British Airways might have a good reputation for its on-schedule services, but it still has a bit to learn about soial timetables.

The time is right

In September 2013 Hassan Syed took to Twitter after British Airways lost his father's luggage, posting the following tweet.

“Don't fly @BritishAirways. Their customer service is horrendous”.

Customer complaints on Twitter are nothing new, however in this case Hassan took the additional step of paying $1000 to make his post a Sponsored Tweet, meaning it reached 76,000 users.

Time lag

To compound matters, the tweet was posted outside of BA's customer service hours and the airline didn't respond until a full eight hours later.

BA eventually sent the following tweet to Syed.

“Sorry for the delay in responding, our twitter feed is open 0900-1700 GMT. Please DM your baggage ref and we'll look into this”.

To which Syed replied.

“@Briitsh_Airways how does a billion corp only have 9-5 social media support for a business that operates 24/7? DM me yourselves”.

Takeaways

The issue over Syed's father's luggage was eventually sorted, but not before the story trended on Twitter and was highlighted in media outlets around the globe.

The lesson for the rest of us? Traditional operating hours do not apply to social media, and if a customer is disgruntled enough they can use new tools like advertising to amplify their grievances.

Stay vigilant.

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