Poor customer care by Fezeka Poswa

Good day

I would like to report an incident that happened at Cape Town International Airport.

I am writing about my traumatizing experience with Fezeka Poswa on 1 January 2021 at around 7 am - 7:40 am at the check-in counter.

Please read the incident below and understand where my frustration is and what I concluded after my experience.

Before I go into the story; this is what I concluded about Fezeka Poswa who attended to me at Cape Town International airport.

1. The check-in clerk who attended to me lacks good customer care. First, she stirred my emotions into an argument which we later discovered she was the uninformed one. Even if a customer is agitated, it is not advisable to fight back and create an unnecessary shouting match as she did with me.

2. When she finally discovered she was wrong all the way, an apology would have been in order to cool me down, after stirring my emotions. This she did not do but made sure she digs into her beliefs until the end of our experiences with her, while she continued to shower some more frustrations on me and the traveler.

3. My deduction on the day of my frustration was that the attendant who fought with me was not equipped with the necessary information about travelers. Her arguments were uninformed and even in her ignorance, she could not admit she was not correct after a clear explanation was done.

3. She lacked knowledge about how her employer works. The way she was so sure about the wrong things she told me shows she is a disengaged employee who does not stay up to date with Kukula's operations.

4. She is not well-groomed, very rude, and arrogant which I feel are not the right qualities if she is to work with the public. These qualities may be useful somewhere in some back office.

5. She lacks proper communication skills. Just her tone and failure to bring out important facts are disappointing.

1. Our first argument was on the flight schedule

I handed my phone to her to get the reference number for the ticket contained in the message from Kulula and to read the message that said our flight MN100 had been rescheduled to MN102 departing at 08:55.

Before she even finished reading the message, she shouted that flight MN100 had been canceled, and she gave me back my phone with a huff.

I finished off my explanation of the re-scheduling to MN102 when the phone was already in my hands and she was looking at me with a dismissive look.

There was a moment of silence, then she asked for the traveler's surname and name (which was enough proof that she had not gone through the message to get the reference number and even to see the content that it was re-scheduled).

After a minute or so she asked the age of the minor who was traveling.

2. Then another argument ensued.

She told me that the 12-year-old cannot travel on his own to Johannesburg, then I answered that he can travel because he traveled on the 15th to Cape Town. I even explained that I bought the ticket only after enquiring about all that. And I even explained that on the online ticket purchase process a 12-year-old is classified as an adult.

This got her impatient and infuriated. She said to me, "I am not talking about online processes here because I do not even know what happens online"

I explained again that the minor had traveled from JHB on his own.

She adamantly responded abruptly and said, "not on Kulula, maybe other airlines, Kulula does not have that facility for children of 12 years to travel alone".

And then I was agitated by her arrogance and we engaged in some heated argument, which she carried over with me unrelentingly.

I had to explain he traveled on Kulula on 15 December to Cape Town, I asked her to check that in her system.

She brusquely answered that she cannot check that for me and she is not going to check in the child.

While I was explaining my case, I then asked to speak to the manager, she then called another lady called Martina to confirm if it was so. It is to Martina that I managed to explain without argument, what had happened and Martina went on to check on Fezeka Poswa's computer if indeed the minor had traveled unaccompanied on the 15th of December. Martina then phoned somewhere where she got confirmation that the child can actually travel on his own to JHB.

At that point I thought the argument had ended but alas!

Then another argument started about my son's overnight bag. She said it needed to be checked in and I said no he can carry it into the flight it is a small overnight bag that fits in the bag compartment.

She insisted I check it in, I refused and told her that he traveled from JHB with the same bag in the cabin. She then answered me that she does not work in JHB she works in Cape Town.

As she was doing that she walked out of her count came to our where I was, and ordered that the bag be put on the belt and checked in. I asked her why it would be different now with this flight and yet it is the same Kulula.

At the shock of her response and actions I looked her in her eyes and asked "sis, you have been frustrating me ever since I started talking to you, what type of spirit (motivation) is working in you today?" She did not answer and I uttered that my day started bad, I really have to pray about this to which she retorted and said, "I will also pray" ...

As I continued to argue about the inconsistencies, she was already back at her sit preparing stickers to check in the overnight bag.

Finally, the bag was forcefully checked in without thorough explanations of why it would be different from another Kulula flight that the minor had used. The rest of her service to us was horrible as she was taking the child through security, without talking, without explanation, without apology for the confusion, she was walking ahead of us not minding whether we are following or not.

When we got to where I was not supposed to go through, I almost went through (obviously she had did not tell me it is the boundary), as I was shoving my body through that is when she turned and bawled out, "you cannot go beyond this area" ...

I had to draw my son back from that area, have little words with him and allow him to proceed with the person who had turned my day into mourning, a person that I did not even trust how far care she was going to give to my son out of my sight.

My question to Kulula is, do I really have to go through this just to take your flight to Johannesburg?