I do not hesitate to recommend stuff or places whenever I have good experiences with them. But at the same time, I will not hesitate to share not so good experiences.
As I have not updated for a long time, here's my new list:
PHILIPPINE AIRLINES
This may not be a surprise for some as there have been a lot of horror stories about this airline. Though how tear jerking their viral video in FB, it will not diminish my hesitancy in flying or dealing with them ever again. Odd though that whenever I fly using PAL for work-related instances (or at least for local or Asian destinations), I never had any problems. But this incident really takes the cake.
For my 40th birthday last 2015, my mom booked me a flight to LA to celebrate with my twin sister at Las Vegas. On my second day in LA, we learned that my uncle in NY passed away. There were plans of moving my flight from LA to JFK and postpone the LV trip. But we decided to push through with the LV celebration.
On the night before my departure back to Manila, I tried checking in but could not. We found out that I was supposed to fly from NY instead of LA! Apparently, my mother's secretary rebooked my flight, but since we decided to push through with LV, we did not pay the rebooking fee. However, PAL still rebooked the flight without the payment!
But it did not stop there. When we asked them to return the booking back to LA, they wanted me to pay $495 for the rebooking. Though how much we argued, they would not budge and since I wanted to fly out so badly (and I was by myself!), I paid for it. When I got home, I filed a complaint and fortunately got a voucher for the same amount, 11 months after. I asked it to be transferred to my mother which they readily did.
This morning, I called their hotline so my mother can use the voucher and the person who managed to assist me had to consult with different people before my query could be accommodated. Moreover, she gave me incorrect information wherein she said that the voucher can only be used upon booking of the flight at the airport. I argued with her that how can we do that when the security won't let her in without the flight booking? Adding fuel to the fire, they wanted to know how I came about with the voucher--and I had to rehash everything all over again.
Ending, we still cannot use the voucher as only my mother can use it. Even if she will be booking with a companion, the voucher can only be credited to her airline ticket. I can understand this but getting to this answer really taxed my patience.
I do give credit to the customer service person who assisted me earlier because she was friendly and called me back immediately to give the correct information but it resurrected the negative feelings I had with them before.
Lesson learned. Try to avoid PAL at all costs unless left with no other choice.
LAZADA
Lazada's inventory can be quite impressive. However, you really have to read the fine print when you buy from them.
I recently bought a maternity top from them last October. However, it turns out that it's not available locally and it was shipped from abroad. When it arrived, I tried it on but though the size is right, the sleeves were too tight.
I tried returning it but they called me back to say that they cannot accept the return as it's from an international merchant. I guess I got used to ZALORA that accepted my multiple returns that Lazada's reason really disappointed me.
Lesson learned. Read the fine print before buying an item and check if it will come from abroad or sourced locally.
GOODS.PH
Their site was included in a list of top 5 shopping sites in the Philippines. I purchased three items from them on the last week of October as I wanted to give them as gifts for Christmas. After a month, I still did not receive the items so I filed a complaint. Though they were prompt in answering emails and giving me feedback, I cannot figure out why my items were so delayed.
They were kind enough to give me a refund although I can't understand why the bank teller is saying that my account number could not be found. I sent proof of the existence of my account number to belie their claim.
Lesson learned. Go to other shopping sites instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment