Trying to Keep My Cool
05 Dec 2009 at 02:44 pm
I recently flew Delta for a vacation to Costa Rica, and will never fly them again. About two weeks before our trip, I received an email from delta with a new itinerary for an entire day earlier than I had previously booked, paid for, and planned on. Unfortunately it was for the first connecting flight from denver to atlanta, and my second flight from atlanta to costa rica was still departing as originally scheduled. Thus, I was forced to spend an entire day/night in Atlanta.
Trying to keep my cool, I called Delta to make sure they were planning on putting me in a hotel given I was not originally scheduled or planning spending an extra night in atlanta (let’s not even go into the fact that I had to use an extra vacation day from my employer to make this ’schedule change’ for a day earlier). The delta representative told me they were not going to provide me a hotel, or compensate me in any way…but they did give me the option to cancel my flight altogether….perfect, considering my trip was two weeks out at this point and any comparable fare on another airline was 10 times as much.
So I arranged for my own hotel and spent money out of my pocket…when I got to Atlanta I told the customer service agent about what had happened and they were going to provide me a hotel…however I already paid for a hotel which was now past the point of cancelling. So the customer service agent told me to submit my reciept to delta.com for reimbursement on my hotel costs. I have now exchanged 4 emails with delta.com with a most unhelpful pompous jerk of delta rep who is not willing to do anything whatsoever…even after I was promised reimbursement.
I will never fly delta again, and hopefully more people will do the same and they will have to pay for their ridiculous customer ’service’.
Dave on 05 Dec 2009 at 6:11 pm #
Wow, after reading a few other posts, these people must just pull up a database of term-filled responses to pull from. I wanted to include my customer service responses as well…so others who have not yet written can anticipate what they are going to hear back from delta’s customer dis-service.
Here’s the first response:
“Dear Mr._________,
Thank you for writing about your recent flight experience on November
22. On behalf of Delta Air Lines, I sincerely apologize for our
schedule change due to which you were not able to travel as planned.
I am truly sorry for the inconvenience you were caused due to our
schedule change and clearly understand your frustration you experienced
on your recent travel. Feedback like you have provided will help us to
improve our overall customer experience. Be assured I will be sharing
your comments with our Network Planning and Analysis leadership team for
their future consideration with flight changes in this market. Thank
you for taking the time to share your experience.
We follow a steady policy to ensure that Delta is fair to everyone who
travels with us. Accordingly, we must respectfully decline your request
for the reimbursement for the hotel expenses you mentioned.
Mr. ___________, thank you again for writing about your recent travel. By
bringing forth your concerns, you give us an opportunity to review our
operations and improve our services. Your business is important to us
and given the opportunity of serving you in the future, I am confident
Delta will not only meet but exceed your expectations.
Sincerely,
P*** P. N******
Coordinator
Customer Care”
————————————————————————
And this was response number 2:
“Dear Mr. _________,
Thank you for your recent exchange of email regarding your recent
travel. On behalf of Delta Air Lines, I am sorry to learn that you were
dissatisfied with my previous response.
I understand you feel I did not adequately address your concerns. I was
happy to review your comments again to see if there was something I
missed with your detailed concern. Respectfully, there is nothing more
I can add. I am sorry to disappoint you, as I understand this is not
the answer you were expecting.
Mr. ______, I apologize for the inconvenience you encountered due to
schedule change. Your support is important to us, and I thank you for
your additional time and effort. We look forward to the privilege of
serving your air travel needs again soon.
Sincerely,
P*** P. N******
Coordinator
Customer Care”
——————————————–
And the latest response:
“Thank you for your email expressing your continued disappointment with
my previous response. On behalf of Delta Air Lines, I am sorry to learn
that you were dissatisfied with my reply.
I am genuinely sorry it was necessary for you to write again. I was
concerned that I missed the purpose of your communication so I reviewed
your comments with my Supervisor along with your detailed concern.
After a lengthy discussion, there is no further action that would be due
as a result of your experience. Again, I am sorry to disappoint you, as
I understand this is not the answer you were expecting.
Mr. ________, I am sorry your travel was unsatisfactory. I hope in time
you will provide us with another opportunity to restore your confidence
on your future travel. We are focused on the future and look forward to
our continued business relationship.
Sincerely,
P*** P. N******
Coordinator
Customer Care”