As I had not received the promised call with a solution from Dolfi1920, I decided to do a more thorough online research on the company. I was aware that people only make extra effort to complain online and was not expecting great reviews. However, what I encountered was a limited, but clear stream of dissatisfied customers whose rights were seemingly violated by them. To list a few:
- Facebook unofficial page
- Blog story of their bad service
- Customer experience story - horrifying [PL]
From then on, I really started expecting trouble. Nevertheless, I waited a few days for contact that never came. Then, I decided to write a complaint letter to Lufthansa and sent it by email. It was a long one, you probably noticed I tend to write a lot, in which I described my problems, inconveniences, and demanded their involvement as well as supervision of the matter.
The following day I received a phone call early in the morning where the Lufthansa agent apologised and promised to expedite the process to Dolfi's management. However, being asked to supervise the process or to follow up on that, he decisively refused. It was a strange conversation, the caller did not speak English well, and was breaking up a lot. I voiced my concerns but these were either disregarded or quietly omitted. Nevertheless, with a promise of prioritizing my issue, I was hopeful of a swift contact from Dolfi, and of solving the matter soon. We ended the conversation on friendly terms.
Yet, Dolfi1920 never responded to my complaint. In one of the future phone conversations I was told they received, but nobody just bothered to call me and arrange anything. I realised they would try to wait me out so that I give in, and adjust to them. Being a quite stubborn person, that never happened and I just waited. Fortunately, I had no travel plans where I would have needed a large suitcase, which still remained damaged and in my possession.
A week has passed with no reaction from either Lufthansa or Dolfi1920, so I decided to write another complaint, this time in a bit stronger articulation. Since it is my email, I can post it here without any further repercussions:
"Dear Sir/Madam,
I am yet again writing to complain about the level of service you are providing, regarding my damaged luggage with FB ID 30424550, and reference number GDNLH36248. It has been another week and no progress in the matter.
I wrote to you previously on May 15th to escalate the problems I was facing with Dolfi1920, a company to which you assigned my case to. I am afraid they simply ignored my complaint as we weren't in contact since that was made. I am outraged that you treat your customers like that.
This time I really require you to take charge of the matter and come up with a solution to the problem, including a definite timeline. I am afraid that raising the issue to Dolfi1920's management is by no means sufficient, as they ignored it, and I quite frankly am no longer willing to cooperate in such a manner.
All in all, I absolutely require a solution from you with no half-measures. As before, you can contact me via email, or call xxxxxxx
I am looking forward to your timely response.
Kind regards,
Paweł xxxxx"
The following day I received a polite reply. It just was not something I had expected. Lufthansa completely washed their hands of it, and apart from forwarding my email to Dolfi1920, refused to do anything. Quoting a part of the email:
"(..) And the said repair shop Dolfi1920 is a third party management that has its own policy and procedure which means that Airline policy does not apply at all with a different company and with a different nature of business. (..) Whilst we understand your disappointment on this occasion, Lufthansa cannot influence the policy and procedure which is under the third party responsibility."
This was of course outrageous, as under the Montreal Convention it was Lufthansa that was liable for the damage, not a party they employed to fix it. I arrived at a strange situation where the liable party refused to take any action, the repair company I was forced to deal with kept on ignoring me, and quite frankly had no obligations towards me as I had not purchased any service from them.
It was the first time then that I allowed myself to think that there was a possibility the two companies would leave me hanging, and I would never get my suitcase repaired nor any compensation. Not really liking this option, I decided to research my possibilities of a complaint to the authorities, and once more try to arrange something with Dolfi1920. Disappointed, I decided to call Dolfi1920 and see what can be done...
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