Two Cases of How NOT to Conduct Customer Service- Dumb Marketing Move

I have had two very bad customer service experiences earlier this year, one by Air Canada, and one by Bell Canada. Both were atrociously unresponsive, right from the CEO's office in the case of Air Canada, and from the PR Department of Bell Canada.

With Bell Canada regarding me potentially setting up a mobile service with them. It took about 7 weeks for the matter to be resolved and get canceled.


My extraordinarily bad customer service experiences with Air Canada started when I just returned from Shanghai to Toronto on Air Canada. Not a single piece of luggage was offloaded for 123 minutes. I received my bag after waiting 168 minutes while many other waited longer. Apparently this is a routine occurrence. So I lodged a complaint as to why it routinely takes over 2 hours for a passenger to recover their luggage from a flight from Shanghai to Toronto, which occurs daily! This is still not resolved months later, even after talking to the President's office.


What would I have done at CEO ?

Well, for Air Canada, as Chairman of the Board, I would have fired the CEO and his PR minions, then beefed up the baggage handling staff at Toronto Airport by about 50%.

As for Bell Canada, as CEO I would have fired the PR people and closed the Call Center in India, and replaced all the Marketing and Customer Service people in Toronto.

Yes, it is a few months later, but these two disastrous experiences, by two of Canada's supposedly top companies, still makes my blood boil for various reasons:

1.As a Canadian, I want them to do better.

2. As a CEO I am disgusted by their overall mismanagement.

3. As a Marketing person I am dismayed by their total lack of ability in Marketing, PR, and Customer Service -- they do not know the meaning of the words Customer Service.

4. As a Customer who complained about these on the above grounds, and as a result of suffering from their bungling ineptitude, I am dismayed and left dissatisfied by the entire experience -- which I shall always remember. They are two cases of how NOT to conduct customer service. And I shall repeat these cases to millions of people in my books and speeches so that others might learn from them.




Frank Feather, President
Future Trends, Canada
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