Part 7 - The Resolution

On Jan 2nd I decided I had had enough of arguing with Dolfi 1920 and created this blog to share my experience with the online community. After informing the company of this my correspondence with them stalled. I didn't hear back from Dolfi 1920 for weeks. It felt like they were purposefully ignoring me. Was it a change of tactics? I was running out of ammunition. There wasn't much more I could do other than try to grab SAS's attention.

It wasn't until I got an email from Dolfi 1920's lawyers that things got interesting again. Turns out that by using the name of one of their employees in my blog and directly reciting our correspondence I had stepped on their toes. What I received was a three-page personalized letter explaining why that was a problem and how regretful it was that things had spun out of control. All I could think of while reading it was how much money having a lawyer write such a letter must've cost Dolfi 1920. I'm pretty sure it's more than the 99 EUR value of my suitcase..

The letter included a settlement offer. The attorneys offered me what I had been asking for the entire time - a suitcase the same size and quality as the one which was damaged by my trip. They wanted something in exchange, of course. I had to remove any names I had used in my blog and refrain from reciting our emails.

So.. Did I take the offer?

It had been a good four months since this whole saga begun. I exchanged countless emails and spent hours dealing with this case. I had my worst experience with customer service ever. I'm probably not going to fly SAS again either, not that it would help me avoid Dolfi 1920..

I took the offer though. All I wanted was my suitcase replaced. It was never my aim to tarnish the name of some company. I don't get a kick out of doing this either. So taking down a few posts from this blog was a tiny price to pay to put this story to rest.

26 February 2015

I've got mail!

And here is the infamous "original packaging" - the root cause of the conflict. Funny how a simple cardboard box and a naked wrapper can cause so much trouble.

And here it is! This is what I've been fighting for. Hard to believe I made it.

That's it, my friends. The story of the broken suitcase has come to an end. All I can say is it wasn't easy, but it was well worth it. If you ever find yourselves in a similar situation, don't fold. Remember that you have rights and that they're worth fighting for. Most importantly, don't ever give up. If you truly believe in what you're standing up for, you will succeed.

Happy travels!

Part 2-6 - The Story So Far

Dear reader,

For legal reasons I had to replace parts two to six of the story with a summary that neither makes mention of the names of employees at Dolfi 1920, nor recites my correspondence with them. Why? Read part seven to find out.

In brief, what happened is Dolfi 1920 sent me a suitcase much smaller than the one that was broken during my trip with SAS. They offered to replace it if I sent it back. I gladly agreed and shipped the suitcase back to them. Eventually, I got an email stating that Dolfi 1920 can't accept my suitcase because it was sent without the original packaging (a plain cardboard box and a plain plastic bag). I tried explaining that this requirement was never communicated to me in the first place and that consequently I can't be held responsible. The company wouldn't budge though, so I ended up in a four-month deadlock.

The turning point was this very blog. I shared my entire story and got thousands of visits and dozens of messages from people that have had similar experiences. I also drew the attention of the upper management of Dolfi 1920. Read part seven of this story to find out how this story came to an end.

Part 1 - How I Met Dolfi 1920

Dear reader,

I want to tell you a story about a broken suitcase. You might wonder why I would go through the trouble. A suitcase after all is a material thing of no significant monetary or emotional value. While I agree with that, I tell this story for a different reason. I believe that my experience with a broken suitcase has taught me the true value of good customer service and the consequences stemming from its absence.

This blog was inspired by my communication with a private company called Dolfi 1920 in particular. It performs the suitcase repair and replacement on behalf of the SAS airline.

But one thing at a time. Let's begin at the beginning..

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hi!

My name is Alex. I live in Hamburg, Germany and work at Imperial Tobacco. I have a beautiful girlfriend called Ciara. She's from the States.

We had been dating for a year and a half when the summer of '14 began, so we decided it's a good time for me to visit her home and meet her entire family. While the trip itself was amazing and could be source material for a blog by itself, I will focus on our return journey.

13 Sept 2014

We flew out of Chicago in the early afternoon and began the first leg of our return journey. Our first flight would take us to Stockholm, and after a lengthy six hour wait we would catch our second flight to Hamburg.

14 Sept 2014

We reached Hamburg only to find my black American Tourister suitcase damaged during the return flight.

The handle was broken on one side:

The frame of my suitcase had also been damaged:

I've done my fair share of travelling to know that these things happen. No matter how sturdy or new a suitcase is, it can always suffer from poor handling at an airport. When something like this happens, there is a procedure in place for the repair or replacement of the damaged suitcase. One must report the damage upon arrival at the destination airport and then have the problem solved (free of charge) by the airline which carried the suitcase.

That's exactly what I did. I would later be contacted with more information about the procedure. The company performing this service for SAS in this particular case was Dolfi 1920.