By Will Sturgeon, 26 June 2006 16:50
COMMENT
Will Sturgeon shares a lost luggage horror story - more proof that airlines (one in particular) must do more to take care of customers. Technology, used properly, could help.
When it comes to customer service a lot of companies have embraced the benefits offered by technology - from customer relationship management (CRM) systems in call centres to email helpdesks and online order/item tracking functionality.
But few companies in my experience have taken these advances and put them to such woeful misuse as Virgin Atlantic who I've had the gross misfortune to be dealing with for the past month following a business trip to San Francisco.
It was bad enough that my luggage turned up in London a week after I had - though I concede that could happen on any airline. But it was another thing altogether that items such as a mobile phone and some clothes had been removed from the luggage while in the care of Virgin.
Add to that the fact my digital camera was in pieces - although it travelled in a protective case - and it didn't exactly reflect glory onto Virgin Atlantic.
I know I'll not see the items again but I'm growing even less certain that I'll ever see suitable compensation - or even a timely reply - from the organisation.
Of course 'shit happens' but it's how a company then goes about recovering from such a situation that creates the lasting impression. And this is where Virgin Atlantic badly let me down.
The whole fiasco started about 30 minutes after touching down at Heathrow. We've probably all experienced that sinking feeling when you realise there are a lot of bags on the luggage carousel and yours isn't one of them. Often it turns up after a wait but after about 45 minutes it became clear to me I was one of the unlucky few.
"Oh yes Mr Sturgeon your luggage wasn't on the flight," said a member of Virgin ground crew who was holding a print out which listed all those passengers whose baggage hadn't made it. No explanation as to why not or why, when they already knew the luggage wasn't on board, they had let me stand around like a lost soul for the best part of an hour.
I was then given a claim number, a telephone number and an ominous sense of disappointment which would grow over the coming weeks.
My hopes were momentarily raised the next morning when I received a call from the company's Indian call centre, and there was a message left on my phone.
'I'm in luck,' I thought, so I called back.
Now the Virgin call centre is an exercise in patience - both before and after your call is actually connected.
I suspect I have now listened to the company's entire range of hold music - themed very carefully on destinations they fly to - so I got hits such as 'Australia' by the Manic Street Preachers, 'China Girl' by David Bowie, 'California Dreamin' by The Mamas and the Papas... you get the idea.
Worse was to come when my call was eventually connected.
"We do not know where your luggage is," I was told. "That call was just a courtesy call."
An interesting interpretation of courtesy.
I put in a second call to the call centre later the same day, having originally been told my luggage would be on the next flight out of San Francisco and would be with me within 24 hours. Given Virgin Atlantic must have had my luggage in order to know that it wasn't on the previous day's flight, I had no reason to doubt this.
"They are still looking for your luggage," I was told.
'How could they now have lost it?' I asked, explaining that I'd been assured it would be on the flight which had touched down that morning.
"I don't have that information in front of me," came the unhelpful reply from somebody who seemed to neither know nor care about my situation.
Frustrated by the hold music and unhelpful call centre staff I turned to email.
"We put customer service and commitment to our passengers at the heart of what we do," claimed the Virgin website. While that may not be a lie - though I do have my suspicions - I can certainly bear witness to the fact Virgin's claim on its site that it will reply to all emails within 48 hours is far from the truth.
The baggage services team - while largely incompetent in all of my dealings - were at least a little more honest claiming "a member of the team will endeavour to respond to you within 28 days".
That gem of uninspiring information formed the rest of an email which began: "This is an acknowledgement. Please do not reply to this email. Thank you for your email."
So I didn't really get the impression that my change in correspondence tactics had moved things along.
More phone calls, more waiting, more incompetence and a definite sense the right hand and the left didn't know what they were doing within Virgin ensued. On day four of this growing saga I was informed there is a time difference between London and San Francisco. I was well aware of this fact and - though they didn't tell me this - I am also aware there is an even greater time difference between San Francisco and India. But neither time difference is 72 hours, so this didn't really go any way to explain why they could not speak to anybody in San Francisco, or why the teams either side of the Atlantic were not party to the same information.
CRM systems and the data which is created and collected throughout the process of checking in and subsequently reporting items lost should be joined up and staff should be capable of giving the impression that they know what they are doing.
Eventually, after a week, my luggage turned up complete with an Air Mexicana sticker and minus several valuable items. If it could talk I'm sure my bag could have spun me quite a yarn about the travels it had been on.
Since then there has been more of the same - emails and pointless phone calls to Virgin Atlantic. Now I am largely resigned to this issue going unresolved as I seem to have come up against an immovable barrier of incompetence and misunderstanding and a palpable sense that Virgin Atlantic really couldn't care less - either about the fact a customer has lost items while luggage was in their care, or that the company is destroying customer relationships with mismanagement and poor online and offline assistance.
It seems very telling to me that Virgin will sell me a box of wine and at all stages of the process I can track online where that delivery is. And yet when it comes to luggage - which, compared to the wine, has a far higher value to me and a far lower inherent value to them - such a function is not offered.
A number of airlines - such as British Airways - are now looking at RFID as a way of tracking luggage, which should ensure fewer instances of wrongly directed luggage as well as enabling them to reunite customers with their luggage more quickly.
Other airlines are looking at ways of enabling customers to track lost luggage in the same way they would track a FedEx shipment online. This seems an encouraging development, even if the airlines may consider the introduction of such a system to be admission that problems do occur. (Interestingly Virgin Atlantic does not disclose the amount of luggage it loses, according to this Cheap Flights report.).
The use of technology should improve matters but it can only be successful if used well and used by people who are able to do their jobs effectively. We've had email for some time now and I would argue that it is never acceptable for a company to "endeavour to respond" to an email within 28 days.
Today I read that Virgin Atlantic reported a doubling of profits to £41m for the past year - boosted largely by business travellers. Perhaps the company would do well to invest some of that money in ensuring those business travellers get their luggage back.
Comments
There are 16 comments. Join the discussion
1. Michael Dixon.
Yup, problems occur - as with our rail return on Sunday. The engineers did their best, but where were the Virgin (mis)managers? After all, they knew that we, other passengers and the German visitors now had no onward connection and would be stuck at Chester.
Yes, Arriva worked (VERY) well, and even explaiuned that if "Virgin control" did not authorise the cabs, then they would arrange them.
But why, Virgin, do you apparently not care in the slightest?
2. John
Virgin's attitude to customer service is rubbish compared to other airlines I have flown on. I recently switched to flying Virgin as I had some miles available that I could use on their airline. I previously flew mainly with British Airways - the flights I have had so far with Virgin have made me realise how good I had it with British Airways. Similarly with other airlines - malaysian, south african, bmi - all have a far better attitude to their customers than Virgin, from my personal experience.
Virgin have a better entertainment system on board though !! :-) But customer service is more important to me.
3. Simon Allen
My guess is that the problem rests with outsourcing. First and foremostly, all the baggage handling is outsourced, so they lose direct control of your bag from the moment it is catapulted away from check in.
All companies save money on essentials and all pretend that they don't. I do not imagine that VS are any worse/better at this than anyone else. For every company there are stories of them being heroes and villans in almost equal measure.
As long as you have a document trail and took photographs of the bag upon arrival, you will eventually get teh compensation. I dare say that you have read up on your travel insurance and will know what to expect from them, as much as from teh airline.
4. Richard
Try UKVisas.gov.uk:
For really bad "customer service," UK government departments and agencies are hard to beat. Many hopeless web sites have wrong information and phone numbers; few accept emails; etc. etc.
My recent appalling experiences have included:
- UKVisas: 35 minute wait on an expensive 0845 number with patronising announcements; then a rude unhelpful call centre which refuses to help or give any information.
- UKVisas: (Again) Demands that enquiries are "put in writing," stating that they "aim to respond within 20 working days" but then fails to take action, give any acknowledgement, or give a reply.
- British High Commission (Overseas): Rude guards refuse entrance to callers; refuses to accept phone calls; does not respond to letters, faxes or emails; does not comply even with their own regulations or UK laws; etc. etc.
No wonder so many people hate dealing with Britain and learn to hate all things British.
5. Neil Robinson
Claiming missing miles is just as tough. They just don't care
6. anonymous
I feel for you Will, you see I've had similar experiences myself and with Mr Branson's little venture. Virgin has built it's reputation as the alternative to shoddy service but over the past decade has managed to reverse this to become, in my experience, one the worst compaies to deal with on any level.
Oh well, £40m+ should cheer them up and perhaps Richard can buy another balloon!
7. Richard Sheppard
My luggage was painted!
Years ago during a short flight with a small east African airline, my luggage was saturated with silver paint.
No-one seemed to care: I was not pleased!!
However, all things are relative: The paint grounded the plane.
Apparently, someone had been smuggling, stolen airline paint in the baggage hold: When the plane reached its altitude of 10,000 feet, the paint tin burst open; saturated my luggage and drained into the plane's control cables.
With badly jammed controls, it was days before that plane flew again.
I, just had no clean clothes.
8. Andrew Ross
I travel with Virgin quite often, and can honestly say I wouldn't want to travel with anyone else. The whole Virgin experience is a world apart from other airlines I have used. The former airline Go once lost one of my bags on a short flight. It was later found airside, where it had sat in the pouring rain, and was returned to me 48 hours after I landed in France, soaking wet. I got no compensation. I made a very minor complaint to Virgin recently and got a fantastic response from Mr. B's office, with which I was delighted.
9. M Hall
Let me guess, "Your report is important to us, but no-one from Virgin is available for comment for another 6 weeks" ???
10. Rory Choudhuri
I had the same experience with Virgin. Arrived in San Francisco, having flown Upper Class (in the days of the internet boom!). They left me stewing for 45 minutes when they knew all along that the bag hadn't made it onto the plane.
I did get compensation, eventually, but had to fight hard for it.
11. aimee
Fly emirates, problem solved.
Sympathies with you tho Mr S.
12. Mike T.
If anybody actually bothered to read the terms and conditions of carriage they would see that the airlines can do what they like with you and your baggage and that there isn't a great deal you can do about it.
Fortunately the same rules don't apply to freight couriers...
13. Antony Norris
Fly Emirates? Don't kid yourself! We got stitched by their baggage handlers in Dubai on a trip back from Australia. Suitcase came wrapped in plastic wrapping as if the zip had burst, but the padlock had obviously been broken off. Missing the more expensive items, but got most of the clothes back.
And their stewardesses are stuck up, well most other airlines are, but Emirates excel.
As a previous post said, most of the airlines services are outsourced, so they lose control and the human factor (regardless of how much technology they throw at it) always messes things up.
Even if Wills baggage had been RFID chipped someone wanted to rip off some baggage and steal his mobile phone, that would have happened anyway.
14. Seshadri Dhanakoti
I had a similar problem with Air France. In Paris, one has to hop umpeen busses to travel from one terminus to another and by bus broke down on the way making me mis my connecting flight to Heathrow. When I did land on the next available flight, my luggage was not on board although I was assured. But the staff was prompt, I was texted when the luggage landed at Heathrow and in a space of 6 hours after that, it was delivered to me.
Losing aluggage is bad enough causing alot of anxiety and stress. To then subject a customer so insensitively, is apalling. Thanks for this article, I will keep away from Virgin Atlantic. I rather take the busses between terminus at Paris and fly Air France.
15. Erik
Will,
It took me about 5 month to get compensation when Virgin lost some of my luggage.
Very interesting part of all this was that they phoned me up and said my luggage was in Heathrow Airport with their baggage handlers - when I got there 4 hours later it was lost again.
Good luck getting your compensation.
16. mysteryflyer
I fly on Virgin almost every month and have some tips - I have learned the hard way that the only way is to online check in and then carry on all luggage. Never put phones or electrics in checked bags as they can go missing somwehere in the 'handling' process.