Wheelchair user, 84, let down twice by Aurigny
A WHEELCHAIR user was forgotten not once but twice by Aurigny during a visit to Guernsey.
Robert Douglas, 84, actually watched his plane take off without him from Gatwick and on his return a week later he had to shout at staff to remind them he was still waiting to board, after he saw them start to take the airplane’s steps away.
Mr Douglas, who grew up on the island and was visiting family, only contacted the Guernsey Press about his experience after Aurigny failed to reply to his complaints.
‘It was a disaster, a whole series of bodges,’ he said.
‘It was a collection of mistakes, if it was just one I would have shrugged it off.’
Aurigny said that they had investigated the events around Mr Douglas’s experience and understood the reasons for the shortcomings in service.
‘We are confident that the circumstances which led to this were very unusual and whilst they could arise again, we have taken steps to ensure they would not impact on a customer’s experience.’
On 30 August Mr Douglas was booked on the 11.55am flight from Gatwick and wheelchair assistance took him through security and onto a coach to board the plane.
‘When I tell people I watched the plane take off without me, they think it’s a joke,’ he said.
‘Apparently they were calling for me on the tannoy, while I was sitting on a bus. There was a complete breakdown in communication between the wheelchair assistance staff and Aurigny.’
Mr Douglas was driven back to the airport lounge, where he was met by an Aurigny manager, who apologised and purchased him a ticket for a flight to Guernsey at 4.15pm.
He then had to wait for over four hours in the lounge without help before he was taken to board the flight.
On his return to Gatwick on 10 September he was asked to sit on the passenger assistance seat while everybody else boarded.
Mr Douglas watched amazed as the gate was closed and ground staff started removing the planes steps. It was only when he complained that staff realised he was there and helped him board.
Upon landing at Gatwick he expected a wheelchair to have been ordered as normal to allow him to disembark, but none was forthcoming.
Mr Douglas had to then wait 20 minutes on the plane for a wheelchair to be brought.
Mr Douglas finally received an email from Aurigny on Monday, 22 days after he first contacted them.
Although there was an apology, there was no explanation about why mistakes had been made as the complaint was in ‘our queue for review’.
An Aurigny spokesman said they had not replied to Mr Douglas because of staff shortages in their customer relations department.
‘Like many other local organisations, we are finding it very difficult to recruit people in a market where there are many more job vacancies than job seekers,’ he said.
‘We are making headway with this, but we are still short and have a number of people currently being trained. For these reasons, our auto responses to emails state that it may take up to 28 days for us to respond, we want our customers to be aware that our response times are currently greater than normal.’
Mr Douglas, who lives in Brighton, still has the Guernsey Press sent to him and read the recent interview in the paper with Aurigny chief executive Nico Bezuidenhout.
‘Is he aware at the lack of training in his staff?’ He said.
‘What I’m looking for is a recognition that staff need more training. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.’
