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AirPhil Express has terrible and bad customer service - Update 2
Posted by The Red Devil
on
Sunday, July 31, 2011
in
airphil express terrible customer service.
Just when I thought it was over, apparently, it isn't.
I was contacted on Facebook (again) by one Brian Thomas Hogan - The Chief Executive Advisor for AirPhil Express. Although I find it odd to be contacted on Facebook, they must have reasons to their choices and actions. IMO, although people do check their Facebook profiles regularly, I prefer to communicate about these matters via email. In case Facebook was hacked, someone can get on their account and say "We're contacting you about your details and your credit card on file failed. May we please have your new credit card details?" Of course, this is the most extreme of situations, but phishing is a serious thing to consider. This is the correspondence so far:
Now, maybe it's just the grammar Nazi in me...baka naman typos lang talaga. Siguro old fashioned ako or siguro di ko pa rin keri ang makipag communicate with anyone about something quite serious sa FB. It's not professional and it just sits weirdly with me.
I think I understand where they're coming from. I believe I'm the anti-thesis of the recent press release they've had on the Philippine Star. SVP for Marketing and Sales, Alfredo Herrera stated “Because we understand our customers better, we find ways to make their travel arrangements more convenient..." How convenient was it for me to get to the airport at 5 hours before my flight?
AirPhil Express’ response is through major investments in its operations. Herrera shares that because travelers now rely heavily on the Internet for their needs, they put up their own digital team.
“We are the only low-cost carrier that responds to customers in real time. AirPhil Express is on Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. You ask us a question on Twitter, you get an actual answer. We are investing in consumer service responses. That is something we are very proud of. We continue to enhance our website and benchmark against the world’s best. Everything is as fast as possible,” he declares.
Let me dissect this statement with my experience: Their own digital team can't even fix their website. A fatal error that ran for 4 days can mean death. But kudos to them now as they've managed to change the entire website and had it upgraded!
My favorite is how they stated that they respond to customer in real time. Err...3 months isn't real time. Congrats on being hip and technologically adept but I still don't think Facebook is a good venue to resolve this issue. I check my email more than I check Facebook. Plus, it's a more secure venue. I can verify your identity and that goes both ways. I also find it a bit disconcerting that I can get an answer faster if I were on Twitter than if I called them or if I texted or I emailed. Does this mean that any answer I get in my email isn't an actual answer? Maybe that's why they actually used the word "anent". (Sorry, di ako maka get over!)
So, I guess this is it. In all honesty, I'm not quite sure about what I'm expecting anymore. I want to say that we can just chalk it up to a bad experience and that I've learned my lesson and would never fly their airlines again (and will not endorse them nor suggest them to anyone I know) but I also want to redeem them. Lahat naman nagkakamali and lahat deserving ng second chance. Pero wala pa akong next biyahe.
I was contacted on Facebook (again) by one Brian Thomas Hogan - The Chief Executive Advisor for AirPhil Express. Although I find it odd to be contacted on Facebook, they must have reasons to their choices and actions. IMO, although people do check their Facebook profiles regularly, I prefer to communicate about these matters via email. In case Facebook was hacked, someone can get on their account and say "We're contacting you about your details and your credit card on file failed. May we please have your new credit card details?" Of course, this is the most extreme of situations, but phishing is a serious thing to consider. This is the correspondence so far:
- Good Day - I saw your blog on Airphil Express. I am Chief Executive Advisor and would like to send you a reply. Please send me ur[sic] email address. I assure you overall our quality of service is top notch. However, lapses do happen....[sic] Please send it to me so i can investigate further, The more details the better.......[sic] Thanks
- 18 hours agoIan Galliguez
- Hello Mr. Hogan,
I do not wish to imply that your service is terrible each and every time however, the experiences that I have had with your airline was in fact less than satisfactory. I appreciate that you are communicating with me now however it is just also a bit of an abrade that this communication is happening now - more than 3 months after my initial complaint and after I have made a post on my blog and on other social networking sites. It raises suspicion that the only reason I have been finally contacted is that I have made this public.
I completely understand that lapses happen in companies, we also have our own company and lapses are part and parcel of customer service. However, I believe that the best way to deal with a customer service lapse is to quickly deal with the situation. I was under the impression that the people/person I was communicating with last April was going to forward this to the department and people concerned, as they have previously stated.
No disrespect intended but if it's all the same to you, I would prefer to have your email address and I would gladly email you instead. David, my boyfriend, and I would happily provide you with an account of what had happened - although most of it is already published on my blog in an earlier post. It's just that it's hard to establish a formal/serious communication on Facebook. (There are a lot of fake accounts and posers here and I just want to be able to verify and ensure that I am communicating with the real Brian Hogan. The nature of my work in showbusiness makes me very cautious and careful)
I appreciate this course of action. I await your response.
Sincerely,
Ian
- 18 hours agoBrian Thomas Hogan
- Please call me brian - our team is usaually[sic] pretty good but at the end o[sic] the day we are not always on the money. We strive to be the best budget airline in asia[sic] - only way to get there is with open and honest communication which is my credo. I love our team but we still need to improve daily too[sic] support our guests. I love all comments and suggestions. We now use facebool[sic] for all customer service and our the only airline to employ an on line team. This goes 24-7 in the next few months. I strongly believe in our top notch filipino[sic] staff. Please provide me flight details so I can improve our service.
God bless - Brian
- about an hour agoIan Galliguez
- Hi Brian,
I'm sure you have your reasons for communicating on Facebook. I guess I'm old fashioned by wanting to formally communicate through email rather than a social networking site. But that's just me.
Here are my flight details. I have a copy of it in my email and I can forward it to you.
(flight details deleted for this post)
Thanks,
Ian
Now, maybe it's just the grammar Nazi in me...baka naman typos lang talaga. Siguro old fashioned ako or siguro di ko pa rin keri ang makipag communicate with anyone about something quite serious sa FB. It's not professional and it just sits weirdly with me.
I think I understand where they're coming from. I believe I'm the anti-thesis of the recent press release they've had on the Philippine Star. SVP for Marketing and Sales, Alfredo Herrera stated “Because we understand our customers better, we find ways to make their travel arrangements more convenient..." How convenient was it for me to get to the airport at 5 hours before my flight?
AirPhil Express’ response is through major investments in its operations. Herrera shares that because travelers now rely heavily on the Internet for their needs, they put up their own digital team.
“We are the only low-cost carrier that responds to customers in real time. AirPhil Express is on Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. You ask us a question on Twitter, you get an actual answer. We are investing in consumer service responses. That is something we are very proud of. We continue to enhance our website and benchmark against the world’s best. Everything is as fast as possible,” he declares.
Let me dissect this statement with my experience: Their own digital team can't even fix their website. A fatal error that ran for 4 days can mean death. But kudos to them now as they've managed to change the entire website and had it upgraded!
My favorite is how they stated that they respond to customer in real time. Err...3 months isn't real time. Congrats on being hip and technologically adept but I still don't think Facebook is a good venue to resolve this issue. I check my email more than I check Facebook. Plus, it's a more secure venue. I can verify your identity and that goes both ways. I also find it a bit disconcerting that I can get an answer faster if I were on Twitter than if I called them or if I texted or I emailed. Does this mean that any answer I get in my email isn't an actual answer? Maybe that's why they actually used the word "anent". (Sorry, di ako maka get over!)
So, I guess this is it. In all honesty, I'm not quite sure about what I'm expecting anymore. I want to say that we can just chalk it up to a bad experience and that I've learned my lesson and would never fly their airlines again (and will not endorse them nor suggest them to anyone I know) but I also want to redeem them. Lahat naman nagkakamali and lahat deserving ng second chance. Pero wala pa akong next biyahe.
