Personal Experience: Dubai Duty Free

Because of a very extensive travel schedule, Dubai Duty Free (DDF) has become a favorite shopping destination. I end up buying everything from there. Especially perfumes. They are at least 20% cheaper than market.

On my last trip to Paris, my wife and daughter tagged along. Wondering what a 7hr flight might do to a hyper-active toddler, my wife proposed we buy one of them portable DVD players. To me, that was a brilliant idea as we can distract her with Dora, Barney and the Teletubbies.

So, after a bit of browsing, we bought a Sony portable for about Dhs 800 and 3 kids DVDs, paid for everything, picked up the bag and rushed to the gate after that and into the plane.

After take-off and the seatbelt sign switching off, I reached out to my bag to pull out and plug in the player in the in-seat power socket and get the little one entertained a bit. To my surprise, the DVDs were no where to be found.

I pulled down the bag and looked in every bag we had. My wife told me that most likely the salesman forgot to slip them in with the DVD player. Luckily, there was a cartoon channel on the in-flight TV and that did the trick with the little one.

Upon arrival to the hotel in Paris, I looked for the DVDs again with no avail. So, I called the DDF and asked them about the missing items that I paid for. The woman who answered told me that she will check with Lost & Found gave me a reference number and said that they will call me back. Between you and I, I thought that was the end of it.

Surprisingly, two days after that, they did call us back. The woman said that she didn't find anything in Lost & Found or in the "left behind" files. However, they will look into the case and call me back.

I wasn't too hopeful, to be honest, and didn't think I would see the Dhs 360 (cost of DVDs) back.

But a couple of weeks after that, the woman called me to tell me that they haven't found anything, however, they asked that the next time I travel via Dubai Airport, to check in with the customer service counter and claim any 3 DVDs of my choice!

I had a flight that week and I walked up to the Customer Service desk and identified myself. From my mobile number, she retrieved my file and informed me that if I prefer a cash refund or take ANY 3 DVDs of my choice. I told her I just want the same DVDs I didn't get.

She said to take anything I wish and they are willing to reimburse me the difference if what I take is less than the claimed amount.

She escorted me to the DVD section, waited until I picked the DVDs, processed the transaction on the DVD section cash counter, thanked me and apologized again for the inconvenience.

Hats off!

Seriously, about 15 million passengers from every tongue, shape, color and form, fly via Dubai Airport every year. And EACH and EVERY one of them pass by Dubai Duty Free.

To get such followup, attention and a personalized service like that is nothing but admirable and reflects a world class level of professionalism that can rarely be found anywhere else.

Thank you DDF.