The issue at the core is that VA outsourced guest relationship function to an off shore service provider. I ask myself why, why would any sensible business divorce itself with the most precious connection to their patronage? And it's not that the service provider doesn't care, but nobody can argue they care as much as the business owner would. Further, the service provider at an off shore location cannot relate to the complaint because they don't life life to the same service expectations as are a given in Australian consumer market. So the best they can do, is to 'fight off' our complaints with templated responses that are designed to acknowledge the complaint but not address is, less still resolve it. This is a vicious circle that leads to nowhere. I speak from first hand experience involving a different situation but was exposed to the same treatment. I responded to a Velocity promotion involving BP fuel. I followed the promotion terms to fine detail, only to discover I didn't get what I expected under the promotion terms. In the spirit of helpfulness, I brought the issue to the attention of Velocity (also outsourced to an off shore service provider), even provided an opinion on how the problem came about. For 4 months they have fought me to discredit my feedback, took me on a merry go round, made false statements, send me templated responses, LIED by stating they had tried to contact me by phone to no avail when in fact they had called me and hung up after a single ring, just to be able to demonstrate through phone records 'the attempt of contact' in case if checked on by their superiors of the proprietor. An appalling all round behaviour! When I called them on it, the actual call to me was placed. Throughout it, there was no interest AT ALL to acknowledge value in my feedback less still commit to investigating the core cause of the problem with how BP transactions come across onto Velocity account. Th sole purpose of that call was to **** the case dead and stop me from communicating with them. The conversation went don'd the line of complete disinterest, and the desire to close the case was expressed at least 4 times in the course of our conversation. When I put two and two together, shocked as you would imagine, I actually said to the lady on the phone - it would seem you are really only interested in closing this case, so lets do that and put each other out of the misery. She keenly obliged! I am 52 yrs of age, have extensively travelled for 35 yrs of my life, have worked about 25 yrs in the airline industry, and am utterly ashamed that this breed of 'service professionals' represents the industry that used to pride itself on customer care and memorable travel experience. It's nothing short of heart breaking that this is what our icon airline has come to - AN ABSENT LANDLORD.
... Jane ... "
