Being lied to by customer service representatives is really annoying. It is entirely possible the person made a mistake, but I count these people as having a shred of professional pride. That means they should know what they’re talking about.
I suspected I was being told porkies on the phone, but decided they probably know better. Turns out my initial suspicion was correct and what I was told was completely and utterly wrong.
Being Lied To? Or Just Sloppy Service?
Sometimes I check flight prices online after I have made a booking. It takes two seconds and it gives me a picture in my head of how the pricing is changing and if the flight is popular.
For an Aer Lingus service from Nice to Dublin, I noticed that the day I was flying was listed as “Sold Out”. At the same time a few other days on the seven day calendar had the same thing. As this usually means the flights are no longer operating, I called Aer Lingus.
I’d never heard of that before, but you know, everything has been thrown out the window thanks to the pandemic. I had no reason not to believe it… until I received an e-mail from Aer Lingus. It states my flight is no longer operating and that I was being moved to a different service. So, my initial thoughts turned out to be correct.
Overall Thoughts
Nobody likes being lied to on the phone. Had I been told the service was no longer operating, I would have moved it myself. It is entirely possible he thought he was being truthful though, because again, lots of changes are happening at the moment. Having worked in a call centre before, I doubt it though. They are usually very good at communicating things to the staff.
To add insult to injury, the e-mail states, “If you have already selected a seat for your flight, we have attempted to ensure you will get a seat in a similar location or of equal value to the one you originally selected even though your seat number may have changed.” Naturally no seat assignment was on my new booking so I had to call them to assign it. The silver lining is there was no wait.
Have you ever been given blatantly incorrect advice that verges on being lied to by customer service representatives? Thank you for reading and please leave any comments or questions below.
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When you called, the operations team may very well have been in the process of cancelling the service, and zeroed-out availaibility can be an indicator/precursor (especially now) of a flight subject to cancellation.
However, it’s likely the information you were given was correct at the time it was delivered. If the phone rep saw an availability display with seats zeroed out rather than a specific indication the flight was not operating, that’s really all they could confirm with you. It’s irresponsible and likely against policy for the agent to speculate beyond the information in front of them in the CRS.
It’s unfortunate that the carriers IT did not delivery on preserving your seat preferences–totally separate problem.
Yes, someone mentioned a similar situation with British Airways, where the flight was zeroed out and they asked if it was operating, told it was, then some time later the cancellation e-mail. It seems to me like the airlines are still operating how they would have in days past, and find the real time queries from some customers to be a challenge. To be honest, virtually no-one else would really notice until the cancellation was confirmed.
I agree that the agent shouldn’t speculate, as it has the potential to cause all sorts of problems, so I agree with you on that. The seats not moving did not surprise me at all. Aer Lingus have form in this area. They’re the only airline I know where you select a seat during booking and you can’t amend it online. You have to call them. In 2020. Minor gripe, but still lagging behind technology wise. Thanks very much for your comment!
I was on a phone call to book a time share hotel stay. I asked to stay at the Hilton time share complex that was on the shore in Carlsbad, CA. I was told there was no timeshare unit there-even though I was looking at it right on the website. She also told me the one she wanted me to book was close to the beach, and the hotel ran a shuttle to the beach. That was also a big fat lie as it’s half an hour inland, and the shuttle just runs around the hotel site itself.
Ouch, that’s hardcore. They seemed to really want you to do what they wanted rather than what you wanted. That’s awful!