I've not blogged anything in a long time but I very much wanted this to exist on the internet so that anyone could access it and know my pain.
It's been a little over a week since this event occurred where Delta stole a day of my life from me and there has been zero correspondence from them save for an email survey they sent me about a delay I had on a different flight which barely has anything to do with why I was and still am angry with them. I attacked the comment box:
"I find it very insulting that this survey is in regards to the flight delay I had in Atlanta and not the completely ridiculous mishandling of my travel experience I received beginning the day before on 5/9/2013, but let me elaborate on why I will not be flying ever again and why I'll be telling my friends (and anyone who will listen) not to fly Delta again:
I was originally scheduled to fly home on 5/9 to visit my mother and family on mother's day weekend. This would be my first trip home in nearly 7 years and my mother had several things planned for me every day of that trip. On the morning of 5/9 I received a call and email saying my flight would be delayed. It was delayed again about an hour later which would have made my connection impossible so I called customer service to inquire as to what to do. I took the option to take an earlier flight leaving the same day putting me at my destination at roughly the same time and rushed to the airport. I immediately checked in at the first available self check in terminal and received my boarding pass. I was then ushered into the wrong line (special services) to check my bags. This line happened to be crowed due to issues with your terminals not being able to read passports for international flights, it also contained several travelers who couldn't use their terminal due to an error you had with a flight to Paris, as well as people who were supposed to be on my original flight that had been extremely delayed. After speaking to an agent I was put in the correct line to check my bag, and later pulled out of that line to check it in outside which should have been quicker. When I reached the front of the line and gave the person my ID they couldn't pull any information about my flight up in their system. I explained I already checked in at the self service and had my boarding pass but even after scanning the boarding pass they were unable to retrieve anything and told me to go to special services where I originally started. The special services line had now doubled in size by this time due to the three situations I mentioned before and I was hounded over and over by your agents trying to pull me out of that line thinking I didn't need to be there leaving my to explain my story over and over again. When I finally made it to an attendant at the counter my flight had already boarded. I explained what happened and they apologized and after a little time gave me reservation and booking information for a flight with American Airlines. I then went and stood in their line for about half an hour and when I got to the counter I was told that the flight was oversold and to go back to Delta, so I strolled all the way back over to that special services line questioning what the word "special" in special services really stood for. After another twenty minutes or so I got to speak with someone again who again was nice and apologized and this time presented me with two options, to either flight out at 10pm that night or the first flight the next morning. Both of these options meant I would miss an entire day that my mother had planned for me but I didn't complain and accepted the 10 o'clock flight. The rep made the reservation for the flight to Atlanta (which was with Alaska Air) and gave me the boarding information. It was also at this time I learned about the $25 voucher I was supposed to get for the airport as well as some online $50 off coupon I supposedly have on my account which I will not be using. My entire faith in your company was lost at this point and a one day $25 food voucher and $50 off a flight doesn't begin to make up for what happened to me. I had to wait at that airport for over eleven hours before I got to fly out of it. I couldn't even check in my bag and go through security because you're not allowed to check bags until four hours before your flight which severely limited the locations which I could use that food voucher and I was quite hungry because I skipped lunch trying to get to the airport early enough to make that flight. After hanging out at the entrance for five hours I finally checked my bag and got through security so I could get started on waiting another four hours to actually get on a plane. I was surprised that flight wasn't delayed at that point. I landed in Atlanta with no problem and made my way to the gate. There was a very nice woman working the gate I spoke with who printed my boarding pass. My original flight was supposed to leave around 9:30am but I fell asleep at the gate and missed it. I admit, that was my fault, but it was also aided by being forced to wait at Seatac for 11 hours and I had barely gotten any sleep. Again, my fault - I should have set an alarm. I explained what happened to the nice woman at the gate and she assured me nothing was wrong and this happens sometimes and instructed me to got to the ticketing office where I met a very unfriendly woman to try to reschedule my flight. And now we've arrived at the part of my story that actually applies to the condition you sent me this survey for. The gate for this flight changed about 3 or 4 times and when I heard it was delayed it didn't surprise me at all considering every leg of this trip was screwed up in some way.
And there you have it, why I'm not spending any more money on your company. Throughout my entire trip plenty of your people apologized and some empathized with my situation but none of them actually did anything to try to make it up to me. Yes I received and used your food voucher but that was something that printed from the check in terminal, not something offered to me by one of your reps - all you did was tell me I had one and reprint it when I realized I accidentally gave it to the first person who helped me in the special services line. I even spoke to one of your supervisors (who had to be called in to reprint the voucher) who heard my entire story and didn't offer me anything either. Eleven hours is a very long time to spend in the airport, surly I could have been given an additional voucher, or maybe even upgraded to a first class flight for one of my travel legs or maybe even given a refund for half of my travel expenses since I barely did any traveling that day. Your company robbed me of an entire day of my life as well as precious time that could have been spent with my family that I hadn't seen in seven years, time that was already earmarked for that very thing. Apparently to your company my time is only worth $50 to entice me to fly with you again. That amount of money would only cover the cost of checking my baggage both ways, so since you company is treating me like baggage, I'm treating your company like baggage as well. The baggage I need to drop. I also find it very insulting that your company has some sort of system in place to track things like delays and whatever other mistakes that happen to your customers and sends out these surveys, yet I received no survey call or email about the error that completely fouled everything up.
I think you should know that my job is to train customer service. Every five weeks or so I'm given a class of around thirty individuals to train how to do things properly and how to treat customers. In the first week of every class we all share stories of both positive and negative experiences we've had in the past and why we continue to do business with some companies and not do business with others. Have I ever got a story to tell them."
So Delta gave me something to blog about for the first time in about four years. Yea?
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