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Poor Is An Understatement!


This was a simple case of changing the flight time of a ticket. Had a ticket booked for next day at 7am By 8pm, client calls, asks to postpone the flight for 2pm. I call Arik and the horror starts. First few calls don't go through despite me being in an area with good coverage. Further calls: I get the automated message, putting me in the cue for a good 10 to 15 mins then the line drops. This happens around 3 times.  Had a ticket booked for next day at 7am. By 8pm, client calls, asks to postpone the flight for 2pm. I call Arik and the horror starts....

Details of Experience Shared
  • Name is the name of the product or service? Arik Airline
  • How will you describe your experience? Poor is an understatement 
  • Please share details of your experience. This was a simple case of changing the flight time of a ticket. Had a ticket booked for next day at 7am By 8pm, client calls, asks to postpone the flight for 2pm. I call arik and the horror starts. First few calls don't go through despite me being in an area with good coverage. Further calls: I get the automated message, putting me in the cue for a good 10 to 15 mins then the line drops. This happens around 3 times. Then 30 mins later, someone answers. I make my request, they ask me to pay an additional 3000 naira. Fair enough. But I have to do it at the airport or at an Arik air office. Mind you, it's 8pm, all Arik outlets are closed in Abuja where I'm based(which I inform the customer service officer). He then proposes to go to Lagos airport (that's a 12 hour drive for me from Abuja) and if I want to send anyone in Lagos, it would take them a good 2h. By then, airport will be closed. I tell them that and ask if I can pay online or by transfer. Negative, that's the only option, says the officer. I start getting worked up, because even if I want to send anyone to go to lagos airport the following day, they need to wake up by 4am, to make it on time at 6h30, change the ticket (if there are still seats available because Arik refused to save one for me), go back home (2 more hours), rest for 2h, then drive again 2 hours to get to the airport on time and fly. This was absurd, yet the officer, although apologetic could still not help. When I demanded to speak with a manager, I was told he's busy. I then waited a good 20 mins (no manager is that busy!) Line drops again. I call again, find the person I was talking to, manager is still busy. I then make a deal with him to transfer the funds to his personal bank account and he would ask a friend to change the booking the following day. This was absurd! 1) It's 2018 what airline forces you to drive for hours to just change the time on the ticket? 2) How come Arik's phone line are so bad and why do they have so few operators? 3) How come the manager was that busy? Are there no other managers? This is also not the first time I can't catch a manager at Arik.
  • Will you buy this product again?  If I have to, yes. But Arik is my last resort now. I always check all other airlines before. I even pay more to fly on other airlines. 
  • Will you recommend this product to others? Not even my worst enemies!
  • How can this product or service be improved?  Improvements? Get some serious customer service training, change their processes, invest in softwares, make the experience easy and seamless to clients, fix their phone lines, get a manager on the phone within no more than 5 mins of the request

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