Japan is renowned for its impeccable customer service but hor, actually the Japanese customers also can be quite demanding and tough to please one.
According to Taiwan Apple Daily, recently a Japanese passenger travelling on All Nippon Airways’ (ANA) first-class cabin shed tears because the flight attendants failed to celebrate his birthday for him.
He recounted his disappointing experience on a travel website where he wrote “I don’t feel your sincerity at all, I think you are only looking for an excuse.”
His post has garnered heated discussion amongst Japanese netizens, affirming how the philosophy of “Customer is God” is indeed, the ethos of the stellar customer service in Japan.
The 39-years-old passenger wrote: “Like a fool, I was expecting for a memorable birthday celebration in the air!” In his post, he emphasized that he had specifically chosen to fly on this day and on first class as he was hoping that he could spend his 39th birthday in the sky.
And yes, expecting to be pampered onboard the flight! Can meh?
To his disappointment, none of the flight attendants approached him with birthday wishes at all. Throughout the 10-hour flight, not a single flight attendant took notice that it was his birthday, even though there were only four passengers in the first-class cabin that day.
He expressed his unhappiness to one of the flight attendants upon touching down. As a gesture of apology, the flight attendants immediately prepared a fruit platter and champagne. The passenger, however, rejected them as it wasn’t what he had expected.
He eventually burst into angry tears.
In response to this incident, the Japan’s largest airline ANA, apologized and admitted that it was the flight attendants’ failure to provide adequate customer service and assured that they would reflect and do their best to fine-tune and improve their employees’ service standard through training.
Netizens, on the other hand, felt that the fuss could simply be because the man felt lonely and was looking forward to having someone to celebrate his birthday with, but was crushed by disappointment instead.
Fortunately, his birthday ended on a happy note when his friends from the United States threw him a birthday celebration.
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