Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Lufthansa
Germany
www.lufthansa.com

I am awaiting a response on a request for refund which was sent on the 5 March 2008. I am attaching a letter I sent to them today.

Dear Mr Mayrhuber

I would like for you to consider the following and let me know if you believe that this is good business practice and furthermore to follow up on my complaint and refund.

I flew from South Africa to Portugal via Frankfurt using Lufthansa. As I am sure the flight was not the best, but this is not what this e-mail is about. I was not going to utilise the return ticket and contacted my travel agent for a refund. The travel agent contacted Lufthansa in Porto, Portugal and was informed that I was to contact you directly.

Now the fun begins. The return flight was booked for the 17 March 2008, and I sent an e-mail on 5 March 2008 requesting my refund. I completed the tedious task of sending an online request for a refund on a ticket for the above date. Check your records from roughly 2 and a half months ago and you will find it. I hope it takes as long for you to find it as it has me trying to find the right place to send this complaint to. Don't say it was never received as I have an automated response with a reference number (1429778). To date I have not had a response to this e-mail. The response noted that "...and will start the processing immediately.", How long is immediately in your company?

After a further, I don't know how many, e-mails and phone calls, I got one response which was for further information. This was from a Robert who requested more details on 21 May 2008, which I sent immediately, that is on 21 May 2008 which is the same day that I received his e-mail, and I have not heard a word since. I sent a follow-up e-mail on 29 May 2008, and guess what. he has not responded. That was no surprise for me.

I would like to inform you that I have been in the service industry for more years than you wish to know and these are my observations of Lufthansa.

1. Make it as difficult as possible for the customer to contact you when there is a complaint. That way you wont get as many as you should.

2. Don't give out personal e-mail addresses. That way nobody can be held responsible.

3. Under no circumstances give out managers contact numbers. This is in fear of having to face the client in a one on one call.

4. Because of the demand for flights, make compliments easy and look after these customers. Don't worry about the complaints as there is another customer waiting in line.

5. If the customer waits long enough, the frustration will make them go away.

With this in mind, I hope you do not deal with this e-mail the way all my other e-mails have been dealt with.