Sunday 2nd September, 2007
Manager, Customer Relations
VIRGIN BLUE
PO Box 1034
Spring Hill QLD 4004
Australia
RE: ‘GUEST’ (sic) RELATIONS & ‘BAGGAGE BLUES’ (sic)
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to complain about the thoroughly miserable experience my partner Francis and I endured flying Virgin Blue to Melbourne on Sunday 26th August and returning to Brisbane on Thursday 30th August.
The misery began some weeks before the flight when my partner, who has cerebral palsy, had to endure again a protracted interrogation from the staff at the ‘Guest Contact Centre’ when she made a reservation to accompany me to Melbourne. The asked her again a broad range of probing questions on the nature of her disability and the assistance she may require getting to and from her seat. This flippant, cocky man smugly asked for several assurances that she isn't travelling alone as “Virgin Blue require you to travel with a carer”. There was also again a lengthy discussion on the technical details of her power wheelchair – what type of battery it has, how heavy it is, its height, length and width, etc. These are questions asked by your competitor Qantas once. They then enter these details on their computers and all staff are then automatically aware of her requirements. They provide a commissionaire (or even two) to assist her getting into and out of her seat, allow her to travel alone, and do not need to repeatedly ask if she can walk.
Your reservation staff have been given the details they ask several times. This information should be recorded in your computer and pop-up each time she makes a booking or arrives at a departure gate. It is a tiresome chore to have to tell all the arrogant, conceited Virgin Blue staff that, “No my partner can't walk...” and “Yes, I will assist her into her seat...”
We certainly didn't feel like guests!
And then, Virgin Blue staff left her wheelchair in Brisbane.
We were encouraged by the Virgin Blue staff to use my partner's manual wheelchair to get to the departure gate and to the door of the aircraft. Natasha and the crew of DJ 308 assured us that the wheelchair would be bought straight up on arrival in Melbourne for our immediate use. When it failed to materialise at the door when we disembarked, we thought it had been taken with the rest of the luggage to the carousels and oversize luggage pick-up area and so we attempted to collect it there only to be told that it had been left in Brisbane.
‘Baggage Blues’ does not quite cover the seriousness of someone's wheelchair being left behind, and this seems to be a concept completely alien to Virgin Blue staff, including the lost luggage manager Trent who made no attempt to apologise or acknowledge the gravity of the situation. Indeed, his quip that “This happens all the time” indicates a corporate culture that is completely disconnected from the needs of customers who aren't cut from the same cloth as themselves.
So, in essence, my complaint revolves around these clear deficiencies in Virgin Blue's treatment of it's ‘guests’:
- Its inability to record my partner's information in a way that communicates her needs to all staff efficiently and respectfully is demeaning and discriminatory;
- Its insistence (for whatever reason) that she not travel alone is discriminatory;
- Its flight crew's negligence in failing to load my partners wheelchair is a gross dereliction of duty and indicative of a corporate lack of consideration for people with disabilities; and
- Its luggage handling staff's callous refusal to take our concerns seriously indicate a corporate culture that is narcissistic and brainwashed by its own advertising propaganda.
Be assured, we will “get what we want” by never again flying on your substandard airline where, despite your discourse, we have never felt like ‘guests’.
Yours in bitter disappointment,
(v_quixotic)
