 | Customer Service What’s that? |
Well I thought I’d fly down south on Boxing day to see some friends. As you can see from the below (which was written at the time) I didn’t make it.
Dear Sir / Madam,
Just a quick letter to express and recount the appalling service and treatment I have received today at the hands of your airline.
Having had my flight (BD 587) cancelled by yourselves, a fact I only found out from the departure boards as it appears no announcement was made, the follow up service and information I can only describe as shambolic. No staff airside to ask, no follow up information and absolutely no one who seemed to know what was going on.
Having been told to go back to check-in by a security guard. I joined a queue that the best part of two hours later found me at the ticketing desk where ONE member of staff was trying to deal with however many planes worth of cancelled passengers, there was a second member of staff there but in the hour and a half I could see the desk she didn’t appear to taking part, merely had a grin on her face and a phone glued to her ear. There were however three members of staff handing out ‘calm them down vouchers’.
At that time I was aware the chances of catching a plane were going to be limited to flights late tonight so I asked if I could re-book for tomorrow, I was told I could retrieve my bag (By ****?) go home and call in to the call centre to re-book.
By now I am £40.00 out of pocket in taxis and facing another trip tomorrow.
On getting home, I called the 0870 number and after waiting 7 minutes (and being charged National Rate for the privilege), I was informed that I needed to speak to the staff at the ticketing desk AT THE AIRPORT.
Obviously there has been a severe breakdown in communications within your organisation.
I also vehemently object to being told that if I want to travel tomorrow I’ll (and I quote) “Have to pay a hefty upgrade fee to business class.”
I then asked to be called back when you had found a solution.
On being called back I was told that even though you had cancelled the flights unless I wanted to take the 06:45 flight I would be charged for an upgrade to fly at a sensible time.
I’ve now got to take the 06:45 [1] 4 hrs late and severely out of pocket.
All in all not an impressive performance, and one guaranteed to make me a) Never fly *** again and b) Recommend to everyone I know they do not either.
I look forward to a quick response.
One quote I missed out of the letter was a young lady who was catching a flight to Australia [2] and only using this airline as a shuttle to Heathrow. She was told on telling them she’d miss he connection. “Well that’s not our problem you’ll have to sort it with ****** when you get to Heathrow".
All in all, for the customer service awards this lot are off in the lead at a blistering pace, frankly this lot are going to be hard to beat. [3] [4]
DaveA
[1] And we were 2 hrs late then
[2] Not going for anything important mind, she was only getting married 
[3] I’ve left the airlines name out from now, suffice it to say it wasn’t BA.
[4] And they haven’t replied yet either, although I did get an E-Mail saying it would get their fullest attention
dated the 28th of December