Emirates airline has a culture of excellence its staff fit into
A Nigerian delegate to Rio+20 UN Conference forgot his camera on an Emirates flight to Dubai as he connected a flight to Brazil through the city. On his way from Brazil through the same route, he reported his lost camera to the Emirates’ crew. Within minutes of making his informal report, he was handed a package containing his camera. It had taken some eight days for him to make that report, but professionalism, integrity and the trust associated with even the most basic of airline services came through. Emirates airline put a smile on the face of this Nigerian who based on my experience with Arik Air Nigeria must thank his stars.
My own case pales to Chinese woman Mary Chen whose luggage was ransacked altogether as valuable jewelleries were made away with on her Arik Air flight from Lagos to Abuja. This is a reality that resonates with many Arik Air passengers. While it is almost impossible to get justice with these carriers, I’ll document all the cases here for reference purposes. The difference between Emirates Airline and Arik Air is not in that one employs people of integrity and the other does not, the difference is in their corporate culture. If Emirates employed a thief today, he’d never steal from Emirates passengers. Stealing is not in the Emirates’ corporate culture!
I boarded this Arik Air flight from Abuja to Lagos 16th June, 2012 to connect an international flight. The flight scheduled to depart at 14:25 eventually left just around 15:00, which is a relatively good time considering the fact that delays of over 6 hours are the norm these days. First off, we couldn’t find where to sit as the cabin crew informed us that it was ‘free sitting.’ I wondered why the order guaranteed with seat allocation was discarded for the chaos of “free sitting.” Most of the passengers were not pleased. During the flight, I read a book and discussed an article I was working on with my friend Azeenarh. She encouraged me to get started with the article already. At this point I picked up my ipad to write, trying to imagine what happened in the last minutes of the Dana Crash. I had done some 500 words when the pilot announced that we were almost landing and all the routine of sitting upright, putting out electronic equipment meant that I had to stop using the ipad. I put the ipad in the seat pocket right in front of me.
On arrival in Lagos, I helped Azeenarh with her bag which was under the seat in front of her, while others in the usual style rushed to go out. We took our time and eventually alighted from the aircraft. When we got to Allen Avenue, I realised I had left my Ipad in the aircraft. We quickly dashed to the airport and we were fortunate to find out that the aircraft that brought us was still on ground. We finally met one Lanre who was in charge of complaints as mine – “Lost and Found” is what they call it. “Lost and Gone” would be more apt based on my experience. His friend asked him in Yoruba if he had seen anything and he mumbled something which I didn’t hear. I didn’t like the fact that they were even speaking Yoruba in mumbled voices at this time and I told Azeenarh the comportment of the staff best compares with that of Lagos motor parks. Lanre went and came back and said “they saw the ipad and put it inside your bag.” Of course that could not have happened. How could you have put an Ipad in my bag when the ipad was not tagged? How did you know which bag to put it in? While we were arguing about this, he left to attend to other passengers who had even more interesting complaints. Mary Chen as stated earlier had travelled from Lagos to Abuja (Flight W3 155, 11:45 June 12, 2012) to lodge a complaint. She found out that her jewelleries (gold trinkets INCLUDING her wedding ring) inside her jewelry box had been stolen. She had checked this box in and it was obvious someone had found a way to open the bag, steal her jewelleries and left the bag as if nothing had happened. There were other people with complaints of theft as Mary noted when she made her complaint the first time.
Asked about making a report, the Arik Air staff with phone number 08077791490 (the official number for complaints such as mine and Mary’s) said there was no form to fill, there was no superior to talk to, and that just verbally telling him was enough. Essentially there was nothing to document the complaints. Why should someone who made a report a week after he had lost something just as valuable as my ipad, have his lost good returned to him within minutes of asking and I who made my report within 90 minutes of forgetting my ipad has to force Arik Air to do the needful? Lanre said they found the ipad and put it in my bag; that established the fact that the ipad was at least found. Emirates found the camera and kept it in place for the owner who claimed it on his return journey a week after. Arik Air found my ipad and claimed they had put it in my bag. The difference is why you can check in your luggage on Emirates airline and connect flights around the world and be sure they can be trusted to take care of even your lost good. With the other, your luggage is in danger on even a flight as short as Lagos – Abuja, even in a locked box like Mary’s.
I will be posting more reports on thefts such as this for now and would give special preference to Arik Air stolen goods reports.
PS: I was at the Arik Air Lagos local airport office yesterday. The crass man who now manages “Lost and Found” could not stop shouting at Azeenarh as I had left when he said they did not have my ipad. He boasted to her that if he had known I was the Japheth Omojuwa that was tweeting, he’d have asked to have me arrested. He never stopped shouting at Azeenarh. Whatever I did about this issue until now is nothing compared to what I will do in the coming days. Until I have my ipad returned, [email protected] is where I will be collecting reports of passengers pissed off with Arik Air. I will publish EVERYTHING. I am waiting for that arrest. Until then, they must enjoy their twitter trends for all the wrong reasons for now. It is the least I could do for a tool that served me well for fun, business and everything in-between. My online presence has drastically reduced; it has financial implications in itself. Now, Arik Air must pay too!
The hashtag on twitter is #ArikAirWhereIsMyIpad
Comments
Powered by Facebook Comments
While I sympathize with you about the loss of your iPad and the bad way you were treated by Arik Air I disagree with some of your assertions. Stealing is NIGERIAN culture. If you run a business, you would understand what I mean. I would not state whether stealing is Arik’s corporate culture or not, but it is Nigeria culture and so the Nigerian responsible for stealing you iPad might not even be Arik Air staff. A plane is cleaned when it lands. Cleaners etc might be responsible. Arik Air is still responsible for that though.
Secondly, bad customer service is Nigerian culture and thirdly, the Chinese lady might have misplaced her jewelry box if there was no sign of breaking and entering.
I support your activism. Continue to make noise and if Arik Air compensates you, do not stop. We need to wake up our businesses before they die….
@Babatunde- if d arik staff nt responsible or knows nothng abt it, y den say it was put in d bag?? A simple “we’ll look into d matter” would have wrkd beta dan his clumsy explanation!
Babatunde,your statement “Secondly, bad customer service is Nigerian culture…” is on point! We have a very bad customer service. I am with Omojuwa on this. Make more noise.
@Edun,Nigerian baggage handlers will unlock your bags no matter the type of padlock you use..Rogues all of them..
Very very good Omojuwa. Do we pay for bad services and theft? The sooner we begin to fight back, the better for us as Nigerians. Many have suffered same but accept it as the norm, it is their responsibility to produce the iPad, well they can claim otherwise because they announce “please remember to take all your personal belongings before leaving the aircraft”. Fortunately the young man made that statement useless by confirming it was found. Ride on Omojuwa, no more suffering and smiling!
@Edun,you clearly haven’t read through the lines of this story in a digestive manner,its clear that the organisation itself does not have a customer service policy,how could they not have forms for complaints,why hire or have a person who has no manners interphase with your customers?So Arik has to face the full consequence of this unfortunate incidence,and if they are serious about their business,then they should clean up the mess this has caused.Remember that how a customer is treated is often what determines if an organisation succeeds or not.@Omojuwa please ride on,I sense this might be an avenue to set up an initiative that trains organisations on world class courtesy!Think about it.
Omojuwa keep up the advocacy. We have kept quiet for too long, that’s why these co’s believe they can treat customers and get away with it. Arik should find a solution or just repalce the ipad even though d stored contents cannot be restored
i sympathyze we u,not they can do 2 pay u bt return ur ipad.many have got there self in the same shoe u fund urself,thats y we said keep up,voice of the voiceless
I’m with u Omojuwa, we should not wait till an unaccompanied minor is ‘misplaced’.
Omojuwa, have you tried to use the “Find my Ipad” service to locate your ipad?
The first time I saw the tweets about your missing Ipad, I didn’t like the fact you were “giving” Arik Air a bad image. I felt “return & go ask for your Ipad” but after all this time & reading your story now, I think it’s worth it. Common courtesy & empathy could even have helped instead of them lying that they put it back in your bag & also shouting @ you or your friend. Please, shout the more. I’ll re-tweet each time I see a tweet on the issue. Some things just have to stop in this nation & it must start with us
This is shameful,look at the impression they have given that chinese woman about nigerians now!!…pls sir don’t stop even if they replace your ipad(cause am very sure it wil be replaced not found),their lack of remorse and empathy for your loss is appalling.
Well done Omojuwa. This so called ”Naija factor” has been Givn me headache. It must change NOW. Keep on tweetin…
i stopped flying Arik a long time ago bcos of bad services, i booked a flight for 2.00pm for my mums burial we did not take off till 10.00pm no apology no explanation
Why won’t they be insolent even to those passengers they rip-off on daily basis to enrichj their insatiable interests. A worse addition to national stigma! Shame! Incurable Crooks!they must pay tje price. Simple!
arik air….return/replace omojuwa’s ipad!
Its not only Arik’ Local’ dat does it even Arik international is worse I had same experience last year wiv dem Lagos-London its same story most bags were opened and valuables gone so let’s make Noise @ Omojuwa so dat their Management would be aware. Thanks for the good work
Omojuwa keep up the good work,I think its time we all start doing the same thing, when we av issues like this wit any org.let always bring it to d pubic so pple will know ao to protect themselves against such treatment.
I was lured to fly arik because of their new jets, alas, their services is worse than poor! I paid a return ticket to kaduna,despite the delay on the lagos to kaduna flight without apology or explanation, we weren’t airlifted from kaduna back to lagos for over 8 hrs! We were later told to go to abuja for our flight, no one, I mean no one of their staff bothered how we’re going to get to abuja,nor show any sign of remorse, or offered us any reason to believe they’re doing something for us, we’re just left stranded, unattended to, wondering & wandering. we’re told its bad weather whereas other planes are taken off! We have to find our ways to abuja. At abuja, arik staff with disdain took our booking sheet, crossed it and told us to proceed for boarding. till date,no one ever apologise for the neglect & breach of contract. walahi, no one! Arik, wake up to the international best practices,majority of us flying your airline are veteran air travellers, we’ve seen the world!
Omojuwa, don’t stop the noise (and the advocacy) even if they find your ipad or buy you a new one.
Fact is, many Nigerian companies – airlines especially – treat their customers like wet rags. I bought a ticket last Dec 23rd to fly from Abuja to Lagos. The flight was scheduled to take off at about 11am, according to the ticket I bought. I needed to be in Lagos for a 2pm appointment.
Upon checking-in a few minutes to 10am, and walking away from the counter towards the waiting area, I took a cursory look at the boarding pass. You can imagine my horror when I saw I had been checked in to a completely different flight which was to take off at nearly 5pm! I initially thought the lady at the check-in counter had made a honest mistake but the look of disdain on her face as I approached her to lay my complaint, confirmed I had been arikly scammed.
All my pleas, proddings, threats, et all, that I couldn’t afford to miss my 2pm appointment, found no listening ear or compassionate heart with any of the extremely insolent Arik staff. I eventually found out I wasn’t alone in this deceit and breach of contract by Arik Air. To cut a long story short, Arik Air did not get us to Lagos that night until way after 10pm!
Needless to say, I didn’t make the appointment and had to convert my trip to a social visit. And no single apology or explanation was given!
We may not be able to sue them for horrible service but we sure can raise enough hell to alert as many other intending passengers as possible.
Babatunde, I disagree with you that stealing is Nigerian Culture, stealing in Nigeria is never a culture, I could remember those days when our parents will be selling goods in the village without putting anybody there, the goods will be there with price tag and passer-by will buy and drop money. That’s an attitude of an average Nigerian. Politician brought stealing to Nigeria and that’s why we have to fight corruption even with the last drop of our blood. Omojuwa, ride on, Nigeria must flourish again.
@Omojuwa…while you are at it, you need to make contact with people at Otigba (Computer Village) pending when it shows up for re-sale.
But on a serious note, 70% of baggage handlers @ our airports are cheap thieves but I have a feeling that senior Arik Air staff members colluded with themselves to hide the ipad. if not, why the lie about putting it into his bag. SMH!
This is highly unprofessionalism in the part of arik airline. I don’t want 2 belief that this company as bad culture but may b they’av employ bad employee and so i urgh the management of arik to see to this in time cos a business with bad service wil nt last longer cos the only thing we sell in business in good service.
Mr. Omojuwa, can’t go to court because he knows airlines are not liable for unchecked luggage and unverifiable claims. That’s just the rule worldwide. It’s like the demonstration the cabin crew put up before the flight where you are told to wear your life-jacket before helping anyone, you pack your luggage before you help someone else. When there was a serious problem with loss of luggage on South African Airways, fingers were pointed at non-staff, this is worse, a case where a fellow passenger could have picked it up. The “staff” who claimed responsibility for the missing item must however be a numbskull and should perhaps be the one to produce it. How did he identify the owner of the Ipad that wasn’t tagged? This incident is not peculiar to Arik, my dad has had his luggage sent to Los Angeles instead of lagos on BA and it took all of 3 weeks to get it back and it was still not complete. I know we have a culture of non-service in this country and while i sympathize with Omojuwa, I suggest we be objective. Maybe you could try going to their head office
In as much as i sympathised with Omojuwa on his lost i beg to disagree with Babatunde Edun that stealing is Nigeria culture!.I have had an experience where i lost my camera in a taxi in Abuja while going to watch Nigeria’s match with kenya.After 24 hrs , the driver came to the hotel he picked me and gave me my camera back!.There stealing is an individual thing, in london, usa and other developed countries people shoplift.The problem we have is the our laws are not implimented when people are caught doing such.Going to the police to report will make u spend more than the worth of the product stolen.Therefore this encourages stealing and corruption.The only way out is total reorientation and strengthing of our criminal guiding laws through immediate punishment to offenders.
Arik is a dubious organisation, A colleague of mine booked and paid online for two tickets to Ghana in January 2012, The flight was cancelled some few hours to the flight and my colleagues had to go with another airline because of the importance of the trip(they were going for a training).Till today Arik has not refund his money its about 100k,
he has called , complained , Wrote series of letters and yet ARIK refuses to pay him back. We need to report stuffs like this on online forums maybe this will force organisations like ARIK to be responsible.
Tnx for the info Omo, I wil neva fly Arik evn if it’s the last option.
Sir, you need to contact Apple with your iPad serial nos. (that is if you know it) and as soon as someone tries to sync your iPad, they can shut it down. Or try the app Find iPhone if you have your iPad registered.
As for Arik, they should do the simple business deal and buy you a new iPad. Best of Luck.
Its so sad after working so hard to make ur life valuable and be able to some other things that are necessary in life, u end up being cheated by either poor services or ur fellow country men. Omojuwa I believe ppl like you can put an end to so many things not just only a stolen ipad. May god help you in your line of persuasion.
This sound pathetic but am not suprised cos Arikair is the most inconsistent airline in Nigeria. I have a refund complaints with the same airline since Dec. 2011 yet to be resolved despite various mails and tweets. I was to fly from Abuja to Uyo and the service was scheduled for 14:20, God willing we did not depart for Uyo until 20:45 without any announcement by the airline for the delay.
Most Business organisation in Nigeria lacks good customer relations approach, that is why they don’t celebrate a decade anniversary.
I applied for the position of Customer Relationship management some times ago (Arik Air) because of the passion i have for the job, my training, experience and academic qualification on the field but such will usually be given to unqualified applicant through jenetorial recruitment method.
When you settle for mediocrity what you get is average performance.
Providence will never forget this thieves (They most pay!)
This explains it better. The last time I used Arik from Lagos to London, I found my boxes in tampered with…I thought it was rough handling, but now I understand better…About stealing culture in Arik Air, I would rather say its not only about Arik, but a phenomenon that cut across businesses in Nigeria (what they call ‘runs’) and to me, stealing from employers or customer is nothing but a thieving culture.
Many friends I have that have business in Nigeria always complain of staff stealing regardless of how much you pay…because they want what the owner of the business can’t even afford themselves…It all boils down to addressing our materialistic culture
Bad customer service has become the norm in our business environment. It just has to stop! I do not pay good money so that I can be insulted.
Arik seem untouchable. Their customer service is very poor. That is the complain all over. Thanks to godfatherism
Good!Gone were the days you fight so hard for your rights and couldn’t be heard.Its high time we brace ourselves to keep on toes to sustain a better society and business etiquete.Arik return Omojuwa’s ipad b4 we storm you
Now this is the NEMESIS they deserve. Please do not keep quiet until you get justice.
This story is a pitiful story. When you plan to travel, you want the best means of transportation. Air travel should be more attractive ‘cos you spend your resource to make quick business. Air Air? Hmmm! I bought a ticket Lagos-Kaduna only to discover that the date is a day after. i had to use another airline and dashed my friend the ticket. What the hell is happening. Two years ago, I travel by Arik Air to Sierra Leone, and at the Lungi Airport they told us to pay airport tax ‘cos Arik Air never remits to Sierra Leone. What a life? What a business? Please shout louder until you get your iPad.
Ride on omojuwa. I will retweet any of your tweets on this subject matter
Arik Air stole the iPad, period. Don’t be suprised that the Airhostess that picked the iPad took it to the “lost but found” office but that greedy fellow now turned it to his own so that he can sell it at Alaba market the next day. I hope you locked your iPad with passcode so that it will be totally useless to the person that stole it.
Omojuwa I totally agree with you, I had similar experience on Arik flight; my phone got stolen. I realized at the arrivals hall before I got back to the plane, my phone was gone. This happened less than 20mins on disembarking the plane. They tried to pin on the passengers but, I was the last passenger off the plane so that excuse didn’t stick. The manager was not helpful, extremely rude and very unprofessional. I dropped my details, till today I was not contacted. @Babatuda, It’s a shame that stealing is fast becoming a culture in Nigeria. I still use Arik but, I’m very watchful of my stuff on d flight and I never check in anything valuable.Goodluck…
I strongly believe dat God wil fight for d masses. If al dis stories were nt true, i blve d management of arik air wuld av com online 2 justify dmself. They kept quite bcos dy blve so much in their godfather up dere in Abuja. Dnt worry d story wil soon find it way into our print media(national dailies).
They have to produce your iPAD by fire by force… THEY ARE THIEVES!
Omojuwa! omojuwa! omojuwa!,it is well and also irene I so much appreciate your great contribution.omojuwa nigeria companies don’t want to run @ lost that is what your people are doin to you.the staff that told you it was inserted into your bag complicated their issue.its so simple,he should have been made to pay for it gradually whille the company provide you with a brand new one.collective RT/REPOST could help to get it known to future travellers via your carrier.I gat your back.