German Customer Service

[happytraveller]

Bit of background first. I had a flight cancelled by LH due to the volcano, and later sent them a claim for the cost of alternative flights and transport. I had several replies from Lufthansa. First they said that they would NOT repay my costs, as the volcano was a natural disaster, but when I sent them a copy of the EU press release on passenger rights during the volcanic ash disruption, they then agreed to repay the money. Just to be difficult, they refused to repay the money to the same credit card that was used for the booking, so I sent them my bank account details (including sort code) and also the IBAN and SWIFT code numbers and bank address. Therefore they had everything needed to pay the money back. See what you think of the reply that was sent to me in error, obviously an internal email that got sent to me by mistake, but it shows what they think of passengers ( and I have travelled a lot with LH recently). They know full well that they HAVE to refund the money, yet they are doing everything that they can to delay or not pay the money.

Depending on their reply and what they do about this, then I may stop all travel with LH/Swiss or Austrian airlines, which are in the LH group.

Smooth landings
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Lizette,



This guy is really annoying me…. Is it legal for me to put the Bank’s address as the customer’s address…….. I do not understand this guy. I wish that we never agreed to paying him.





Yours Sincerely,

[ZK-MAT]

I would forward that email on to the persons involved and CC as many of the top people you find email addresses for, and ask them if this type of email is standard practice. Maybe CC a newpaper too? lol

[Bazza]

QUOTE (ZK-MAT @ May 31 2010, 09:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would forward that email on to the persons involved and CC as many of the top people you find email addresses for, and ask them if this type of email is standard practice. Maybe CC a newpaper too? lol

Me too, however age and experience suggests that the clever way to do this would be to wait until the refund has been made....

[Christian]

That's pretty bad.

Being German myself I suspect that LH have their own standard practice they have to follow to refund your money. Of course, what works in Europe probably doesn't in New Zealand. That's probably causing the trouble. Silly enough they should just be able to reverse the cc transaction, that's very easy to do (I've done this myself a few times). Germans can be tricky to deal with - the key is persistence. They are grumpy by nature and will complain no matter what, but if a rule says something, they'll have to follow it through to the end.

Frustrating, on the other hand can also be a benefit. They are very well organised when you fly with them. Had a delay and when I left the plane I was already booked on a new plane and given boarding cards. Not the same experience I had with American Airlines which was an utter nightmare.

Christian

[happytraveller]

LH are still being difficult and if they are not careful then I will take my trade elsewhere. I fly a lot and have chosen LH in the past but if they keep being difficult then I will just choose another airline, and avoid LH/Swiss/Austrian. There is no reason why they could not refund the money earlier, and they still have not done so. They are quick enough to take the money and very slow to repay the money. Not very German efficient. I am going to dig my heels in on this one, they HAVE to refund the money under the EU rules, and I am not going to let them off the hook, too much money.

smooth landings.

[happytraveller]

Still no refund from LH, and my patience is runnign out. If they do not refund very soon then they are going to find a small claims court action against them. Their biggest loss will be with lost future bookings though, who would book again with an airline whose customer 'service' is so bad??

smooth (non-LH) landings.

[happytraveller]

A happy ending to the story. Today on checking the bank account, I saw that LH had refunded in full, so that closed the matter. Still surprised at such bad service from LH, but at least it cleared the matter up in the end. So the 'guy that annoyed them' is now off their backs!

smooth landings.

[Syncop8r]

Yay!

Now please please please forward it to their management and the media!

[Wildbillkelso]

QUOTE (Christian @ Jun 1 2010, 03:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Germans can be tricky to deal with - the key is persistence. They are grumpy by nature and will complain no matter what, but if a rule says something, they'll have to follow it through to the end.

Well spoken!
But can you figure out how grumpy and persistent a german civil registration officer - as I am - can become?
Dealing with the Lufthansa customer support will be a piece of cake, compared to that bureaucratic nightmare...

Grüße von der sommerlichen Nordhalbkugel,
Markus.

[chickenman]

Quite interesting how diverse the opinions of Lufthansa in general are. Our company travels a LOT internationally, Air NZ & Star Alliance which means LH to Europe.

Our guys have said everything from "nothing wrong with them" to "I'd rather walk". One of the observations we have made is that Lufthansa service always appears to be better on the outbound legs from Germany.

Funnily enough BAUMA was on in Germany when Iceland blew it's stack and we had a total of 45 staff travelling to Europe from all around the world and we got 100% refunds in under 4 weeks for all cancelled fligths - about 40 out of 45. We know others that had a nightmare with Lufthansa getting refunds but our corporate account at Air NZ sorted it all out for us, we never had to deal with Lufthansa directly. Sounds like we were lucky. Our American guys had a bit more of a battle with UA but got it quickly enough as well.