Unacceptable Singapore Airline's customer service over damaged baggage. I'm a resident of New York and this is the 3rd time I have been flying with Singapore Airline, the first two being with my family. Since I'm flying alone on this trip, I thought I would visit Singapore for a night. Therefore, as per attached itinerary, I left New York (JFK airport) on the night of November 9th and arrived in Singapore on November 11th in the morning. Since it was my very first time ever visiting Singapore, I was the last one arriving at the baggage claim area, dead last. When I arrived there, there was nobody around that area and both my bags (a 21 and a 26 Samsonites) were completely off the carousel and standing on the site.
When I got my luggage, I noticed the larger bag, had a nick on the top-front zipper and the zipper was open. However, since I only put a magazine in there, I didn't worry. So, I grabbed my bag, hailed a cab and went to my hotel in Singapore, located at Ulu Pandan Road which is the other end of the town, completely opposite direction of the airport.Back at the hotel, while getting a towel out of the luggage for the shower, I noticed that the plastic encased metal frame of the luggage's lid has been badly bent in two places. Also the inside of the lid has been torn and there were more damages to the zipper. However, due to the distance between my hotel and the airport, going back to the airport wasn't possible.
Therefore, I did the next best thing. I checked the Singapore Airline's website and was relieved to read the following paragraphs.Written notice to the carrier must be made within 7 days of the receipt of checked baggage in the case of damage. We have appointed agents to repair your damaged bag as quickly as possible. Details of arrangements will be provided by our local office. Singapore Airlines sincerely apologizes if we have mishandled your baggage and understand that this is an inconvenience. Please be assured that we will do everything possible to assist you through this experience.After reading the above two paragraphs, I thought, great!
I still have time to file for the claim and they will take care of me like they did the first two times. Little did I know that how everything possible to assist would turn into everything imaginable to make you so mad and frustrated by throwing you the book and procedures, make you waste lots of your valuable time (so much more than the luggage is worth), wasting hours on the phone with the local agent relaying back and forth with his local manager Mr. **, who apparently is a very shrewd businessman and a negotiator, yet an extremely incompetent executive with absolutely no understanding of customer service.
How could a 5-star airline do that you ask? Well, please read on. After my night of stay in Singapore, I arrived at the Singapore Airport around noon the next day (November 12th) with my cousin, who is working at Sing Tel as a manager to see me off. Then, we went to the Singapore Airline customer service counter and talked to the lady there about my situation. My cousin and I haven't had lunch yet by that time and my flight wasn't till 3:00pm. So, we were weighing the option of going to another floor to file the damaged baggage claim, which could take long or just go and have lunch and deal with everything in Yangon. Besides, the lady at customer service said, it was really up to me where to file the claim (in Singapore or in Yangon/Rangoon as well) as Silk Air and Singapore Airline are the same.
I said, "Great, I would deal with it in Yangon since I was born there." Nonetheless, I was worried that due to the damaged zipper, the luggage would fly open on the way. So, me and my cousin went and bought a roll of duct tape. Then, we went to the Singapore Airline's check-in counter. Again, I told the lady at the check-in counter the same story. "No problem," she said. Just be sure to let them know at the Yangon office, she reminded me.
Therefore, I duct-taped my damaged bag right in front of her at the check-in counter. After luggage check-in, lunch, and the security check, I'm aboard the plane, oblivious to the nightmare the Silk Air is waiting to put me through in Yangon. Once I landed in Yangon on the evening of November 12th at 4:30pm, hell started for me. I told her about my damaged luggage and for 2 hours I defended like a guilty criminal to a barrage of accusations. Why didn't you file the claim when it happened? Why didn't you go back from the hotel to the airport?
Why didn't you file it the next day at the airport? What could we do as it didn't happen here? You should have, could have, blah blah blah. How could the staff at Singapore check-in allow such taped luggage? Felt like I was interrogated for treason. After one hour of questioning and me defending, it became obvious that she did not even want to open a claim report, saying it didn't happen here; it happened in Singapore, where I should have claimed.
Only after my repeated urging, negotiating, which took about an hour by the way, did she contacted her manager over the phone and finally a black-and-white form called Property Irregularity Report (PIR) is filled. She did quip that she only accepted the claim as a Courtesy Case. To me, it sure felt like they are extremely courteous. Of course, it is only the beginning.As the PIR form is starting to be filled, she weighed my two checked-in luggages which turned out to be 40 Kgs (about 88 pounds) combined. Now she started questioning why it said Bags: 2/28 (2 bags, 28 Kgs) in the claim ticket. How would I know? It was the airline's employees who weighed the bag. It was the airline's scale, the airline's printout. I am just a lowly customer who just wants to travel from point A to point B with all my bags intact. By now, you are asking, was that all?
No sir. No. She still had some tricks up her sleeve.At this point lots of photos were taken. As the PIR form was filled, it came to the Description of damage part and she asked me when I bought these baggage. I told her that I bought it specifically for this trip. She asked if I have proof. Sorry, I do not make a habit of taking a luggage receipt on my vacation with the intent of claim. I might not even have it at home any more. Besides, my return flight is 4 months away.
However, there was at least physical proof that my luggage are new. I bought this 3 piece set (1 gym bag, 1x21, and 1x26 all for $240. A value of $100 was agreed and filled in for the damaged bag and I think it's a fair value). It's Samsonite and the brand new luggage labels were still on all three and all three are sparkling new (other than the major damage on the largest one). What more proof would you need? At any rate, another hour passed and I was done and I was relieved that it was over and leaving the airport dead last. I was told take the bag to the airline's office the following Monday, so that the manager there could see the damage.
Now, as I was going through this lady's maze on inside for 2 hours, my 73-year-old uncle, my 69-year-old aunt, and other relatives were waiting outside sitting, standing, wandering, and wondering what was happening inside as they could clearly see me through the glass. All in all, my dealings with this lovely lady called Chaw Chaw was over a new nightmare was still waiting for me at the local Silk Air office. Monday, November 15th came and I went to the office with my luggage thinking it was a matter of giving them the damaged one and getting the fair replacement value. No sir.
The lady there said, Sir, you will be happy to know that we will be getting your luggage fixed at the local Samsonite Company. I said, sure, hoping they could get it fixed despite the damages being marked Major on PIR. Three days later, I went there notifying them that I would be traveling for 1-2 months and if there wasn't enough time, I would be willing to get the luggage when I got back. Then, I was told that Samsonite Company had deemed my luggage unrepairable.
And I was told that they will be trying some local company and I was to inspect the luggage and see if the repair was satisfactory. The lady at the office told me, if the repair wasn't satisfactory, I could let them know and they will arrange something else, leaving the option of buying me a new bag or paying me the fair value.
Two days later, I went to the office again to see the repaired luggage. The inside tear was repaired nicely. However, the metal frame was still bent in two places as before. As this metal rim was extremely thick and encased in tailored plastic, they probably weren't able to repair without completely dismantling the lid. As this was going on, I had a chance to visit the local markets and see what a baggage like that would cost me and I noticed that even a no-name Chinese branded 18 luggage runs about $90. Any decent 26 luggage would be selling for over $140. Mind you, that's not even a US brand name item like Samsonite.At the Silk Air office, after I told the lady that the repair did not fix my luggage, she asked me to write an explanation letter for the manager so that the manager could compensate me directly.
Of course, I did exactly that writing a 2-page explanation letter of the events. As I was set to travel all over Myanmar (Burma) for a couple of months on the 24th of November, I got a called on November 23rd from the local office manage, Mr. **'s assistant Ko **, who was quite polite and apologized profoundly for the ordeal I have went through at the airport.
Then, he relayed to me what Mr. ** was prepared to compensate for my luggage: $50. What? Suddenly, I felt like I was no longer a computer consultant earning $50-$150/hr and turned into local luggage hustlers marking a buck here and there. The only reason I was preparing to accept the $100 luggage was because, one, I do not need a luggage to go back to US; I have a spare from my uncle, and two, that was what I have paid for and the fair market value and I could get another one once I'm back to the States. Now, with Mr. **'s offer of $50, there was nowhere else in the world (neither local nor in the US) that I could get a 26 Samsonite luggage. I had been nothing but polite up to that point. However, that $50 felt like a slap across my face.
It also became apparent to me that Singapore Airline does enjoy making a buck here and there and would do anything to save a penny at all cost. I let ** relayed how upset I was to Mr. ** and I went on my trip the next day, on the 24th of November. After spending a month of ruined vacation and unpleasant trip (mind you, my mind was on my luggage), I cut my trip short and was back in Yangon. This morning (December 17th), I receive a polite call from Ko ** again, carrying Mr. **'s message that, the $50 was not a compensation for the luggage. It was a Good Will Gift while I wait for another set of the airline's red-tape (another insurance claim, he said) which could take 2 to 3 months. He said I could go through it on my return trip which was 4 months away.
I was also told that even though Mr. ** does have the authority for the complete compensation (in some cases only, according to Ko **), he, the Head of the Silk Air for the country of Myanmar, might have to go though steps to report this case back to Singapore Headquarter. Yes. All for that $50. I mean, my God. All this courteous service from Asia's leading airline? With the best service? I flew with China Airlines at least 4 times. Their fares are lower and their transit city in Taiwan is nicer. They have not even damaged my luggage once. Finally, here is my message to Singapore Airline. Yes. Please throw me the book and ask me to jump though the hoops.
I do not mind as there will be no more complaint from me in Yangon once I emailed this to all the blogs, airline complaint websites, news agencies, government agencies, and any website willing to publish. I guess anybody searching for Singapore Airline will see my story right underneath your official site.My friends and relatives kept telling me, just take the $50. The remaining $50 is nothing to you as you could easily earn it in an hour. Why waste so many hours going to the local office, spending taxi fares, and spending time haggling over the phone for that measly $50. Let it go.
Well, the problem here is no longer about $50. It's about how an airline that claims to have the best service could end up with such disservice to the customer. It's about how the Singapore Airline has completely ruined a customer's vacation. It's about how an airline could push a customer to the brink of hypertension by being so discourteous. It's about how even a patient customer who earns $50/hr like me could be so upset that he would spend all day to write a 5-page complaint. As with any good insurance coverage, it's about returning the customer to the condition before the accident. Before the accident, I have a brand new Samsonite bag worth $50. If I were to accept Mr. **'s $50, who is going to pay for the other $50? My 73 year old poor uncle who spent 2 hours waiting at the airport?However, you'll be happy to know that, I have already saved Singapore Airline that $100 and more. My friend who is flying from Washington DC to Yangon just bought a ticket from ANA, the Japanese Airline, due to my urging. The Singapore Airline's lost?
Definitely going to be more than my luggage is going to cost. My dad, mom, wife, kid, friends and their relatives all travel at least once a year to Yangon, all of whom will be converted to China Airlines. Cost to Singapore Airlines? Over $10,000, if I have to guess.
So, congratulations to Mr. **. You have definitely save your airlines a fair amount of money with empty seats. I won't be surprised to find the airline suddenly bankrupt in a few years.PS: I also would like to thank Ko **, Mr. **'s assistant, for suggesting that a customer always have the right to a complaint and my complaint could also correct some failed procedure within the company and transfer some authority to his boss Mr. Atwill ** who as seen in the picture probably need more customer service training and lady charm than the authority for $50.PPS: You might think that I'm a bad customer who complains every single thing. I'm not. When stewardess request to switch seats, I always have.
When stewardess brought the wrong meal, I never complain. After all, all my flights are always shorter than 24 hours. No point complaining every single thing. However, this is physical damage/Financial loss due to the airline's mishandling. I believe should be made whole PPPS: As I have explained in my first two-page hand-written letter, what's the point of wasting everybody's time? Your staff has apologized for the bad service at the airport. I accepted it. You pay for my bag or buy me an equivalent bag and we both moved on. If you can get it for $10 locally, then, congratulations are in order, as you have saved $90 for your beloved airline. Obviously, Mr. ** doesn't have that authority or willingness to do that. PPPPS: Content CC'd to Aviation Consumer Protection Division of US Department of Transportation. More will follow.Case # **