Cebu Pacific! Worst in Customer Service.

To start off, I want to share to you guys my ugly experience with Cebu Pacific while I was booking a flight with them on their online system. Below are my correspondence with them and Raffy Tulfo (he gave me the opportunity to air out my grievances against the said airline, on-air through his radio program). 

June 25, 2010

To whom it may concern;

       Good Day! I normally use PAL for my flight and travel needs but recently, I read an article by Raffy Tulfo dated 06/18/2010 in one of the free newspapers I got. The author gave your flight attendants a Very Good rating as far as customer service is concerned, so when I read this, I decided to try your service out coz I wanted to experience the great things he listed on the article. I booked a flight with you for our trip on December 22, 2010 from Naga to Manila on your 13:30 trip. I booked this for myself and another person. Given that I don’t use credit cards, I was happy to see that you accept Bancnet payments. I tried to use that option using a CityState checking account. When I went thru that page, the portion of your website where I can enter the checking info had an error message which prevented me from processing my payment. Therefore, I refreshed the page but got kicked out of the booking process. I searched for the promo fare again but to no avail, none were available anymore. 

       I went back on your website again last 06/23/2010 at around 11:30AM and found that your promo fare was again available on the date I wanted so I went ahead and booked it again. This time, I chose to pay it thru BDO deposit. There were no instructions there on what info I have to use to perform the deposit but there was an option for my flight details to be sent to me via sms. I admit I mistakenly took the sms option as you sending me instruction of what info I need to use to perform the deposit (e.g. bank account name and bank account number). I waited and waited but had no time to call your hotline since I was at work the whole day. I only had the time to call at around 11:30pm and it was already the cutoff so I spoke with your reservations agent that had Mistika as her last name and asked for at least until the next morning to hold my promo fare reservation. She was very apathetic and unapologetic and gave me no recourse but to book a much expensive flight. I sensed that I won’t get the assistance I needed from her so I asked for her name and asked where I can file a complaint. She gave me guest services number and told me it’s the number of customer service. 

       The following day, I called the number but it wasn’t working, so I decided to call the reservations hotline again. I called at around 10:30-11:00 Am on 06/24/10 and got another rude, apathetic, condescending and unapologetic agent who kept on cutting me off as I explained what I need. She was argumentative and a huge BITCH at that (I am sorry for the language, I just can’t control myself for the experience I had with her on that call). Her attitude infuriated me that I wanted to complain. I asked for her name and instinctively, she cut me off without giving her name and rambled about her placing me on hold for a couple of minutes to check the website and prove that I am wrong and that there were indeed instructions on what number to use to make the payment. Hereunder, I have attached print screens of your booking process, to show that nothing there on your web gave any hint to use the confirmation number as the bank deposit number. How was I to know? It never crossed my mind coz nothing online indicated that. The girl placed me on hold for more than 50 minutes which further fueled my frustration. I decided to place her on hold yet surprisingly she came back on the line. Good thing I was able to return on the line when she was about to deliver her spiel and disconnect me. I was so mad that I asked her why it took her that long to check your website. She shrugged my complaint off and told me that Cebu Pacific website was very slow. She also told me that the number given to me by the agent last night was not customer service and that you don’t have a customer service hotline, only an email. I felt so frustrated and felt like I was treated like a stupid fool. The lies and the attitude was my breaking point so I shouted at her to get me her supervisor and give me her name not realizing she already disconnected my call. My nerves and blood vessels were throbbing due to the stress she caused me and I was shaking in anger. I am normally polite over the phone but to be treated like the lowest of the low is unacceptable. To be treated like a dead beat and to be lied upon is very demeaning. 

       Furthermore, disconnecting a call from a customer is the worst thing an agent can do. It’s disgusting! Your reservations agents are the hardest people to work with and the worst to do business with. They all have attitudes and lack customer service skills unlike your flight attendants. Throughout this ordeal, none of them ever apologized to me except for the last agent I spoke with after the girl who disconnected my call. With this, I decided to book with PAL. Indeed they are expensive but at least they couple it with excellent customer service (I take this back after my recent experience with them which will be presented on my next blog entry). You do have one of the cheapest fares in the country but I never thought you would sacrifice good customer service because of that. I will never ever deal with your company again. No wonder my aunt won’t use your company. I will CC this to Raffy Tulfo and if I were to grade your reservations hotline, I will give them a failing grade, the lowest at that. I hope the head of Customer Service, Mr. Gao, would take some of his precious time to read this and review the calls of your hotlines. They need to be retrained or replaced. You shouldn’t hire people with attitudes fit for slacking government employees. Binabarubal nila mga customers ninyo and they are willing to throw your business to your competitors. I hope you can contact me on this matter and would greatly appreciate a prompt response. I hope this would serve as a wake up call to your agents who don’t treat your customers very well just because they are availing your promo fares. Thanks for your time and have a great day!

Sincerely,

Ralph

I sent this letter as an attachment to Mr. Raffy Tulfo and the coverletter read:

"Good Day Mr. Tulfo! First and formeost, let me just say I love what you and your brothers are doing as far as the public service you deliver and justice you extend to the poor. Kudos and Keep it up.

On an entirely different note, I read one of your articles last 06/18/2010 about cebu pacific which prompted me to try out their services. I use PAL like yourself and wants to look into saving from airfare by looking for cheaper alternatives. You convinced me to use them with the details you listed about your most recent trip. I was optimistic that i will have the same experience as you did but unfortunately it was the opposite. I was just in the reservations process when I already experienced major inconveniences and headaches brought about by their reservations agents. Good thing you didn't have to go thru what I experienced but I just want to share it to you. attached here is the complaint I sent thru their website. Thanks for going thru this email. more power to you and God Bless!"

I was shocked when Raffy Tulfo replied. Below are the email correspondence we had at that time. I had to remove our emails for privacy and security purposes. All along, I sent a copy of our conversation to Cebu Pacific. 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From:Raffy Tulfo
To: Ralph
Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 5:19:07 PM
Subject: Re: Shooter article 06/18/2010 cebu pacific rated VG

Dear Ralp,
Thanks for your e-mail. i'm so sorry about your bad experience with Cebu Pacific. My conscience really bothered me when you said that your decision to try to fly with Cebu Pacific was influenced by my article in the Commuter Express praising them in high heavens. I would like to make it up with you. If you can only e-mail me your contact number so I can call you up and do a phonepatch telephone interview with you in my radio program Wanted Sa Radyo on DZXL so that you can air your bad experience with them. I will also interview the corporate communications people of the airline to get their side. I will wait for your reply.
Thanks and mabuhay.


----- Original Message -----
From: Ralph
To: Raffy Tulfo
Cc: customerservice@cebupacificair.com
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2010 10:42:36 AM
Subject: Shooter article 06/18/2010 cebu pacific rated VG



Good Day Mr. Tulfo! First and formeost, let me just say I love what you and your brothers are doing as far as the public service you deliver and justice you extend to the poor. Kudos and Keep it up.
On an entirely different note, I read one of your articles last 06/18/2010 about cebu pacific which prompted me to try out their services. I use PAL like yourself and wants to look into saving from airfare by looking for cheaper alternatives. You convinced me to use them with the details you listed about your most recent trip. I was optimistic that i will have the same experience as you did but unfortunately it was the opposite. I was just in the reservations process when I already experienced major inconveniences and headaches brought about by their reservations agents. Good thing you didn't have to go thru what I experienced but I just want to share it to you. attached here is the complaint I sent thru their website. Thanks for going thru this email. more power to you and God Bless!

Ralph

After the exchange of emails, A representative from Raffy Tulfo's office did got in touch with me and we set up a phonepatch interview with the head of marketing of Cebu Pacific. No resolutions were offered though and no further feedback or apologies from them were received. I just decided not to book with them anymore unless if they have a zero seat sale. And if ever you book with them, just go to their ticketing office instead of calling their hotline.