Is a Customer Always Right?

I took a ride from my brother to work yesterday. On the way, I heard him making several phone calls to resolve a problem with a difficult customer. A family of seven were on their way for a holiday but ended up having a big fight with the airline at the airport and were offloaded by the airline.

Apparently they had already checked in for their flight only to discover that their return tickets cum ticket jackets were missing. First they blamed the check-in counter for misplacing them then they tried to accuse my brother’s company of not issuing them with the return tickets. The airline verified that if they did not have the return tickets, they would not have been allowed to check in in the first place because the country they were embarking required all visitors to have return tickets otherwise they will be refused entry. Obviously someone in the group misplaced the return tickets after they had checked in, then tried to point their finger at someone else.

My brother found it most ridiculous that this family wanted to go on a holiday but chose to create a big commotion at the airport, refusing to board the plane unless the airline re-issued them with the return tickets on the spot. Well, the airline said that was possible provided they pay an extra $30 per ticket as administrative fee. Guess what? They refused. They insisted that their tickets be re-issued without any extra fees. Seven tickets at $30 each is only $210 in total. You know what they were forgoing? Not just their flights during this peak holiday season but also bookings for a five-star hotel which had cost them $4000! Mad right? Definitely insane.

Any sensible traveller would have just compromised and paid for the meagre administrative fee, go for a nice holiday then come back and dispute it with the airline, right? But no, they chose to create a stir in public, shouted and abused the staff of the airline, caused the flight to be delayed until the airline had no choice but to offload them and their luggage from the plane.

Customers today think they have their rights. When they don’t get what they want, they demand a refund, or be compensated. They will not hesitate to threaten reporting to the police or take legal actions if their demands are not met. This is the kind of customers my brother has to deal with day in, day out in the travel trade. Poor guy!

Is a customer always right? Some people seem to think so.

Oh…by the way, the airline did a check on that family and records showed that they have been blacklisted on some airlines for other incidents. If you plan to travel often, don’t get blacklisted, the airlines will know.