Singapore Airlines review: Bad customer service 9

I had just had a bad experience with the 24 hours call center with Singapore Airlines. Apparently, they have outsourced their customer service hotline to some company in India. I have to wait a total of 5 days to have my tickets re-issued via the phone/internet. The story goes like this...

I booked 3 tickets, one for myself and 2 for my daughters to fly from SFO to HK. I realised my daughters' last names were missing when I printed out the e-tickets. So I called the hotline number for US and it was re-directed to some company in India. The representative insisted that I made a mistake and insisted that I have to pay US$100 for each name change. I told them their first and middles names were right except missing last names and NO ONE knows if it was a mistake made by me or the system. So anyways, I asked to speak with the supervisor and explained to him that it was a genuine mistake (even if it was by me) and I have no intention to cheat the airline and hope that he can waive the penalty fee. He said he will have to check with the issuing office and he said I have to fax the girls passport to the issuing office. He also said he is unable to commit to anything and I have to wait for 5 days for an answer. Well, of course I won't agree to the 5 days and wonder why it will take so long for them to authorise to re-issue me the tickets. Anyways, I insisted to have the answer on the same day. He called few hours later and said he is unable to waive but he will reduce it to pay$50 per name change. Well, I just wana get it done and over with so I agreed. Well, this time... I have to wait for 24 to 48 hours for the issuing office to call me! Ok I waited for 48 hours, NO CALL. I called them back, and they promised to call me within an hr which they did. A lady left a message on my voice mail because I was attending an event at my daughter's school. So I called their hotline again... (I will have to wait at least 15 mins for a representative). This time she said the lady at the issuing office is on the phone and she will call me back again in 10 mins. Well, she called and left a message before I could pick up the phone. Again... I have to wait a whole 30 mins when i call the hotline to speak to someone and when i managed to talk to her... the ENTIRE computer system is down! I was furious and it was late at night and I have to put my kids to sleep! They promised me to call me and email me when i wake up in the morning. Well it was 10am and NOTHING was done as promised. This time, I CALLED the SIngapore hotline instead but still to speak to someone who is also from outsourced company in INDIA. He made me wait for a whole 30 mins again and then said he will liaise with the LA office to issue my tickets. Gosh! He called and we did the entire re-issuing process. He said he will send me an email with the new etickets. He did sent and called me. He sent a total of 6 emails (3 duplicate) with the WRONG NAMES as before! Can't believe I m living through this nightmare! He then asked me to hold on and then sent me 6 emails again with the right names! While talking to him to check each e ticket, I rec'd one email (with eticket) with the wrong names! Well... I am speechless. I am glad I did not have a heart attack!

The tickets were finally issued with the right names and lets hope nothing bad will come out again coz my weak heart can't take it.

I would like to say this...SQ being the No. 1 airline in the world has produced such lousy and inefficient service, I m totally disappointed and unexpected. Again... I m exhausted with the frustrations I have been put through. I strongly hope that SQ can look into outsourcing to a company who knows what they are doing!

I hope to lodge a complaint with SQ and not having to talk to the outsourced customer service people from India but they said this is the ONLY hotline I can call for SQ. That means... the entire SQ staff in Singapore were outrun by these people who do not know what they are doing? NO staff in Singapore who can help? They are behind the scene? I just want them to know that they have put their reputation with the hands of a group of untrained, incompetent and inefficient people. Good Luck but they have lost one royal customer here.

T

This is totally reasonable IMHO. If the airlines were to allow you to board, you can turn the tables around after the flight by calling the credit card company for fraud, claiming that you DID NOT board the flight since they have no records of the exact same credit card information upon checking in! Just read the fine prints in future and learn your lesson, dude. I am very sure it is made clear on the website, cause the same policy applies even if you made an online purchase of movie tickets!

hey,

i totally agreed with you. SQ customer service sucks big time! i have experienced their incompetency so many times. just today, i got it from another CS officer by the name of geetha. Totally ignorant and unhelpful. She also makes it sounds like the technical glitch with their online booking is forgivable and common. She's nothing but crap. forget about taking SQ again.

I encountered the same problem when i was making a trip to HK last year. The ground manager insisted on me producing my credit card which I have lost. This is ridiculous! How am I supposed to produce a card which i have lost. I shown him my new card and even asked him to speak to the AMEX officer to clarify but he refused. After much commotion, i was asked to purchase another 6 air tickets and charged to my new credit card. FYI, I have already paid for 6 tics before I lost my credit card. After which, I made a complain to SIA. Same thing happened to me. They took ages to revert and the reply is... everything has been stated in the policy. This is to prevent fraud. Well, I almost missed my flight for that trip. Thanks to SIA.

But if someone actually stole your credit card and used it, you would be screaming the house down about the injustice of that. It's done for protection and although it does suck, there is a very reasonable explanation for it.

I was departing from SG to BKK on flight SQ 970 on 3 May 2011 and was seated at 51G. I wish to make a complaint towards the customer service rendered by our Singapore Airlines cabin crew. It was such an horrid experience to be on this flight ( this is the first flight out to BKK departing from Spore at 0710 hrs). The leading stewardess in RED were horrbile.I did not even bother to ask for her name pertaining to this complaint. She was rude and harsh tone were used when addressing the safety precautions i.e.please put up the window shade, seat upright etc .. to the PRCs who were onboard that flight.
Also I had asked for an eye shield from another stewardess who happened to walk down the aisle at my row, she said that she will come back to me with the eye shield but it did not happen. She forgot all about it. OK that is fine I thought. Next, came the food .. arrrhhhh some breakfast ! How nice! I am already famished. I patiently waited for them to serve my meal but to my disappointment they did not. They ( both leading air stewardess in red uniform and a young chap) happily rolled the trolley away to served other passengers. This could not be real I thought because I confirmed that my eyes made contact with the leading air stewardess before she stowed the trolley away. Am I too tiny to their naked eye and they could have overlooked to serve my meal. Well, I did not let my frustration set in at first and I let it slipped away thinking... oh well probably the food stored in the trolley is insufficient for this round, probably they will come back to serve my meal.I waited and waited.. till I got impatient, raised my hand to catch the attention of the young air steward. He came with a smile and asked how can he help. My pleasure, I told him I was not being served any meal nor drinks since 1hr and 25 mins ago. All the other passengers have finished with their meal at that point of time when I asked. I have also requested for an eye shield but was not being entertained at all. They totally forgot about me as if I do not exist? The young steward did offer me some drinks, apologise for the bad service and reasoned that they have forgotten to serve my meal . "Forgotten" is that a very good reason to explain to your passengers ?
He offered me somehting to eat or drink which I declined. We are landing in about less than 40 mins and I do not want to rush my meal. I would just like to say this...SQ being the No. 1 airline in the world has produced such lousy and inefficient service... I am totally disappointed ! With such poor attention, I don't call Singapore Airlines as the best airlines anymore.
I hope you could look into this matter and address this issue to the leading stewardess who has taken care of the flight SQ 970. She and her crew has done a really "great job"!

I spend 6 hours yesterday trying to complete a simple booking of two people roundtrip SIN to DSP. If the website worked I would have booked on-line however that is a whole other story. I travel on a regular basis both domestically and internationally and have NEVER experienced the extremely poor service and lack of understanding delivered by Singapore Airline’s reservations group. I was specific in providing them the exact flights I wanted and the specific fare class ( I told them Y or B as I wanted to use my USAirways points for an upgrade). This fare was $458 on the website however they quoted me a price over $1000. After 1.5 hours on the phone with various agents, I finally though I had a booking at the website rate and in Y class. When I received my email confirmation it was an E class fare and had mine and husband's name reversed...somehow the agent was so clueless that he actually though my husband and I had the same first/given name. In addition, this caused an issue that I could not retrieve the booking to make my upgrade (which I was told by SQ agent it was available when I booked...I actually changed flight times to have availability to upgrade). It took another 2.5 hours on the phone with various agents to get my fare class changed and to correct our names on the ticket. From the time I first did the booking, 6.5 hours had passed by and of course the upgrade seats were gone. Is Singapore Airline really #1 in the world? Maybe Conde Naste and others should try to book a flight with a SA agent before they make their ranking.

The Airline is a more extension of the police state. It accepts no criticism and only tell dissidents to be prepared for “untold consequences”. I have flown to them many times and even redeemed a SIN-BCN return flight once.
I flew with them once recently and it is the most appalling experience you can expect. I was told to sit up straight in a rude way by a cabin crew and I responded by criticizing him in a harsh way nothing physical or unruly. It was an early morning flight and I am sleep deprived. I have never been spoken to in a such as a rude way in my hundreds of flights(including budge carriers which is the biggest irony).
I was threatened with detention by security at the airport if I don’t show “remorse” and apologize to the crew concerned on the basis of using”vulgarities”. It is the most self serving act you can expect from a reputable airline and it is no better than how North Koreans are expected to worship Kim Jong Il. Using harsh language is not a criminal offense and I have every right to express my feedback although the language may be a bit harsh.

Singapore airlines e-booking system has be problematic the whole day, wasting time of customers