my patriotism gone down the drain

The previous post about KLM was sitting in drafts for some time because I thought it was not worth sharing, since I didn't actually get to use the voucher. That was, until I had an encounter with another airline.

This time it's somewhere closer to home. As might be aware, there has been much negative press and perception about Malaysia Airlines after the double tragedy last year and the overall organisational situation.

Despite that, I chose to be patriotic and support our local airline when I booked my flight home for Christmas/New Year's. I could have gone for Korean Air for 2 main reasons : inflight service and airport ambience.

When checking my mileage upon returning to Japan, I realised some points were expiring in March but the link to the online shop to redeem products have been down. I tried to go through the MH website to see if there were other links, but there was only one where I could get a RM50 voucher. The options weren't many, since they seem to all belong under the YTL umbrella of hotels and restaurants.

Clicking on the link led me back to the members page, where I was faced with the same problem. In fact, I was asked to login again even though I was already logged in on a separate tab. When I did finally found myself at the voucher link, it only mentioned voucher for extra luggage, and not the hotel/restaurant mentioned on the website.

Sending an email to the online shop bounced back, even though it was the only email address given in the notification. So I sent an online enquiry trying to find out what else I could do.

I got this reply :

Dear Ms.Lee,
Greetings from Enrich Malaysia Airlines.
Please be advised that you may redeem RM 50 vouchers via the Enrich Vouchers tab in your account or directly at our ticketing office at KL Sentral. 
Please note that these vouchers are valid for 6 months.
Thank you for making Malaysia Airlines your travel partner.
We look forward to assist you again in the future. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any additional inquiries.
Kind Regards,
Ann

Enrich, Malaysia Airlines

I replied to "Ann", telling her that I only enquired about the RM50 voucher because the online shop was down. I also told her that since I was based overseas, I expected the basic functions on the site to work. I imagine there must be other non-Malaysian residents and foreigners and even Malaysians-gone-overseas who are Enrich members.

Then this reply :

Dear Ms.Lee,
Greetings from Enrich Malaysia Airlines once again.
Please note that as per our edm sent out in June 14, Temptations has terminated its partnership with Enrich. However  this is temporary  as we are in process of reviewing the offering  to enhance the benefits to Enrich members. Please bear with us and do keep a lookout for our announcement for Temptations  soon. 
Thank you and kind regards
Ann

Enrich

I think "Ann" didn't get it. She assumed everyone received the EDM, I'm not sure if she checked with the marketing guy who was managing CRM. If the said EDM was sent in June and it's now April and the problem is still there, it's beginning to sound more than just "temporary". I imagine there must be some high-flying Datuk traveling very frequently on MH with many more points which might have expired between the period of June 2014 and April 2015, who must have had to redeem many RM50 vouchers.

It seemed "Ann" did not understand that my points were about to expire and I wanted to know if there was another way I could get a hand on the catalogue so that I could select my product. It seems like I'm being forced to redeem my soon-to-be-expiring points for some voucher I could probably never use.

This was the last reply I received :

Dear Ms.Lee,
Greetings 
We are in the process of reviewing the offering  to enhance the benefits to Enrich members.
We will advise of the progress as soon as we have finalised.
Thank you and kind regards
Ann
Enrich

How nice of her to remind me in bold that they are trying to enhance benefits to Enrich members. I'm sure there will be some EDM sent to me that the "temporary" inconvenience will come to an end.

As I write this, my March points would have expired if I wasn't "forced" to redeem them for the voucher. I guess there's no point writing back - you can easily see the difference between the email below and the correspondence I've had here which doesn't seem to go anywhere. Not merely the email, but overall customer experience.

I can sympathise with companies who are not in the best shape, and I'm more than happy to help suggest some basic customer service etiquette and communication tips. There's been many colourful promotional banners and exciting promotions on the MH site, but what's the point when their loyal customers are not getting basic customer service? =.="