Ms. ******,
You have reached Air Canada Vacations. This confirms that we have received your correspondence.
Air Canada Vacations’ commitment is to respond to all customers’ concerns within a timely manner following receipt of a letter. Your file will be assigned to a designated representative at Customer Relations. Our current processing time may take up to 8 weeks. You will receive a written response once their investigation is completed. It is not necessary to contact us again. We will do our utmost to respond at the earliest.
We thank you for your understanding while waiting for a subsequent response.
We thought - ok - they are going to look into it....lets be patient and wait and see what is done in response to our concerns.
The NEXT day (September 18th) we get a letter back from Vivianne saying the following:
Mrs. ******,
We have reviewed your correspondence. We can certainly appreciate the inconveniences you may have experienced with respect to the overbooking of flight AC1820 leaving Montreal en route to Varadero on November 22nd, 2008. Allow us to explain that as a tour operator, flight operations (delays, cancellations, rerouting, overbookings, etc.) remain beyond Air Canada Vacations’ jurisdiction. We are unable to provide you with any explanation and/or information regarding that situation as we do not have access to Air Canada’s records. We have therefore forwarded your letter to Air Canada’s Customer Relations for their response. A representative from their service will respond to you directly.
Should you wish to contact Air Canada directly, their email address is: www.aircanada.com/customerrelations.
Thank you, Mrs. ******, for taking the time to write. We hope that your next travel experience will be pleasant and carefree.
Relations Clients - Customer Relations
They obviously didn't even take the time to read the whole letter which went on to explain that our problem was not with service interruption of flights....but all of the problems that we had afterwards! We even quoted their terms and conditions line where they say they will do whatever they can to make a situation right even if it is not their fault.....and that they are responsible for transportation directly to the resort!!!
So I wrote back that same day:
Mrs. Angers,
Overbookings may very well be beyond your control as a tour operator; however, our problem lies in the blatant, continued disregard for the level of service required thereafter and our over all well being.
I quoted several of Air Canada Vacations terms and conditions stating Air Canada Vacations will take measures to correct the issue even if it in their error, and in your response you are saying the exact opposite.
I hope to hear back from you soon with a response that is relevant to the several complaints and concerns that I had NOT with Air Canada flights – but with Air Canada Vacations and its customer service, or lack thereof.
Only to get back SEVERAL days later (September 24th) a carbon copy reply of the first response:
Madam,
We regret to read that our response was unsatisfactory. As per the procedures, we have reopened your clients' file for further review.
Your file will be assigned to a designated representative at Customer Relations. Our current processing time may take up to 8 weeks. You will receive a written response once their investigation is completed. It is not necessary to contact us again. We will do our utmost to respond at the earliest.
We thank you for your understanding while waiting for a subsequent response.
What is going on over there!!!!! First they say they are going to investigate, then they pass blame, then they reply back with the same response that they are going to investigate...again!
Maybe I am being harsh, but I sincerely feel as though this is simply not good enough for a national travel agency and I feel as though I am going to take it a step further.
Wish me luck - comments and story sharing are welcome - my goal is to prevent more people from having to pay good money to be neglected and treated like garbage.
Travel agents don't care after they have taken the $$$, but do make a nuisance of yourself as NOTHING AT ALL will happen if you don't keep chipping away at them, go higher than the 'customer service' clerk, they only answer your questions from a drop down menu, they won't really read your issue, as they don't care, ask for the name of the CEO, they won't give you a direct email address, but they will give you a physical address and the executive staff with read your issue and respond generally in your favour, to make you go away (or as they call it 'in good faith', which is not accepting any guilt at all), BUT you get what you want. Other than that, good luck, but don't relent.
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