(This is a true story that happened in Switzerland to someone I know really well and I witnessed the whole story first hand.)
I’ve been part of a good example of sucky customer service. Custumer service that would push every startup out of business immediately.
The funniest part first:
A customer of British Airways is told several times on the phone with a superviser of the local call center: "You’re not our customer!". How come that a customer is supposed to board on a British Airways plane next tuesday and at the same time is not a customer of this airline? And why does this airline want money from a person if she’s no customer to them?
The whole story:
Everything began with a mistake. A clear customer mistake. Instead of a flight to San Jose in Costa Rica, a flight to San Jose in California is booked through ebookers. There were several problems and steps that led to the escalation:
#1: ebookers didn’t show the destination country in the booking procedure (USA instead of Costa Rica would strike attention)
#2: ebookers didn’t show the destination country in the confirmation email (USA instead of Costa Rica would strike attention)
#3: ebookers only mentiones in their terms of service that every airline has its own cancellation terms, but is not disclosing the details of every airline
#4: The customer noticed this mistake on the next business day
#5: The customer calls ebookers and gets referred to the airline
#6: The customer calls British Airways and gets referred to ebookers
#7: The customer calls ebookers and cancels the flight because she does not want to fly to California
#8: ebookers tells the customer that if there is a similar flight to Costa Rica, British Airways might be willing to change that flight
#9: The customer calls British Airways and asks for a similar flight. British keeps repeating that this is not possible and that the customer has to pay the full amount, even though the flight has been cancelled and can be resold.
#10: On my advice the customer asks for a supervisor of the British call center employee and tells the whole story. The supervisor (Mr. L., full name known) keeps repeating, that she is not a customer of British Airways, only of ebookers. Mr. L. said that he had the competence and power to make a decision on his own, but he would be not willing to do that, because – and this should be clearly obvious to everyone! – she was no customer of British Airways. That was the point that made me really angry. So you’re on the phone with an empowered supervisor of an airline and are willing to pay a couple of hundred bucks for your mistake (but not the full price, because the ticket has been cancelled and can be resold) and the guy keeps telling you that you’re not a customer of his airline, even though you’re supposed to board on a machine of the very same airline next tuesday. So the customer asked why she had to pay anything, if she’s no customer? Mr. L. had no answer and finished the phone call.
My learnings:
#1: Dear British Airways: That sucks. Dear Mr. L.: If I were your boss I’d fire you immediately and would make sure that you never talk to any customer (like that) again.
#2: Dear ebookers: You should improve your booking mechanism and your terms of service. Its not very transparent to not see the destination country and to not see the detailed airline-terms of the airlines you work with.
#3: Customers should never surrender and keep calling the customer service. The strategy is to keep bugging them as long as it takes. And believe me: The customer will do that and I’ll be happy to assist her!
#4: Even if the customer makes a mistake it would be far cheaper for the service provider to show some goodwill (the customer offered to pay a couple of hundred bucks for the mistake, but British Airways showed no – absolutely no – cooperation). If you satisfy a customer, he will come back and tell his friends about his good experience. If you make a customer angry, he will never buy anything from you again and tell all his friends that you pissed him of. And believe me: The customer will do that and I’ll be happy to assist her!
#5: If you’re a young and emerging airline, please learn from this story and offer great customer service. I’m convinced that in the long run, customer satisfaction is key. I will definitely do my best to never do business with British Airways again and I’ll be happy to become a customer of an airline which treats customers as real customers, and not as cows that you can milk and slaughter afterwards.
Update 9.3.2007 17:06:
Our strategy pointed out in learning #3 showed a partly success. After at least 5 phone calls to ebookers we got a call from the ebookers customer service and even got a direct phone number and a personal contact person there (after hearing several times that the customer service would only be available through email and would not make any phone calls – as you can see this is obviously not true). And now the good news: ebookers customer service is negotiating a new deal directly with British Airways. Dear service providers: You still have a chance for a happy end. So please don’t mess it up. It should be in your own interest (please consider learning #4).
Update 12.3.2007:
The managing director of ebookers.ch told us that British Airways would not negotiate. Ok, thats it. If you want to fight, we’ll fight. In the meantime we’ll fly and recommend Delta, because the risk-free cancellation policy is what we consider a fair customer service (although there are some terms & conditions that lower the pleasure).
Here are the problematic cancellation terms of ebookers.ch in combination with British Airways flights (highlights made by me):
Flugpreis-Info
Diese Tarifangaben beziehen sich auf den gewählten Flug und können jederzeit fristlos durch die Fluggesellschaft geändert werden. Diese Informationen sind nicht vertraglich. Falls Sie Ihre Flugbuchung ändern oder stornieren müssen, erhebt die Fluggesellschaft eine Stornierungsgebühr. Ebookers.ch verrechnet zusätzlich eine Stornierungspauschale von CHF 150.- pro Flugticket.
Generelle Regeln und Konditionen
MIN STAY
TRAVEL FROM LAST INTERNATIONAL STOPOVER MUST COMMENCE NO
EARLIER THAN THE FIRST SUN AFTER DEPARTURE OF THE FIRST
INTERNATIONAL SECTOR.
MAX STAY
TRAVEL FROM LAST STOPOVER MUST COMMENCE NO LATER THAN 12
MONTHS AFTER DEPARTURE FROM FARE ORIGIN.
SEASONS
BETWEEN SWITZERLAND AND THE UNITED STATES FOR QLNNEUR FARES
PERMITTED 16FEB 07 THROUGH 30JUN 07 OR 16AUG 07 THROUGH
31DEC 07 ON THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SECTOR.
ADVANCE RES
BETWEEN SWITZERLAND AND THE UNITED STATES
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL SECTORS.
WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE AT LEAST 3 DAYS BEFORE
DEPARTURE TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 72 HOURS
AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.
OR – RESERVATIONS FOR ALL SECTORS AND TICKETING MUST BE
COMPLETED AT THE SAME TIME.
PENALTIES
CANCELLATIONS
ANY TIME
TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE.
CHANGES
ANY TIME
CHANGES NOT PERMITTED.
NOTE -
UPGRADES NOT PERMITTED
IF COMBINING FARES EITHER HALF ROUND TRIP OR
END-ON END THE MOST RESTRICTIVE CONDITIONS WILL
APPLY
Comments:
1. If these terms are not part of the contract, then why is ebookers and the airline referring to them and using them?
2. The relevant term ("ticket is non-refundable") is in English (although the booking process is in German, so it cannot be assumed that the customer speaks English) and hided in ugly unreadable upper case text.
3. The customer did not have to confirm that she read, understood and accepted these terms.
4. Based on these facts I recommended the customer to reject the credit card payment and prepare for a fight. Dear ebookers and dear British Airways: This is not over! Welcome to the World of the Shifting Power Equation.
