Lessons from a nasty experience

A few days ago I had a really upsetting experience with Baltic Air. My daughter and I were booking a ticket for a friend (who does not live in the US) as a gift to her and the mutual friend she is going to visit. As usual, we used the internet to find a good price, and Baltic Air seemed to have the best price. So, my daughter went to finish up with the process. Lo and behold, when the confirmation came up, there were a whole bunch of additional charges - enough to almost double the price of the ticket. My daughter insists that the items never showed up altogether. I didn't see them, either, or we would never have completed that transaction, but I will concede that the charges were hidden on the bottom of the page - well below the bottom of the screen and below a whole bunch of irrelevant advertising.

We immediately called the airline, and one of the more annoying conversations I have had ensued. It's not just that they wouldn't void the transaction, but the way the person on the line spoke to me. She told me that they "can't" refund anything but the taxes. Baloney! Of course they could - in fact they don't need to - just void the transaction, as the money had not reached them yet. But, even if it had, they can refund whatever they want. They just do not want to. Which, as annoying as it is, it legitimate to a point. So, don't treat me like a dim-wit and tell me that you "can't" do something that you don't want to do. Then I asked to speak to a supervisor, and was told that "there is no supervisor here now." Right! I can hardly believe that any company really thinks that someone will swallow that line. Of course there is a supervisor. Obviously, however, in Air Baltic, their job is not to deal with customer relations.

After I simmered down (and called the bank to see if I can dispute the charge due to the way the transaction was handled) I started to think about what I could learn from this incident. After all, if I had to have the heartburn, at least let me get something out of it. So, here's what I came up with.

Firstly, for everyone who uses the internet to find prices and make purchases (most of us, I would think), a reminder: always remember that you need to be very, very careful in checking for the "fine print" and anything that could affect the terms of your purchase. Things may be put there in a way that makes it hard to find them. Even if it's not intentional, you don't want to get stuck with onerous terms or significant extra charges because you missed something.

Now, for the social media and marketing people, I have a thought. If you sell anything on your site, or do fund-raising on your site, make sure that the design is fairly idiot proof. You really don't want people finding themselves with charges that they didn't intend to incur. And, put a process in place to deal with the possible mistakes - one that hopefully will satisfy people, but that at least won't insult their intelligence. Bad word-of-mouth travels, and in the internet age, the risk of it traveling far more widely than you could have ever thought is a real risk. Don't think that you have nothing to worry about because your target demographic is not that social media savvy. You have no idea who their family and friends are. So, beyond the ethical considerations, you need to recognize that getting it right serves a practical purpose.