JETSTAR NO 1-2-3

A MESSAGE TO THE JETSTAR CEO, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Good evening David

I’m typing this email on my 12 year-old son’s laptop. As fate would have it, I left my computer – the 11 inch MacBook Air that I use to run my business – on one of your planes on Monday afternoon. Careless in the extreme, I understand that, and accept full responsibility.

However, what made me even more nauseous than the loss of the laptop, was the response I received from your people on the ground, when I notified them (first thing Tuesday morning) of my oversight.

As you’d expect, I did the rounds, starting with the Gold Coast Airport, Jetstar staff on the Coast, then Baggage Services, then Queenstown Airport (lost property), back to Baggage Services. (Goodness knows where they’re located, but clearly far enough away for a matter of this nature not to make it onto their radar). That “Service” is outsourced I gather? Suggest you might rebadge it “Baggage” – get rid of the “Services”, because David, there ain’t no service. There isn’t even a lot of English – at least English that I can understand. I appreciate the case for outsourcing must be compelling, on countless financial fronts, but let me tell you, from a Customer “Service” and Brand perspective, it’s damaging in the extreme, even for a Budget airline operation like Jetstar.

I’d identified my oversight within two hours. I was able to provide the Flight No (JQ 194, Queenstown to Gold Coast, departing 1.30pm March 7, arriving in Qld 2pm ), my seat number (1E), the exact description and location of the lost item, next destination (return to Queenstown) even the names of the hostesses, (Nikki and Rachael – both terrific) who looked after us on the flight.

Yet of the 6-7-8 (I eventually lost count) people I spoke to, not one was even willing to listen, let alone suggest a course of action that I could pursue to retrieve my belonging, beyond the usual “hope and pray”. Just flick it onto somebody else, comfortable in the knowledge that the pest on the other of the phone would buzz off, and find another light bulb to torment.

Not that I expect you’ll be interested David, but the laptop housed two important pieces of work – one a book that I’d been working on for seven months. The material was backed up on another computer, which fatefully, had copped a full glass of water across it’s keyboard a week prior. It’s not much use now either, but at least I can still look at it.

I’m sure David, that you and your staff receive “correspondence” and “feedback like this all the time – whinging customers, apportioning blame, and refusing to accept the consequences of their own careless mistakes. I assure you, that’s not the case in this instance.

My intent is simply to relay a personal story, a story which might help your people, wherever they might be domiciled, understand the implication of them not giving a shit.

Print it off – stick it up in the lunch room. Perhaps sometime in the future, the culture of Jetstar might change. Who knows, you might even be able to rebadge that crack “Baggage” team you currently have working for you – seamlessly slide the word “Service” back in.

Thanks for listening, now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lot of professional time to make up.

PS: Next time I fly Jetstar, whenever that might be, I won’t be contributing to Starkids World Vision, the charitable initiative that helps position the airline as a corporate entity with a social conscience. WTF is that?

Yours sincerely

michael blucher