Poor customer care

I wrote the below email to SA Express customer service Wednesday about the conduct of their staff at the Bloemfontein Airport , i got a system generated response that someone will get in touch with me shortly! today is Friday and still nothings, this goes to show how little regard do they have for their customers. Please note this does not in any means relate to the flight attendants! Good day

It is with great disgust that I have to write this email regarding the conduct of the SA Express staff at the Bloemfontein Airport. On Friday the 11th of May 2018, I was flying back from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg when I got the worst treatment ever.

Our initial flight for 15:25 (SA 1012) was overbooked and a small flight brought, therefore I was among the passengers who had to be left behind. Your staff member, Mr Thato Moloi was just plain rude, instead of telling us that the plane we were supposed to be boarding is full and that we need to move back inside, he just kept on saying we should move away from the plane without any explanation. My colleague kept on asking why should we move because we are supposed to be boarding. Mr Moloi became impatient and he practically walked away from us, mind you my bag was already on the plane that was leaving me behind. Mr Moloi could not even explain to me what would happen to my bag once it reaches JHB because I would not be there to pick it up.

We then moved back inside to the check-in for new arrangements. Mr Webster Vries was called to assist, he took the experience of being rude and dismissive to new levels, he was quite impatient with us. He couldn’t explain why we were left behind, instead he treated us like children and tried to dismiss us with free tickets for meals and flights, after the whole experience we were not interested in them and would not want to fly SAA express anywhere. We wanted to fly home as we had important appointments.

From then he took our identity documents and without any consultation/explanation, he put us on the 18:30 flight, mind you we arrived at the airport at 14:30 and this flight would be 4 hours after our arrival at the airport and 3 hours after our initial booked flight. For someone who booked their tickets weeks in advance, your service is pathetic and your staff is plain rude, unprofessional and show total disregard of customers and people that actually help to keep the airport open. Mr Webster did not even make any means to put us on the earlier flights like we requested. He was quiet short tempered with us like we are the ones who caused the delay and commotion in the first place. To actually offer us free tickets and a R90 meal voucher was an insult and pathetic.

Once the 18H30 flight matter was settled unsatisfactorily, I asked for a blanket as I have problems in my abdomen area when it gets cold and chilly, Mr Webster again rudely told me this is Bloemfontein, it’s not a fancy airport and there are no blankets for passengers and if I want I can go to the business lounge and maybe I will find a blanket there. After 17H00 I started getting sick because of the cold and my colleague went back to Mr Webster to notify him and again ask for a blanket, again Mr Webster rudely told him they don’t have blankets in Bloemfontein. My condition got worse and I asked one Security Guard to call Emergency staff, they came with the wheelchair and took me to the First Aid room. The Emergency staff were shocked that Mr Webster and Mr Moloi were not aware that they were blankets in their room and they can treat a woman so badly and dismiss her sickness. I got helped in the First Aid room and my condition slightly improved until we flew. Again the flight was late.

Your airport operates in one of the areas that can get really cold and the fact that you do not anticipate accommodating your biggest commodity (customers), really shows that your airport is ill equipped to handle uncer*****ies. Which makes me wonder if we are really safe at the airport should any other emergencies occur.

From the above occurrences, we were appalled and disgusted by the SA Express staff members and more than anything we were shocked that Mr Webster was a Supervisor in charge on the day. He is not qualified to be a Supervisor and his management of the situation was just pathetic and shocking.

We hope disciplinary action will be taken against the two staff members, especially Mr Webster who is supposed to be a Supervisor and act better. I will be awaiting for feedback with regard to the interventions undertaken by your management.