VB say: payment by cards only - ignore their own POLi (direct debit) option!

[Aenveigh]

So I wrote in to Virgin the other day when I was feeling a bit annoyed about their latest credit card surcharge rise, as follows:

I was trying to pay by this "poli" thing you have since you jacked up
the credit surcharge but I don't like logging into my internet bank via
some 3rd party application. As your fares are comparable to Qantas (on
my typical flight pattern) I'll tend to choose QF as I can avoid the
surcharge for credit by paying Bpay (yes, it's the principle of the
thing). Can you please indicate whether you have any intention of offering a
user-friedly no surcharge option such as Bpay?

The response:

Currently, when booking Virgin Blue flights via our website or Guest
Contact Centre, the only payment option available is by credit or debit
card, as we have an instant purchase system. If paying by credit card or
debit card is not an option, may I recommend you contact your local
travel agent, who should also accept cash and EFTPOS payments.
I have included the below link to our website which contains all
information regarding payment options, please scroll halfway down the
page:

Virgin Blue First Time Booking with Us


At this stage, we are unable to offer BPAY as a payment option, however,
I have forwarded your suggestion on to the relevant department for their
consideration in including this option in a future upgrade to our
system.

Slightly unbelievable that their own customer service wouldn't know about a payment option that's been live for quite a while now. Personally I dislike the POLi system - I don't like internet banking through a 3rd party, nor the fact it times out or otherwise fails about 40% of the time (on a range of different computers). However Jetstar and VB both use it over BPay, so I assume it works out cheaper or with fewer errors for them...

Of note the website payment options page listed by the service agent doesn't mention POLi at all, so it looks like VB are really trying to guide you into using card payments (on which we all assume they make a margin, given typical MC/Visa commission is ~1.5%).

When POLi works, it's seems OK so for my VB segments I'm now using it, but sure hope they improve it or simply switch to BPay... I wonder how seriously they want to match Qantas?

 

[markis10]

I would like to see DJ get the direct deposit system JQ have, it came in very handy last year when I had to pay for $0.48 worth of fares for the family to go to NTL!