Catshanghai

Below is a copy of a message I just sent to Thai-Air’s customer service department. It says it all. I do not enjoy being ripped off whether it is in a restaurant or by an airline.

I have been unfairly charged a service fee of £30 to buy tickets using your booking office in London after your systems failed to allow me to purchase the ticket on your website. Please refund this as soon as possible. The following details show that your systems failed so I am being charged for something that is not my fault.

On Friday 1st December, I telephoned the Thai Air Shanghai booking office to order two tickets for a returnflight from Bangkok to Phuket. The booking clerk told me that I needed to complete payment before December 12th or I would lose my tickets. The Shanghai office does not collect payment from customers using a courier or take credit/ bank card payment over the telephone. I work full time as a school teacher so I was not able to come and pay for the tickets during Thai Air’s Shanghai opening hours.

On Monday 11th December, I rang the Shanghai office to ask whether alternative methods of payment were available. They told me that the Shanghai office does not offer this service. Instead, I was advised to make the booking from the Thai Air website. I spent more than 3 hours trying to select and pay for tickets. The website operated so slowly and is so badly designed that time out errors caused all the information I had entered to be lost, meaning I had to start the transaction all over again. It seems your website has two problems. Firstly, it can not cope with the seasonal demand in a busy holiday period. Secondly, the website should use modern ajax technologies that avoid transaction data being lost due to time out errors.

After three hours, I telephoned your London office to complete payment before the December 12th deadline. I was told they could do this, but I was charged £30 for the privilege. The tickets for two adults should only cost £198.40 and not £228.40. I believe this surcharge is excessive and grossly unfair given that your systems have failed to allow me to pay online or have the tickets delivered. A prompt and satisfactory response will convince me you are an excellent company that takes care of its passengers. I have posted a copy of this message on my blog in order to highlight some of the problems that poorly designed websites and systems can cause customers.

About: Thaiair.com