Here is a copy of the complaint that Kate B sent in to the MD of the Western Cape department of SAA. Kate B received NO response…

14 Novemeber 2008
To Whom It May Concern:

I would like to formally make two complaints, which I believe are unacceptable!!!

I have just spoken to a man name Alfred and although he was very helpful gave me 1000 excuses as to why SAA was not at fault. I was already aware of your policies, but still find your service UNACCEPTABLE and your customer service more than DESPICABLE.

My first complaint is regarding vegetarian meals. I have been flying with SAA since 2004. I have flown to London a few times, locally and I think I had connecting flights with SAA on a few other occasions to overseas destinations. On ALL of these flights I did not receive a vegetarian meal that I had requested BEFORE the proposed flight date.

The first time I made the fatal mistake of not phoning in to confirm my meal, as I WAS NOT aware that one was expected to do this. NO-ONE from the SAA bookings desk bothered to tell me. I enquired about my meal at check-in just out of curiosity and was told it had not been processed. This flight happened to be to London. I had to eat crackers and cheese as there was no other meal available. On my flight back I had learnt my lesson and phoned a few days before my departure to double check. And guess what low and behold, when I checked in on my return flight and asked if it had been processed it WASN’T. So I had cheese and crackers on another 11 HOUR flight!!!

On my next 4 flights to London it was exactly the same story. Book. Request meal. Phone to confirm meal. Get to the check-in desk and be told no meal. Dam cheese and crackers on 11 hour flights!!!!!!!! The only difference in the last 2 flights was that I had booked online. Now surely when booking ONLINE the request goes straight onto your system and only someone deleting it would actually remove the request? How can SAA screw it up????

On my most recent flight to Durban, I booked online and requested my meal. I had to change my flight so I phoned in to do that and requested another vegetarian meal, which I also phoned to confirm. Got to check-in and NO meal AGAIN! Another thing surely one’s original booking details are just transferred to your next booking or does SAA use technology from the 1980’s?

The same story happened on the flight back – NO MEAL. The man who sat next to me on the plane felt so bad that he actually gave me his vegetarian meal. On this flight I asked the airline staff for a complaint form. Alana was very helpful and gave one to me. Dez, Lee and Alana were the staff on that flight. Alana promised to pass my complaint on to you and I specifically told her that I wanted to get feedback. And guess what? I got NOTHING!

What I would like to know is HOW HARD IS IT TO PREPARE A VEGETARIAN MEAL??? And the rubbish about your catering companies preparing food for the flight 72 hours in advance for your flights is rubbish. SAA must have some form of storage facility with meals that can be available even on the day of an actual flight? In this day and age there are MANY vegetarians and SAA seems to make no provisions for us. Why do you not make a few extra vegetarian meals if there is a problem with your communication system as SO MANY of your members of staff have told me? And why should I have to be accused of lying every time I enquire about my meal that YOU did not process properly due to YOUR system. If I was involved in management I would be a lot more concerned with customer satisfaction than wasting a small amount of money on making extra vegetarian meals.

Now Alfred told me that there is now a 72 hour period in which one is expected to phone to reconfirm meals. I have always been told to phone the day before. And anyway why should I have to phone to re-confirm something as simple as a vegetarian meal? HOW HARD IS IT TO COOK A FEW VEGETABLES??? I am paying enough dam money to fly with SAA, I expect a meal, and not cheese and crackers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you have any idea how terrible an 11 hour flight is with only cheese and crackers and a grumpy air hostess is who thinks you are a liar? I’m SICK AND TIRED OF IT!

While I’m complaining I might as well inform you of another thing I am extremely pissed off about. On my last return flight to CPT from LHR I had to fly via Joburg. I booked and paid for the two flights as CPT to LHR and LHR to CPT online. When I got my tickets it said I had to fly via Joburg on the way back, which is fine. What I am angry about is that I had to re-check my luggage in for some reason and had to pay in extra money for luggage. There was a difference in 2/3 kgs as the local luggage allowance is a bit smaller than international luggage allowance. But I booked my flight as LHR to CPT and paid for an international flight. Why did I have to pay in any money for extra baggage and the person checking me in could see on the system that I had just arrived from LHR?

I did not book a LHR to JHB flight and one from JHB to CPT I booked from LHR to CPT. Why should I have had to pay in. It was R80 or something stupid, but that’s not the point. Is this a ploy to con people into giving you extra money as all travelers who book flights like that are not aware that you actually charge for the difference in luggage? I was not INFORMED of this by any members of your staff prior to arriving in JHB and nowhere on my online confirmation letter did it state this. Unfortunately I was in no condition at the time to argue with her and just paid as I wanted to get home.

This brings me to my bigger complaint, which caused me extreme emotional distress, and I actually wanted to sue your company for at the time, but decided against it as I was in no state to do so due to ill health.

This happened at the end of January 2007. I was on my way back to CPT from LHR and was very-ill. I had just spent a month in hospital because my boyfriend had beaten me up. I had broken ribs, a cracked pelvic bone, and bruised coccyx and had been in a coma for a few days. I was still very weak and just wanted to get home. I was having difficulty walking and breathing because the distances between terminals from the tube are so long and was struggling to pull my luggage along. When I got to the SAA check-in desks I asked one of the members of staff for assistance with carrying my luggage. I was IGNORED. Obviously I was unhappy, but thought I’d ask for the main manager who could perhaps be of some assistance.

I approached him and asked him if someone could help me with my luggage and if I could perhaps use a wheelchair to get me through duty-free to the plane. He was busy and shrugged me off. I decided to wait to try and speak to him again where he then proceeded to raise his voice and shout at me in the middle of the airport. He was EXCEPTIONALLY rude and used inappropriate language and was not only very dismissive, he was insulting in the way he spoke to me. I am now 24, but look extremely young and I think he did not take me seriously. Now I don’t care how young a person is, but when you can blatantly see that someone has been through a traumatic experience you could at least speak to them respectfully even if you are not able to assist then and I am an EQUALLY PAYING customer who deserves the same level of service as a 50 year old accountant executive!!!

I obviously became very emotional as I am not used to be spoken to like that by strangers and almost collapsed. One of the British Airways members of staff helped me to a chair and managed to get me as asthma pump as I was struggling to breathe due to all emotional stress caused by that horrible man. The British Airways staff also managed to get me a wheelchair and after I had managed to finally check my bags in she took me almost all the way through duty free in the wheel chair.

Alfred told me that I should have called 72 hours in advance to ask for a wheelchair. Fine. But if there weren’t any spare wheelchairs available that day the manager should have told me this in a NICE WAY. I would have just walked slowly. If he had also told me that this policy existed I would also have understood. I have only just learnt that such a policy exists.

I should never have been spoken to in that matter, or dismissed and ignored by your desk staff. It is DESPICABLE!!! And for that matter there were extra wheel chairs available that day and your staff were just too lazy to take the time to help one of there customers. Now I am not a person who ever demands any special treatment, but I do think that my situation warranted a little bit of extra customer service or at least common courtesy. There were so many extra seats available in first class and the air hostesses could see how uncomfortable I was and yet did not think to offer me one of those seats to at least try and sleep in. I was amazed at how another couple was bumped up to first class, but I wasn’t. What a great gesture.

That flight was the WORST FLIGHT OF MY LIFE and caused me HUGE emotional distress. Not only had I just been through the worst experience of my life, but I was treated as if I was a stray dog with rabies. I chose to spend a lot of money to use your services (Proudly South African) over and above the other international airlines, only to receive the worst service imaginable. Proudly South African my ass.

After that flight I swore to NEVER pay to fly SAA again and decided to use my voyager miles for a local trip (I felt I needed to get at least a little bit of my money’s worth) and then never to look back. I expected to at least receive some feedback after the written complaint I gave to Alana for your customer services department on my last trip, but surprise surprise, I heard NOTHING. This has infuriated me beyond belief!! Everyone I know is aware of how I was treated by your SAA staff on that LHR flight, and most of my friends now refuse to use your services because of your bad services. I will certainly never fly SAA again on principle. I know in the grand scheme of things SAA won’t care and will probably just dismiss my complaint (Ignoring customers seems to be SAA’s forte). I have decided to forward this letter to Argus Action and to my local Newspaper: The Constantiaberg Bulletin.

And should I receive any feedback from SAA I DO NOT WANT it to be from anyone within your customer services call centre, I would like it to be with a senior individual who will not make up every excuse in the book as to why a plate of vegetables that you’ve ordered cannot be provided to you, or that the manage in LHR was not at fault for treating me the way he did because one needs to phone in to request a wheelchair. Apologies with “but’s” in them are not really apologies are they??

I am one very UNHAPPY customer.

Sincerely
Kate B

Tags: Complaints, Customer Service, Luggage, Vegetarian Meal

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Baggage, Check-In, Complaints, Disabled. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.