Fans of the cult TV series Little Britain are familiar with the line, "Computer says no".
One of the characters, Carol Beer, is the bank clerk, and later the travel agent, who, when faced with eager clients wanting to open an account or book a trip, stares at them dead-pan, taps a few times on her keyboard and then utters the famous line: "Computer says no", before coughing in their faces to get rid of them.
It's an attitude all consumers are sadly familiar with, only these days the fob-off is more likely to come in the form of a company's failure to respond to an email or phone call.
SAA's computers seem to be stuck on "no" of late.
Sally Scott's attempts to get a response from the airline's cruelly misnamed customer care department have now devolved into pure farce.
In mid-February I reported how her email to [email protected], detailing her horrendous flights to and from London, was met with the following auto response: "We are currently experiencing a huge backlog and have measures in place to curb this, please bear with us and we assure you that you will receive a response as soon as possible "
SAA subsequently blamed the backlog on December's peak season (in February?) and industrial action.
"Every effort is being made to clear the backlog," I was told.
"A recent recruitment drive resulting in additional staff being placed in the call centre will also assist in returning operations and response times to normal."
Well, you guessed it, two-and-a-half months on, Sally is still waiting for a response.
She sent another email last week, and got the following "personal" response.
"Dear Ms Scott,
"Kindly note that we have been experiencing a huge backlog and apologise for the lack of response thus far.
"We have also had problems with our systems that did not make the situation any easier and I understand that as a customer these are not your problems.
"Kindly note that we are giving this priority and the executive office will revert to you shortly."
I don't have words to adequately convey how unacceptable this is.
Surely it's time for consumers who have been thus ignored for months by our national carrier to stand up and screech: " CONSUMERS SAY NO!"
(I'd be happy for you to use my inbox to vent your feelings on this matter.)