Catharsis Unmasked

Catharsis Unmasked

Perhaps our journey, and the subject of this blog, which is in fact less about the journey itself than the worth, or otherwise, of complaining, is best introduced by this letter, written to Tiger line Ferries shortly after we arrived in Langkawi:

"Dear sir/madam,

I would like to make a formal complaint with Tigerline Travel with regard to a ferry booking for travel by ferry between Ko Lanta and Langkawi on 2nd January 2015. The service provided did not match that offered by Tigerline, as we were transported from Ko Lanta for 6 hours by minivan and not by ferry.

We had paid for and looked forward to a beautiful cruise through the Andaman islands. Instead we were transported in a cramped minivan with a view of Thailand's motorways. This is not an equivalent service. If we had wanted to travel by road in a shared bus, we would have booked this ourselves at a much lower cost than the ferry.

We believe that as we have paid for a service we did not receive, we are entitled to a full refund.

Please find attached the e-ticket for this journey."

So yes. We had an uncomfortable journey. Not a problem in itself. But we paid a lot more for a cruise to Langkawi via the beautiful Thai islands. And we are on a bit of a budget. So the pennies - and the experiences - really count. Also there was no explanation that we would in fact be travelling by mini van until it was too late for us to do anything about it - instead the staff vaguely referring to us being 'transported to a different port', rather leaving out the important detail that this port was six hours away and would have been the last stop on our cruise where we would go through immigration and take a speed boat the last hour or so of the journey. When the Thai official, with a suspicious twinkle in his eye, assured us and other worried and confused passengers who had booked for Langkawi, that we would be 'definitely going on boat', he meant the speed boat which it is mandatory to take for the last part and which is operated by a Malaysian company. We were not going to cruise on the Tiger line Ferry. And the explanation given by several different staff members as to why this was happening? That they had oversubscribed the ferry.

Still. We weren't crying in disappointment. Nobody was injured. Nobody died. We felt a bit cheated so we raised a complaint. Because that is the right thing to do, yes? And because having a rant makes you feel better, isn't that right? Catharsis.

Well, no actually. We wrote that the day after we arrived. Which meant that some time, albeit only an hour, which was precious to us, in Langkawi, which we love, was spent reminding ourselves of just how hard done by we really were. 

Instead of just getting on with it.

But it's still worthwhile isn't it? Because it gets a result? Justice, (though that is itself rather than an overblown word for it), can be done.

We receive the following email from Tigerline Ferries:

"Thank you for your email.

Please see the Weather Warning “Tropical Cyclone JANGMI” in the South of Thailand.  WARNING by The Thailand Meteorological Department.  http://www.tmd.go.th/en/list_warning.php

Yesterday, the 2nd January 2015, The boat trip from the South of Thailand (Phuket, Krabi, and Trang), need to using the closest pier “Tamalang Pier” for the trip to Langkawi, Malaysia. "

They went on to quote one of their terms and conditions. The one about not taking responsibility for loss or damage to our possessions. I rather suspect what they meant to quote was the one that said they had the right to refuse a refund in 'any and all conditions'. 

We were not convinced by this explanation, no one having mentioned it at the time and the pier we were taken to being one the ferry would have terminated at anyway. But the fact is, receiving the reply, in itself, a few days later simply reminded us again of our grievance. For one thing, we have no internet here except a bit of data on a sim card on M's phone, which we are trying not to use much,  so to receive a reply requires effort and a break into our internet free period. But even worse, each time we discuss the complaint it seems a little worse. Now, receiving this email just a few days later, we are not so sure that we weren't crying in disappointment. The way we remember it now we were deeply upset. And the minibus has grown smaller. And the air conditioning more ineffective.

We are not big complainers because frankly, unless there's some genuine thing which could be done about it, or some genuine danger we could warn others about in relation to it, it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth and makes the complainer more miserable. Worse, having complained, you find yourself more willing to find another defect. To seek, in life, the things to complain about, not the things to admire.

This in mind, we push aside our suspicion of deception and decide not to bother taking them up either on that, or on their misquoted terms and conditions. We wash the nasty taste away by writing a deservedly glowing review of our Air BnB host in Thailand, and listing excitedly to each other, all the reasons why Langkawi already seems great.

And that would be the end of it.

Until a few days later we receive another email, a much longer and more emotional letter of complaint addressed to Tigerline and copying us in, from a man we met in the minibus, who was hugely disappointed and had genuinely booked the whole trip around this cruise. 

He copies in the travel operator he booked through, who instantly replies sincerely and with enormous professionalism, sympathising deeply with his situation and offering him a refund, the operator then dealing with Tiger line direct to recover the money now owed to them. We booked with Tiger line direct so can't take advantage of the refund but manage to avoid the 'getting even more angry and making a huge deal out of something non life threatening' cycle by enthusing to each other about how amazing the operator was and how much we would recommend the firm to other travellers.

Which was all fine. Until....

The tour operator replies to us all again having spoken to Tigerline. It's all OK, he explains, Tigerline were acting perfectly reasonably. Having spoken to them they have revealed that the reason we did not sail was that the Malaysian immigration officials had written to them to say they were short staffed and could not handle such a lot of people arriving all at once at the original arrival time of the ferry. Given this so awkward, and so out of Tiger line's control situation, Tigerline had to give its passengers three options, to travel the next day, and Tiger line would honour their ticket, to travel but stay overnight on one of the Thai islands, continuing on in the morning, or to take the mini van. The tour operator said it would honour its offer to refund our fellow traveller, but that he must have chosen the option of travelling in the mini van and so Tiger Line could not be blamed.

Firstly, that was the third excuse which had been given, all of them rather mutually exclusive and the one ringing with most truth being the over subscription, secondly we were given no options and neither was anyone else we spoke to (in fact we didn't even know about the bus till too late) and thirdly the new excuse didn't make sense. Everyone who would have had to go through immigration travelled by mini bus and arrived together. The time we all arrived was different by about an hour, but the number of people to process was exactly the same.

Once again, the ire rose. That Tiger line were unbelievably untrustworthy, cheating con merchants, that they hadn't even been bothered to converge on one lie and that we were never given one option, let alone three, became the major topic of conversation. We were sitting in a Malaysian restaurant, looking out over a fishing wharf under a beautiful sky, hooked up to their WiFi and spitting bile. And who is gaining?

In the end we stepped in to note the above because we felt bad for our fellow traveller, who was hardly going to be able to defend the assertion that he chose from a list of options without someone else piping up. Also we had the email claiming the weather was at fault. The tour operator seemed fantastic and we wanted to help them get back the money that we felt they deserved.

So we wrote, summarising the above. The tour operator replied kindly and, hopefully, that really is the end of it.

But as I said before, having complained, having, albeit rightfully, vilified a company, having spent time dwelling on how awful an outfit they are what did we gain? How did the famous 'catharsis' serve us?

It genuinely and truly made us miserable. Writing a rave review of our host in Thailand, not to mention Cambodia and Vietnam made us warm and happy. Doing it just as we moved on to pastures new made us look, with bright eyes and positive minds, at the new destination, expecting to find more in the way of amazing service. And we looked so we found. It reinforces itself, whatever you do. Be pleased and you will find more to be pleased about, dwell on the bad and you'll get bitter and suspicious some more. About more things, more people and eventually about life.

I know people who believe in talking things through, but who seem to do so solely about the bad things. And it takes up a lot of time. And for every single one of these people, what I notice is not that as they talk they grow calmer, but that as they talk they become more het up. 

I'm not proposing being sickly and unnaturally gushy, or that you should never voice anything negative. Just that I think it needs to be done very carefully. And never exclusively.

So on that note, and because using Tiger line's real identity, outing them publically rather than following my usual strategy of annonymising them, has not made me feel better, I'm going to balance it out.

The tour operator our fellow traveller used, who was prompt, kind and warm and worth every penny, and who I would recommend heartily, was called LiVa Travel. And they are fantastic. Why should the bad party be the only one who gets a real name?

And I am glad I've done that because I am writing this over two weeks after the day we didn't sail with Tiger line, and I had almost forgotten it. Until I began to describe it. And watched the bile rise in me, and my language grow more and more worthy of a Daily Mail article.

And all this despite the fact that, in the here and now, there's a kitten asleep on my lap, monkeys outside and a plan to go out for dinner this evening.

You know what? I don't believe in catharsis.