THAI prisons reveal the dark side of a person’s soul.
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It’s an existence of abject squalor: dozens of men to a small cell, no beds or mattresses and a single open toilet.
Most cells are so crammed there’s not even enough room for each prisoner to lie down and sleep at the same time.
No human being deserves to be confined to such a hell-hole, especially an elderly charity worker from Australia whose only crime was to fall ill while on holiday.
And yet that was the frighteningly real prospect facing Leeton’s Poul Andersen in May.
A simple administrative error from travel giant Flight Centre thrust the 77-year-old into purgatory after he was admitted to a Thai hospital for a throat condition.
But his ordeal had only just begun.
After spending extra time in Thailand to recover from his illness, Mr Andersen was arrested at the airport for overstaying his visa.
Flight Centre had neglected to inform him that he would need his visa re-stamped or face arrest, a daunting prospect in any country, let alone Thailand.
Thankfully, he was given the benefit of the doubt and fined $630, money that was eventually refunded by Flight Centre.
If he had not had the money to pay the fine, like many people at the end of a holiday, he would have been thrown in a detention centre.
We should accept Flight Centre’s mistakes were honest ones and not crucify the company.
But a clearly traumatised Mr Andersen should not have been forced to wrangle with the company for months, or go to the media, to get his insurance money back.
At a time when online travel agents are taking a bite out of established agencies, customer service is more important than ever.
Not only has Flight Centre lost a regular customer, but Mr Andersen’s story has gone viral on Facebook and he has become a walking billboard, proudly wearing a shirt emblazoned with “Ask Flight Centre”, accompanied by a thumbs down symbol.
The whole saga should act as a cautionary tale to all businesses –beware the wounded customer.