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You Got Served...For Posting a Picture

You remember what I was saying the other day about customer service and trying not to jump the gun when it comes to customers giving bad reviews? If you don’t, click here.

Well, it seems like an Indonesian airline could use some of this advice. What is this gist, you ask? So apparently, an Indonesian travel blogger Ruis Vernandes, on his flight from Sydney to Bali on the Garuda Indonesia, had been handed a handwritten menu. It was written on a piece of paper that had obviously been removed from a spiral-bound notebook. I mean, I understand the shabby chic or rustic look but even that might have been a little too rustic. 

Source: YouTube Rius Vernandes

Vernandes seemed to think so as well when he shared a picture of the menu on his Instagram page. The picture *unsurprisingly* went viral and of course, drew amused comments from his followers. The airline’s management, however, was not amused and quickly took to Beyoncé's internet to announce that the menu was not supposed to be viewed by passengers but only by cabin crew members. They also published an internal memo stating that it was banning videos and pictures from cabins in their planes. Ah, small play? 

After a little online push back, the management backtracked that pictures were only banned if they were ‘disturbing the peace’ of other passengers. Lol, yeah right. As if that wasn't bad enough, on the Wednesday after this incident, (it had happened over the weekend), Vernandes and his fiance received a brown envelope in the mail that meant they had been served. Um, what? 

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The brown envelope contained a police summons which meant that the airline had filed a formal complaint to the police and Vernandes could be looking at up to four years in jail if convicted. Mad ting. Imagine posting a video on Instagram (as part of your job oh! Okay, maybe hobby) and getting sued for it. He posted a picture of the envelope asking for support from his fellow vloggers and influencers, stating that he didn’t want to see a future where one could be criminalised for giving constructive criticism. 

Last I read, Garuda Indonesia had dropped all charges and offered Vernandes and his fiancé two free tickets. All I have to say is, Tearoom management is learning work when it comes to completely botching customer service.