Re: UKNM: lastminute.com does delight its customers!...NOT:-)

[Paul Bessant]

Brent,


Having watched comments go backwards and forwards about your company, I 

have thus far withheld my own disappointing experience.


However some of your comments make me to believe that you may not be fully 

aware of the level of service that you were not providing

over the "festive" period, particularly in relation to your more 

traditional competitors !!


Here goes my own experience...


Late on December 29th I spotted and tried to book two return tickets to Los 

Angeles for the bargain price of �97 each + tax. Having

registered for the site and placed my order, the site popped up a window 

asking me to call yourselves directly because of how

lastminute the flight was, no problem?


But,

This is when the problem began.... I called at 10am on the 30th when your 

"call centre" opened and was on hold, at my expense for over 1 hour calling 

from Leicester (my home) to London. After 1hour 9 minutes (yes I did time 

it !!) I finally gave up and left a voicemail message.

I also followed this up with an email to

urgentlastminute [dot] com

 (from my 

home account

paulbessantnetscape [dot] net

 if you'd like to check). Both avenues 

are as prompted by the pre recorded message whilst on hold.


This was all completed at around 12:00 noon on the 30th. Having heard 

nothing from you at  4pm onwards on the 30th and on 6 or more occasions on 

the morning of the 31st I tried to call lastminute again...only to find the 

line mostly engaged !! ...although I did manage to leave one, maybe two 

messages begging by this point to be called.....Well the first one was 

begging the second was starting to

get angry !!


  >complaint rate of less than 1in every 1000


I wonder what it would have been if people could have got through?


Anyway,

Not only was I becoming irate but I was having problems with the hotel & 

car that I had on hold, pending being able to secure the flight.


In desperation I went into a Co-Op travel store in my local shopping centre 

to ask what price they could get me LA for...and to my

pleasant surprise I was quoted the same price of �97 each + tax. Great !!


The only problem was that the tickets were 30 miles away in Derby and the 

flight was the next morning by this time. No problem for

Co-Op travel...one of their staff drove from Derby to Leicester (at NO cost 

to me) and delivered the tickets to me at 5:30 pm on the 30th.

1 1/2 hours after I first walked in.


I then went home emailed Best Western Hotels to confirm my hotel in Santa 

Monica, emailed Dollar Renta car to confirm my car and

went on to have a great New Year's eve in the US !!


So Brent as you can see I personally would have to disagree with your 

comments, particularly about...


  >We clearly fulfil a role for them that no one else can do

  >we clearly enable people to be spontaneous and help them live their 

dreams at unbeatable prices.  So no hype here!

  >We have the best last minute flight fulfilment service of any company 

that I know

  >Did anyone try and find out where they could order a flight for new years eve

  >Other sites were not fulfilling over this period

  >I very much regret that one potential customer had a bad experience!


And one final complaint....


  >We normally respond to email within 2 hours and phone calls with 1 minute


I received a call from one of your team at 7pm on the 30th December ...31 

hours after my first message was left...

...even worse one of your team replied to another of my voicemails from the 

31st December YESTERDAY 5/1/2000 at 4pm !!


..And incase your wondering in every message I made it clear that I wanted 

to fly on New Years eve....



That's about it...end of chunter :-)


Have a nice day...


Paul


At 15:25 06/01/00 +0000, you wrote:

 >As I have read with interest the comments on lastminute.com, I thought I

 >should respond as the managing director of lastminute.com.

 >

 >The issues relate to product offering, flight fulfillment and customer

 >service.

 >

 >1) Product offering.  Our range, depth and ability to sell our products and

 >delight both customers and suppliers grow exponentially every month!  Its

 >very exciting and rewarding to see suppliers reactions and surprise at how

 >much product we can shift for them at short notice.  We clearly fulfil a

 >role for them that no one else can do.  Even more rewarding is to see the

 >steady stream of emails from customers who are thrilled with the service.

 >Whether we have saved their honeymoon, millenium eve, anniversary, theatre

 >evening, date, parents evening, valentine - we clearly enable people to be

 >spontaneous and help them live their dreams at unbeatable prices.  So no

 >hype here!

 >

 >2) Flight fulfillment.  We have the best last minute flight fulfilment

 >service of any company that I know of.  Did anyone try and find out where

 >they could order a flight for new years eve - on new years eve or even on

 >Xmas day - we had a very dedicated customer service team coping with an

 >unprecedented flood of customers at this time.  Other sites were not

 >fulfilling over this period.  They simply closed up!  So no hype here!

 >

 >Regarding having to pay to have a ticket delivered on the day - one customer

 >had to pay for a courrier for same day delivery.  If airlines dont allow

 >tickets on departure or etickets then this is the only option open to any

 >company.  It is a measure of our commitment to lastminute delivery that we

 >offer this service to our customers whereas others dont!

 >If anyone has any great suggestions on how to do this better we would love

 >to hear from them!  We have a fantastic team of bright dedicated people and

 >are constantly striving to offer the best service anywhere to all our

 >customers - so we welcome CONSTRUCTIVE criticism!

 >

 >3) Customer service

 >

 >I very much regret that one potential customer had a bad experience!  We do

 >everything we can to delight our customers and happily we do a very good job

 >at that.

 >With our same day delivery service on Christmas Eve for example we had a

 >complaint rate of less than 1in every 1000 !  still a bit too high for my

 >liking. But I am sure everyone involved in New Media Marketing would admire

 >the fact that we were the ONLY company the UK offering same day fulfillment

 >in the Xmas rush and this service really demonstrated how ecommerce

 >companies can delight their customers.

 >Our email and customer service team have grown significantly and really do

 >excel in providing first class customer service. We normally respond to

 >email within 2 hours and phone calls with 1 minute.  If there is an

 >unprecedented peak in demand then we may not be able to do this for very

 >short periods of time.  However we have put processes in place that will

 >increasingly enable us to offer even better customer service.  Its an area

 >that we take very seriously and really go out of our way to ensure that all

 >customers have a great lastminute.com experience. So no hype here!

 >

 >In light of all the very real steps that lastminute.com is making to provide

 >a world class service and help the UK ecommerce industry become a global

 >force.  I feel it is worthwhile making the above points.

 >

 >We very much appreciate constructive criticism - but are also very aware

 >that favourable press coverage will only encourage negative comments.  This

 >is why we work even harder to ensure there are no chinks in our armour and

 >that no one has any cause to complain.  lastminute.com had a fantastic 1999

 >because it offers both customers and suppliers a great service.  There is no

 >hype in our office only a very real focus on results!

 >

 >

 >

 >Brent Hoberman

 >Co-founder and Managing Director

 >Last Minute Network

 >4th Floor

 >Park House

 >116 Park Street

 >London W1Y

 >

 >http://www.lastminute.com

 >The first place to look at the last minute!

 >

 >

email : brentlastminute [dot] com

 >

 >do something

 >lastminute.com



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