The event that prompted: STA experience

I know, I know... who in these times buys flights tickets with the agents? I haven't done it in ages, yet my forthcoming trip to Argentina was starting to make me itchy. I didn't have the ticket, the prices started to skyrocket, it's December trip and it's warm and pleasant there, so expect to pay more... But 300 quid more???

Now, that's a bit too much.

It started a couple of days ago: I went to various websites and realized that if I wanted to go, I need to book now. Some of the websites looked dodgy, so I decided to book with American Airlines. However, since my credit card billing address does not match my UK address and is simply in another country, this idea fell. Then my friend suggested that since I'm currently studying, I might be able to get a student discount. I said, Yayyy, STA, I flew with them to US back in the 90s by the greatest Singapore airlines ever, maybe it'll work this time too.

It worked just fine. After school, I went to Russell Square, and sat opposite a nice young man. Then it all started...
The guy at STA first told me not to expect to pay less than 1400. And straight came up with some offers that were above this treshold. Then, he also presented an offer for 1.319 quid. Now, compared to 1.600 and all the dates restrictions, it seemed like a bargain. I mumbled I was a student (though certainly not below 26 :), I mumbled that American Airlines had good prices. The guy said: yes, but not on these dates. No. Nothing. £1.319 is the best you can get.

So I booked, so I bought! Only to discover upon coming home that a certain not so dodgy website sells THE VERY SAME tickets for £1000.40. Yep. A neat small netbook kind of difference...

I felt uneasy, so I called the guy. He goes: "it's impossible, checking this.... yeah... right... well... yes... Well I don't know how they get this price [You should know, you're a travel agent] but we can't offer the same". Ekhm. But I paid.

Now, to make it clear: I expect to pay more when booking with a real, flesh-and-bone agent. But 300 quid? Sounds like a bit of

The best a.k.a. worse was to come: email from kayak com that American Airlines sell for 1000 pounds, too... Now, this is a moment when water boils and angry women start blogging.

I wrote a letter of complaint. Will follow up on this, certainly. Later :)

First one...

Welcome!

It's been a while since I've first thought of starting a blog about customer experience.

My initial idea was to create a blog in Polish, because this is where I lived and this was the place where I most often felt that customer service s****. Oh, sorry for this one. But this is a blog that originates in frustration, so occassionally some non-niceties may appear. Excuse...

Though I don't mean not to compliment great customer service, and in the future, may even thought of some little awards for you, customer-loving-or-faking it-companies (I don't care if they truly love us or not, as long as the service is good), primary goal of this blog is to create a space where we can work on improvement, and notice these spots where some little upgrade of service/products would help.

This blog will contain:
- general reflections on the customer service, worldwide but especially in the U.K.
- review of recent customer experiences (appealing, appeasing, all sorts)
- a bit of historical events: when particularly significant event is recalled.

Hence, here we start! Good luck :)