SriLankan luggage problems

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  • afoxe
    Participant

    Male, 15th April 2017

    Hi All

    My name is Giuseppe D’Amato. I have been residing in Maldives for well over 30 years and because of this I travel frequently between Maldives, Europe and East Asia but regardless of my frequent travels I never found myself in a situation similar to the one I am going to describe below.

    Last 4th of January 2017 I arrived in Colombo from Europe. I stayed overnight and the 5th I flew to Male with Srilankan. Upon arriving in Male airport I noticed that my Rimowa aluminum suitcase had a complete wheel seat torn, so much that you could see inside the suitcase. I stopped at the luggage services desk and they immediately contacted a Srilankan airline staff. A lady arrived, wearing a Srilankan uniform. She told me that Srilankan could either give me USD 90 reimbursement (consider the suitcase costs in excess of 900 Euro) or that they could send the suitcase to Colombo, have it repaired and send it back to Male. I agreed on this second option, got the papers (the computer of the office was out of order so they sent them to me by email a few hours later), went home to empty the suitcase and brought it back to the airport the next day. After one month I called to find out if there were any news. I was told that the luggage was still in Colombo and that they would call me once it arrived. After a further month I called again and was given the same reply.

    Middle of March I had to go back to Europe so I called to find out if I could have the suitcase back. Nobody had any idea of this issue, nobody knew of the suitcase or where it would be. Seen all this I started to get really worried and I personally went to Srilankan office. They sent me from the first floor to the third to the second but nobody seemed to know anything about this issue. I had all the paper work with me with the file reference number and all the details of the case but all these did not help. Eventually a lady gave me 2 telephone numbers, asking me to call the next day and call I did… only to find out that the suitcase had never left the luggage services office at the airport!

    Having understood that Srilankan would never face their obligations, I went to the airport, took the suitcase back exactly in the same conditions I had left it and I brought it with me to Europe to have it repaired.

    What really bothered me is that during all the conversations with the Srilankan staff I was constantly treated like an idiot that was disturbing the great managers while they were busy saving the aviation world from an imminent disaster.

    I really do not know how they can possibly run an airline while using such attitudes towards their clients. I travel a lot but I certainly will avoid in the future to travel with Srilankan even if only on the MLE-CMB-MLE sectors. At the same time I do want to be reimbursed for the damage they did to my suitcase and to this scope I have contacted the Department of Civil Aviation of Maldives with the help of my lawyers.

    Obviously not only Srilankan never replied to my multiple messages, emails and calls but every time I managed to speak with one of their staff I have been treated like a nuisance and a total idiot.

    Thank you for your attention. I will keep this forum posted should there be further development.
    Best Regards to all


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Giuseppe, problem is one or two pax won’t make a difference to them and they will carry on as usual.

    It’s frustrating but taking lawyers will be futile and you must ask yourself if the hassle and aggravation is worth it? My advice, put it down to experience and shrug it off as one of those nuisances we face in our daily travels.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    travel insurance?? – damaged possessions – at least you have the reports to show the insurance company….

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