I use elong and used them recently for a trip to Hong Kong. I always find them competent and reliable but I do always pay in cash. Yes it can be frustrating using international credit cards here, which is why I try to pay everything in cash. It seems to be how they do things here.

Last week, Qian helped me order a ticket to Shenzhen through a normal chinese agency. The ticket arrived later that evening but the date was wrong – 11th instead of the 12th of April. So naturally I told them that I didn’t want the ticket unless they changed the date to the one that I had specified – not unreasonable surely.

This however seemed unnacceptable to the guy who delivered the ticket and after a 20 minute heated discussion (during which he basically shouted at Qian) in my apartment he told me that I would have to buy the ticket otherwise he would get the police involved, make sure I couldn’t buy another ticket from another agency in Kunming etc etc. As far as he was concerned there was no way that the agent could have made a mistake by ordering a ticket for the wrong date – Qian must have said the wrong date when ordering and that was it. She didn’t as I was listening to the conversation to make sure she got the details right.

Qian called his bluff and told him to go fetch the police. He said he would go back to the office and check the call (because they are all recorded) and if Qian had said the 11th then I would have to buy the ticket. This was last week and I’ve heard nothing since. I logged onto elong the next day and bought a ticket without problem. An agent called back, spoke to Qian and asked her to confirm all the details such as the date before processing.

This is the kind of thing which really p*sses me off in China. Such a backward approach to customer service – blaming the customer when problems occur due to gross incompetence on the part of employees of the company. Nobody seems willing to admit that they could have made a mistake because they will “lose face”. Instead they just look at the floor and then start shouting if necessary. In the west this is totally unacceptable but here it is normal. Surely such attitudes can only hold China back in their attempt to become a major business superpower. But of course, they will never accept that!

Anyway that’s my rant!!