Just gave Collinson group a call, since they have ignored my emails,

Can you please share or PM me the contact number you called? I've been emailing every couple of days and gotten nothing beyond the generic auto-reply. I've been looking for a contact number but so far been unsuccessful.

 

[kyle]

Can you please share or PM me the contact number you called? I've been emailing every couple of days and gotten nothing beyond the generic auto-reply. I've been looking for a contact number but so far been unsuccessful.

Where have you been looking?

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.co.uk

 

[yogi_b]

Where have you been looking?

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.co.uk

Yup, that ones on me! It never occured to me to just call their front desk number. I just assumed that they'd have a dedicated Velocity number.

Purchase Order for my redemption (16th of April) hasn't even been raised yet... looks like I'll be waiting a while.

Thanks for your help!

 

[makiaa]

The vacuum arrived 23 May ordered 18/4. No headphones yet. Looking up with this arrival

Just got headphones from HN today 27 may after ordering 18 April. So looks like all will be fulfilled eventually. While I love my robot vacuum...knowing it cost Equal points as 3 OW J tickets Syd- Singapore kills me lol lol

 

[neljelpoo]

For those who ordered gift cards, I got the last of my gift cards yesterday, ordered on 18/4. Now hoping they would re-open the shop so I can access the rest of my 700,000+ points, which will undoubtedly be devalued...

 

[djfuzz]

I have one final Bose order unfulfilled, ordered on the day before the store was shutdown - however given the complete lack of correspondence (including any shipment or tracking information) I'm a little concerned by now that the package may have been either lost or stolen (lot of that going on it seems).

Guessing my only hope of any sort of update would be to call Harvey Norman, right?

 

[Melburnian1]

..d bet my house on the fact most people have tossed their Velocity earning cards in a cupboard until VA2 emerges. I bet that Velocity’s revenue has ground to a halt. Certainly on here in the CC thread no one is actively earning Velocity points..
My thoughts

On the money: everything you said is supportable and highly likely.

The whole administration process seems like a farce. Liquidation coming up.

I transferred from NAB Velocity Rewards to the plain vanilla NAB Rewards, and the bank said 'next year, we won't charge you a credit card renewal fee.' I was pleased with that.

 

[yogi_b]

Just got a call from Velocity after talking with Collinson a number of times over the past week. Collinsons have apparently had a massive number of "bad" orders that they have had to manually process, mine among them. They were unable to give me any estimates of processing time for my order. I got a call from Velocity this afternoon saying asking me if I wanted a refund on my order (no, duh) and then they said they would contact Harvey Norman to see if what I ordered (Bose bass module & surround speakers) was even still available. Indications are that if it's not available they'll no longer honor orders and they'll refund any points paid. If anyone is waiting on items, I'd be giving Collinson group/velocity a call if you haven't already.

 

[Melburnian1]

...Collinsons have apparently had a massive number of "bad" orders that they have had to manually process, mine among them.

What do you mean by a 'bad' order?

An order that Collinson was unable to immediately process due to not having access to the item(s) you paid for with points?

Or some mistake on your part in placement?

 

[yogi_b]

What do you mean by a 'bad' order?

An order that Collinson was unable to immediately process due to not having access to the item(s) you paid for with points?

Or some mistake on your part in placement?

I tried getting more information, but all they would say is that they had had issues with their system. My assumption is that at some point some element of the order data was corrupted in the transition from front end to back end, due to the overwhelming amount of orders. So they have to manually process the orders to fix the corruption which is a time consuming process. Their words are that a significant number of orders have fallen into this category.

 

[tomlee1986]

I have a gut feeling those with unfulfilled orders may not get to use their points anymore even if the scheme is reinstated, as the new company may not honour any points earned in VA 1

 

[Happy Dude]

Just got a call from Velocity after talking with Collinson a number of times over the past week. Collinsons have apparently had a massive number of "bad" orders that they have had to manually process, mine among them. They were unable to give me any estimates of processing time for my order. I got a call from Velocity this afternoon saying asking me if I wanted a refund on my order (no, duh) and then they said they would contact Harvey Norman to see if what I ordered (Bose bass module & surround speakers) was even still available. Indications are that if it's not available they'll no longer honor orders and they'll refund any points paid. If anyone is waiting on items, I'd be giving Collinson group/velocity a call if you haven't already.

Not necessarily. I ordered a Sonos Playbase, amongst other things, and it didn't arrive with all those other things so I emailed them using the address in the order confirmation. They contacted me promptly saying the playbase isn't made anymore and as they have no stock they offered me a Play 5 speaker and headphones or an Arc sound bar or my points refunded. I opted for the Arc. So definitely call to see what options are available.

 

[djfuzz]

Good result Happy Dude.

I followed up with Harvey Norman and was finally given tracking information. Turns out the product had been shipped by Australia Post last month and delivery was attempted without leaving a card (my previous order had just been left on the doorstep without any attempt to check if anyone was home). This package had been sitting at the post office for weeks, without even a reminder card being sent as per SOP. Australia Post has for the most part been very good at delivering packages to us during lockdown, so I'm really confused as to why both of my Velocity orders did not generate any tracking information, or why the postie delivering them (unlike the regular postie) did not bother to knock or leave a card. Very strange.