[Jsec64]

I thought I would document my latest travel experience on returning to Gatwick 30 October which you might find useful.

Having experienced a wonderful half term holiday in Cyprus with my wife and children we returned to the UK to encounter on 30 October, to what I can only describe as being the worst Customer Service and People Skills I have ever encountered as a person, irrespective of my disability.
Having landed at approximately 1730hrs we were waiting to disembark from the aircraft on a remote part of the runway with all the various ancillary vehicles waiting outside for the passengers to disembark. Unfortunately, on the evening in question the ‘chocks’ for the aircraft had not been applied (in order for the aircraft to be secured) and as such we were delayed and were unable to disembark promptly until the aircraft was appropriately secured.

We had in advance ensured our assistance needs were met and confirmed and so far, we had not encountered any difficulties on the outgoing journey or indeed at the airport in Cyprus. As I am paraplegic, I was the last person to disembark from the aircraft that evening along with my family. Other elderly passengers who were able to walk were already sitting in one vehicle on the ground waiting to get to baggage reclaim. I had asked the crew if my wheelchair might be brought to the aisle so I might transfer only the once, rather than transfer into their own awkward chair, and then again into my own wheelchair. This was not a proble for the flight crew who had already arranged this for me.

I was then met by two Special Assistance Operatives and I believe the company who has the contract with BAA is OCS, as this was the logo displayed on both their hi-vis vests worn that evening. There was no exchange of pleasantries, greetings etc. from any of these gentlemen towards my wife and I. My wheelchair was, as requested brought to the isle and I was able to transfer and wheel to aircraft door. The two operatives from OCS were waiting at the aircraft door and ready to operate the lift. Their opening line to my wife as I manouvered onto the lift was the following; ‘I was due to finish at 1800hrs and I got lumbered with this job.’

Well, we all know what its like to be tired and wanting to get home after a tiring journey, but this flippant comment really incensed me at the time. The job I thought was in fact ‘me,’ a person, an equal. I thought to myself, well sunshine you have met someone who is not backward in coming forwards and as my wife will state, I often say what I think, irrespective of the consequences.
As such I responded by saying ‘well fella if I could walk I would, so why don’t you stop bumping your gums and get a move on before I loose it’. Having looked at my wife I noticed that she was close to tears and so I refrained from escalating the issue on top of the ambilift.

Between the pair of operatives from OCS providing the Special Needs Assistance that evening they managed to transfer us from this ambilift vehicle and then transfered us again to board another minibus vehicle. There were approximately eight persons (walking disabled & 2 wheelchair users ) on to another minibus for transfer from the runway to the main baggage terminal. Their Customer Care Skills and their Disability Awareness Training were also a non starter on this particular night. They only way I can describe the scene on evening was one from the TV series the ‘Chuckle Brothers.’ However, they were funny, my experience was not.

On boarding the minibus to take us to baggage reclaim the younger operative was reminded by me that the both wheelchair users needed to be secured to the vehicle before moving off. He subsequently returned and tried to secure both mine and another wheelchair users’ chair. But our chairs were only partially secured and mine particularly felt unsafe given the strap was around my neck. Without this reminder I am sure that he would have forgotten to do anything at all. However, he then left he minibus to return to assist the other OCS driver of the ambilift vehicle in reversing the ambilift about 6ft, whilst there were 3 other airport staff - all drivers within 2-3 ft of this ambilift vehicle at the time. Whilst this was happening I had to disengage my seatbelt as it was placed around my chest and neck by the operative incorrectly and was not safe.

When the operative returned to the minibus I was given the standard H&S quote by the driver when I questioned him as to why 3 persons nearby were unable to assist his colleague in reversing the few metres. I appreciate that others might not be trained etc etc. However, if his customer service skills could be expanded to include informing the passengers where he is going, why etc and his general demeanour to show a caring attitude then I would or could also show some empathy towards the situation of him being late. This whole scenario took 1hr to complete before heading off to baggage reclaim.

Once arriving at baggage reclaim we were dropped outside the area. The OCS driver/operative took no control of the walking passengers who started to disembark. Some of the walking passengers tried exiting the vehicle whilst the OCS operative operated the wheelchair lift. One of the escorts to the walking passengers asked another Gatwick person who was smoking outside the main doors to assist by pulling out the step to the vehicle, in order that people did not struggle with the height etc. to the kerb. He replied by saying by saying ’he was not trained’ to do that.
Having been offloaded from the minibus my wife and I managed to locate an entry point on our own, which was opened for us by the smoker. Never mind the fact we did not get any directions as to how to gain entry, to this area and the route etc. to the baggage terminal.

Anyway we managed to locate the main foyer and the VDU Displays showing what area our bags cases etc could be found in. However, because of the delay in disembarking, our flight details had already been deleted and therefore was not showing by the time we arrived in baggage reclaim at approximately 1830hrs.

In the world of being politically correct and health & safety conscious I cannot believe that these employees could not have assisted or placated our situation far better. I am disgusted that this was the type of service I and others experienced on our return to Gatwick that evening.
I have written to Thomas Cook, OCS and the Airport Manager to inform them of my experience and indeed to ask the following questions of the company and staff operating the Special Assistance Service.

1. I would be interested to ascertain what ‘Accredited Training’ those OCS operatives
receive in both Customer Care and Disability Awareness training.

2. I would also like to know how many vehicles – Special Assistance Lifts are available at
any given time and in working order. I mention this as I was informed on the night by
the flight crew that Gatwick has 2 such vehicles. However, only one is used as the other
is always being repaired.

I have forwarded my experience to the various parties involved and also to a couple of disabled magazines for publication. So far I have received 2 replies, from Thomas Cook and BAA Gatwick Airport. Both letters thus far have been apologetic but no one has owned the problem etc. etc. As of yesterday I had to forward my letter again to OCS stating that I am expecting a formal response and answers to my questions.

[russ1]

Yep sounds like a fairly standard trip through a UK airport At least you got your own chair! See here for my experiences a couple of years ago It always seems to be a lot worse if the plane ends up parked on the tarmac and an ambilift is required.

I never bother with the securing of the wheelchairs on the transfer buses / trains which can speed things up, just put my brakes on and hang on, never had any problems and it does save hassle and as you experienced no-one ever seems to know quite how to secure them properly anyway.

Flying back into Heathrow with a group of 9 wheelchair users last year we got the flightcrew to radio ahead to ensure that our chairs met us at the gate as we disembarked the plane. The reply back from the airport was that this couldn't be done for Health and Safety reasons. We stated that for health and safety reasons we couldn't use the airport chairs and would remain on the plane until our chairs were brought to the gate no mater how long it took. Oddly enough the chairs were at the gate when we came to disembark! Not sure if we'd have got away with that had there been only one or two wheelchair users.

Hope you get a reply from OCS and at least that the individuals concerned get spoken to. Good on you for complaining though, it's the only way things will improve. I tried to publicise my experience with magazines and the bbc and got nowhere, trouble is it's a pretty common experience, there was an article in the SIA magazine about it last year seeking to collect experiences.

This post has been edited by russ1: 14 December 2007 - 11:58 AM

[HiltonP]

I have found that my ground handling experiences are becoming increasingly varied, from excellent to down right terrible.

This year I experienced my worst in 26 years of flying with a wheelchair (so much for progress!) at the hands of the Johannesburg (South Africa) ground crew, during which I actually became fearful of my own safety. The crew could best be described as “hoodlums” (no uniforms, pants crotches between their knees, dirty, unshaven, rough, and very aggressive). At one point their gang leader grabbed my wheelchair's lap belt, shake it violently, and with his face just inches from mine shout “what’s this, what’s this?!”, followed shortly by “take it off!”.

The decline in these services are yet another example of why outsourcing does not work, never has worked, and never will work. Everyone involved is able to deflect responsibility onto another party. The airline will deflect this poor showing onto the airport company, the airport company onto the handling company, etc, etc. And therein lies one of the reasons why it is so difficult to improve service. No-one is really made accountable.

The other side of the coin is that my experiences with Australian ground staff during the last seven years has been excellent. They talk to you one-on-one, inform you of what is being done, smile, and are all generally pleasant and helpful.