Nigerian consumers still very much short-changed

It was on Monday that I saw a post on Facebook by Pelu Awofeso, the publisher of Wakabout, a tourism magazine. I became curious and clicked on the link to read more about Tolu Ogunlesi’s experience flying Arik Air.

In his report titled ‘Saving Nigerians from their airlines’, Tolu detailed his experience at the Abuja Airport on a return flight to Lagos. What I found most intriguing about the story was that passengers didn’t get on the Lagos-bound plane until midnight! What manner of journey, you’d ask, for a flight that was supposed to take off initially at 7pm?

Hear Tolu: “I got to the airport at 6pm, got my boarding pass, and waited for the boarding announcement. I expected we would depart sometime between 7pm and 8pm. At 7pm, an announcement came that our flight was going to be delayed by two hours. (The 4:40pm flight to Port Harcourt, we learnt, hadn’t left, and this was already well after 7pm; boarding for this didn’t eventually start until about 8pm.) At 9pm, another announcement came. Another delay, this time to 10:45pm…. It was from them I heard that the plane that was coming to pick us to Lagos had just left Port Harcourt, en route to Abuja. I made quick calculations. This was 10:40pm. Port Harcourt to Abuja was 45 minutes. So, it’d have landed in Abuja at about 11:30pm, and then, taken off for Lagos at midnight, allowing 30 minutes for disembarking and boarding. We would therefore be landing in Lagos at 1am! At that point, I decided I was not going to fly out of Abuja at midnight. I was going to return – at my own expense, of course – to Abuja, and try again the next morning. (The flight did eventually leave that night; I have no idea how passengers made their way home from the airport at such ungodly hour of 1am.)”

In a society where things work, the passengers were supposed to be duly compensated for this. Some people often argue that this is Nigeria, but I beg to differ. What makes Nigeria different from other countries of the world? A few months ago, an aunt’s Qatar Airways flight from Dubai to Lagos was delayed. All the passengers were put in a hotel. I also read a story on the Daily Mail of UK where Sainsbury’s customer on a phone call was asked to end the call by a staff of the store before she could be attended to. The customer took up the case and in the end she was given gift vouchers as compensation. I don’t understand why Nigeria’s case should be different.

It is high time the Consumer Protection Council stepped up its game and enforced laws to protect the interest of the Nigerian consumers. As consumers, we cannot afford to be short-changed at all times. We deserve the very best of customer service. At least, we are spending our hard-earned money. Below is an email I received from a concerned reader:

 How Dana Air messed up my appointment

On June 24, 2013 I booked and paid for a 07:02am Dana Lagos-Port Harcourt flight (confirmation no. DVWKB3) against June 27. On 25th, at 10:55am, I received an SMS to the effect that “Dana Air regrets to announce a time change in your flight Los-Phc on 27 Jun 2013 to 10:53am…” At about 9am on 27/6/2013, I went to the airport for check-in formalities, only to be told by Dana Air officials at the counter: “There is no flight to PH.” I demanded to see the most senior Dana personnel on duty. I was referred to the head, Ticketing, Miss Uju, who invited the station manager and showed him my handset which contains the first SMS informing me of time change from 7am to 10:53am. Both officers could not offer any explanation as to the reason for the flight cancellation without notice to me and other passengers.

As the Uju was making contact with Dana customer service to ascertain the reason for the cancellation, the station manager vanished from the scene. However, Uju managed to explain that Dana aircraft which went for “C’’ check had returned to the country but was awaiting NCAA’s final clearance. I told the Dana official that the rule demands that passengers should have been informed earlier. I further told her that as aviation stakeholder, I know my right, reminding the airline representative that if I were the one who missed the flight, I would be charged for “no show”, an amount sometimes twice the initial cost of the ticket.

At this stage (10am) I stormed out of their office, only for Dana to send me an SMS at 10:21am: “Dana Air regrets the cancellation of flt 9J 345 out of Los today 27th June…” Meanwhile, I have collated the names of 22 passengers who were not given prior information on the cancellation of that flight.

To embark on that trip, I could only buy a Med View ticket for 5pm which arrived in PH by 6:25pm, by which time I could not proceed to my ultimate destination from Port Harcourt. I have various options available to me to seek redress for Dana Air’s nonchalant attitude and for messing up my appointment.

Victor Arisa

chijiarisa@yahoo.com

By: FUNKE OSAE-BROWN