Anti-SAA website launched

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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A new website taking aim at poor service from South African Airways (SAA) was launched recently. The new website, called SAASucks, is hosted at http://saasucks.com

The website resembles the original SAA website, with a rather prominent "SUCKS" added in red below the SAA logo.

According to the website founder Justin Hartman, a well known web entrepreneur and founder of Afrigator, SAASucks aims to expose the “consumer injustices happening at South African Airways every day".  The website encourages unhappy SAA customers to share their experiences on the website by posting their story.

Hartman says that he was a victim of “poor and disgusting service from SAA that led to a loss of almost R1 000 all due to a South African Airway’s system error".

Hartman elaborated on the event in his personal blog (http://justinhartman.com/2008/10/21/saa-extortion-at-its-best/), and after SAA did not respond to his official complaints about the event he decided to start SAASucks.

“I felt robbed and this was my way of using the power of social media to expose the daylight robbery that is happening every day at SAA,” said Hartman.  “What I’m hoping to achieve with SAA Sucks is to hurt SAA where it matters most – their pockets. It is evident to me that SAA are cutting corners every which way possible and consumers are fitting the bill.”

South African Airways said that their customers have the right to express their dissatisfaction with service. “However, there are established channels implemented by SAA for customers to do this and we would encourage them to make use of these,” said Robyn Chalmers, Head of SAA Group Corporate Affairs.

“We endeavour to respond as promptly as possibly to all concerns brought to our attention,” said Chalmers.

SAA Sucks website – give your views