Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Please Post this on your website
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vahid Shahidi <vshahidi@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 28, 2006 6:40 AM
Subject: Please Post this on your website
To: jawad@alumni.washington.edu
Dear Jawad,
This is a letter which I wrote to Emirate soffice in Sydney but they
Have not responded at all an whenever I call them they say that she is
out of the office.
I am a musician and I was about to have a concert in Bern during my
stay in Switzerland. Therefore I was carrying an instrument called
Setar which is a traditional Persian instrument. Setar is one of the
smallest and most sensitive musical instruments. Upon my previous
experiences with Emirates and also other airlines such as Malaysia
airline and also after reading the FAQ part of the Emirates official
website about the allowance of carrying musical instruments into the
cabin I was willing to carry the Setar with myself into the cabin.
Surprisingly, this time an Indian lady sitting behind one of Emirates
counters said that you can not take the instrument in the cabin and
you must check it in. I explained to her several times that this
instrument is so sensitive and if I check it in it will certainly
break. She insisted on this fact that it is the law and you can not
take it in the cabin. I said that I am always taking my instrument
even larger than this to the cabin with different airlines and if I
knew that you would not allow me to take it in I would have never
taken my instrument to the trip as it is so sensitive and also an
expensive one. I begged her to let me take it in as this Setar had a
lot of spiritual values aside of its financial value for me. She said
it is no problem if you check it in and if we put fragile stickers on
it, it will not get damaged. I said that even with fragile stickers it
will get damaged as the instrument is so sensitive and I knew that the
workers are not caring people at all, and Emirates' reputation means
nothing to them, they are just simple workers and they work for money.
She said no, there would be no problem and you will receive it fine.
Then I asked her to give me at least some protective case to cover it
or tell me where I can get it but again she said there is no need and
when they see that it is an instrument it would be better. I was
finally persuaded by her incorrect words and checked it in. They took
my Setar on a special carrying trolley and asked me to sign something.
I was so angry and stressful and I just signed it quickly. I thought
that it is a kind of signature which they will give my Setar at the
destination upon it. At Zurich airport I found out that the signature
meant that Emirates was not liable at all for the fragile item. I
think this is the most insulting way of behavior to a person, to force
him to do something and then to get a signature that you were happy to
be forced. At Zurich airport I found my instrument broken. It was
totally damaged from one side which made it useless. The covering case
was also damaged. I was really upset and angry as I knew it will break
but your staff deceived me with her countless promises. With a lot of
stress and persecution I made the responsible agent in Zurich to write
a report for my case. It is really a shame that to get your rights in
this world has to be this torturous and unpleasant in all cases, even
with huge companies with billions of dollars of capital like Emirates.
I liked Emirates for its convenience as I bought my ticket online with
no problem and a good price and I was praising it and willing to buy
all my tickets with Emirates but now the story has changed. I have no
trust in Emirates anymore and I will certainly advertise negatively
wherever I can unless Emirates does something worthy in order to
compensate at least in material terms which they can never compensate
for my emotional injuries. My concert in Bern was cancelled because of
this and I asked the authority to fax you an original statement
accordingly.
