Transavia Baggage Claim - Bad Response?

maillme

Hi All,

I'm having difficulty with Transavia, paying to replace my damaged suitcase. They say as per the Montreal Convention and their Conditions of carriage, they are only required to pay the write off value. I checked both documents, and seen no mention of this at all.

They have said twice that there is mention of this, but so far refused (after multiple requests) to show me where in these documents it exists.

I simply want a new suitcase, same as I had, that doesnt leave me out of pocket. No big ask.(Eur 100)

Just thought I'd share all my correspondence with you - see if anyone has had a similar experience, and if nothing more for you all to experience part of my every day life dealing with Dutch customer service at it's finest.....

I await their latest reply.

Reactie Via e-mail (Customer Care transavia.com) 28/11/2012 02:08 NM
Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you very much for your reaction. We are sorry to hear that your luggage arrived damaged at your destination.

Before we can attend to your luggage claim, we kindly request you to send us the following information:

• Receipt of the damaged item

We will contact you as soon as we have received this information. You can scan the receipt and send the scanned document by replying to this email.

Besides claiming the damaged luggage, you also claim costs to make use of a taxi. We will not cover these costs. An Airline is not in any way responsible for your journey from the Airport to your final destination.

Klant Via e-mail ( Smith) 28/11/2012 06:41 NM
Hello R. Mets,
Please find attached receipt
thanks, Neil

Reactie Via e-mail (Customer Care transavia.com) 29/11/2012 09:07 VM
Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you very much for your new message, which included the receipt.

We will process your claim for damages in accordance with our Conditions of Carriage and the Montreal Convention. This means that the damaged luggage will be compensated on the basis of the write-off value and the original purchase document. We will pay out the amount of € 61,20 as the item was two years old already, at the time of travel.

This means that we will refund you an amount of € 61,20. By accepting this offer, you agree to the condition that you cannot claim any further damages in this file. Can you please confirm your bank details as mentioned below by replying to this e-mail?

After your confirmation, the amount will be transferred to:

Bank account number: xxxxxxxx
In the name of: N. Smith

We trust we have replied to your message to your satisfaction and look forward to your correspondence.

Klant Via e-mail ( Smith) 29/11/2012 12:56 NM

Thanks for your response.

I am not willing to accept this offer. For the following reasons:

1. I had an immaculate suitcase, In perfect working order as the day I bought it, at the time I checked it in - My requirement is that I still have a suitcase that that is the same quality and has the same functionality as the on Transavia (or its handling partners) damaged. I can not have this for the amount of compensation you offer - therefore as a result of your (Transavia or its
handling partners) negligence, I will be out of pocket. This is not fair on me, and not inline with your conditions of carriage or the Montreal Convention.

2. Your conditions of carriage (Article XIV, Section 3) limits your liability to 1131 Standard Drawing Rights. I convert that to approximately EUR 1138. I see no mention in your conditions of carriage or in the Montreal Convention with regard to write-off value. The phrase write-off value does not appear in either of these documents.

3. I complied with all of these conditions of carriage (with particular reference to Article XIV, Section 3e) - I expect Transavia to do the same.

4. The Montreal Convention states your liability limits also (See chapter III, Article 17, section 2 - and please note I am referring to the 1999 convention, which has a limit of 1000 SDR, which has now been increased, as per your conditions of carriage to 1138), with no reference to write-off value.

So, unless I am mistaken - and forgive me if I am, your statement:

" We will process your claim for damages in accordance with our Conditions of Carriage and the Montreal Convention. This means that the damaged luggage will be compensated on the basis of the write-off value and the original purchase document."

Is entirely untrue , since this is not in accordance with these conditions of carriage or Indeed the Montreal Convention, since there is no mention whats-so-ever of compensation on the basis of write-off value.

In conclusion, I have met every aspect of the conditions of carriage, having reported it immediately, having a perfect working order suitcase prior to check-in - and even (most likely to Transavia's surprise) providing proof of purchase. Transavia it would appear has not met their conditions of contract, both in the carriage of my luggage and in the compensation to the damage of my suitcase whilst under the care of Transavia ( or its handling partners).

All I ask is that you compensate me for my new suitcase, which allows me to carry on my travelling life as normal, with no additional cost to me. Then this matter will be closed.

I look forward to a quick response, Neil

Reactie Via e-mail (Customer Care transavia.com) 29/11/2012 02:08 NM
Dear Mr Smith,

We are not in any way liable for a newly bought suitcase. We are only liable for the damaged suitcase. As you are well aware, the damaged suitcase is not brand new anymore and therefore has a clear write off value which is mentioned in the Convention of Montreal.

We will stand our ground. We will not offer you a higher compensation that equals a newly bought, undamaged suitcase, because you feel that you should carry on as normal. It furthermore did not suprise us that you still had the receipt, as we consider it normal to hold on to receipts for items that still have value.

If you can not accept our offer, that is totally up to you. We will not force you in any way to accept our offer. Feel free to cancel the claim at our Airline and contact your Travel Insurance instead. Insurance companies do not have to obey the Convention of Montreal and can therefore most of the time offer higher compensation. Please thrust us when we say that also a Insurance Company will not cover your newly bought suitcase if the damage concerns a other, much older suitcase.

We are sorry to say that we can not meet your expectations in this matter.

Please address my points below.

1. Please can you provide me with the text from the Montreal Convention that you refer to:

"...therefore has a clear write off value which is mentioned in the Convention of Montreal. "

I do not have additional travel cover for this trip. If I did, and whether or not they would cover this is irrelevant. My contract is with you, not anyone else. I am not comparing Transavia with another airline - as it is irrelevant to my claim with you.

2. Please also note, with regards to your statement:

" Feel free to cancel the claim"

I have no intention whatsoever in dropping my claim against you.

3. Please advise whom I must contact now to escalate this.

I look forward to a reply,
thanks, Neil

Reactie Via e-mail (Customer Care transavia.com) 29/11/2012 04:23 NM
Dear Mr Smith,

We notice that you can not come to terms with the way we handle your claim. We will however stand our ground.

We are sorry to hear that your insurance does not cover travelling. That makes it more difficult for you to claim damages if a situation arises in which you need assistance before, during or after one of your trips. We advice you to arrange travel insurance for future trips.

You can contact the Dutch consumers organisation 'consumentenbond' to escalate this matter. You can find contact details on.......I cant add this as a new user

Hello,

Thanks for the response.

As per my previous email, please can you address point 1 (in red below - as you have stated this in your response several times now but without providing me with the information I have requested):

1. Please can you provide me with the text from the Montreal Convention that you refer to:

"...therefore has a clear write off value which is mentioned in the Convention of Montreal. "

As I have mentioned previously, and I will mention once again - there is no mention of this whatsoever in either your conditions of carriage or the Montreal Convention. You have intimdated there is, twice now, but are unwilling to show me where, so this is, at this moment, entirely unjust.

On another note, and this may just be a language / translation issue:

"We notice that you can not come to terms with the way we handle your claim. We will however stand our ground."

I can, and have come to terms - I am challenging / not willing to settle with your initial offer - there is a grave difference in these terminologies. Not coming to terms is not appropriate for this conversation.

I look forward to a response,

thanks again,
Neil

Reactie Via e-mail (Customer Care transavia.com) 30/11/2012 10:56 VM
Dear Mr Smith,

We have informed you wrongly about the Montreal Convention. The write off value is indeed not mentioned in there. Our apologies for that. We did not misinform you on purpose.

The write off value is a part of the Airline policies and Insurance policies in The Netherlands. This procedure of handling a claim is not visible for you in our General Conditions of Carriage, as not everything can be written down in those conditions.

As you most probably are aware of, you are claiming more then the actual damage is. Although you have a different view on that. Your suitcase was more then 2 years old at the moment of travelling and therefore it was not brand new anymore. That makes it, in our opinion, unreasonable to compensate the price of a new suitcase.

When your car gets damaged, while the car is more then 2 years old already, you will not be compensated with the value of a new car. It is not any different for a suitcase that gets damaged. The fact that you have to spend money to buy a new one, does not make an Airline pay out more, out of courtesy. Neither is an Airline liable for more then the actual damage.

We understand your dissapointment, as your expectations will not be met. We have made you an initial and only offer, with which you are not willing to settle. That is off course up to you. We will have to leave it at that. We do not make you a new offer.

We thrust to have informed you sufficiently.

Klant Via e-mail ( Smith) 30/11/2012 11:26 VM
Hello R. Mets,

Thanks for your confirmation.

I agree, I would not expect an airline to compensate me for anything they did not cause. If I could fix the case myself, I would have, If the 2 outlets I visited to fix the case could have, then that would have been great too. Unfortunately both of them confirmed the case was beyond repair, and therefore this is what the airline are responsible for - damaging my suitcase beyond repair.
" you are claiming more then the actual damage is"

This is entirely untrue. I would be claiming for the cost to fix (which can not be done) and therefore the replacement my case - This will get me back to where I was before Transavia damaged it.

My case was damaged in a similar fashion by British Airways - they sent me a replacement case. I normally wouldn't compare airlines, but as you keep wanting to compare this scenario to others, I thought I would do the same - what do you say to that? I'm guessing you will then say "well this is a different airline, we
can't comment on their policies compared to ours" - to which I will reply "then please do not compare car insurance or the like to your insurance"

I look forward to a reply, Neil

Reactie Via e-mail (Customer Care transavia.com) 30/11/2012 02:48 NM
Dear Mr Smith,

You may expect a replacement case from a full service Airline like British Airways, Lufthansa or KLM. transavia.com is a low fares Airline. That is something quite different. As customers usually pay much less for tickets (temporary offers at those Airlines excluded), as a result a low fares Airline like transavia.com offers less extra services.

We will however keep this suggestion in mind for the future. Perhaps we can increase our fares, in order to offer a replacement case to those passengers who are left with a damaged suitcase.

We thank you for sending us your thoughts about how an Airline, according to you, should provide assistance. We wish you a pleasant weekend.

maillme

updated. Hilarious

Obviously_the_best

I think that they're being entirely fair. It is totally unreasonable for you to value a 2 year old suitcase at the same as a brand new one.

Transavia have done what they should in this case (pardon the pun), and what BA do is none of their concern, as they're a totally different company.