it's about time

here's the letter I just finished writing to british airways about my lost baggage claim from this summer. needless to say I was pissed enough to not be able to finish it until now.


01/16/2006


British Airways Customer Relations USA
75-20 Astoria Blvd.
Jackson Heights, NY 11370


To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing in regards to my lost baggage claim. This is a very upsetting matter for me and I have been unable to do anything about it for the past couple of months. Let me tell you the story.

I am a graduate student in architecture, and in the spring of 2005 I was a graduate student saving her money for a big trip to see the architectural wonders of Europe. I bought some nice new clothes and packed up all of my favorite things and headed off to Rome.

When I arrived in Rome I was told that my baggage had not arrived along with me, but it would be delivered to my hostel in a couple of days. I proceeded to the hostel with only the clothes on my back, having worn these for almost 48 hours, and with nothing to change into to sleep!
The next morning I woke up in the same filthy outfit and, instead of going to see the pantheon or the coliseum, I set off to find a place in town to buy some underwear, pajamas, socks, pants, a shirt, and a bra so that I could not only wash the outfit I was wearing, but perhaps feel a little more comfortable. Mind you, this is not an easy undertaking when you don’t speak the language, don’t know the city and its districts, don’t know the public transportation routes, and are by one self in traveling. This unexpected need for the essentials, and for daily clothes washing, was suddenly eating up all of my time in this city that I had come to explore.
When I figured out the phone system and called the number given to me by the BA representative at the airport, I was told that my bag had not been found yet. All I wanted, though, was to hear that it was on its way so I could wear my favorite sweater, wear the new clothes I had purchased for the trip, and finally feel like I had arrived. This wasn’t about to happen.
The third day I was in Rome the rain was coming down as hard as I had ever seen and I wished I had the raincoat I had packed in my bag. However, trying to buy one at that point would have eaten up more of my time, so I went around wet for the day.

The time came for me to leave Rome for a trip to hill towns in the Marche (east of Rome) to meet up with my architecture-traveling partner for the rest of the trip, and my bag had not yet arrived. The Hostel manager in Rome, a nice gentleman named Nevio, told me that he would be kind enough to accept the bag if it were to arrive within the next couple of days, so that I could make an detour and come back through Rome to retrieve it on my way to my next destination, Barcelona, Spain. I called the BA customer service number to make sure that you knew that I was continuing my trip to Barcelona, gave you the date of my arrival there, and was told that I would be telephoned when the bag arrived in London (so you could be certain that it was sent to the right place).

All the while I was constantly growing disgusted of the couple of garments that I had, trying to purchase things as I went without disrupting my itinerary too much. However, it remained a constant struggle to keep the few clothes that I had clean; I was wasting a lot of time and money on laundry, and a lot of energy finding the things I needed.

When it came time for me to leave Italy I contacted Nevio at the hostel in Rome again, had my bag arrived? Would I be going through Rome to pick it up before continuing on? It had not arrived he said, and so I could only hope that I would get the phone call that it had arrived in London soon, and it could be delivered to my hostel in Barcelona.

After my first night in Barcelona, my friend and I set out early to visit the monumental church of the holy family in the morning. While sketching some of the beautiful details of the building I received a phone call, not from British Airways in London but from my new friend Nevio, my bag had arrived! “When are you returning to Rome to pick it up?” he asked me. I had to tell him I am sorry, there had been a mistake, I would not be returning to Rome.

Later that day I had someone who spoke English and Spanish look up the customer service number for BA in the Barcelona phone book and phoned you to find out what had happened. I told the customer service representative that I was no longer in Rome and would not be returning, and asked that the bag be picked up and sent to my home address in
Eugene, OR so that there would be no further confusion as to my location, and so that I would be sure to get the bag that contained all of my new and my favorite things returned to me even if not while on the trip! They said that they would send a “telex” to the representatives at the Rome airport telling them that the bag had been wrongly delivered and that they needed to pick it up so it could be sent elsewhere.

I had resigned myself to the idea that I would not see my things during this trip, which was a reality I had gradually become accustomed to. When traveling, one has to roll with the punches, make the best of things, and enjoy things as they are. I was determined not to let this situation with my luggage ruin my trip, although at times this was a difficult determination to stick with.

When I returned home I called British Airways in the United States and asked about the location of my bag. They told me that no changes showed on my file, I was told that another “telex” would be sent to the British airways desk at the Rome Airport, and instructed by the customer service official to call in a few days to check on the status of my bag.
After a few days I called again. Another telex was sent, and I was instructed to call back in a few days.

I continued to call your customer service line every few days for about a month, increasing the frequency of my phone calls to every other day or so as I became increasingly frustrated with the situation. I could not understand why it was so difficult to get the bag returned to me, we knew exactly where it was! But I assure you, I heard the word telex more times than I would like to recall.

Eventually on one of these routine calls I became a bit worked up and told the woman I was speaking with that I was terribly frustrated. I recall asking her “Why can’t they get my bag back to me? I have the address for where it is, and you have it as well. I have the phone number for the hostel manager, and so do you. You have ‘telexed’ the Rome Airport two dozen times or so. Why is nothing happening?”

She was very kind (as were most of your representatives, but she was especially so. I believe her name was Rebecca?) She put me on hold and contacted her manager to see if it was possible to PHONE the BA airport officials in Rome (what a brilliant idea!) Eventually she agreed to call me back and let me know what was happening. I very much appreciated her willingness to stick with me to help me resolve this issue. When she called me back I was told that the problem had been that as soon as my bag had been delivered to the hostel in Rome, my case had been closed, and so no action had been taken about my bag.

Rebecca proceeded to issue me a new case number and effectively re-open the file, something that could have been done by any one of the many representatives I had talked to. Rebecca had even stuck with me beyond a singular phone call; she took my number and called me back as progress was being made on my case. With the re-opened file and the British Airways people in Rome contacted, I was soon given an itinerary for my bag’s return; it would be flying through Seattle and home to me!

I waited and waited and it did not arrive. I made a few more calls and was told it was scheduled to take certain flights to get back to Eugene, but no one seemed to know more than that (at this point anyone who I talked to about my case had to spend about six to eight minutes while on the line with me just reading my case file, and I was regularly told by your representative that it was the longest missing baggage case file they had ever seen!!)

By this time it was September and I was returning home to visit my family in Colorado, all of who were wondering if I had gotten my bag back yet. My older brother became infuriated with the story I told him of what had happened and asked for the number to call you.

I was shocked and surprised that when he used a harsh tone with the representative on the other end of the line, he was told things that I had never heard, including the phrase: “I can’t say for sure that it’s lost, but… it’s lost.”

So I gave up hope. It had seemed that, although at one time we knew exactly where the bag was, it had unbelievably been lost a second time (I thought perhaps the British Airways representatives in Rome were upset at having to go pick up the bag and must have “accidentally” dropped it into the river on the way back to the airport). Everyone kept telling me to write to you to ask for some kind of consolation, but I was so upset by the whole debacle, I could not bring myself to do it. How could things be botched this badly? How could so many customer service representatives have given me the run around? When you fly thousands of people and bags around the world every day, WHY, WHY, WHY was it so difficult to get this one bag back to me that means to much to me when we all knew exactly where it was?

More time went by and I had not contacted you regarding compensation for the lost bag and botched European vacation. It was still hard for me to think about the whole thing without getting upset; I buried my nose in the books for the fall term.

Then, in early December, I received another call from my friend Nevio, the hostel manager in Rome. “When are you coming back to Rome? “ He said. I answered as best I could at five in the morning (he didn’t understand the time difference) that I would not be returning to Rome, but it was kind of he to call. His response? “Well then, what do you want me to do with your bag?”

I was completely stunned and instantly enraged; I woke my roommate up with the yelling. I didn’t know what to say. I kept repeating over and over again, “you still have the bag?” and “they told me they had come to get it and then lost it!” He said no, it had been sitting in his tiny office for the last six months. He said to me: ” I told you, I would accept the bag for you, and keep it until you came back. Are you coming back? Do you still want the bag, or should I give it away?”

I thought about it as long as I could while keeping him on this expensive call. Every effort had been exhausted in dealing with your company as far as I could see, there was no one who cared enough to see to it that I got the bag back so far, and really no way to contact anyone who had the power to do anything significant to get the bag back. Although the customer service representatives I had talked to seemed helpful, absolutely NONE of them had ACTUALLY GOTTEN ANYTHING DONE. After all of my effort, stress, worry, and repeated contact with your company, the entire situation was the same as if I had done nothing at all.

In despair at the hopelessness of the situation, I told Nevio to go ahead and give the bag and its contents away. I am sure there will be others who pass through the hostel in need of a few necessities like I had been.

Beyond being angry, I think this entire situation should be embarrassing for your company. Is this any way to treat customers?

Regarding the bag and its contents and what I bought to replace them, I don’t have any more solid estimates other then that I spent about two to three thousand dollars replacing these things that I lost- that’s just the lost things, not including the time that I lost on the trip, and the time and energy it has taken to deal with your customer service department.

I have been on government student aid for three years now living off of loans; these unexpected expenses understandably have been an undue financial burden to me.

I would like to make it clear that I expect a response. I feel that an apology is appropriate.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mary Rasure
Graduate Student, University of Oregon school of Architecture