Delta Army
18 Dec 2009 at 03:33 am
I do not remember ever taking that much time to bother with customer service issue. But this one is truly special. I was humiliated.
Copying here my letter to Delta service:
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To whom it may concern:
I tend to choose Delta for most of my flying. I am happy that while usually offering competitive price, and servicing many destinations, your customer service has improved in recent years. My friends and I, who were terrified of flying this airline before because of horrible service, lost luggage, bad food, are slowly coming around. Delta seems to have been making an effort to change.
This makes my experience today even more frustrating. I arrived to JFK approximately 4:10 pm on Sept. 29, for 6:05pm flight to Milan, with final destination being Moscow. I struggled for a few minutes with check in computers, which could not find my flight. According to reservation it is AirItalia – serviced by Delta. I then joined an endless check in line, and waited, until I realized that I am now in danger of missing the flight. That was about 90 minutes before scheduled departure. The person I turned to, responded that I must stay in line and I WILL PROBABLY MISS MY FLIGHT. I could not agree with such turn of events and went to seek help from another representative. After unsuccessfully trying to check me in at the self service computer once again, she directed me back, this time to the front of the line. I got to service counter, where I was informed that my bag was overweight by 6lb, and I owe Delta $150 for that. I asked to give me a chance to take books out of my bag (which was still on the counter in front of me). There were several books there. I could easily transfer them to my back pack in a couple of minutes or so. The same pessimistic representative that I met before intervened, and said that I cannot take contents from the bag or remove bag from this counter, because, once again I WILL LMISS MY FLIGHT. Threatened to MISS MY FLIGHT – I paid. It was 4:45pm. About 20 minutes before the flight would have been considered closed according to Delta rules. Why then could I not take my books out?? There still appeared to be sufficient time?
The whole situation with me and others was reminiscent of an army line up composed of Delta customers – fully at the disposal of above mentioned representative – “Got ya people. Now you are mine!”. I asked for his name. He did not care to stop and give me definitive answer. It is either Eddy or Andy (no employee number or last name). His reply: “THAT IS THE NAME HE GOES BY, AND THAT IS ALL HE CAN HELP ME WITH”).
It has been a while since I experienced such a steep rise in blood pressure. I’ll tell you – can not afford another one. Also I am disappointed. Maybe you could help to clarify the situation:
1. Why the person I have met did not appear to have slightest interest in making things better for me? I, others on that line – was frustrated. He kept telling people that they will be late, instead of helping them to be on time (I took a plane countless times. I have seen airlines in long line situations sort customers according to priorities – making sure everyone can register on time). Why would you allow someone like that to handle your passengers?
2. When I asked if I could take an item out of the bag – there was still at least 20 minutes remaining to cut- off time. I only needed 2 minutes. Why I was not allowed to do that? I could also take the bag to curb side check in – it turned out it was available. Why not? There were options, but not in the Delta army created out of Eddy’s passengers. I do not believe Delta used sound judgment here.
I want to ask to please return my money if possible.
get a life on 11 Jan 2010 at 11:55 pm #
If you had packed your bag correctly in the first place you would have not have been in that position. The Delta Agents handle thousands of customers everyday and it take a tole on the employees, because customers are not going to thank them for doing their job. THey are going to complain like any other person slightly inconvenieced. The employees have to help other passengers get checked in and do not have much time to mess with customers un-prepaired and not having all their stuff ready.
People, if you take the time to get your stuff in order and ready to check in, you would not have to go through all these frustrating situations, bottom line
Jennifer on 14 Jan 2010 at 1:05 am #
That response sounds just like the typical Delta employees I have dealt with.
Exactly the reason that I refuse to fly Delta. Fortunately, most of my families flights travel between Atlanta, Charlotte and Houston.
I was highly amused when a Delta employee started yelling at me when I convinced somebody who was about to buy tickets from Delta into going to the AirTran area and buying tickets from them.
After so many bad experiences with one airline and NO bad experiences from any other airline, I have to try and help out others.
I’m not saying that I haven’t had delays and other things happen with other airlines, but THEIR representatives handled the situations PROFESSIONALLY. Delta must have two requirements for their employees….. low IQ scores and no customer service skills.
Jim on 15 Jan 2010 at 5:58 pm #
“I arrived to JFK approximately 4:10 pm on Sept. 29, for 6:05pm flight to Milan”
You were 5 minutes late. The MINIMUM recommeded time for arriving at the airport for an international flight is 2 HOURS. That’s minimum – meaning it’s better to arrive earlier.
Sounds like you were ill prepared. There’s no excuse for the agent being rude, but at busy airports like JFK there are very specific time slots for planes taking off/landing that are dictated by the FAA down to the very minute. They often CANNOT hold a flight for an extra 2-3 minutes or else they could risk their take-off time by 20-30 minutes. Even small airports have this issue when flights are going into large ones like Atlanta.
The gate agents don’t have time to explain all of this ins and outs of why things work they way they do. If they took the time to explain, EVERYONE would be late.
RULE OF THUMB: Always get to the airport WELL BEFORE recommended minimum times.
bin on 22 Feb 2010 at 1:54 am #
WELL BEFORE recommended minimum times? That’s all we got from his person long description?
Let’s see:
1.) With Atled, don’t buy tickets with code share. If it is AirItalia, then try to buy ticket though agents/websites that specializes travel to Italy. Think about how OFTEN Atled sells tickets below on their “partner” airlines flights?
2.) The guy at the counter is not helpful. Do not lose your cool. The cooler you are, the more frustrated they will be. The worst case is that they will have to refer you to a manager or you will. You want to tie up as much resources as possible. The none Northwest agents are not union, so you could, in theory make the guy look bad to his or her manager assume you are cool and in control, by the way: Don’t ask for name directly. Instead, take out your phone and take a pic the guy. Once you are done then walk to another Atled employee, to ask for his or her name through social engineering.
3.) Assume you do have time…Why worry about being late for the flight. At the end of the day every airline is measure with on-time departure. For international flight, they will most likely wait longer to get people on the plane. In this case AirItalia will hate you but you just has to make a case to point finger at “Atled”. Of course, you will do this to real “Atled” flights if they do not care to be on time.
Atled does not know what they are doing. The bigger doesn’t make it better. As I am on hold with changing a ticket, my call is routed from MSP to South Africa, India, East Europe, MSP… on and on. Being told the wait is well over 1 hour in fact it is only 20 mins. Do not blame their agents, it is the management. Send message to their Cs.