customer service

i am sitting in the world’s best airport (voted two years in a row, 2005 and 2006 for airports with 15 – 25 million passengers a year). i am trapped here on a friday night because the airline i choose for a semi-planned christmas get away was unable to process my credit card without me showing up and waiting in a 5 hour queue. don’t think i didn’t try, i used the website, i called customer service, still i am sitting and listening to the most annoying bell sound with each ticket that is called. i feel like pavlov’s dog, each bell makes my head hurt.

i have a chair in the corner, i have a table, i have read four lessons in my “learn malay” book, and i realized “berapa lama” is meet with nothing more than a blank stare and that language books need really useful phrases like, “your customer service bites my royal irish ass hard”. i am sitting here and imagining my father in this situation. the man took weeks to get ready to go to the department of motor vehicles to ensure he was ready for the stress and pressure of the wait. i think he would kill someone here.

malaysia airlines is the most visible malaysian company to the outside world. to run the national airline’s primary customer service location like a delhi bus station is an example of why malaysia still has a third world mentality. or maybe i have that backwards, maybe its because the people don’t expect more that companies can do this.

i was trying to place an ad in the major newspaper in the country last week. the ad was to support the hiring of staff into our company. i have questions from the media group in the us, ones that i needed answers on. the sales people in the paper simply ignored my questions, and never got back to me. this means they are losing a sale of tens of thousands of dollars, not ringgits, when i say dollars it’s the real thing, green backs baby, USD. the countries major newspaper can not take the time to tell a multinational company the best file format to send graphics to it, so the money never comes into the country.

i am sitting in front of 12 customer service counters. six of the counters are un-staffed and the other six appear to be homes to employees who are given valium before each shift. slow and steady movements are the course of action. the 80 or so other customers waiting around me seem to simply accept this as the way it is and always will be. this might be the worlds best airport, but this airline has some horrible customer service. the last time i bought a ticket and had to come to “collect” the paper ticket i asked when they would have e-tickets. i was by the service associate she hoped they would never have them, she was worried she might lose her job. at that moment, i really wished i did not need to make this 2 hour trip.

i have a new theory. malaysians who emigrate and then never come back actually want to, they simply can’t come to KLIA from london to pay for the tickets. no, that can’t be right; they can book on expedia and have the tickets the next day. i think what really happens is they do come back, they stand in a few lines and have the experience of malaysian customer service after spending time in the US and realize there is a better way outside and turn and head back to the dysfunctional, but semi-efficient western world.

the upside to this is that i have had plenty of time to sit, study bahasa malayu saya, read, write, talk to friends on the phone and talk to the people around me. i just met a nice student who will one day build bridges and her mother who has promised to give me the number of her friend that can help me avoid spending my friday nights in a deli ticket airline queue from hell.

i guess this shows the real way locals deal with the horrible service they get in the country. they lepak with friends, they discuss and share the networking steps to avoid the issues and they survive by avoiding. malaysia bolehlah.