E-commerce
A Letter of Complaint for Cebu Pacific
For anyone who is into e-commerce, whether through online auctions, social media (think Multiply sellers) or a full transactional website with an online payment gateway, one important aspect stands out - return customers.
Having worked as an E-commerce Manager for a couple of years, I would always stress to clients and to audience in my talks that e-commerce essentially works because of trust. A buyer sends you their payment online trusting you will deliver the product or service you’re offering. The first transaction is always the hardest because there is no relationship yet, but after that hurdle, once you deliver as promised, trust is established, a relationship is built, and you have yourself a customer who will most likely return and will share to their network of friends, family & colleagues the positive experience they have in your online store.
That’s why I was so dismayed and irked by what happened to me when I recently bought an online ticket at Cebu Pacific. My letter of complaint below fully explains the details:
Dear Cebu Pacific:
This letter is to complain about service I recently received from your company with regards to errors in your online ticketing service and delays in refunding.
I bought an online ticket for my wife last October 5 for an October 11 return flight to Manila from Singapore for S$386.00 and received confirmation through email. The confirmation number for the flight was ZE3K5E. However, the following day I received another email which informed me that my online booking was invalidated because they cannot authenticate my credit card. I found this odd because this isn’t the first time I booked a flight for my wife online and I already got a confirmation.
I called your customer care to inquire about the issue and was informed that you were experiencing some problems with your online ticketing service that time and had no way of authenticating foreign-issued credit cards (mine was issued by DBS, Singapore). I was informed that my only option was to buy from one of your sales offices here in Singapore. I clearly asked the customer care agent if what I bought was already charged to my credit card and was assured that it wasn’t. Hence, I decided to just purchase my wife’s ticket offline from one of your sales agents, particularly Pen Travel and Tours Singapore.
To my surprise and dismay, a month later I receive my credit card bill and still I get charged the S$386.00 for that particular online ticket with confirmation number ZE3K5E, the one that was supposedly invalidated because your online system could not authenticate it. I have called your customer care hotline three times already since getting my CC bill and every time, I get the same explanation from your representatives – they have informed your accounting department already but have no way to verify when I will be refunded.
Coming from the e-commerce industry myself, I fully understand issues in authenticating and verifying information (even though surprisingly I’m a repeat customer!) but what I don’t understand is why there will be a delay in the refund when the supposed transaction took place more than a month ago and technically I never even purchased the said ticket because I was made to believe that it cannot be authenticated.
I expected a much higher level of service from your company, and I am very, very much disappointed. The way I see it, having to go through this ordeal, is that you don’t trust me as a customer and you don’t want to do business with me. I hope I won’t have to spend any more time on this problem, I look forward to your response to my email and I expect my full refund. My friends, family and colleagues will certainly hear about this experience.
Sincerely,
Jonas de los Reyes
Just when will you ever get it Cebu Pacific?!
Update: This letter of complaint to Cebu Pacific was sent via email last week. I got a reply from a Ms. Daphne G. Ty (daphne.ty@cebupacificair.com) from Guest Services who expressed an apology in behalf of the airline and said they are coordinating with their Treasury department to ensure the amount was refunded to me in the soonest time possible. Today, I received an email from her again and to my delight and gratitude, I was informed that I have been fully refunded. I am happy and thankful that this has been finally resolved relatively sooner than I expected but the message still remains, Cebu Pacific needs to step up the way they handle customer information (know your repeat customes and make it easy for them to buy again, this is after all one of the advantages of e-commerce) and customer service (good customer care sense would actually mean giving the customer a token of apology for the inconvenienced they have caused) if they want to successfully make e-commerce work for them.
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Tags: Discussion
17 comments for “A Letter of Complaint for Cebu Pacific”
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my fellow Pinoy officemates had more horrible experience with cebu pacific. nagoverbook sila tapos pag dating mo sa flight mo nde ka makasakay. meron ding experience sila na peke daw yung eticket. raket ata ng cebu pacific yan.
Hi, Jonas. Just curious, did you send that letter to them or did you just post it here on your blog?
Matagal na nilang SAKIT yan.
sana naman wag mangyari sakin.. kasi magwawala talaga ako online (pano yun?).
very poor customer service. Better start calling your card company and ask for a chargeback.
I’m experiencing the same problems with Cebu Pacific. As for me, I cancelled a flight and requested for a refund last May 7, 2008 (refund request SCRM2U). I’ve called their customer care hotline at least once a week since September, asking for an update on my refund request. Until today, I have yet to see the refund reflect on my credit card.
ay grabe ito…
you deserve a better customer service from them.
and you have all the right to complain.
Been hearing the not-so-good service from CebuPac.
Better confirm and re-confirm our online booking for our early January flight to Cebu. We booked and paid online using our credit card early this month.
I pray that nothing like this would happen to us. Too much hassle and will be bringing our baby pa.
maybe all those who’d been shortchanged by cebpac can start a petition or something… throw in the regulatory guys and see if they don’t clean up their act.
@makoy - I’m so sorry to hear that. Talagang lesson learned itong experience, better check twice when booking and before flying sa Cebu Pacific.
@Cedric Solidon - Hi Cedric, yup I actually emailed it to them. And to make sure they notice it, I searched the web for people who are connected with Cebu Pacific and DTI and CCed them. And it worked because I got a response after that, will share the update in the post after this.:)
@MiGs - Hi Migs, I’ve read so many bad reviews online that it’s really scary. I hope this doesn’t happen to you so better doublecheck when buying from them.
@Ria - Same experience like mine Ria! My suggestion, email them a similar complaint letter and CC Ms. Daphne G. Ty (daphne.ty@cebupacificair.com) and DTI’s consumer welfare email, I received a response from her (more about it in the update to my post).
@eric - All customers deserve better customer service Eric, I just had to do some extra research to ensure my email won’t fall on deaf ears.
@Ivan Girl - Hi Ivan Girl, it will be really wise to check and double check to make sure you won’t have any hassles on your trip. Hope this won’t happen to you and your family.
@kakuei - I really hope it won’t end up to that, I just want Cebu Pacific to take care of its customers (since they are more often than not return customers) and make it easy for them to avail of their service. After all, a happy customer always mean bigger and better business for them.
Yey!
Nabalik na!
effective talaga ang blogging hehehe..
Hi Jonas.
I was hoping you could help me..
I encountered the exact same problem from cebu pac. I called the customer service number Cebu pac included in the same mail they informed me of their authentication failure. This number however is in purchasing and not at all customer service so as expected the 40 minute overseas call (30 minutes waiting for operator 10 mins actual conversation) got me nowehere but a statement from the purchasing agent that my ticket will be refunded in 2 months time.
As you might have expected, it’s been more than 2 months already and i get no other response than to wait for the refund to materialize.
If its not too much to ask.. can you send me a copy of the people and contacts you included in the CC of your mail to warrant the proper attention you received in the end?
Really appreciate it if you could email it to me or post it here in your blog. Also, how long did it take for Cebu Pac to actually send you the refund?
Thanks!
PS..
I’m getting really pissed with all this and the fact that cebu pac can get away with all this crap unchecked. I’m actually considering filing a legal case already. I have yet to research though.
Hi Jonas.
I was hoping you could help me..
I encountered the exact same problem from cebu pac. I called the
customer service number Cebu pac included in the same mail they
informed me of their authentication failure. This number however is in
purchasing and not at all customer service so as expected the 40
minute overseas call (30 minutes waiting for operator 10 mins actual
conversation) got me nowehere but a statement from the purchasing
agent that my ticket will be refunded in 2 months time.
As you might have expected, it’s been more than 2 months already and i
get no other response than to wait for the refund to materialize.
If its not too much to ask.. can you send me a copy of the people and
contacts you included in the CC of your mail to warrant the proper
attention you received in the end?
Really appreciate it if you could email it to me or post it here in
your blog. Also, how long did it take for Cebu Pac to actually send
you the refund?
Thanks!
PS..
I’m getting really pissed with all this and the fact that cebu pac can
get away with all this crap unchecked. I’m actually considering filing
a legal case already. I have yet to research though.
sorry for the double post. I overlooked that it was submitted successfully the first time.
Same thing happened to me. Took them more than 2 months to refund it. I never even got a decent reply to any of my previous queries.
I still don’t get how the credit card gets charged then suddenly it’s not authenticated though. It seems to be a fairly regular occurrence with their system.
There were at least 10 of us on my flight that had the same issue, getting a confirmation then you’ll only discover at the airport that you have to pay with other means just to get on that flight.
Woah! I encountered the same incident. Mabilis naman silang magrefund lalo na pag medyo tinakot mo sila na ikakalat mo kapalpakan nila. Kund di nga lang talaga abot kaya prices ng Cebu Pacific. Will be going to Boracay with my Barkada next week.
http://www.24ever.com.ph/
I buy ticket singapore to davao last december from kabayan house travel at lucky plaza,singapore and was booked for Jan 24,2008 flight but i missed the flight.I was told at the airport that i still can rebooked or use it within a year. Last October I was in singapore and i want to rebooked my ticket but the kabayan travel agency lady told me they cant locate my locator no. coz they changed system!!!Fine they change system maybe to be updated.but its there look out to keep a file on all issued ticket? I called up cebu pacific call center fr. singapore to manila but still cant find my locator no. I was asked to call or go to any cebu pacific ticket office in philippines –yes i asked my sister in davao to go to cebu pacific victoria plaza outlet for this problem…….i fax to them a copy of my on line ticket but still they cant locate the said locator no? What is this? They are issuing a FAKE Ticket? Im sure kabayan travel got my locator no. from cebu pacific ticket office…..my locator no is MS8X3, booking no ITDO1647836CEB, flight no 5J548 Singapore to cebu Jan 24,2008 economy and cebu to davao Jan 24,2008 flight no 51593……Its so frustrating experiencing this kind of problem and dont hear any new or update from cebu pacific? Can the company look on this matter? IM not the only person complaining but a LOT?