I Am Writing to Complain the Poor Customer Service System in British Airways and Your Staff

Dr. Pierre CHAN

6C, Block 1, South Wave Court,

3 Shum Wan Road, Aberdeen,

HONG KONG

24th, July, 2004

British Airways Customer Relations (S506)
PO Box 5619
Sudbury
Suffolk
CO10 2PG

Complaint letter

Dear Sir/ Madam

I am writing to you regarding the unacceptable customer service system in British Airways and your staff Ms Jacqui Hambridge.

I, Dr CHAN Pierre and Dr SIN Wai-Ching travelled from London Heathrow Airport to Hong Kong on 8th July 2004 by BA27. Time of departure was 2230 and we arrived at the Heathrow airport at 2030.

20:30Arrival at Heathrow airport.

20:40Approachedcheck-in counter K7 of British Airways. Ms Sharon carried out the check-in procedure.

21:00The check-in process was delayed by 20 minutes. Ms Sharon revealed that the name (Pierre CHAN) did not appear in her computer and it could be due to some other staff wrongly using the name “Pierre CHAN “ to check-in for another passenger, as there were more than ten passengers with the surname “CHAN” on the same flight (the postulation was later confirmed to be true by one of your staff ) . Ms Jacqui Hambridge as a senior was being consulted.

21:15Ms Jacqui Hambridge asked us and other 7 passengers waiting in the queue to return to the counter 20 minutes later. Without explaining the issue, she just kept on saying ‘Everything is going to be OK, please come back in 20 minutes.’

21:35We returned to the customer service counter while she was helping 2 of other 7 passengers to check in. As she seemed to be so busy and so we did not want to disturb her.

21:50After we waited for 70 minutes, we finally had to enquire about the situation as time was running out, but then she told us that there was no seat available.

22:05After helping the other 3 passengers to check in and she attended us again, We asked ‘Can we sit next to each other?’ She replied ‘I am afraid not.’ We showed our dissatisfaction and tried to explain what had happened on us. She ignored us and said, ‘OK, or I can give you some more time to think about it.’ Then she turned to attend other passengers to check in.

22:10We raised several issues with Ms Jacqui Hambridge after all the other passengers had checked in.Firstly it was the fault of your company in causing the delay in check-in process. As a matter of fact, Ms Jacqui Hambridge did not recognized this was a problem and even threatened us with the following comments:

‘You have only five more minutes to decide whether you get on the flight or not. But I have to remind you that it is already late now and there may be no hotel if you have decided to stay.’
‘There is nothing I can help you at this moment.’

Secondary, we enquired about who should be responsible for the situation and thirdly we would like a satisfactory explanation.

Ms Jacqui Hambridge replied:

“This is not our fault or yours, you are probably just unlucky”

“BA had NO such system to contact the customer automatically for explanation. She suggested us to make a formal complaint to BA customer relations department. She reminded us again that she could not offer any further help.

22:20 Ms Jacqui Hambridge requested us to bring our luggage through the Custom to the waiting lounge by ourselves as the conveying belt was already switched off. We refused to do so. She subsequently switched the conveying belt on to transport our luggage onto the flight.

23:00Departure

9/7/2004 18:00Arrived at Hong Kong but the luggage of Dr SIN was left behind in London Heathrow.

We want to make a formal complaint to your company because of the following reasons.

(A)Complain Ms Jacqui Hambridge of her extremely irresponsible attitude and her unprofessional communication skill to customers.

She left her customer waiting for almost 40 minutes with NO explanation.
She repeatedly said to us that she could offer NO help at that moment. I just wondered if an airline company (which is supposed to be a service provider) can offer NO help and service to its customer, what couldyour company provide?
We cannot accept “ unlucky” as an explanation from a professional service provider.
We felt we were being THREATENED when Ms Jacqui Hambridge saying ‘You have only five more minutes to decide whether you get on the flight or not. But I have to remind you that it is already late now and there may be no hotel if you have decided to stay.’
She had NO intention to explain to the customer of the current situation and the plan of management.
She was incompetent in handling difficult situations. We felt that we were treated as if we were latecomers.
We were asked to carry our own luggage to the waiting lounge as the conveying belt was already switched off. No help was offer by any staff at this point.

(B)Express the great disappointment in the management system of British Airways.

Clearly, the delay in check-in process originated from one of your staff wrongly using Mr. Pierre Chan’s name to check in for another passenger. Yet , to our disappointment , this was passed as an unlucky incident.
Provide such substandard service to your customer by allowing your senior staff to give extremely irresponsible attitude and unprofessional communication skill.

Many of our friends travel to London frequently because of study, travel and work. We will share our bad experience with this complaint letter and your company’s reply in future to all our friends and colleagues. We will also seriously consider NOT traveling BA again. We are now launching a formal complaint of the above and looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Drs Pierre CHAN and SIN Wai-Ching

Hong Kong