Cebu Pacific Manila check in hassles, Senior citizen woes in the middle of the Check in floor
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Customer service: What Cebu Pacific customer service?
Update December 20, 2010 Cebu Pacific is now about to get some serious competition and they don't like it and even taking it to court to prevent any ripples to their empire of poor customer service. Read articles above to learn more. They need it as they are a badly run customer service airline. I have received no response to my email to them months ago even though their website grandly proclaims that you will be answered in 7 days. They could care less since they have no serious competition!
I hope that these other airlines can give us low prices, and give us international standards on luggage limits. Cebu Pacific makes it a grand rip off when you fly in on international carriers with higher limits for baggage (50 pounds) then being forced to pay extra on such a rip off airline who says take it or leave it (15 kilos or 33 pounds is what Cebu Pacific gives and then charges a great amount for overage and makes your carry on smaller too than international standards and doesn't permit roll ons!) Lets have some real competition and benefit the consumer not the rich family that runs Cebu Pacific. Who cares about dancing attendents, fix your customer service!
No matter where you work or what your job is, everything you do is about your customer.
Definition of a guest: A distinguished visitor to whom the hospitality of an institution, city, or government is extended. One who is a recipient of hospitality at the home or table of another.
Today I felt less than a guest, customer, and it ruined my whole travel experience at Manila airport Cebu Pacific check in, due to being treated like a number from a rule book!
I arrived early for check in at Cebu Pacific Manila and an agent was not happy about something and voicing her complaint to other workers in Filipino which I do not understand when she checked me in.. Maybe she wanted the Cebu Pacific Gestapo guards to hassle more paying customers as they tried to negotiate the already less than pleasant check in routines.
But when I went to go through the security guard to continue after checking in, he said I had to have a baggage tag for all on board baggage that no one else had. Wow.I went back and got it. Then he called a Cebu Pacific person who then wanted to check the size of my bag. There were some things extending in the front compartment which I said could be moved inside but he said I needed to talk to the manager.
We then went to the manager and she did not want to face me but rather just the Cebu Pacific person, with the Cebu Pacific manager keeping her back to me. Very rude in some cultures. Now the issue was not the roller bag but the weight. It was weighed and found to be 3 kilos over. I offered to pay the excess but no the agent stated as no roller bags were allowed on the plane and insisted it had to be checked even if later I found at least 8 other roller bags onboard the same size of mine!!
Poor Senior Citizen treatment. As a result, In the middle of the check in Cebu Pacific check in floor I had to get on the floor and take things out of my standard world size roller bag other airlines recognize as standard and many others the same size already allowed on board.. No table to repack, just sit on the floor, how undignified for a 65 year old senior I am, I then transferred some of the stuff to a back pack I had inside. And in the process misplaced my cell phone and caused me now to be almost late for the flight and the mental pressure it creates. I paid the 2,000 pesos excess (the weight now included the heavy bag to include rather than putting the overage in my other roller bag which my companion had but no the agent said the roller bags could not be taken onboard, but why when others took them onboard? Was this a scam or standard treatment for Senior Citizens at random? Was it because I am a foreigner? Such poor public relations and on the floor treatment for the guards amusement rather than someone to assist a senior citizen in a dignified manner on a proper repacking table while Cebu Pacific works on board to create such a positive spirit for their customers. And at the check in, no Cebu Pacific staff seemed to care just get the profit and no matter the dignity of the Senior citizen.
And then finding many others had gotten on the same plane with roller bags as big as mine including several late check in customers as they rolled their roller bags down the aisle in the plane to make a happy trip but it for me it was a nightmare at check in with my roller bag. Why exceptions for some and no flexibiltiy for others?????
Maybe you should just make all your customers suffer and be unhappy with their travel experience too and no one should be allowed the convenience of roller baggage on the plane to make the customers more back packers than like the rest of the world airlines which allows roller bags routinely not as exceptions! And have many ,more unhappy customers with terrible Cebu Pacific tales.
I have been a big supporter of Cebu Pacific in my blog http://mycebupacific.blogspot.com/ but will post these horrible attitudes of the Manila Cebu Pacific check in manager who turns her back on customers and does not want to be bothered to make it a win win situation for both where it would be easy to resolve in dignified manner as many others customers were allowed exceptions or good dignified treatment.. Rather she does not want to be bothered with paying customers but would rather continue her chats with her fellow workers. Maybe Cebu Pacific needs to find a new manager who knows how to keep the customer happy too rather than just follow a rule book like a robot! I felt like a garbage picker you see on the streets of Manila forced to repack on the floor with no more dignity or recourse. You might as well employee robots if this is the way this manager was trained. I know that is not the case as I have encountered other caring Cebu Pacific managers who treated as a regular Cebu Pacific customer knowing exceptions can be made and when to smile and when to extend further assistance rather than turning her back rudely and making me feel like I was garbage not worthy of respect who paid her salary!
I would like the following if Cebu Pacific is truly interested in the customer experience and not just pure profit,
1. Replace the Manila Cebu Pacific check in manager involved or send her to training as she looks fresh out of college and needs some understanding of the customer and not just the rule book and how to make it a win win situation for both and allow exceptions as obviously others were going on board with carry on world standard size roller bags just like mine (were they also weighed too? I am sure not).
2. Make the security guard a team member too in getting good feeling about Cebu Pacific rather than like a nazi Gestapo guards at a german prison! Customers want to feel good about our travel as well and it should be reflected in how the Security guards deal with paying customers, rather than money machines, as there were so many security guards inside the check in area, making it like a prison! And then leering at my misery and shame with no smile. If they say they want a on board baggage tag, then don't make it bigger requirements by getting an agent to do more to hassle to show their great Security guard power.
3. Ban all roller bags or allow all world standard carry on size bags. If your worried about weight then weigh all of checked bags, not just some random Senior citizen foreigners. Now that Cebu Pacific is the dominant carrier in the Philippines, it needs to also keep the customer experience in mind too.
4. Make this customer feel good again about continuing his travels with Cebu Pacific by waiving excess baggage fees paid on this flight to compensate for this horrible check in experience today at the hands of the Cebu Pacific manager and Gestapo guards. World class airlines have flexibility in making a customer feel good about his experiences and often make payments to dissatisfied customers to balance bad travel experiences. Or is a few pesos profit more important than proper standard treatment for all like all those allowed on board with the same size roller bags?
5. It should be noted that the Cebu Pacific Iloilo flight check in staff were sitting idly gossiping with other agents and did not offer to help this late check in as the Cebu bound agents were busy. (one did after I insisted on help) since no Cebu check in agents were available to assist.
6. Why not have one Cebu Pacific agent assist getting this excess baggage problem to quick completion & check in to make the customer feel important too rather than the feeling I got was that no one cared? Remember guests get hospitality in the definition and I felt a victim rather than the hospitality. You made more than my plane ticket on this few kilos over carry on! More service should result as well to get all passengers on board in a timely manner. I made it with 5 minutes to spare! And provide proper repacking tables not the middle of the floor for security guards to leer and patrol a senior citizen already with great loss of dignity by squatting on the floor!
7. Hopefully this email will help to make a customer also feel good about his travel. I certainly did not on this trip and lost my respect and dignity in such a raw treatment of uncaring guards and manager
It should be noted this was the same roller bag I took on board from Cebu to Manila with no problems two weeks earlier and have traveled the world with as carry on baggage!
Blogger
http://mycebupacific.blogspot.com/
Update December 20, 2010 Cebu Pacific is now about to get some serious competition and they don't like it and even taking it to court to prevent any ripples to their empire of poor customer service. Read articles above to learn more. They need it as they are a badly run customer service airline. I have received no response to my email to them months ago even though their website grandly proclaims that you will be answered in 7 days. They could care less since they have no serious competition!
I hope that these other airlines can give us low prices, and give us international standards on luggage limits. Cebu Pacific makes it a grand rip off when you fly in on international carriers with higher limits for baggage (50 pounds) then being forced to pay extra on such a rip off airline who says take it or leave it (15 kilos or 33 pounds is what Cebu Pacific gives and then charges a great amount for overage and makes your carry on smaller too than international standards and doesn't permit roll ons!) Lets have some real competition and benefit the consumer not the rich family that runs Cebu Pacific. Who cares about dancing attendents, fix your customer service!
No matter where you work or what your job is, everything you do is about your customer.
Definition of a guest: A distinguished visitor to whom the hospitality of an institution, city, or government is extended. One who is a recipient of hospitality at the home or table of another.
Today I felt less than a guest, customer, and it ruined my whole travel experience at Manila airport Cebu Pacific check in, due to being treated like a number from a rule book!
I arrived early for check in at Cebu Pacific Manila and an agent was not happy about something and voicing her complaint to other workers in Filipino which I do not understand when she checked me in.. Maybe she wanted the Cebu Pacific Gestapo guards to hassle more paying customers as they tried to negotiate the already less than pleasant check in routines.
But when I went to go through the security guard to continue after checking in, he said I had to have a baggage tag for all on board baggage that no one else had. Wow.I went back and got it. Then he called a Cebu Pacific person who then wanted to check the size of my bag. There were some things extending in the front compartment which I said could be moved inside but he said I needed to talk to the manager.
We then went to the manager and she did not want to face me but rather just the Cebu Pacific person, with the Cebu Pacific manager keeping her back to me. Very rude in some cultures. Now the issue was not the roller bag but the weight. It was weighed and found to be 3 kilos over. I offered to pay the excess but no the agent stated as no roller bags were allowed on the plane and insisted it had to be checked even if later I found at least 8 other roller bags onboard the same size of mine!!
Poor Senior Citizen treatment. As a result, In the middle of the check in Cebu Pacific check in floor I had to get on the floor and take things out of my standard world size roller bag other airlines recognize as standard and many others the same size already allowed on board.. No table to repack, just sit on the floor, how undignified for a 65 year old senior I am, I then transferred some of the stuff to a back pack I had inside. And in the process misplaced my cell phone and caused me now to be almost late for the flight and the mental pressure it creates. I paid the 2,000 pesos excess (the weight now included the heavy bag to include rather than putting the overage in my other roller bag which my companion had but no the agent said the roller bags could not be taken onboard, but why when others took them onboard? Was this a scam or standard treatment for Senior Citizens at random? Was it because I am a foreigner? Such poor public relations and on the floor treatment for the guards amusement rather than someone to assist a senior citizen in a dignified manner on a proper repacking table while Cebu Pacific works on board to create such a positive spirit for their customers. And at the check in, no Cebu Pacific staff seemed to care just get the profit and no matter the dignity of the Senior citizen.
And then finding many others had gotten on the same plane with roller bags as big as mine including several late check in customers as they rolled their roller bags down the aisle in the plane to make a happy trip but it for me it was a nightmare at check in with my roller bag. Why exceptions for some and no flexibiltiy for others?????
Maybe you should just make all your customers suffer and be unhappy with their travel experience too and no one should be allowed the convenience of roller baggage on the plane to make the customers more back packers than like the rest of the world airlines which allows roller bags routinely not as exceptions! And have many ,more unhappy customers with terrible Cebu Pacific tales.
I have been a big supporter of Cebu Pacific in my blog http://mycebupacific.blogspot.com/ but will post these horrible attitudes of the Manila Cebu Pacific check in manager who turns her back on customers and does not want to be bothered to make it a win win situation for both where it would be easy to resolve in dignified manner as many others customers were allowed exceptions or good dignified treatment.. Rather she does not want to be bothered with paying customers but would rather continue her chats with her fellow workers. Maybe Cebu Pacific needs to find a new manager who knows how to keep the customer happy too rather than just follow a rule book like a robot! I felt like a garbage picker you see on the streets of Manila forced to repack on the floor with no more dignity or recourse. You might as well employee robots if this is the way this manager was trained. I know that is not the case as I have encountered other caring Cebu Pacific managers who treated as a regular Cebu Pacific customer knowing exceptions can be made and when to smile and when to extend further assistance rather than turning her back rudely and making me feel like I was garbage not worthy of respect who paid her salary!
I would like the following if Cebu Pacific is truly interested in the customer experience and not just pure profit,
1. Replace the Manila Cebu Pacific check in manager involved or send her to training as she looks fresh out of college and needs some understanding of the customer and not just the rule book and how to make it a win win situation for both and allow exceptions as obviously others were going on board with carry on world standard size roller bags just like mine (were they also weighed too? I am sure not).
2. Make the security guard a team member too in getting good feeling about Cebu Pacific rather than like a nazi Gestapo guards at a german prison! Customers want to feel good about our travel as well and it should be reflected in how the Security guards deal with paying customers, rather than money machines, as there were so many security guards inside the check in area, making it like a prison! And then leering at my misery and shame with no smile. If they say they want a on board baggage tag, then don't make it bigger requirements by getting an agent to do more to hassle to show their great Security guard power.
3. Ban all roller bags or allow all world standard carry on size bags. If your worried about weight then weigh all of checked bags, not just some random Senior citizen foreigners. Now that Cebu Pacific is the dominant carrier in the Philippines, it needs to also keep the customer experience in mind too.
4. Make this customer feel good again about continuing his travels with Cebu Pacific by waiving excess baggage fees paid on this flight to compensate for this horrible check in experience today at the hands of the Cebu Pacific manager and Gestapo guards. World class airlines have flexibility in making a customer feel good about his experiences and often make payments to dissatisfied customers to balance bad travel experiences. Or is a few pesos profit more important than proper standard treatment for all like all those allowed on board with the same size roller bags?
5. It should be noted that the Cebu Pacific Iloilo flight check in staff were sitting idly gossiping with other agents and did not offer to help this late check in as the Cebu bound agents were busy. (one did after I insisted on help) since no Cebu check in agents were available to assist.
6. Why not have one Cebu Pacific agent assist getting this excess baggage problem to quick completion & check in to make the customer feel important too rather than the feeling I got was that no one cared? Remember guests get hospitality in the definition and I felt a victim rather than the hospitality. You made more than my plane ticket on this few kilos over carry on! More service should result as well to get all passengers on board in a timely manner. I made it with 5 minutes to spare! And provide proper repacking tables not the middle of the floor for security guards to leer and patrol a senior citizen already with great loss of dignity by squatting on the floor!
7. Hopefully this email will help to make a customer also feel good about his travel. I certainly did not on this trip and lost my respect and dignity in such a raw treatment of uncaring guards and manager
It should be noted this was the same roller bag I took on board from Cebu to Manila with no problems two weeks earlier and have traveled the world with as carry on baggage!
Blogger
http://mycebupacific.blogspot.com/
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