British Airways just learnt the pitfalls of poor customer care service on Twitter. An airlines customer care executive asked Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar for his full name and address on Twitter, incurring the wrath of millions of his fans.
Earlier today, Tendulkar took to Twitter to complain about his bad experience with British Airways, with a family member's ticket not being confirmed despite vacant seats on the flight and his baggage being incorrectly tagged. The airlines came up with a template response, which went unanswered by Tendulkar but caught the attention of his 8.4 million Twitter followers.
And luggage being tagged by @British_Airways to wrong destination and don't care attitude! #NeveronBA (2/2)— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) November 13, 2015
@sachin_rt We're sorry to hear this Sachin, could you please DM us your baggage ref, full name and address so we can look into this for you?— British Airways (@British_Airways) November 13, 2015
British Airways soon became the top trending Twitter topic in India, with Tendulkar fans taking the airlines to ask.
Rest of the World- In search of God. British Airways- In Search of God's luggage.— Patakha Chikna (@Madan_Chikna) November 13, 2015
How dare @british_airways not know Sachin's full name!?! https://t.co/cKm6h3MsC0— Nive (@Nivivacious) November 13, 2015
@British_Airways God will punish you.— Akshay (@AkshayShindee) November 13, 2015
Condition of the person handling @British_Airways account after @sachin_rt 's tweets pic.twitter.com/S94aOPv8fj— The-Lying-Lama (@KyaUkhaadLega) November 13, 2015
Can't imagine how bad @British_Airways service must be. They managed to do what 24 years of sledging didn't - make @sachin_rt lose his cool.— Papa CJ (@PapaCJ) November 13, 2015
The only way British Airways can make up for this is if they return the Kohinoor with his luggage. https://t.co/UciNB69uwy— Neil Chitnis (@neilgiri) November 13, 2015
Haha, British Airways' bot asks Tendulkar his full name. He should send them a snapshot of the Ind-Eng scorecard from Chennai '08.— Sorabh Pant (@hankypanty) November 13, 2015
Prepare to face My wrath @British_Airways! You have messed with My cricket avatar for the last time!!!— God (@TheTweetOfGod) November 13, 2015
There were also inevitable comparisons with a similar incident last year, when tennis player Maria Sharapova was criticised by scores of Tendulkar's fans after she revealed that she didn't know who the cricketer was.
Only Maria Sharapova can understand what British Airways is going through.— Dipankar. (@deep_anchor) November 13, 2015
Facebook update: British Airways and Maria Sharapova are now friends.— Anuj Singhal (@_anujsinghal) November 13, 2015
Hey @British_Airways - Are you Maria Sharapova by any chance? https://t.co/yHSUXc6fBa— Pradeep Shetty (@pradeep_shetty) November 13, 2015