Since the advent of social media, airlines have had to put together teams to respond to customers online. Naturally one expects the usual kind of bland service messages to pass back and forth. In a recent customer reply, Angela at British Airways decided to tell it like it is.
Having worked in customer service in the past, I know the pressures these people face. Having to keep that happy perky front going when you’re being treated poorly takes some talent.
Customer Sharon Tweets
Sharon has a new Irish Passport, probably because she’s worried about Brexit. Turns out the gate agent noticed it was unsigned on a back page where it is supposed to be and stopped her from boarding.
What struck me immediately is that she had to spend five minutes practicing her signature. I hardly ever have to sign my name but I still know my own signature.
Next up, she appears to be blaming British Airways for the fact she scribbled a random signature in her own Passport. The next tweet gives the final piece of the puzzle.
What can I say? It sounds like Sharon is embarrassed for holding up the queue. I would feel the same way, given the same situation, especially if it was something I had neglected to do.
Angela At British Airways Keeps It Real
In a now deleted tweet, Angela at British Airways decided to be real in her response. Rather than placate Sharon with a message such as “Sorry to hear you bad a bad experience, we will try to do better next time!”, the response was as below.
Yes Angela, yes, yes and yes! People should take responsibility for their own actions and not whine unnecessarily about people doing their jobs in customer service.
Who Is Right Here?
Judging by some of the replies under the tweet, it looks like most people are a) astonished a grown woman would need five minutes to practice their signature and b) agree with British Airways.
I do wonder if Sharon is being truthful though, as it just seems outlandish that someone would need that long to practice a signature and then apparently scribble any old thing into a Passport.
Customer Sharon’s Final Word
Naturally after Angela at British Airways sent that reply, Sharon appears to be very unimpressed all round. So unimpressed that she’s decided to fly KLM on her next trip.
Sounds like good riddance to me! Hopefully she will find solace in voting with her feet, but I can almost smell the fact that she will fly British Airways again. I’d probably even bet on it!
Overall Thoughts
For some reason, I still think customer Sharon’s tweets are designed to get her some attention. It just doesn’t seem realistic for a person to spend five minutes practicing a signature and holding up a queue of people, only to then screw it up in a Passport.
Either way, I think Angela at British Airways is spot on with her reply. Not one thing there is the fault of British Airways, so the fact Sharon is taking out her embarrassment on the airline is a bit rich. Considering the tweet from BA is now deleted, I hope that was the end of the matter and nothing untoward happened to Angela.
What do you think of all of this? Is Angela at British Airways in the right or wrong here? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Rafael Luiz Canossa via Wikimedia Commons.
Same happened to me yesterday with Aer Lingus, LGW-DUB. New passport, I hadn’t noticed I was supposed to sign it. Check-in lady just said, “you must sign it”. So I did. End of.
Fairly straight forward, isn’t it? I would have expected the same. I certainly wouldn’t be moaning to the airline about it. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Sharon is an idiot. All these twitter divas are unloved at home and lonely so they are not for attention online.
It still surprises me that she was serious this was a British Airways issue. Makes my head spin, it really does. Thanks for the comment!
Isn’t this just the SADDEST story ever? A complete lunatic has public access for her thoughts, so she proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is indeed an idiot. Of course it’s the airline’s fault for not knowing how to sign your own name. Three cheers for Angela! Give her a huge bonus for calling out such an awful customer. If the rest of us stood up to these entitled twits, perhaps they’d go find themselves a life.
I guess the fact there was such a huge response supporting Angela shows that there is not enough of this in the world. It was very politely done, but also pointedly correct. Thanks for the comment!
Truthful reply by Angela but sometimes it is better to ignore an excessively obtuse comment as this doesn’t help BA (no one is going to book with BA just because of the reply)
You do make a good point, though the person was blaming BA, so I would think it smarter to defend your business rather than letting it stick. Sometimes no response is telling in itself. Thanks for the comment!
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