The Victory Liner Experience: Aggravated. Disappointed. Customer Service F.A.I.L.

I would just like to share a very unfortunate event that happened to me and my friends while having one of our travel last Holy week 2013. Beware of this bus terminal. All they do is provide a ride. Their customer service sucks big time!

March 31, 8:30 PM

March 31, Easter Sunday, we arrive at the Victory Liner terminal Cubao at 8:30 PM from Baguio- BUS # 2050. We had a lot of things since we bought a lot of pasalubong for the family, bought ukay-ukay stuff and of course we have our own personal things that we brought going to Baguio. The bus driver dropped us at the back portion of the terminal where it was dark since other bus drivers of this bus company were dropping off other passengers in front of him.

We were 4 adults and 2 kids in the bus. Only 5 of us were to go down at Cubao since my mom was going down at Ayala. I went down first bringing 3 baggages- 1 bag that contains a magic sing, 2 other bags that contains clothes, shoes and food. I went directly to the compartment area to get 3 more bags and a broom strapped on one of the baggage which I was supposed to bring back to my mom on the bus. I placed the 3 baggage I was holding right beside my other luggage that were being brought out of the compartment box and started to untie the broom I was supposed to give to my mom.

I was startled to see that before I was even finished unstrapping the broom the bus was already running. Me and my companion rushed to shout and catch the bus. We immediately went up the bus to get the other baggage and boxes we left on the bus. 1 adult and 2 kids were left to look at the things we left behind. The bus driver did not even care if his passengers has dropped all their luggage safely. The conductor was not even apologetic for leaving us while they were so in a hurry to leave the terminal.

After getting all things from the bus, we got a taxi and loaded the baggage. One of my companion
got a separate taxi going home. While on the taxi, I remembered that the 3 baggage I first unloaded on the bus were not loaded on the taxi. I called my friend on the other taxi hoping she got it, unfortunately she didn't. Upon reaching our home in Cubao we unloaded all baggage and dropped the kids. We went back immediately to the terminal to report the incident and requested a CCTV copy to see what actually happened.

March 31, 9:00 PM

1. We were referred to the dispatcher.
2. The dispatcher referred us to the DILG representative in the terminal.
3. The DILG representative got our statement but could not answer our request about a copy of the CCTV
4. We went to the customer service office and spoke with Cecille. We summarized our concern and requested for a copy of the CCTV. She said this needs to be requested, got my name, contact number and said she will work on our concern.

April 1, 3:52 PM

Still no update from customer service. We submitted another incident report at info@victoryliner.com and an automated response was received that email has been received.

April 9

Got a tweet from Victory Liner to call their legal department the next day.

April 10

I called Dory De Jesus as suggested by Victory Liner through Tweeter. As per Ms. Dory the CCTV footage has been deleted. She said the schedule of CCTV deletion is every Saturday but since March 30 is a holiday they decided to erase the CCTV footage last April 1. I questioned why they deleted a footage last April 1 when in fact a request was submitted to their customer service last March 31 to extract the CCTV. She promised a callback.

Upon callback Ms. Dory said that the customer representative (Cecille) we spoke to mentioned that she was trying to call me but I told her I was out of town. I got so furious because I never said that and that customer representative never tried to call me. 

I asked Ms. Dory to explain 3 things to me:

1. When did Cecille contact me? Why is she making up stories?
2. Why did the request for CCTV footage never reach the correct department? Ms Dory's response: Cecille had to go home late that night and came in late the next day. Too late to stop the person from deleting the CCTV copies. 
3. What should happen now that the CCTV has been deleted? Ms. Dory's response: Cecille will be provided sanctions. She will be suspended. Isn't that enough for me to stop worrying about my concern? Another pat in the back victory liner! Should I say thank you that you suspend your employee and say that's enough for me to be content and happy with what happened to my things?

Dory decided to callback since she could not convince me that I should just move on with my life and stop bugging them.

April 26: 7:57 AM

I received an email from Victory Liner:

Madam:

This has reference to your E-mail Complaintsent last April 01, 2013 regarding the loss of your baggage last March 31, 2013 upon alighting at our Cubao Terminal.

Based on your complaint, it appears that you were able to successfully retrieve all of your baggage and personal belongings upon your arrival at the Victory Liner Cubao Terminal and it was only when you were already riding in a taxi going home that you realized that you were unable to load all your luggage into the taxi and that some of your bags were left behind at the Terminal. Upon reaching home, you confirmed that you were missing three (3) bags,which you had earlier unloaded from the bus as a result of your failure to loadthese in the taxi.

While we sympathize with your situation, the fact remains that you were to retrieve all of your baggage and personal belongings upon alighting at our Cubao Terminal.  By your own admission, the three (3) missing bags were the ones you first unloaded from the bus upon your arrival at theTerminal and you failed to load them in the taxi you rode going home.

Given these unfortunate circumstances,and considering further that your bags were already in your possession andunder your control, we regret to inform you that we cannot assume responsibility, much less liability, for the loss of said bags.

Thank you for your patronage.  If we can be of additional service to you, please feel free to contact Ms. Miles L. Aguilar at our Customer Service Hotline at Telephone Number 364-2926.

Sincerely yours,

DOROTEAB. DE JESUS

LegalInvestigator

This was my response and as of now I have no response from them:

Madam:

This has reference to your E-mail Complaintsent last April 01, 2013 regarding the loss of your baggage last March 31, 2013upon alighting at our Cubao Terminal.

Based on your complaint, it appears that you were able to successfully retrieve all of your baggage and personal belongings upon your arrival at the Victory Liner Cubao Terminal – Did you read my email vigorously? It states that all baggage were brought down after running after your bus to get the other baggage that were left on your bus, We had to leave baggage (that eventually got lost) that were first brought down in the middle of your terminal while chasing your bus.

and it was only when you were already riding in a taxi going home that you realized that you were unable to load all your luggage into the taxi and that some of your bags were left behind at the Terminal. Upon reaching home,you confirmed that you were missing three (3) bags, which you had earlier unloaded from the bus as a result of your failure to load these in the taxi. – Let me reiterate, just what I have stated in email and phone. We immediately got back to your terminal to report our loss. It was just a span of 20 minutes from leaving and getting back to your terminal. We spoke with your dispatcher who referred us to a DILG representative/head of security. We submitted an incident report and spoke with your customer representative- Cecille and requested for a copy of a CCTV. She said this will be requested the next day. She got my name,contact number and time of incident. What is the use of all the hassle of reporting to your customer service at Cubao terminal?Are you saying everything I has reported that night is useless because my incident report was not submitted and request for CCTV copy that night was never forwarded?

While we sympathize with your situation, the fact remains that you were to retrieve all of your baggage and personal belongings upon alighting at our Cubao Terminal. - All you vouch for is all bags were literally dropped at your terminal. You don’t even care if your customers left your terminal properly?

By your own admission, the three (3) missing bags were the ones you first unloaded from the bus upon your arrival at the Terminal and you failed to load them in the taxi you rode going home.– Exactly and it got lost! Why? Because we left it in the middle of your terminal! That is the reason why we requested for a copy of a CCTV. Why would you put up a CCTV camera if you do not provide a copy once requested by a customer? Has it been weeks/days from the incident since I requested a copy? Definitely NO! It was just 30 minutes after the incident.I also submitted another email request a day after the incident. Now could you justify why suddenly you tell me that all CCTV copies were deleted even the most recent ones? Have you even mentioned in this email that we requested a copy of the CCTV? What response do you have for this?

Given these unfortunate circumstances, and considering further that your bags were already in your possession and under your control, we regret to inform you that we cannot assume responsibility, much less liability, for the loss of said bags. – You never assume responsibility. All you do is blame the customer. Now you should answer all of my queries and explain why there was no immediate action and why the CCTV copy was amazingly deleted hours after the incident.

Thank you for your patronage.  If we can be of additional service to you, please feel free to contact Ms. Miles L. Aguilar at our Customer Service Hotline at Telephone Number 364-2926. – I will not call you customer service hotline since the first customer service representative obviously did not provide the service I needed. I expect a response from you immediately. It has been a month now.

We were sending tweets to be updated about the incident but we were just going in circles.

Dear Victory Liner, do you really value your clients? This is not customer service your offering. You are trying to imply that you have no fault but clearly you have. You have not answered any of my questions regarding the CCTV loss, the inefficiency of your bus drivers, conductors or even the dishonesty of your customer service representative. You should have the decency to speak with your customer instead of sending an email to shut them up. I am so frustrated because this could have been worked on if only you have better employee training. Your employees should know what to do when issues like this arise. Why don't you just provide the copy of CCTV if a request is made? Are you trying to keep something? Why do you have to go a long process before giving out a response to your customers? Do you just think that all your clients will just accept whatever feedback you provide? Get someone to work on your customer's concern. Work to resolve the concern not to find an alibi to end the dispute! 

May 22, 2013

Nagsend ng message ang Victory Liner na iyong last email na daw nila iyong response nila. Wala talagang pakialam sa issues ng customer nila. 

So iyong mga concerns na nakahighlight sa email response ko ay wala silang balak sagutin. 

Sana matuto mga commuters sa naging experience ko sa walang kwentang bus liner na heto. Wag nyo ng antayin kayo ang mawalan. Mukhang alam naman nila na may nawawalan sa terminal nila at wala silang balak ayusin to.

Dahil ba sa kayo kayo rin ng mga empleyado nyo ang kumukuha o dahil di naman kayo ang nawalan? 

Ayusin nyo kumpanya nyo. VICTORY LINER SUCKS BIGTIME!