I was using my laptop to sort my travel photos during a flight from Kansai to Kuala Lumpur. I put my laptop in the seat pocket in front of me right before the plane landed. I was one of the last few passengers getting off the plane, I had a large backpack and two smaller travel bags with me. It was when I approached the gate that I realised that I had forgotten my laptop. I ran back through the bridge into the body of the plane. I passed several flight attendants and explained what happened. One of them kindly accompanied me to look for my laptop. But the laptop was not there. The cleaners and the caterers were already inside the plane but no one saw my laptop. I lost my laptop in just 30 seconds after I left my seat.

What then followed? (incompetence, disappointment)

The cleaners told me that it got to be one of the passengers, while some of the cabin crew members and ground service staffs suspected that it could be one of the cleaners. What then followed was confusing to me. I was in Kuala Lumpur only for a three hour transit. Some of the flight attendants kindly took me to Malaysia Airlines information service booth, the staffs manning the booth then suggested me to clear customs to report to their Lost and Found department. I filed a report there and was told to call them again half an hour before boarding. I had to pass customs again to return to International departure area. At whatever downtime I had, I frantically changed my passwords (email services, social services, various websites) using an iPhone. News flash: filling in multiple web forms on an iPhone wasn’t a pleasant experience. At the agreed time, I gave the Lost and Found department a call and was told that no one handed in the laptop. Seriously WTF? They only waited for someone to hand the laptop to them?

Not wanting to miss the next flight to Melbourne, I then agreed to contact them again from Melbourne, Australia. That night I couldn’t sleep at all on the plane, knowing that I lost thousands of photos from my Japan travel, photos of my parents when they visited me in Melbourne late last year, photos of my brother’s citizenship ceremony, photos of my travel with my parents to my mom’s home town, which she hadn’t visited in 45 years, last year, absolutely priceless. I also lost many days worth of code (note to self: git push more). I guess I could eventually redo those code, but I couldn’t rerun those travel experiences. It sucks. May the person who stole the laptop rot in the abyss.

When I arrived in Melbourne, I went to Menzies, an Australian company that provides ground service for several airlines including Malaysia Airlines, they have an office at the airport. I also went to Victoria police office to get an advice on how to proceed with filing a police report in my situation, they suggested me to get Malaysia Airlines’ assistance to file a police report in Malaysia. At home I called Menzies again, asking them to contact Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur. I kept having to call Menzies to ask for the status of my report for the following two days, but the answer from Kuala Lumpur was always ‘No change.’ I also sent an email to one of their Australian contact persons, I was promised that their ‘Melbourne Traffic Department’ would assist me, but no one actually contacted me, ever. That day I also called Apple customer care to report the serial number of my laptop and they marked it as a stolen property.

Four days after the incident, I made several international calls to Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur to complain about their poor customer service. Why did I have to call them to get updates? Why didn’t they email me on a daily basis? Why did they not reply my emails? Why did they only passively wait for someone to hand in the laptop?
After talking to several Malaysia Airlines staff, I called a Kuala Lumpur police station and tried to file a police report. They ended up asking me to describe the incident via email (one of the officers’ Yahoo! account *sigh*), and I also sent them a scan of my passport along with some personal details. But to this day, I have not received any confirmation from them about the report, let alone a police case number.

What should Malaysia Airlines have done? (you call that customer service? be more proactive!)

One thing that bothered me a lot to this day is that Malaysia Airlines took the situation too lightly, they should’ve done more.
A crime occured on a Malaysia Airlines aircraft. Someone took my property, that’s a friggin’ criminal activity on their aircraft! Why didn’t they do anything more about it than waiting passively?

If they suspected one of the passengers took my laptop, then Malaysia Airlines staffs should’ve cooperated with KLIA staffs and checked the security camera footage around the gate area of my flight.
If they suspected one of the cleaners or caterers took my laptop, then they should’ve screened those cleaners and caterers before they got off the plane.
If they acknowledged that a crime had occurred on their aircraft, then they should’ve accompanied me to the nearest police station to file a police report.
All the above should’ve been done within one hour, instead of just telling me that there’s no one handing in a laptop or that they still need to cross check with their other departments, four days after the incident, and the customer (me) ended up having to make several international calls.

I wish Malaysia Airlines staffs could put themselves in my position and put more effort.

What’s good out of this experience? (some positive points)

I like to thank one of the Malaysia Airlines flight attendants, Ms Sachie Tamada (or Takada, I can’t remember her exact surname), who proactively helped me look for my laptop and accompanied me all the way to the Malaysia Airlines information service, even though it was not her task to do so.
I like to thank officer Awan (sp?) who took my request to file a police report while the other officers seemed to pass my call around.
I appreciate Malaysia Airlines Lost and Found department supervisor/manager whom I talked to on my last international call, who, at the very end, apologized for the poor customer service they provided and promised to take it up to higher management.
And Stewart, the dude from Apple customer care who answered my call, who was really sympathetic with what happened and even asked for details of the situation. I appreciate the Apple-camaraderie.

tl;dr

13″ MacBook Pro – A$1698
Travel and family photos – Priceless

Now I know how it feels to lose a laptop, first a feeling of void, followed by a massive disappointment, then finally acceptance.
I’ll never fly Malaysia Airlines again, not because my laptop was stolen, but because of this poor customer service experience.

Update: Luckily, I still have some of the Japan photos on the camera’s SD cards, that means I ‘only’ lost 4000 Japan photos -.-, and the rest of the family photos :(.

Update (13/04/2011): Thanks to comments from Jen, I would like to make it clear that I didn’t blame Malaysia Airlines for losing my laptop, I blamed myself for the 30-second concentration lapse, and I blamed the person who stole my laptop. However, I do think that their customer service performed below standard, hence I provided the feedback above and in my replies to Jen.
Also many thanks to Jen for describing the industry standard in details. Another lesson out of this experience would be, be extra careful when you’re in transit, because clearly the international aviation industry standard won’t be on your side, as you’re only seen as a Tom, Dick, or Harry, it is too expensive to assist you further.

More Update: I created a tumblog to document my effort to somehow get my laptop back. http://thisunclehasmymacbook.tumblr.com Please spread the word.

... yep, robots, preferably configurable via Hudson.

I never understood the point of having humans doing customer service if they can’t be polite and friendly to fellow human.

p.s. Introducing LatteGirl. Here’s her attempt at drawing CoderBoy and herself.