Customer Service? What Customer Service?
 

For the first time this century, I decided to check a couple of bags. Oh boy, big mistake.

I arrived at CPH early yesterday morning, but neither bag did. The agent at the SK Service Desk told me the bags had been left behind at ORD. How this could have happened is beyond me, as both bags were correctly labeled, had priority tags, I was flying in First, and the layover at ORD was two hours.

The routing was LAS-ORD-FRA-CPH, and the agent told me the bags had been sent ORD-FRA with LH, and would arrive at CPH at 2 p.m. I could not wait, as I had booked a taxi to take me home to Sweden (which I had only done because of the heavy bags and train services were disrupted, which would have required changing from train to bus to train again). I explained to the agent that I was flying again on Wednesday, and that it was therefore imperative that the bags should be delivered no later than Tuesday. She said the bags would be sent CPH-ARN-RNB and would be delivered today, Monday.

I tried to keep a tab on things via WorldTracerWeb, which unfortunately never got beyond the "received at airport stage". So I decided to give 'm a call. Well, SAS Baggage Service CPH does not answer the phone. Never. Nor do they return calls, even though you are encouraged to enter you number, and are ensured that you will not lose you place in line. Must be a very long line.

Tried SK at RNB instead. A live human being answered the phone. Very friendly and helpful, but until the bags had arrived at RNB there was nothing he could do.

Next I gave Customer Care in Sweden a call. First agent suggested I call Baggage Service in Oslo, he claimed they were better at customer service. Guess what? They don't answer the phone either! Next agent was most unhelpful, said there was nothing he could do, that lost bags were not Customer Care's responsibility, that he could not ask Baggage Service to call me, and that I could not speak to a supervisor, even though he admitted he had one. Third agent gave me a different number to Baggage Service at Kastrup. Turned out to be the lost property number. Fourth agent was actually friendly and empathetic, but explained that there was no way she could help. She claimed that as they were an outsourced service, they were not able to contact Baggage Service themselves, or anyone else at SAS for that matter. She did not have access to any other phone numbers than the public ones, nor any other way of communicating with any SAS employee anywhere. Hard to believe, but what could I say? She did give me the phone number to Baggage Service at Arlanda. They didn't answer the phone either, of course, but at least provided an e-mail address (for those of you with baggage issues: [email protected])

They apparently do read e-mails at Arlanda, because I suddenly got a call from Kastrup. Agent told me the bags had been sent to Malmö, and that they would be delivered by PostNord Logistics. For anybody who has had to deal with the Swedish postal service that's bad news, so I called them straight away. Oh no, they do not deliver anything that weighs over 20kg, such items must be picked up from a distribution center. I was not surprised to hear that, but what did surprise me was that I would first have to wait for a delivery notification to arrive by snail mail (!!!), which notification I would have to produce to claim the bags. That would add at least another two days.

I fired off another email to ARN, and CPH actually called me again. This agent said the bags had not yet left CPH (they had thus had them in their possession for over 24 hours, despite promising delivery within that timeframe), but would be sent over to Sweden this evening. She also claimed that their contract with the shipping agent commits them to next-day delivery. Didn't sound like PostNord (yes, that is written as one word) to me. She would not provide me with the shipping agent's contact details, but promised to phone them herself, and ask them to phone me Tuesday morning. I await their call with bated breath.

A short time later, I got a call from SK RNB. Another gentleman, just as helpful and friendly. When I told him the bags were due to be shipped by road, he expressed utter amazement. CPH-ARN-RNB is the normal routing for lost bags, from RNB they are then delivered by Jetpak the same day. Why they would be shipped by road from CPH was entirely beyond his comprehesion, but there was of course nothing he could do.

So there we are. Bags which theoretically could have been delivered to me Sunday evening may or may not have left CPH this evening, and may just possibly be delivered tommorow. Once again, I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, I know that the last segment was on LH, which makes them technically responsible for the missing bags. But it is SK that I have to deal with here, and it has been a real struggle. Baggage Service Desks in three countries that simply don't answer the phone is just beyond the pale.

There, just had to get that off my chest!

Johan

Well, a long and not very funny story; but I noted the email address :D

UA at ORD is terrible in getting bags to fellow *A partners in T5 or even T1 :td: I've managed not to get bags with 1-5h layovers in ORD.

No doubt, but this was a UA-UA Terminal 1 connection, with a two-hour layover on a day with no disruptions and only insignificant delays. I'm still impressed.

I did receive both bags today, none the worse for wear and with the dayglo priority labels still attached. The Baggage Service agent had told me a porky about PostNord Logistics, they were delivered by Linjebud, who are very reliable, efficient and customer friendly.

Far worse things happen in life, and all is well that ends well, but I could have done without the aggravation, which could have been avoided if CPH Baggage Service had provided anything near proper customer service.

Johan

PostNord is an amazing logistic company - everytime I order something on Amazon.de I see this kind of shuffling around my packages:

22. Oct 2014, 01:29, København C SE Packet left logistic center
21. Oct 2014, 16:38, København C SE Package received in logisitc center
21. Oct. 2014, 03:45, Brøndby SE Packet left logistic center
18. Oct. 2014, 14:17, København V SE Packet left logistic center

They actually manage to keep a package containing 3 books for 4 days in Copenhagen area just sending it around in circles... I can't imagine what they do with it? Proofreading them before packing them on a train/truck to Sweden?

And NO - it is not just a random thing. EVERYTIME I order at Amazon and the shipment is handled by PostNord or Post DK it happens. I got used to it but I really wonder what the hell they are doing there. Shipments via DHL arrive at my home in 3 days latest.

Amazon.de should know better than to use PostNord Logistics, but I bet they are the cheapest.

I fortunately have a UK delivery address to which Amazon.co.uk delivers free of charge. The only problem I've ever experienced was the time when a presumably rather dim driver repeatedly tried to deliver a package outside office hours on several consecutive days.

Johan

Lucky you... I wish Amazon would open a Swedish shop - I have no idea why they don't? Sweden is the perfect market for mail orders.

All the existing webshops I know off are so bad, offering a very limited products (only what they think someone needs) and are more expensive than ordering through Amazon and accept the extra shipment and handling costs. I wonder how all those shops survive.

I think Sweden is very backward in a lot of ways - from using new medicine to post order. You can't email them about bank related question even with e-legitimation. They are still using mail order catelogue - think about all those thick catelogue you receive from Biltema/ikea! The big Jul catelog (the one where kids go around and ask people to order things from them) is a joke.

I doubt that amazon would be able to get into this tiny market - with only 8.5 million people - 1/10 of the German population, why bother? Also in Sweden I doubt that amazon can offer free/cheapish shipping. In Germany you can do Hermes paket for 3,1 EUR, for 6 EUR you can do DHL up to 10 kg. I doubt that you can get the same price here in Sweden.

They need to get hold of Amazon.se ;) To be honest, I'm not a big fan of big companies fighting for their domains but in this case I think the current owner should get some beating.

Even with only 8.5 million customers they would run a good business as the competition is just poor.

You might be right about getting free shipping as Posten is very expensive but I think a company like Amazon could make a deal with UPS, Fedex, DHL or whatever. They will for sure not pay 6 Euro for a DHL package in Germany ;)

I can tell you from experience that DHL refuses point blank to deliver to my home address, every time. In all cases the products were sent from other European countries, and the price included home delivery. Nevertheless, DHL wanted me to pick the items up at their nearest distribution center, 80 km away! By complaining vigorously I could get them to deliver to an adress of my choice in the nearest provincial city, where I then had to collect the items. Needless to say, I go to great lengths to avoid ordering anything online in Sweden. I only do so if I can be sure the package will be sent by post. Not that they will deliver to my home, but the nearest post-i-butik is only 2½ km away.

I'm inclined to agree. I suspect that one reason is that several generations have been brainwashed by socialist governments into believing that Sweden is best at just about everything. People just accept the Swedish way of ding things, assuming that it the right and only way, never wondering whether it can be done better or differently, and never asking themselves whether other countries have found superior solutions to similar problems. The completely idiotic Swedish health care system is the prime example here. (with apologies of going completely OT!).

Johan

Sure, DHL in Sweden is bad but could deliver great service if they start to take the country seriously. UPS works great for me including pick up and delivery from my home in the countryside 40km from the next bigger town