There are no depths to which SWISS…or its AI-generated customer service team…will go to deny compensation claims. Not only do I speak from personal experience, but from having advised many on similar matters. Yet I’ve never seen a customer service response so bad as the SWISS denial of compensation that was shared with me yesterday. It makes me wonder how nefarious SWISS is…or worthless AI is in its present form. Either way, SWISS owes the passenger a big apology and the compensation legally due.
SWISS Denies Compensation, Blaming A330 Mechanical Issue On 737 Rudder Issue From The 1980s (Fact: SWISS Has No 737s In Fleet)
Long story short:
- On May 15, 2024 LX23 from New York (JFK) to Geneva (GVA) was canceled
- The aircraft cancellation was blamed on a “technical fault” with the Airbus A330-300 aircraft
- Switzerland is not part of the European Union, but SWISS is regulated by EU261/2004, legislation that mandates cash compensation in case of delays within the airline’s control
- SWISS denied EU261/2024, blaming a Boeing 737 rudder issue
- The passenger followed-up, pointing out SWISS does not have any 737 in its fleet
- The note back doubled down on the “737 main rudder servo valve” being an issue for the delay
Here’s the initial denial from SWISS:
And the follow-up from SWISS:
Thank you for your response. Please accept my apologizes for the delay in my response.
I regret my message of 04 June 2024 did not meet your expectations.
Your flight has been reviewed and as advised previously, your flight was cancelled due to a result of Rudder Servo Fault due to vulnerability of the 737 main rudder servo valve to causing uncommanded reversals was indeed a significant concern. I hope you can understand we have no control over such circumstances.
Therefore, I regret that you are not eligible for compensation in accordance with the regulation EU 261/2004.
Although I well understand your irritation in view of your experience, I hope you understand that I cannot grant a favourable to your request for the reasons explained.
JFK-GVA Flight LX23 cancelled due to aircraft issue
LX23 JFK-GVA was canceled on May 15, 2024 due to a technical problem with the aircraft.@FlySWISS reply to my EU261 request stonewalls with technical language for an aircraft they even don't use!Shameful and illegal.#PaxEx pic.twitter.com/XeyTYw45d8
— Max Diamond (@maxdiamondny) June 6, 2024
Maybe I put too much faith in human beings, but this seems like pure AI-generated garbage to me. I suspect no human eyes have even looked at this case. The referenced 737 rudder issue was a brief concern in the 1980s!
Then again, the person who signed the note is a real person…in Fiji. She works for Mindpearl, a call center subsidiary once owned by SWISS that appears to still handle SWISS customer service. That doesn’t mean this wasn’t AI-generated, though.
And while that does not absolve SWISS (quite the contrary, it points out a huge problem with its customer service model), it most likely shows rather than someone at SWISS truly trying to argue their way out of a claim with outright lies. At least I hope so…
At the very least, it does show that SWISS doesn’t take customer service seriously.
Yesterday, I had a chat with a friend of the passengers on Twitter, who is acting like an ombudsman to help his friends impacted by the SWISS cancellation. My advice at this point is to file a Department of Transportation (DOT) complaint and then attach the reference number to a note to the SWISS CEO.
For those who need it:
Dieter R. F. Vranckx
Chief Executive Officer, SWISS
Obstgartenstrasse 25
CH-8302 , Kloten, Switzerland
dieter.vranckx@swiss.com
+852 2866 0330
I do call this the “nuclear” option, but enough with the time wasted through conventional means if SWISS has the audacity to send responses like this.
Folks, I’ve been battling SWISS since 2008 and always win. It’s never easy, but fight the good fight and you can win too if the facts and law are on your side.
> Read More: Case Closed: Sweet Victory Over SWISS!
It’s time for SWISS to dump AI-generated or offshore customer service responses and this shows, in a small way in the grand scheme of things, what a danger AI can be.
Why not try a small claims court action for the full amount owed ?
There may be a DOT complaint backlog , and would take years ?
Yes, that would be the next step, but I would start with DOT complaint. Airlines still view those as blemishes and take them seriously.
Did Swiss fix the money transfer problems for non European bank accounts?
How did your dispute regarding the F error fare end up?
I think there’s a couple of possibilities here:
1) It’s AI-generated garbage that automatically adds the e-mail signature of an actual person before sending.
2) SWISS provided the boilerplate language to use, but it was a bad cut-and-paste job and the rep forgot to substitute “A330” for “737”.
Like you, I suspect the former, but neither is a good look. (As an aside, this is why I still don’t use AI in my job. Because the results are too often comically bad. There’s a story making the rounds of a tax attorney that used AI to generate his brief in a tax dispute case. Turns out the cases cited in the brief were all made up. Oops…)
I saw that case! A cautionary tale indeed.
I genuinely look forward to the day where AI will create its own fake sources that it can then cite.
Sadly, that day will come.
I would love this to hit mainstream news around the world, especially in Switzerland, so the embarrassment of this complete absurdity becomes a total embarrassment.
The SWISS CEO has an office by ZRH, but a phone number in Hong Kong?
I would think if this were AI generated, the English would be much better.
Quit complaining. Nvidia is valued at over $3 trillion!
AI is the future. AI is perfect. AI is our new God.
Nvidia is going to $10 trillion! Buy it now!
Buy anything AI and you will never have to work again and will scoff at all these minor inconveniences. SWISS AIr got you down, buy your own jet!
Mindpearl Fiji is a scourge unto this earth. Qantas uses them too and they are absolutely rubbish at their job. They actively misinform passengers, much like this example. In my books they are not too far away from the call centre scammers in India.