[TominScotland]

Am I being very naive here or do they know I am coming? This is my fourth visit to the First Lounge in T5 since this thread started and I really cannot see what the problem is! Its mid afternoon on a Sunday, the Lounge is quite busy and yet the food display looks excellent to me – four hot dishes, a variety of salads, cheeses and cold meats (where the breakfast cereals are in the morning), four different fresh cakes, scones and two large platters of finger sandwiches, regularly plenished and looking good!! OK, the jars of biscuits are here and I cannot see a copy of Hello (somebody did complain earlier about the lack of their usual magazines) but BT is available so what is all the fuss about?

Maybe the moans here have led to change, maybe there were a few teething problems which were put down by posters here to Walshian deviousness and penny-pinching. I have noticed that some of our more strident posters on this theme refuse to acknowledge positive comments so I suspect the blind vitriol will continue. But, hey, its a lovely day. I’ve just enjoyed a tasty late lunch/ cum tea and life is good………

[PatJordan]

Following my emails to BA (as mentioned in earlier posts) I received a very pleasant telephone call from their customer care department this morning.

We had a long chat about my experiences including the First Lounge in T5. It seems that BA are indeed listening to customer feedback.

Interestingly, this call came as a result of my email to customer services.

I sent emails to the addresses suggested my first_class_please. None of these has been even acknowledged by their recipients. Such bad manners is disappointing from senior personnel in a customer focussed company.

[first_class_please]

Good you got a response.

I would guess it was the email to Frank van der Post that was probably sent to someone to action.

Was any reference made in the call to your email to XXXX ?

[PatJordan]

I sent my original email via a link from a previous complaint I had made. It went to the same staff member with whom I had dealt before, and thus he responded to me.

Sadly those emails sent to more senior figures in BA remain ignored…

If a response ever arrives, I ‘ll let you know.

[openfly]

With regard to complaining to senior BA Managers, I wrote to Keith Williams on the degradation of the First lounge facilities shortly after the implementation in early May. Totally ignored. Is it rudeness? I rather think so.

[VintageKrug]

Really, I think you have to have some understanding of the volume of messages these individuals will receive.

BA carries 30-40million passengers per annum.

The cost of acknowledging all of these instantly would be astronomical. I usually get a phone call these days, if I raise a serious issue, but before I was a regular I would usually get a written response in 3-4 weeks.

BA is very much listening to the concerns, as I outlined in my post, and it will take time to change processes and restore the lounges to the expected standard.

With some of the unrealistic, self-centred rants on here it’s as if some of the posters here had scant understanding of real-world economics and weren’t actually businesspeople at all…

Personally I haven’t bothered to write in as I don’t see what my two pennies worth will add, apart from causing needless diversion from addressing the matter in hand.

But I have been in touch with a member of T5’s BA team privately on another recent trundle through the terminal; they are very much aware of the issue and are working with BS to sort it out.

[JohnHarper]

My own views aside, it does make you wonder how they got is so wrong in the first place.

Will any heads roll I wonder? Perhaps Walsh will forego his bonus? Then again, perhaps not, he’s had the gaul to take it when bigger disasters have occurred so this little hiccup will allow him to sleep easy counting pennies saved even by a few weeks of providing single flavour crisps.

[esselle]

I really do not believe the twaddle some people write on this forum.

Having been the CEO of a worldwide B2C business which relied on loyalty in a highly competitive industry, I would have watched it go broke if I had adhered to the “don’t you people realise how expensive it is” philosophy being used as an excuse here.

This is not an organisation that is listening to its customers. It is one which is in denial, and which continues to believe its own b*lls**t.

[MartynSinclair]

If customers take the time to write in with observations, comments, critique, it is rude for communications not to be acknowledged. Yes we all receive phone calls from large organizations, but this is probably to ensure there is no written record of a response of the incident.

I accept large companies receive large volumes of mail, this is not an excuse for rudeness. If the person the letter is addressed to cant reply, then somebody else ought to.

I have just had a very similar experience with T Mobile. The recovery in terms of T Mobile finding a solution, involved 3 contracts being halved and 2 iPhones 5’s being given gratis.

This was obviously a serious issue, but my initial letter remains unanswered. This is just plain rude!!

[VintageKrug]

It’s great to see BA responding personally to important customers and genuine business travellers like PatJordan, and also good to hear that his response, like my own, suggests it won’t be too long until these issues are addressed.

[esselle]

VK

This will be my last post on this website.

I was at Slough Grammar during the 60’s. I have just realised you were too; I know you! You were the red haired guy with the challenging complexion…………and the founder, and enthusiastic member of the Onan Society.

Where did you end up?

[openfly]

VK Good CEOs take an interest in their customers and reply as part of their professional attitudes. In the last year, I had an immediate personal phone call from Phil Bentley at British Gas. I then had an immediate reply from Justin Kings office at Sainsburys. Another immediate reply came from Andy Street at John Lewis. These gentlemen display interest in their customers. Sadly, as you suggest, the people at the top of BA are too busy to talk to the people who pay their salary. To ignore his premium passengers and not bother to acknowledge or reply, Keith Williams does this at his peril.

[MartynSinclair]

I would imagine that anyone holding BAEC Silver or Gold Cards would come under the term “Important Customers”.

BTW – I presume it is now OK to address posters personally…….???

[VintageKrug]

I think it’s good if BA spends time acknowledging its most important customers. It plainly does do this, as PatJordan’s experience illustrates.

If you’re the sort of person who believes they are so important that wasting the time of a CEO will inflate your ego, or make you buy more, erm, Gas, soft furnishings or Taste the Difference profiteroles, then good for you.

I would imagine the “personal” response you received cost many hundreds of pounds.

[BigDog.]

@ esselle – 29/05/2013 18:35 GMT
+1
Such succinct sagacious insight.

[Author]

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