British Airways Customer Relations Dept.

IvanOpinion

Can I also add that to me it is not about things going wrong .. that happens and has to be expected .. it is all about how I cope with it and how a company handles it when things do go wrong. I find that nowadays the failing is often that joe public can not handle it when things do not go their way.

Ivan

uktim29

HC wrote: »

Please provide evidence to back up the phrase 'the British are rubbish are complaining or make unrealistic expectations when there are just unfortunate circumstances.'

Read this forum daily!

HC wrote: »

How were these 'British' measured, and how many were part of the survey? What demographic weights were used?

I worked in an Airport for 8 years and met many other nationalities who were a dam site better at complaining than the British! In your how many were part of this survey question, probably more than two million!

Why have you taken this defensive attitude to somethings that blatantly true and is also backed up by a post above. I can gaurantee I've got a lot more experience than you on the subject haven't I!

advent1122

A British complaint usually begins with -
"I KNOW MY RIGHTS"
.. followed by -
"I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER"
.. and ends with -
"YOU HAVE NOT HEARD THE LAST OF THIS"

uktim29

Exactly, whats the difference between the average British person complaining about something and a 4 year old having a tantrum?

Almost nothing!

IvanOpinion

advent1122 wrote: »

A British complaint usually begins with -
"I KNOW MY RIGHTS"

And you can almost be guaranteed that they don't ... Why is it that someone who actually does know their rights NEVER feels the need to mention this

Ivan

uktim29

IvanOpinion wrote: »

And you can almost be guaranteed that they don't

Again you see that umpteen times on this forum!

HC_2

IvanOpinion wrote: »

I worked (from an IT point of view) for a call centre a few years back and, if I were being honest, I would have to agree that the Brits are very very poor at complaining.

Many seem to think being as obnoxious as possible is complaining, they seem to think that by swearing or yelling then they are being effective, some seem to think they should be entitled to ridiculous sums of money for being 'mildly inconvenienced' .. on the other hand other allow themselves to be fobbed off too easily. In both cases such people are used for the merriment and ridicule by call centre staff during training sessions. I have seen call centre staff having a competition as to who could wind a particular serial complainer up the most (the person would phone 2-3 times per week).

To complain effectively you need to ensure that you have all your communications, facts and figures to hand .. you need to be 100% aware of what your goal is and make sure it reasonable ... take time to consider the sort of repsonses you may receive and how you will counteract them .. never phone when you are angry .. be firm, but ALWAYS polite ... finally avoid using the phrase 'compensation' (which implies liability) but instead use 'gesture of goodwill' (which implies no blame).

Having said that, the one thing that annoys me most is when you get everything together have fired yourself up for a good scrap, get on the phone, explain the problem and they apologise, sort it out and immediately offer a gesture of goodwill. This happened me a few weeks ago (basically I got £80 back on a £160 deal), the girl was very efficient, apologised for the trouble I had had, sorted it out .. I then said to her 'could we start this again please because I came on the phone expecting a good scrap and have lost out'

Ivan

Ivan, there will always be people like that. They want a scrap and they're determined to get it, whether it's in a shop or down the pub...

Most of us normal people understand that companies make mistakes. It's how they deal with them that tends to show their true colours.

There's no need to complain aggressively. Usually a smile and a simple, honest explanation does the trick, in my experience anyway.

You do get the odd sales assistant, who, if you find in a bread roll a razor blade covered with blood, skin and hair, will tish-tosh the whole incident, saying that razor blades covered in human emissions are positively good for one (no names mentioned), but generally sales assistants respond to sensible complaints in a similar manner.

superflygal

Hi Fred Bear,

I work for an airline, and have done so for 9 years. In my experience, you have actually received marvellous treatment in comparison to the way some airlines treat customers! Sometimes a flight gets overbooked (the airlines fault, totally) and the last pax to check in get bumped off and booked onto the next flight with very little or nothing offered as compensation-in the T&Cs; airlines cover themselves for these eventualities.

It's a shame all your costs were not covered especially as they were meagre compared to the amount BA were willing to pay. However, speaking as an industry person, believe me, you were treated quite well. Most pax delayed in the Terminal 5 debacle were offered only £100.

Also, airlines can behave pretty much as they like, as they know customer choice is limited. Most of the time only 1 or 2 airlines will offer the flights/times that you want, and most folk generally choose the cheapest option regardless of personal opinion and experiences. I have had loads of pax complain "This airline's ALWAYS delayed, it's the worst ever!" yet they reappear on this dreadful airline amazingly frequently!

If I were you, I would forget about it to be honest. It's not worth getting upset for £1.75.

SFG x

Twopints

It's not worth getting upset for £1.75

But it's OK for BA to !!!! off a customer who has already been inconvenienced for £1.75? I am sure they went to the uktim29 school of good customer service which teaches that such penny pinching is a far more effective way of ensuring customer satisfaction and good PR than any of the alternative approaches.

The British are as good at customer service (and common sense) as they are at complaining.

uktim29

Twopints wrote: »

I am sure they went to the uktim29 school of good customer service

I'll just point this out. I'm not at work, I no longer work in retail. These are opinions. My opinions are also just that, they not an indication of customer service. If you've been served by myself in the past you wouldn't be able to work out who I was. At work I had to "act" as anyone in the service industry would do. I didn't stand there arguing with customers.............this is a forum, not my previous workplaces. These are opinions/thoughts on a subject only, not an example of how I would act at work.

I just thought I'd make this clear. If I started to work in a shop again and you had to pick me out, none of you would be able to do it.