I’m standing in a queue at gate C12 OR Tambo airport waiting to board a 1Time flight (IT 221) to Durban. The boarding is already delayed by 5 minutes when a 1Time staff person walks the line announcing that the boarding procedures will be delayed by 10-15 minutes. In my experience this is completely par for the course. I have even had a 1Time first flight of the day delayed…I mean how do they manage to do that!
Anyway, back to this current delay. The guy in front of me says to the staff person, “This always seems to be the case with 1Time” with a smile on his face and in a totally non-threatening, banter kind-of manner. He clearly is a better man than me! Then, to everyone’s shock the 1Time staff person (a young girl I would guess in her mid-20’s) rounds on him and replies sharply, “well then you should just use another airline” with no trace of humour nor any room to interpret her comment in any other way than extreme rudeness. There was this stunned silence and no-one moved or responded. The hapless victim just had this bemused look on his face. I decide to test my interpretation and give the staffer a chance to redeem herself. So when she comes back past where we are standing I say to her in as neutral a tone as I can muster, “that wasn’t very good customer service just now” to which she merely grunts and carriers on her walk-by without so much as an apology, an explanation or anything close to rethinking what she had just done. Unbelievable!
Her attitude and action then sully any decent customer service received further down the line. This is the problem with poor customer service! Not even a ‘bad day at the office’ could excuse what I have just witnessed and I guess if one is having a bad day – it shouldn’t be taken out on your customers!
10-15 minute delay…great, just enough time for me to get this out to the world at large and think of what I will say to her when we do eventually board!
You know what they say about 1Time – they’re called that for a reason, because with delays and service like that, you’ll only fly with them “one time”.
Thanks Keith! Poor service needs to be ‘put out there’ If I may add my bit, which I am pleased to say was a good experience. Also flew to Durbs with my two boys 3 and 8 last week but with Kulula. Standing at the back of a very long que I was approached by a Kulula staff member who recognised the challenge that comes with travelling with two young ones, he promptly redirected us to the front of a BA que and through the gates! So Kulula get’s a thumbs up from us and we will certainly travel with them more than ‘one time’.
As a follow-up to this blog (which was also sent to 1Time) I had a call from their HR Director (I think) who heard my account and promised action. I was impressed with his candor, non-defensiveness and apparent willingness to do something about the situation. He did inform me that identifying the staff person concerned wouldn’t be a problem and that action would be taken. What that action was, I have no idea.