A friend forwarded this to me
It is lengthy and interesting, but would have been unbelievable but for the facts cited

"A Case Study on Customer Service,
It's only in our beloved country that this happens without an ensuing law suit.
God help us!

From: Anthonia Opara
Sent: 31 August 2010 15:44
Subject: A FLIGHT EXPERIENCE ON ARIK AIR

Flight Ticket
By Mr. Akaninyene Inyang
Dear Mr. Brunner: First of all, I want to thank Mr. Dele (Supervisor in Arik Airways New York office) who took my call on 09 August 2010 . Per our conversation, I am following up that phone call with a formal letter of complaint regarding my recent experience on Arik Airways.
I have included with this letter a copy of my ticket on your airline, flight 108 and 107, flight cancellation notice given to passengers at Lagos International Airport. Also included with this letter is a copy of my New York itinerary with appropriate email confirmations from orbitz and Delta Airline Ticket & Invoice. Below is a written account of my experience as explained to Mr. Dele over the phone:
On 5th August 2010, my daughter (3 years old) and I arrived Lagos International Airport from Calabar (local airport in Nigeria) at 1730hrs to board a scheduled return International flight to JFK New York with Arik Airways (Arik Air 107). We were informed (alongside other passengers) that the flight was canceled due to aircraft technical issues. We were told to return the next day for a tentative flight that was scheduled to depart by 1800hrs. The Arik Airways Airport Manager, Ms. Adaobi Molokwu then told us that Arik Airways will not provide accommodation & feeding for passengers and will not be liable for connecting passengers who will miss their connecting flight in New York JFK due to the flight cancellation. Ms. Molokwu was extremely uncooperative in assisting passengers or addressing our concerns. The same attitude was exhibited by other Arik Airways staffs that were present. One pregnant Arik Airways staff member said "when we the passengers were tried of complaining, we will return home". They ignored us, while they all stared at their computer screens. They would not respond to many of our questions. This lack of concern from Arik Airways airport management and staff, angered the passengers greatly and resulted in several heated exchanges. Due to all the frustration from them ignoring us, I became vocal and demanded answers to our concerns by turning the computer monitor away from the closest Arik staff. This led to the staff member jumping to his feet to start a fight with me and the other passengers. In the process I was shoved into a 3ft wide X 4ft long window, which broke and injured me. I was bleeding heavily from my right hand. The commotion inside Arik Airways office alerted the Nigerian Aviation Authority, so they came to find-out what was going on. Arik Airways did not provide any medical treatment for my injuries, the Aviation Authority were the ones that called in a paramedic to clean my cuts.
The Aviation Authority on arrival calmed all of us down and moved all passengers including Ms. Molokwu, to their office and we commenced dialogue for the first time since the ordeal began. During the meeting, Ms. Molokwu still insisted that Arik Airways will not provide accommodation but the Aviation authority reminded Ms. Molokwu that it is the responsibility of the Airline to provide accommodation for all passengers in situations like this. Ms. Molokwu was forced to oblige and agreed to make accommodation available. However, once we were outside the Aviation authority's office, Ms. Molokwu decided to provide accommodation to passengers that could prove that they entered Lagos airport via a transport mode that originated outside of Lagos . This decision further infuriated the passengers. After several rounds of another heated argument between passengers and Arik Airways Staffs, some of us were finally taken to a sub-standard hotel at about 2200hrs. We were reminded that our flight would depart the next day by 1800hrs tentatively.

The next day 06 August 2010, a bus picked over 30 of us from the hotel, and we arrived the airport at about 1500hrs. When I tendered our U.S. passport (my daughter & I) to the check-in staff, he turned it over to another man that was standing with Ms. Molokwu, who confiscated them. He walked up to me accompanied by Ms. Molokwu and introduced himself as the person in-charge of Arik Airways security. He commanded us to hand over our luggage to him and then follow him. At that point Ms. Molokwu looked at me and my daughter and said "I am going to teach you a lesson". They took us away from other passengers to a secluded room. While there I was informed by the Arik security officer that a compliant was filed against me for damages to the company's property. He then told me that I had to pay the equivalent of $1,200 USD (180,000 Naira, Nigerian currency) before we could fly. The Aviation authority official present reminded him that this case was settled yesterday during the meeting we had but the Arik Airways security staff insisted that Ms. Molokwu had lodged a fresh compliant. We were detained for about 3hrs without access to food, or water. Our luggage was taken away from our sight, our passport was held as ransom for us to pay the alleged damages to Arik Airways property.

For fear of my 3 year old daughter becoming too traumatized from the stress we were going through, I offered to get a guarantor for them but Ms. Molokwu accused me of trying to run away by playing tricks on her, she then said she will not let us get away. The Aviation Authority personnel then pleaded with her to be merciful and understand that we are still her customers and that she was making a mountain out of a mole hill. Seeing her rigid position, I then offered to pay her with my credit card but she outwardly laughed at me and said that Arik Airways 'does not use credit cards'. She said she will only receive cash from me. I reminded her that I used the same card to buy my ticket but she replied by saying that it was done on the internet and not in the office. I scrambled and came up with $700 USD and offered it to her but she turned around and said I was wasting her time. I looked down to my daughter and I could see the pain she was going through. She was uncomfortable throughout our stay in the hotel the previous night, she refused to eat any food offered, and now we were under detention for daring to ask for our right as air passengers.

Out of compassion, Mr. S.M Mamman (Aviation Authority Secretary) gave me $500 USD of his own money (as a loan) just to free us from the abuse Ms. Molokwu was meting out to us. Mr. Mamman however made Ms. Molokwu promise to put us on the flight leaving by 1800hrs for JFK as a condition for receiving the money. She agreed but after her security officer took the $1,200 USD, she then said that It was no longer possible for us to make the 1800hrs flight. I requested a receipt of payment for what she claimed I had damaged but I was told that the agent that gives out receipts was not available. She (Ms Molokwu) then said we had to stay behind and join another Arik flight on Sunday 08Aug10. I requested to be put on a Delta flight that was leaving in 4 ½ hrs but they just ignored my daughter and I. Ms. Molokwu walked away and left us behind with her security officer. I then enquired if it was okay now to release our passport to us which he did. They left us to cater for our transportation and lodging needs. Not one staff of Arik management apologized for all the trouble they put us through; rather we were treated as criminals.

I then took my daughter to Delta booking office and paid $4,397.43 USD (with the same credit card Ms. Molokwu refused to take) for a one way ticket from Lagos - New Orleans . I was reliably informed by another passenger Mr. Verem Turugty who was also a witness to our ordeal at Lagos, that the Arik flight that left Lagos at 1800hrs, arrived JFK by 2330hrs on 07Aug10. Most of the passengers on that flight including him ended up sleeping at the airport due to the arrival time and the lack of out-going flight from JFK at that time. This was further compounded by the lack of Arik Airways representative at JFK to attend to passengers needs. Mr. Turugty told me that he could not find one passenger on that flight that was pleased with the treatment they received. On his part he is willing to testify to the accuracy of the account of event I have narrated.

This is the first time I have flown with Arik Airways. Our departure Flight on 19Jul10 was about 2hrs late to depart JFK, which meant that, our flight was late in arriving Lagos , Nigeria . We ended up missing our local connecting flight with Aero contractor to Calabar. We were stranded in Lagos that night and had to pay $233 USD to acquire another flight the next day for Calabar. The cancellation of the return flight on 05Aug10 meant that our connecting flight from New York - New Orleans was missed, which cost us $299.80 USD to purchase. The stress and strain this ordeal has taken on my family is unimaginable; my wife was on the phone all night & day on 05Aug & 06Aug and was forced to take 2days off from work (losing over $750 USD in revenue plus cost of local/international calls), talking with different travel agents trying to arrange flights for us. My parent's in-laws and parents in Nigeria were very worried about our fate especially when they couldn't reach me by phone while we were under detention. Financially we are at a loss of over $7000 USD plus the pain and suffering we have experienced. My 3 year old daughter told my wife on our return that "she does not want to visit Nigeria again". Her statement broke my heart because she was very excited to see her grand parents before our departure. I don't know what my wife and I will do to help her get over the psychological damage she went through, we are also at a loss reggaerding how to recover financially and emotionally from this sad event. I will never wish this experience on my worst enemy.

Thank you."


A commenter added this

"We all have our various unsavoury experiences with this airline. They have the worst customer service culture I have ever experienced.
I was once on a local flight where a cabin crew insulted a female passenger(with children) and to my dismay proceeded to report to the pilot who came out of the cockpit to announce he was delaying the flight for 15 minutes as a sanction."

Please note Arik's ad in today's ThisDay

“We lose N120billion to Foreign Airlines Yearly”
- Dr Harold Demuren

……help stop Capital Flight

Fly Arik Air, Truly Nigerian

Hopefully Arik will get rid of Staff such as Ms Molokwu, if they really want to keep 'capital' from flying out of Lagos/Nigeria! LOL!

If ur friend is interested in pursuing this, no body likes bad press, he can choose to run a half or full page newspaper advert.

I have had three flying experiences with Arik on local route and the whole three experiences left sour taste in my mouth. I have issues with two corporate brands in Nigeria- Oceanic bank and Arik air. If you want to court heartbreak with your money, try any of these.

Their service at PH airport is horrible. They need to sort out the bottlenecks always existing at the check-in and ticketing stands. They are always complaining about network being down.

If this is true, it is so sad.

With poor customer service like this, why should a company wonder why its not doing well?

This is horrible!!what father and daughter went through!!!that Ms molukwu should be sacked and the complainant should slam arik with a lawsuit!!!!

@Poster. The only people who have not had a dose of Arik's consistently and continuously deterioriating customer service are those who do not fly local or international, because as long as you fly around Nigeria or outside, you're most likely to fly Arik. I have had several experiences with them too, but this is the worst I ever heard and it's worh a lawsuit, IMHO. I was suppossed to attend a meeting in Lagos in August from Port Harcourt, only to get to Lagos and I was told that my luggage was left behind in Port Harcourt, because I did not identify the bag. As usual, I was not the only one affected. Not to talk of several hours of flight delays without the slightest apology from Arik. Sometimes in September, I had to miss a LOS-ABV flight because it was rescheduled from 18.00 hrs to 15.00 hrs and I was outside Lagos State then.

My recommendation is that you run an advert in a popular newspaper and hire a young lawyer seeking relevance. That migh teach them a lesson. I also believe FAAN is giving Arik some undue advantage and leverage over other airlines. For instance, Arik is usually the first airline to fly to Lagos, Abuja and PHC from most airports. This gives persengers little or no choice. We need to give Aero Contractors, Air Nigeria, and even the smaller ones such as Dana Air, Chachangi the same level playing ground to do business.

Employees like Ms Molokwu should be selling cray fish in Ogbaru market in Onitsha. They wasted money going to school, I believe.

@poster.
Sue their ass.
Give them bad press.
We have heared too many of arik's staff misdemeanor.bad peeps like ms molukwu will run chief Ikhide's down if not sacked and sanctioned.

i experiencd their awful customer service from heathrow airport london to nigeria on the 22nd of october 2010 and swore not to patronize them again.

All airlines in Nigeria do have their problems but that of Arik is way too much and their main problem is with their incompetent staff and poor customer service.

We don't suffer for this country.

that is horrible

Arik's Horrible Customer Service is tooooooooooooooooo much

@




















































@tesohunt or what u call ysef,
u r very rude and lack a tiny bit of manner to post yor useless moni making scheme on someone else;s thread when u could have easily start yor own.
there is a serious issue that need contribution frm those that care , reason y this thread was initiated and buffoon like u peddling pyramid scheme that will collapse b4 its birth. msheeew.

@Poster
You have a good case so you need a good lawyer to fight Arik Air because Arik can afford to hire the best Legal team to defend her!

Pathetic how nigerians undermine the importance of customer service. For a service company like airline n banks, this is unfortunately not an option, yet even nigerian branches of multinational firm ruin the entire reputation of d brand because of its inadequacy to curtail the excesses of nigerians unruly behaviour which is reflectin in their work place. Where is professionalism here, nigerians take everything personal. I blame the mangement because they feel its not necesary to invest in staff trainning. Unfortunately the public is sufferin for it. What a shame

I'm yet to fly arik but with i'm reading here, im certainly going to avoid the airline unless im forced to- at gunpoint.
Arik should match its phenomenal growth with decent customer service or else,
A single word of advice/threat is sufficient for the wise and that word should multiply exponentially in his/her mind.

Ooopps!!!
What goes around, come around
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-563962.0.html

I was to fly from PH Airforce base to Lagos yesterday 16th. The flight was for 5:05 pm later changed to 7:05pm. I got to the Air force base at 3:30pm and was told by an Arik staff the plane will now fly from PH internetional airport.
On a normal day with PH traffic it could take you 2hrs to go from PH to the international airport.
I asked the Arik staff how I was going to get to the international airport. I was told to complain to the a manager. After wasting my time complaining he said there were no vehicles to take passengers to the international airport.
I found my way to the airport after realizing the "manager" had to idea of customer service.
The plane finally arrived at about 9pm.

I have had similar change of boarding location with Aero but at least they provided a bus with police escort to take passengers from Airforce base to the international airport. Also on a different incident aero refunded my money back to me , even though they did not refund the insurance I never used.

Why should I ever flying arik again?

I flew on Arik last Christmas and it was not very pleasant. Arriving from Accra to Lagos, I needed a flight to Owerri so that I could reach my village in Umuahia. Arik had a flight going to Owerri at that time, but the customer service is horrible. They are rude and they do not know how to treat passengers. It is quite sickening.

Arik Air, I pity the owner(s) of the airline cos there bunch of incompetent staff will be there undoing. i have flown arik several time (locally and internationally) and one very obvious characteristic of theirs is they NEVER, i mean NEVER keep to time, infact i think apologizing for the delay is something they say almost everyday. and we complain Nigeria is not progressing, a lot of things (people) need a re orientation in this I hope the owners get to read this and get rid of all the "Ms Molukwus" they have on their payroll.

@poster if u can get a good lawyer, a lawsuit isnt a bad idea

If you have have experienced BAD, POOR or TERRIBLE Customer Service in any industry in Nigeria, You Can share your experience with millions of Nigerians all over the world.

C-Panel Nigeria is a platform where Customers Discuss on Issues of Customer Service in Nigeria and ways to improve them.

Join Us Now! To Help Improve Customer Service In Nigeria.

Join Our Group On Facebook. www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=99357476106

Website: www.cpanel-ng.com

Prepare yourselves for continuing declines in customer services for most air travel , not going to get better , although airline safety may improve despite shrinking margins for aviation concerns

For me its either the story is untrue, I say untrue because he narrator did not say that he has informed his lawyers. considering he is based in America when they are aware of their rights and are ready to sue for the smallest of things or the person involved is the coolest cucumber on earth, that gets slap on the right cheek and turns the left. If I was the one, I would have taken my $700 then go and get some boys from the Igbo joint at Ajao Estate to come and give the workers at the Arik office maximum shishi(beating).

Aero Contractor's customer service is another horrible one. I had a very bad experience with the aero contractor station manager in kano on a return trip from kano on the 11-01-2011. The guy is a horrible fool, he lacks sense of management, no good customer service and he is totally zero.  Aero is doomed with people like the kano station manager in their management crew. I will never fly aero contractors again.

kenmaro:

Aero Contractor's customer service is another horrible one. I had a very bad experience with the aero contractor station manager in kano on a return trip from kano on the 11-01-2011. The guy is a horrible fool, he lacks sense of management, no good customer service and he is totally zero.  Aero is doomed with people like the kano station manager in their management crew. I will never fly aero contractors again.

Trekking from Kano to lagos will improve your health