Best way of complaining to BA.
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Best way of complaining to BA.
I booked a ticket with BA in Denmark. Unfortunately they decided to charge my credit card 7000 GBP instead of 7000 DKK, the exchange rate is around 8 to 1. This of course destroyed my current account and I am looking at some fairly hefty interest charges, I am just lucky that the bank has not stopped my cards.
I would like any advice on how to word the letter to customer services to get the interest repaid. Should i suggest that upgrading my outbound flight would make me a bit less annoyed, or let them guess? Who is it best to write too? Is there a legal angle, breach of contract etc?
It is a real shame as I like flying with BA.
I would like any advice on how to word the letter to customer services to get the interest repaid. Should i suggest that upgrading my outbound flight would make me a bit less annoyed, or let them guess? Who is it best to write too? Is there a legal angle, breach of contract etc?
It is a real shame as I like flying with BA.
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Just call reservations, they should be able to sort out the payments if there has been an issue straight away. I am sure there is a local number.
Otherwise go onto BA.COM and do a bit of research. All the info is in there!
Good luck with it!
Otherwise go onto BA.COM and do a bit of research. All the info is in there!
Good luck with it!
You should contact your bank or CC company and explain the situation to them. I'm sure they would withdraw any charges which were debited from you through no fault of your own.
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I have actually called reservations, twice. They promised to return the excess amount, on Monday I will find out if the second call worked better than the first. 
They say I have to contact customers services to see about getting back the bank charges caused by there mistake. I just want to know if there is a good way of phrasing the letter to show that I am serious, but not to annoy the poor person who has to deal with complaints all day.
I am very shocked that this sort of error can occur on what I assume are fully automated systems. Not as shocked as I was when I got the letter from the bank!
I have talked to the bank and they wont wave the charges but they are allowing me to keep using the account even though it is several thousand pounds overdrawn.
They say I have to contact customers services to see about getting back the bank charges caused by there mistake. I just want to know if there is a good way of phrasing the letter to show that I am serious, but not to annoy the poor person who has to deal with complaints all day.
I am very shocked that this sort of error can occur on what I assume are fully automated systems. Not as shocked as I was when I got the letter from the bank!
I have talked to the bank and they wont wave the charges but they are allowing me to keep using the account even though it is several thousand pounds overdrawn.
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If this is a credit card you can dispute the charges - ie no fees to be paid , interest or impact to your credit rating or limit.
Call then Send an email/fax to the credit card company and tell them to investigate the error as this is between the merchant and the bank.
Until resolved this amount should be put aside. Have done before with Visa, Amex etc and also usually ensures the merchants reply to be very quick but does take 2-3 weeks
Call then Send an email/fax to the credit card company and tell them to investigate the error as this is between the merchant and the bank.
Until resolved this amount should be put aside. Have done before with Visa, Amex etc and also usually ensures the merchants reply to be very quick but does take 2-3 weeks
Time to change your bank! And be sure to inform them why! I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know the finer legal points here, but as I see it, your bank is penalising you for something which occured outside your direct control.
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Having worked in BA Customer Relations where I had to deal with strongly worded letters every day, I don't think you should necessarily worry about 'annoying' them as such.
Basically, BA are at fault and should refund the amount that they overcharged. However with regard to fees and interest, the airline will claim that this is out of their control - which in effect it is as it is a consequential loss - so therefore they will not compensate for that. What they will do, if you ask them, is provide a statement of what happened so that your bank will refund charges.
As for wording, just stick to the facts with a request for assistance but leave emotion or threats out of it. It probably wouldn't hurt to address it to Willie Walsh. If you have an exec card, include the number. Include your phone number as well, as they are prefer to call people rather than write as it is helps resolve cases quicker. Hope I've been of some help.
Basically, BA are at fault and should refund the amount that they overcharged. However with regard to fees and interest, the airline will claim that this is out of their control - which in effect it is as it is a consequential loss - so therefore they will not compensate for that. What they will do, if you ask them, is provide a statement of what happened so that your bank will refund charges.
As for wording, just stick to the facts with a request for assistance but leave emotion or threats out of it. It probably wouldn't hurt to address it to Willie Walsh. If you have an exec card, include the number. Include your phone number as well, as they are prefer to call people rather than write as it is helps resolve cases quicker. Hope I've been of some help.
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Best way of complaining to BA.
I booked a ticket with BA in Denmark. Unfortunately they decided to charge my credit card 7000 GBP instead of 7000 DKK, the exchange rate is around 8 to 1. This of course destroyed my current account and I am looking at some fairly hefty interest charges, I am just lucky that the bank has not stopped my cards.
I would like any advice on how to word the letter to customer services to get the interest repaid. Should i suggest that upgrading my outbound flight would make me a bit less annoyed, or let them guess? Who is it best to write too? Is there a legal angle, breach of contract etc?
It is a real shame as I like flying with BA.
I booked a ticket with BA in Denmark. Unfortunately they decided to charge my credit card 7000 GBP instead of 7000 DKK, the exchange rate is around 8 to 1. This of course destroyed my current account and I am looking at some fairly hefty interest charges, I am just lucky that the bank has not stopped my cards.
I would like any advice on how to word the letter to customer services to get the interest repaid. Should i suggest that upgrading my outbound flight would make me a bit less annoyed, or let them guess? Who is it best to write too? Is there a legal angle, breach of contract etc?
It is a real shame as I like flying with BA.
If you did it on BA.com it normally calculates the fee in local currency by using the country you chose when you first used the site. Unfortunately it stores this as a cookie and whenever you go on the site again with that computer it'll automatically choose that country again.
I found this when I used my laptop to book flights from different countries you need to be real careful to make sure the final figure is quoted in your currency. Not saying this has happened here but it's something to watch out for.
As for contacting BA, if you paid by credit card it's probably going to be much less hassle to get in touch with the card provided and let them sort it out. If you paid with your current account debit card then I don't think you have the same protection and will need to write to the address below (its still worth checking with the bank to see if they can help).
Denmark
British Airways
Customer Relations
Postfach 28 61 18
D-28361 Bremen
UK
British Airways
Customer
Relations (S506)
PO Box 5619
Sudbury
Suffolk
CO10 2PG
Tel - 0844 493 0 787 (from the Uk)
Hope this helps a bit at least
p.s. I double checked the Denmark contact and it is correct even though it's just over the border in Germany
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Thanks for all the responses.
Yes my Danish Visa card is effectively a debit card, so the money comes straight out of the current account. I will hassle the bank on Monday, normally they are very nice and understanding.
As this was a part air mile cash ticket it was priced in the currency of my home region.
It is good news about customer services being in Germany, my wife is German and is a Pro at complaining (quick check that she can not read this
)
Edit: Money now nearly back in account Just waiting for it to clear
Yes my Danish Visa card is effectively a debit card, so the money comes straight out of the current account. I will hassle the bank on Monday, normally they are very nice and understanding.
As this was a part air mile cash ticket it was priced in the currency of my home region.
It is good news about customer services being in Germany, my wife is German and is a Pro at complaining (quick check that she can not read this
)Edit: Money now nearly back in account
Just waiting for it to clear
Last edited by NotDanish; 20th Jul 2009 at 07:56.
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Hope the situation gets resolved quickly NotDanish - it should do.
For Fargoo and others - NotDanish did say in his first post that the money had left his current account worse for wear, so if people read this post properly they should have been able to assume he paid on a debit card!
As he paid by Visa card, he shouldn't have an too much of an issue getting the money back - part of the Visa scheme is something called Visa Chargeback, which works in a similar way to credit card protection on both Visa debit and credit cards. Obviously it depends on how it's applied in that country, and also the knowledge of the person you speak to at the bank, but it's reassuring to know you're not completely at a loss when you use a Visa debit card
For Fargoo and others - NotDanish did say in his first post that the money had left his current account worse for wear, so if people read this post properly they should have been able to assume he paid on a debit card!
As he paid by Visa card, he shouldn't have an too much of an issue getting the money back - part of the Visa scheme is something called Visa Chargeback, which works in a similar way to credit card protection on both Visa debit and credit cards. Obviously it depends on how it's applied in that country, and also the knowledge of the person you speak to at the bank, but it's reassuring to know you're not completely at a loss when you use a Visa debit card
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Straying off topic a little, but it sounds as if the Danish credit card system is not like we understand it in the UK. The Netherlands is similar in my experience. My bank there issued a Mastercard, but debited the amount on it automatically from my current account every month, with no facility (as far as I could tell) for me to decide whether to pay it all off or not. As such you had to be pretty careful how much you put on your card so you could try and guess how big a hit you were going to get. Upshot was that I generally used the debit card on my account, or even my UK credit card (if I reckoned that the hit on the exchange rate would be less than the hit in interest charges if my NL account went overdrawn).
Back to topic: a tank on the lawn at Waterside might get their attention!
Back to topic: a tank on the lawn at Waterside might get their attention!
Again, slightly off the specific topic. But, as others have mentioned, it's always best to make written complaints: a) as concise as possible; b) as accurate as possible; c) as unemotional as possible; and d) ending with what you actually want by way of recompense or action. If you can manage to be a touch light-hearted (without sarcasm!) than may help too. Though it's sometimes difficult to believe from the responses you get, you are writing to regular human beings in the "Customer Relations" department...
A story from nearly 20 years ago, flying from JFK to LHR on BA.......... to cut a very long story short, the flight took over 24 hours, via Montreal! Now, not everything that went wrong was directly in BA's control- but their handling of the various delays, calamities, misunderstanding, false starts and stops was lamentable at every level. By chance, I had as reading material a copy of the Harvard Business Review - in which there was an article by Colin Marshall called (something like): "BA's 7 Golden Rules of Customer Service". Well, that night, BA did the precise, diametric opposite of each of the 7, with great relish.
So I wrote to Sir Colin himself, pointing out (on a single page) that he really should run off a few copies of his excellent thoughts and actually give them to his staff.... He wrote back - the man himself - saying, "It's a fair cop!" and asking me to call his office to get a free ticket for my trouble......
AGB
A story from nearly 20 years ago, flying from JFK to LHR on BA.......... to cut a very long story short, the flight took over 24 hours, via Montreal! Now, not everything that went wrong was directly in BA's control- but their handling of the various delays, calamities, misunderstanding, false starts and stops was lamentable at every level. By chance, I had as reading material a copy of the Harvard Business Review - in which there was an article by Colin Marshall called (something like): "BA's 7 Golden Rules of Customer Service". Well, that night, BA did the precise, diametric opposite of each of the 7, with great relish.
So I wrote to Sir Colin himself, pointing out (on a single page) that he really should run off a few copies of his excellent thoughts and actually give them to his staff.... He wrote back - the man himself - saying, "It's a fair cop!" and asking me to call his office to get a free ticket for my trouble......
AGB
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For Fargoo and others - NotDanish did say in his first post that the money had left his current account worse for wear, so if people read this post properly they should have been able to assume he paid on a debit card!
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An unreserved apology to you Fargoo. I certainly wasn't having a go at anyone, just trying to be helpful - I had misread the first post; because he mentioned his current account i thought he meant he used a debit card. And his later post explaining that his Danish Visa card was effectively a debit card didn't really clarify the matter! This is one of the problems with this forum - it's main users are from/in the UK!
Glad you've (nearly) got your money back NotDanish!
Glad you've (nearly) got your money back NotDanish!
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My experience with BA refunds recently is that after the 2 months of chasing them to refund a credit card payment where they had charged me twice for the same ticket...
They will tell you it is 'processing' then the payment is only then made at the end of that particular month, hence in my case they held onto my money for a further and unacceptable 3 weeks?!
I should further add I received no further compensation for the £15 in credit card interest that had accrued during the entire time of this issue
For once I did not pursue I really could not be bothered and was far too busy at work to continue the aggrevation (very unlike me...must be getting old)
BA dont do 'customer service' any more not at a pax or at travel agency level...
They will tell you it is 'processing' then the payment is only then made at the end of that particular month, hence in my case they held onto my money for a further and unacceptable 3 weeks?!
I should further add I received no further compensation for the £15 in credit card interest that had accrued during the entire time of this issue
For once I did not pursue I really could not be bothered and was far too busy at work to continue the aggrevation (very unlike me...must be getting old)
BA dont do 'customer service' any more not at a pax or at travel agency level...
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Just to say that BA has agreed to repay the interest charges due to the overcharge.
I have to say I was very surprised and pleased with their response.
Maybe it is better to complain outside of the UK.
Thanks for all the ideas.
I have to say I was very surprised and pleased with their response.
Maybe it is better to complain outside of the UK.
Thanks for all the ideas.
Paxing All Over The World
In years gone by, American friends of mine got considerably better service from BA than friends living in the country. The BA Miles scheme also rewarded them better. So much so that, one friend here, relocated himself to friends in the US, as far as Exec Club were concerned. He got metter milage rewards for a number of years, before they started to cut it all back.
Without raking over all the details NotDanish, it is very curious that your bank process the charge without checking that it was correct. In the UK, my bank would not permit me to go overdrawn in such a manner - they would have bounced the charge. Now that, of itself, would have produced a penalty payment that I would have had to reclaim from the merchant involved but it would not be as problematical as having a 700/7000 error trash my bank account.
Sounds like BA have done the decent thing.
Without raking over all the details NotDanish, it is very curious that your bank process the charge without checking that it was correct. In the UK, my bank would not permit me to go overdrawn in such a manner - they would have bounced the charge. Now that, of itself, would have produced a penalty payment that I would have had to reclaim from the merchant involved but it would not be as problematical as having a 700/7000 error trash my bank account.
Sounds like BA have done the decent thing.
