Bad Customer Service Experience

<p>I was travelling home from JHB to CPT on SA333 12 September with my wife and child. When checking in, the guy at the counter was not very friendly to start with (no smile at all) and was already frustrating to deal with due to his soft voice which we could hardly hear. All forgivable so far though.</p> <p>The problem came after we had checked our 3 bags in (all 3 were WELL under the weight limit), then were told that our daughter's s****** would incur an excess baggage fee as we were limited to 3 items of baggage. Now I know this is part of the official terms and conditions, but after asking the chap at the counter if anything could be done he VERY reluctantly agreed to go and speak to a supervisor. My suspicion is that he never really went to speak to anybody - he just disappeared for almost 5 minutes then returned to say it could not be accommodated. The damn s****** is small, weighs less than 2 kgs and was barely worth the R250 excess fee. </p> <p>I left the counter very unhappy and frustrated with the unhelpful attitude and unfriendliness of the SAA experience so far. It's worth pointing out that when flying to JHB with Kulula there were no such issues, and the staff were much friendlier.</p> <p>We then headed to the boarding gate and passed an SAA excess baggage counter where I decided to try and ask again if anything could be done. The first person at the counter said they'd call their supervisor, who then came along with another unapologetic attitude and no inclination to help. </p> <p>What was also really frustrating was that we were told that if this weere sporting goods it would be no problem, but as it was just a kids s****** this would not be allowed. Really? A little 2-year old girl's 2kg s****** cannot be accommodated but golf clubs can?</p> <p>The happy end to the story is that we just walked on board with the s****** as hand luggage anyway with no issue. So suck on that unfriendly SAA staff. If you'd just allowed it our experience would just have been so much better. As it is I will attempt to avoid SAA flights wherever possible in future.</p>