Business Commons^™

Customer Service, Responsibility, And Systems In International E-Commerce: Should A Major Airline Reissue A Stolen Ticket?, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This case is about customer service and responsibility in international e-commerce. A prominent e-commerce web site sells a ticket on a nonexistent flight, a human reservations agent fails to inform a customer about a well-known problem he is likely to encounter, an international airline’s telephone agents in Spain and the United States provide contradictory information, the airline’s office in Spain seems unaware of policies on the airline’s web site, and later its policies seem unhelpful. The case raises questions related to customer service, trust, responsibility, ethics, and business practices in international ecommerce.