Oh dear. I feel a mix of awkward and angry. If Keira wasn’t at school, she’d probably suggest I’m feeling a combination of both words, angward. Why? Well I’ve just tried (and eventually succeeded) in cancelling a subscription to Virgin Whine.
Last month I tried one of these voucher offers. I got £40 off a mixed case so it only cost me £47, just under £4 a bottle (a little over £7 without the offer). Sounded good. Oh, and there were no strings attached. There would be the small matter of a case every quarter being picked and delivered to me, but I can either send it back if I don’t want it, or cancel the order. I think they call this inertia marketing?
I placed the order. It wasn’t easy, the system got a bit confused by the voucher code, and in the end I had to phone my order through. Not great, but not bad. I’m getting £40 off so maybe I should expect a little glitch or two. The delivery was fast, I appreciated that.
I tried the wine. It’s….not bad. Not bad at £4, but for £7, I’m thinking maybe I can do better down my local shops?
Then I started to get bombarded with emails inviting me to buy more and more wine. They did say something about drinking responsibly but come on folks, you’ve only just dropped off 12 bottles, steady on. I logged back onto Virgin Whine to turn off the torrent but it wasn’t clear how to do this and if I did, would that mean cutting off all correspondence?
The whole thing was just registering a bit too high on the inconvenience scale so I decided to cancel my account. Guess what? You can’t do that online. So I called the contact centre and asked them to cancel. As soon as I said the magic word ‘cancel’, the tone changed. What had started as warmly as a room temperature red quickly became a very chilled white.
“OK then we’ll come and collect the case of wine.” Said Virgin Whine. “Why’s that then?” says I. “Well you’ve used the voucher, you haven’t given us a chance so we’ll take the wine back.” What ensued was a confused awkward conversation. I said something about “Wot, no strings attached?” Virgin Whine didn’t like that and though they agreed the offer was no strings attached, they kept saying “You’ve not given us a chance so we’ll come and take the wine back.”
I paused before explaining that my decision was in part taken because the wine just wasn’t all that. Yes, I’ve tasted the product. I began to fear that Virgin Whine might turn up with a stomach pump. I’ve still got five bottles left, will that save me from this fate? With that the conversation ended. I was told my account was cancelled, call over.
And now I’m left feeling…angward. Awkward because I feel I may have inadvertently taken advantage of Virgin Whine. And a little angry too. Angry because of the way the call went and angry with myself for attempting to be reasonable in the face of what felt like a pretty unreasonable way of playing “no strings attached”. I need a drink.
Photo c/o WTL Photos
four hours after I cancelled my account, and they got huffy with me, Virgin Whine has just emailed me their latest hot offers! I don’t think so
I don’t think that you should even consider that you’ve taken advantage of them! The offer is £40 off, you’ve tried the wine, are not all that impressed with it and haven’t enjoyed the customer bombardment. The call handler laid some heavy emotional stuff on you to leave you feeling that you’re somehow in the wrong.
I’m often tempted by the offers and am unlikely to place an order if thats how they operate. I’d like to see them try to take the wine back! Lol.
Thanks Nigel. It was a really odd experience, felt a bit like blackmail?? Seriously unimpressed.
People who take the £40 off ‘no strings’ offer and no more must be factored into their business model, so why the aggravation? Having done something similar with Naked Wines, I get the odd “What did we do wrong?” e-mail, but no more. I feel a bit guilty really, maybe I should go back – oh, hang on, that’s what they want!
If you need any help disposing of wine before the ‘bailiffs’ show, I’m happy to help.
Mike, it was almost as if I’d pinched the £40 from Sir Virgin of Whine’s purse! OK I’m maybe over reacting just a touch but it was just so odd. I didn’t accept the offer intending to bail out so soon, but in my view the offer wasn’t that great and hey, I can change my mind, can’t I? Grrrr. A bit. I may need your help on the disposal side. Glug glug. Let’s see how we go. Cheers!
I have used Virgin wine for a few years now. okay there website isn’t the best and not all there £7 pound wine are brill but the £10+ are.
feeling like i need to do a bit of defending:
reason 1: i used it mainly due to there not being any good local wine shops near me and the local Spar sold Jacobs creek at £8!!!!!!
reason 2: once you have used your first voucher, you pay into the account, say £25 then every 3rd month they match one of your months payments so give you £25. then you see all the wine your getting is 25% off. i used to do a order every 4 month as a treat. (thats only the cost of 3 bottles of your local spars rubbish ish)
reason 3: the big brand Champagnes such a moet are £23 and if you take into account they have just given you £20 is basically free.
reason 4: when it first launched there was a Big which meant you could use your 40% discount voucher again and again. was great till they fixed it.
anyway.. i have now even after my 4 great reason i now live near a great majestic and they even walk it to my car will a smile. so bye bye virgin:)
xxxx
Thanks Chloe – defend away, it’s always interesting to get other perspectives. Your reason 1 reflects the sad state of wine buying on the high street. Competition is scarce so maybe VW only need to be so so to make it work for them? Here’s to better things.
Naked Wines sent me a voucher for £40 after I took their Trial case for £25. I decided not to use it. Then they started debiting me £20 each month. Apparently by accepting the voucher I have agreed to joining their wine club which is £20 a month. What A CON !
Hello Howard – sorry to hear your story. As you can read from this blog my experience of Naked Wines once they’d realised a mistake had been made was positive. They acknowledged it and went far beyone my expectations to resolve things. I hope when you get in touch they will help you too
I just found my way to your site after reading a conversation between you and Naked Wines. I have also had a horrendous experience with Virgin Wines – impossible to unsubscribe or remove your details from their site, no contact to inform me that they were deducting £90ish from my account for a service I didn’t even know I’d signed up for etc etc. Two stern emails have got me removed from their lists (apparently) but they’ve not been remotely apologetic.
Naked Wines have been better for me and I’d recommend them (so far). And I enjoyed reading your blog with them – their reply amused and impressed me in equal measures…
It’s sad that Virgin wine make us whine. The Naked Wines tale is an excellent example of how to recover after a mistake, I’m pleased you enjoyed it, and their wine 😉