7/10/2009 2:15:02 PM #

Coming back to the UK from Mozambique, my bag was chalked with an X and thrown out onto the runway approach; it turned up six months later in Rio. Without taking me. And with the lovely ripe mangoes a friend had kindly given me turned completely black, as were the nice pyjamas they were wrapped up in.

Pat Coombes

7/10/2009 2:16:23 PM #

Woah, can't say I've ever had things that bad before but a few bits and pieces have been lost or mangled in the past.

Andrea

7/10/2009 4:30:28 PM #

My wife and I returned from the US with a hard-case for my son's keyboard that I had bought while I was out there (a bargain when £1 = $2). It didn't turn up at Heathrow. When I reported it, the guy showed me a laminated photograph of all different suitcase shapes and sizes and asked me which one it resembled most. When I said it was a musical instrument case, he pointed at a double base case. I said it looked more like a rifle case, which was stupid because I then had to convince him it didn't contain a weapon and that it was completely empty. It was delivered to our home a few days later, intact. In the meantime, they airline kindly sent my wife and I £100 each to cover the cost of purchasing essential items to replace those in the empty keyboard case, plus 20,000 air miles and a £200 voucher towards another flight. Definitely my favourite airline, if not the world's.

stan hoey

7/10/2009 4:52:42 PM #

Haha, good on 'em. Baggage handlers are a law unto themselves.

Tom

7/10/2009 4:56:51 PM #

I've heard a couple more songs are coming. Could get interesting. Any official response from United yet?

Andrea

7/10/2009 4:59:25 PM #

I now take a photograph on my digital camera of the luggage before departure. We had a mislaid tripod case, (unusual shaped baggage) in Cape Town a few years ago but it turned up 24 hours later and for 20 rand the B&B owner arranged for someone to collect it for me from the airport - which is miles away. Last year returning from New Zealand had our walking poles confiscated from hand luggage in Auckland. We had carried them in hand luggage from UK via Hong Kong, entered New Zealand and assumed that they must be OK. They were not, and not insured against as the loss was due to legal regulations. At least they let me hang onto the tripod, also in hand luggage, which would have been a real pain to lose.

Allan Harris

7/14/2009 10:29:14 AM #

I've done some very limited research into customer service with my team and we found that people didn't expect that there would be no "mishaps" but that great customer service was defined partly in how the company resolved the issue once it was brought to their attention.

The message then, would appear to be that whilst we seek to eradicate mistakes, when we do make them it's about how we resolve them. All is not lost when something goes wrong - it's an opportunity to shine by rectifying the problem and delighting the customer.

That said, I think if the mistake were repeated, all credibility would be lost! learning must be another component.

Colin Millar

7/14/2009 2:06:40 PM #

When we went on a company trip to Canada one couple in the group didn't get their luggage on arrival as it had not made the connecting flight although they did.

Unfortunately it was several days before it caught up with them and it ruined the trip for them. Although they were given some money to help it isn't easy when you have a full schedule and are on the move a lot - also it wasn't enough to buy several days clothes.

Not so bad for the chap - although he was a big bloke and fitting into my small undies the first night must have been a bit of a squeeze. He wasn't too fussed about not being in the 'right gear' for the occasion. The wife was much less happy trying to wear borrowed clothes from the other wives.

Everything was hunky dory when they did get their stuff back but you can't make up for the distress, even with money!

Ray

7/14/2009 3:02:55 PM #

The offering of money as recompence is too simple for this situation though, don't you think? It would have been far better if the company responsible for the loss of luggage had came up with something a bit more inventive, giving cognisance to the customer's desires and need and the inconvenience they have caused.

Colin Millar

7/14/2009 3:06:24 PM #

Airport luggage handlers are very bad but it's interesting how United have handled this issue. Has anyone heard anything from them? They've been very quiet as far as I can tell. Probably better to do that than insult them like Ryanair did with their idiot bloggers, but still, some response would have been expected.

Marcos Figueira

7/15/2009 10:34:03 AM #

Colin, I agree that the money alone is not sufficient to recompense the people involved. I doubt though thatt the airline was even aware of the issues.

In the ideal world luggage wouldn't be lost, but given that problems will occur the best solution would appear to be a dedicated team to handle these that have the ability to take care of things whilst the problem is sorted out. This includes contacting the people, finding out what they need to sort things out in the meantime - a bit like a roaming concierge service that can find you wnatever you need whenevr you need it without you having to spend any time doing it.

Problem is I doubt that there is any firm willing to invest the sort of money it might take or be inclined to bother about it that much despite the potential goodwill it would create.

Ray

7/15/2009 10:44:21 AM #

Rather than having to invest vast quantities of money in dealing with these problems, the airlines could signpost unfortunate customers to local shops / amenities.

They could then have an arrangement in place with these "preferred outlets" to allow customers to obtain a few essentials whilst invoicing the airline responsible.

The customer would then be at least semi satisfied, the local retailers would have some additional business and would therefore be happy to offer discounted rates to the airline (?) to remain on the preferred supplier list and the airline would get happy customers at low cost.

The airline could then get on with the business of finding the lost luggage and returning it to the customer, knowing the customer has been appeased for a short period.

Just a thought. As a customer, that would certainly satisfy me. It would also make good PR and could be used in their marketing / advertising strategies.

Colin Millar

7/15/2009 10:59:29 AM #

True it would work well in most situations - only thing missing would be the need for out of hours access as this would probably be the most important thing. ANyone with time on their hands during the day may be less concerned about sorting themselves out even though the suggested facility would be 'a nice to have.'

Ray

7/15/2009 11:34:09 AM #

I don't know, would you need clothes if you were arriving at a destination outwith shop opening hours? You could probably get by with pyjamas for a night or a few hours until the shops opened in the morning.

Knowing there was a solution to your problem once the shops opened would allow you to catch up on some sleep to overcome jet lag rather than stressing about where your belongings are and what you're going to do in the interim period until you're reunited with your clothes.

Colin Millar

7/15/2009 11:46:25 AM #

Ok - so the trip to Canada - within 1/2 hour of arriving we were all out for a gala dinner - the next morning we were out of the hotel by 8.30am - where's the time for shopping?

Not all trips are leisure!

Ray

7/15/2009 11:55:43 AM #

I don't know that the airline would stretch to buying you a new dinner suit because they lost your luggage on a business trip to Canada anyway would they? However, they may have been able to point you in the direction of a firm who could hire a suit to you and invoice them?

Colin Millar

7/18/2009 12:53:54 PM #

This is the perfect demonstration of how consumers should be the ones who lead the direction of your company. If the customers complain - you should change!

This vid will put a big dent in musical travelers

Brilliant song by the way

Simon@ Leadership Skills

7/23/2009 8:14:33 PM #

Haha, it was actually featured on BBC News this morning. A rare moment where my mum said "You know that video you showed me about that guy singing about that complaint!....". It was like as soon as it was feature on BBC, it was worth talking about - but everything purely on the net isn't somehow significant

Simon @ Leadership Training

7/25/2009 11:24:17 AM #

Wowza, $180 million is an insane amount to lose because of one unhappy customer! Bet from a marketing point of view though them messing about with that guys guitar has been the best promotion he could ever have dreamed of. He must be making a fortune out of all of this publicity.

Rob