Disgraceful Customer Service at MAS

I swear Malaysia Airlines has the worst customer service ever, or that I have ever encountered, for that matter. Never have I ever spoken to someone who is so incompetent and dumb to the extent that they jeopardize the image of the company/client that they work for. Only one thing did not surprise me – it was another dumbass Malay. I am sorry, I am not prejudiced but time and again, the actions of a stupid Malay will prove me right.
Here's how it all started. I received an e-mail from Malaysia Airlines yesterday advertising an air fare promotion that they were having. RM988 for a round-trip ticket from KL to Melbourne. Like wow! I got all excited, thought maybe I could go home for a holiday or maybe my Mom could come visit. So I got my Mom to call up MAS to see if the offer was valid if you were to fly the sectors the other way round (MELB-KL-MELB). She tried both MAS and her travel agent but they said there was no such offer, not even under the MITM fair that they were having right now. So I concluded that maybe it was an online promotion only.
So I called the MAS 24-hour call centre back in Malaysia about an hour ago hoping to find out more about this offer and clarify some of the details in the ad as shown below:Link to MAS Online Offers
I got the call centre after being put on hold or awhile, and they said that it was an internet promotion so I had to speak with the internet promotions department, whereby they duly patched me through. And I was put on hold again, naturally. So all I did was to ask some real simple questions – straightforward and to the point. This is what I asked the Malay lady who answered my call, and what she answered:
Is there currently an online offer for tickets to Melbourne at RM988 only? Yes, we are having a MITM fair now. If you're booking online you have to search for the tickets. If they have it then they have it, if they don't means they’re not available anymore.
The next bit was after clarifying that we were talking about the same online offer, not MITM.
Is the offer valid if you fly from Melbourne to KL, then back to Melbourne again? No, only for sectors flying from KL-MELB. (After putting me on hold)
That’s fine, she answered my question.
Is the departure date only on the 24 June 2005?No, it’s from 1 August – 18 August, and 27 August – blah blah (can’t remember the date. This was after putting me on hold for freaking ages! I would say almost 10 minutes.)
So the tickets are on sale from 17 June – 24 June 2005, right?No Miss, today is the last day. Until 12 midnight only. It ends in half an hour.
Then why in the world did you guys advertise on the website that it is on sale from 17 June to 24 June 05???That is just an advertisement. (And something about customers having to find out for themselves if they want to know anything else.)
What the hell is wrong with these people??? Just an advertisement?! Do they know that it is FRAUD to lie in an advertisement? It is misrepresentation of information and deceitful. So was that customer services officer trying to say that MAS’s intent is to deceive the general public and their customers by displaying advertisements on their websites (and also through e-mail) which give the wrong information? As you can see, most of the things that she has told me are completely and utterly different from what is written in the ad.
How can MAS hire these kinds of people to represent their company? It is such an embarrassment to them and degrading to their image. I must say I am a little surprised that there isn’t a much higher standard of service at a company as established and large as theirs, especially one that is operating in a service industry where competition is so intense. For that, I sure hope Singapore Airlines does a lot better than them, and somehow I think they do.
I regret not getting the name of the lady who served me. Cause I am so going to make a formal complaint tomorrow. So help me God, I will speak to the supervisor or manager of that department. I don’t care if I have to spend another 30 minutes on an international phone call back to KL. Fyi, the call earlier took over 20 minutes just to get a few simple questions answered. These people obviously don’t know their stuff. I mean like, all they’re doing is internet promotions. Is it so difficult to get all the details of your online offers together and read through them just in case a customer needs some information? Wouldn’t that be better than making each person who calls wait 10 minutes just to get one question answered? And to top it off, after stating that I (and their customers) would appreciate it if they got their stuff together and clarified the details of their offers, that bitch hung up on me without saying anything save for an insincere ‘I am sorry about the mix up’ or something like that. I can’t believe I said thank you to her! I so take that back.
I can now firmly conclude that Malaysia Airlines has the worst online booking system, supported by an even worse customer service team/call centre (especially their internet promotions division), have Incompetent staff with a capital 'I', and extremely poor response time. And most importantly, their advertisements are LIES! Even if what was printed on the ad is true, the customer service lady has definitely convinced me their nothing but lies, lies, lies, and more LIES!
Posted by at June 20, 2005 02:45 AM