Terrible Airline, Bad Customer Relations

[DDMAN]

Thanks again to everyone for offering your opinion.

I certainly didn't come to this forum and expect everyone to be sympathetic. Most of you have been polite and matter of fact when expressing your opinion, while a few have been hostile.

I will not supply specific information on dates and flights that could possibly lead to someone identifying my daughter. Quite frankly it doesn't matter. How Consumer Relations is handled is what counts. They have all the specifics and could address the cause of delay, but they did not. Who knows, they may of flagged her already.

Soon I leave to visit my daughter. I am flying on Jet Blue. Her trip home for Christmas is booked on Continental. Then she is booked to return to meet a travel group on American. Later, my wife and I have booked to another visit on Jet Blue. Also, I have a business trip to Orlando booked on Southwest, which is not one of my favorites, but they run on-time. We are probably not the type of customer US Airways wants to retain.

Take care. Happy travels!

 

[NCFL]

To address a few things that have come up in this post...
Now, on to the form letter responses. Sending a form letter in response to your inquiry does not mean your request was not read, fully investigated and taken seriously.

If a specific letter had to be written for every inquiry, imagine what the turnaround time would be.

Also, you can complain to the DOT about anything and everything but remember each and every airline has the right to investigate and the refute any inappropriate claims. The thing is we all see the original complaints that are filed every quarter,but you would be surprised how many are refuted and removed from the airlines records and I'm pretty sure those numbers aren't posted.

1. You're right: Getting a form letter doesn't mean the complaint wasn't recorded and sent to the applicable department head. For an operational complaint, since there are so many of them, it was more likely just lumped into one big pot and counted statistically, rather than investigated, etc.

2. You're wrong: The old East Consumer Affairs office routinely responded to a customer's letter with a personalized response or a live telephone call with a FOUR DAY turn time. That window of time might have slipped some during extreme events, such as the blizzard of 1993, or the PHL Christmas meltdown, but the average was four days. Rather than form letters, East used some form paragraphs to explain or answer certain inquiries, but the majority of the letter was from scratch. And the telephone never said "we're too busy to answer." 80% of the calls were answered within 20 seconds, again barring extreme events.

3. You're wrong: The DOT codes based on PASSENGER PERCEPTION. They will not typically remove a complaint because the airline simply disagrees with the customer's perception of the situation. The only complaints that are removed are those that are about another carrier. For instance, if the person writes about a flight delay, but the delayed aircraft was operated by Air Wisconsin, that complaint goes to ZW. If the complaint is about ground handling at ORD, and it turns out the personnel in question are UA staff, it gets reassigned to UA. But just because an airline disagrees with the customer's perception of how an airline operated a flight or handled a situation doesn't mean the carrier can gripe and get the complaint removed.

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify.
NCFL

 

[Be Careful What You Wish For.]

I will not supply specific information on dates and flights

So we will never know what the reason for the delay was.

 

[phlus2]

What seems to have been missed here is that bottom line, there was a customer who wasn't happy with the product they received, and the service they received from the company that provided that service. Maybe the company needs to learn how to better deliver their message so that the customer understands what happened and not as unhappy with the product they received.

Perception is reality, as they say, and in this case there now appears to be another customer out there who will no longer fly on US. (Welcome to the club by the way!)

 

[Be Careful What You Wish For.]

Is it not worth asking if the complaint is valid to begin with?

 

[FlyGuyBWI]

Sorry that your daughter had two bad experiences. It is probably better that you book on another carrier in the future, even if it costs a few more dollars. We hate to loose your business, but you need to spend your money where you feel you get the best value. Clearly, for you, that hasn't been US Airways.

Happy Holidays.

 

[avion]

i still get a kick after 30 some odd years and hear passengers ####... Well i just called my wife and she looked out the window and there is no fog out there.. and I tell him.. yeah and the airplane is not landing in your backyard.. or the customer who says OH Yeah right you cancelled the flight because there no one booked on it... granted years ago airlines did do that when a flight would make stops and call in and ask if you had anyone checked in for it and you said no and they contined on their way but things have certainly changed since. To this day i still cant understand why the airline industry is under such scrutiny and the trains and buses are left alone. and please Americans are a bunch of whiny and very NEEDY people.. We are Americans and I want service and I want it now!!!!! The monday of this past Thanksgiving was a horrible day to travel there was extensive ATC delays in the Northeast and alot of misconnects. Maintenance issues are one thing but this compensation for weather and atc issues were all addressed during the year of 2000... The airlines all got together and the DOT and said ok here is what you get and dont get and now customers DO NOT GET any compensation for those delays if they do then that is up to the airline and the circumstance involved and thats where Consumer Affairs comes in. We hand out the phone number email of that department and its up to them and that is generally what happens with other companies . the employees of ALL the airlines are doing their best under alot of pressure someday those NEEDY Americans will cut them some slack. and yes Im not a needy american but i have the greatest respect for all folks who have to deal with the public.. someday our ship will come in but with our luck we will be at the airport!

 

[happy01]

1. You're right: Getting a form letter doesn't mean the complaint wasn't recorded and sent to the applicable department head. For an operational complaint, since there are so many of them, it was more likely just lumped into one big pot and counted statistically, rather than investigated, etc.

2. You're wrong: The old East Consumer Affairs office routinely responded to a customer's letter with a personalized response or a live telephone call with a FOUR DAY turn time. That window of time might have slipped some during extreme events, such as the blizzard of 1993, or the PHL Christmas meltdown, but the average was four days. Rather than form letters, East used some form paragraphs to explain or answer certain inquiries, but the majority of the letter was from scratch. And the telephone never said "we're too busy to answer." 80% of the calls were answered within 20 seconds, again barring extreme events.

3. You're wrong: The DOT codes based on PASSENGER PERCEPTION. They will not typically remove a complaint because the airline simply disagrees with the customer's perception of the situation. The only complaints that are removed are those that are about another carrier. For instance, if the person writes about a flight delay, but the delayed aircraft was operated by Air Wisconsin, that complaint goes to ZW. If the complaint is about ground handling at ORD, and it turns out the personnel in question are UA staff, it gets reassigned to UA. But just because an airline disagrees with the customer's perception of how an airline operated a flight or handled a situation doesn't mean the carrier can gripe and get the complaint removed.

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify.
NCFL

I didn't mean to imply that complaints are removed simply because the airline disagrees, but I do know that each department of any airline receives a list of complaints against that specific department and they have the right and opportunity to investigate them and refute them. Now, they do have to provide ample evidence and supporting documentation to substantiate why they(the department) feels it is a bogus complaint and this does go back to the DOT. Now, whether they are actually "removed" from the report or just noted and not held against the airline I don't know. But, I imagine something must be done with them or US would be in serious trouble with the DOT already and it doesn't seem like they are,yet. I know for one quarter a specific department received 29 complaints, they were able to validly dispute more than half of them and provide supporting documentation. But, you know what over all it doesn't matter Public Perception is a HUGE part of business and if passenger's aren't happy and they spread their unhappiness around it doesn't matter how many complaints are disputed the damage is already done.
And honestly even if you create a custom letter for each pax, they all begin to sound the same because nothing is a new situation that hasn't been heard before. There are some phrases that sound really good and really work, so you use them over and over and modify the letter and save it for future use and guess what...you have a custom made form letter. And as we've already established we're not the old US Airway or the old America West we are the NEW US AIRWAYS, times have and are always changing. So many things add to the complaints that come in: ATC, crew delays, weather, mx... we all know about each of these issues whether it's right or not each department has to deal with things to the best of their abilities with the tools they have and this probably includes using a form letter. I know alot of people are missing being able to talk to a "real person", but what CNA realized is that they are able to deal with complaints more efficiently and quickly in an email format. No,it may not be the most personable approach, but lets be honest they aren't going to get a different response if they talk to someone or if they email. In todays technology driven world, alot of people prefer email, it's quick an efficient. Some passenger's wish more departments were run with the technology CNA has, they feel it would save them time and aggrivation. It's just another case of you can't please all of the people all of the time. In the case of a passenger responding to the original letter sent from CNA and CNA responding back to the pax again, it was a form letter that was sent. But at what point is it okay to stop creating custom letters for the passenger's rebuttal? In this case they said they reviewed his request again and reviewed it with management. No, it wasn't custom but did the form letter answer the passenger's additional questions/complaints?
Now, did anybody else notice the irony of the original poster's statemen that he will be using Jet Blue for some of his travel in the future? Aren't they the airline that had the small problem of the plane being stuck on the runway for 10(?)hours last winter? Obviously the bad PR didn't hurt them, so maybe what others have posted is true that customers will go where they can get the best fare? Just food for thought

 

[JAMAKE1]

We are probably not the type of customer US Airways wants to retain.

Even some of US Airways' best customers ponder this same quote...

 

[cactusflyer]

We are probably not the type of customer US Airways wants to retain.

Sadly, even our own management team doesn't know what type of customer they want to retain. I mean really what the he** is
a business casual airline? Branding at it's worst and I don't think you have to work on Madison Avenue to figure that out.

 

[gaucho99]

My 2 cents:

Some talk has alluded to the fact that the old Consumer Affairs Department (original US Airways) responded differently to customer concerns. This is true, but so did the old America West Customer Relations. Prior to the merger, every complaint or compliment to Customer Relations was responded to with a peronal phone call to the customer. Two attempts were made to reach the pax and if we could not reach them, we would send a customized letter.

After the merger, and really, even a little before, it became apparent this was not going to work anymore. When you have a back up of 15,000 letters and emails and a 2 month response time, you have to make adjustments. The problem is not just because the combined company is larger, or that the operations have suffered, which both are factors, but in today's world, it is so easy to send a quick email that tons of people that weren't writing before are writing now. Unless we hire 1,000 new agents, we're going to have to continue with the more generic written responses. Be assured, we do code all complaints and management does review these to see what the customer is saying.

Right now, customers are getting a response within 2 to 3 business days, sometimes quicker.

The OP had a legitimate complaint and the compensation offered was fair. In my opinion, complaining to the DOT for something like this is akin to crying wolf. The passenger was inconvenienced, the company made a goodwill effort to apologize but the customer still goes to the DOT? Why should the company continue to make efforts to please customers if they're just going to try to stick it to the company?

The only result from a DOT complaint is a statistic. The DOT does not come back to the airline and say you need to do something more for this customer. All the complaint does is add it to a list. Most customers do not see the report or really care anyway.

 

[legacy-to-LCC]

but so did the old America West Customer Relations. Prior to the merger, every complaint or compliment to Customer Relations was responded to with a peronal phone call to the customer. Two attempts were made to reach the pax and if we could not reach them, we would send a customized letter.

LOL

 

[2clippedwings]

I didn't mean to imply that complaints are removed simply because the airline disagrees, but I do know that each department of any airline receives a list of complaints against that specific department and they have the right and opportunity to investigate them and refute them. Now, they do have to provide ample evidence and supporting documentation to substantiate why they(the department) feels it is a bogus complaint and this does go back to the DOT. Now, whether they are actually "removed" from the report or just noted and not held against the airline I don't know. But, I imagine something must be done with them or US would be in serious trouble with the DOT already and it doesn't seem like they are,yet. I know for one quarter a specific department received 29 complaints, they were able to validly dispute more than half of them and provide supporting documentation. But, you know what over all it doesn't matter Public Perception is a HUGE part of business and if passenger's aren't happy and they spread their unhappiness around it doesn't matter how many complaints are disputed the damage is already done.
And honestly even if you create a custom letter for each pax, they all begin to sound the same because nothing is a new situation that hasn't been heard before. There are some phrases that sound really good and really work, so you use them over and over and modify the letter and save it for future use and guess what...you have a custom made form letter. And as we've already established we're not the old US Airway or the old America West we are the NEW US AIRWAYS, times have and are always changing. So many things add to the complaints that come in: ATC, crew delays, weather, mx... we all know about each of these issues whether it's right or not each department has to deal with things to the best of their abilities with the tools they have and this probably includes using a form letter. I know alot of people are missing being able to talk to a "real person", but what CNA realized is that they are able to deal with complaints more efficiently and quickly in an email format. No,it may not be the most personable approach, but lets be honest they aren't going to get a different response if they talk to someone or if they email. In todays technology driven world, alot of people prefer email, it's quick an efficient. Some passenger's wish more departments were run with the technology CNA has, they feel it would save them time and aggrivation. It's just another case of you can't please all of the people all of the time. In the case of a passenger responding to the original letter sent from CNA and CNA responding back to the pax again, it was a form letter that was sent. But at what point is it okay to stop creating custom letters for the passenger's rebuttal? In this case they said they reviewed his request again and reviewed it with management. No, it wasn't custom but did the form letter answer the passenger's additional questions/complaints?
Now, did anybody else notice the irony of the original poster's statemen that he will be using Jet Blue for some of his travel in the future? Aren't they the airline that had the small problem of the plane being stuck on the runway for 10(?)hours last winter? Obviously the bad PR didn't hurt them, so maybe what others have posted is true that customers will go where they can get the best fare? Just food for thought

Your justification for the lack of a personalized response to customers' concerns is pitiful.
Sounds like high school crib notes to me. Like having a report to do and copying and pasting from Wikipedia with a great sense of satisfaction for a job well done. Deborah Thompson, they are NOT.
You say the company can and does investigate complaints reported to the DOT so that some can be removed. They should use that time more wisely and retain the customers they still have by offering a sincere and personal response. That's known as being proactive instead of reactive and could possibly stop the process of a DOT complaint.
Yes, it's difficult to come up with new ways of saying the same thing. Customer relations is challenging. Try it face to face every day.
Jet Blue is still a popular choice. Their leadership stood up and publicly took responsibility for bad decisions and I respect them greatly for that.
In my regular and frequent dealings with various customer service departments via the internet (positive and negative), a canned response is the most frustrating and the most likely to clinch my decision NOT to deal with them again.
I do not think the point of the original poster was so much recompense but more a sincere personalized response. After making multiple efforts trying to get someone to listen, I felt his frustration.
Amateurs.

 

[USCREW]

I do not think the point of the original poster was so much recompense but more a sincere personalized response. After making multiple efforts trying to get someone to listen, I felt his frustration.
Amateurs.

I think that the intent of the OP was to vent and insult US Airways employees. He does not seem that interested in the cause of the delay; rather, just the compensation for the suffering and 'expensive' ticket. He has already made up his mind about US when he named the title of this thread, and has stated that he has made future travel plans on other carriers. So, best of luck with future flights, and I guess you won't be visiting this site much more since we're such a 'terrible airline'.

 

[NCFL]

My 2 cents:

After the merger, and really, even a little before, it became apparent this was not going to work anymore. When you have a back up of 15,000 letters and emails and a 2 month response time, you have to make adjustments. The problem is not just because the combined company is larger, or that the operations have suffered, which both are factors, but in today's world, it is so easy to send a quick email that tons of people that weren't writing before are writing now. Unless we hire 1,000 new agents, we're going to have to continue with the more generic written responses. Be assured, we do code all complaints and management does review these to see what the customer is saying.

Right now, customers are getting a response within 2 to 3 business days, sometimes quicker.

You're right, 99. The old East office had backlogs that high periodically, and for a brief period of time, would reluctantly resort to a "coverall" apology letter just to dig out. That said, I have a few comments on your post:

1. You decribe "today's world," in which it's so easy to "send a quick e-mail." Do you think those conditions didn't exist prior to 4/28/06, the day East Consumer Affairs was closed? Remember, Al Gore invented the Internet, and it's been around for a while. Just to clarify, and so you can stop being delusional, e-mail did in fact exist prior to 2006, so I don't buy your position that "tons of people that [sic] weren't writing before are writing now." That's utter poppycock.

2. When the HP/US merger was announced, those in the East office were certain their days were numbered. That was a given. Based on experience (something HP seems to be seriously lacking), the West was shown statistically, shown graphically and told anecdotally just what the impact of a merger would do to Customer Relations' contact volume and how it would quickly snowball out of control. East did everything but use Sanskrit and Cave Drawings to show what happened to it after the PS/AL and PI/US mergers in the late 80s as a way of suggesting that the East facility be kept open longer until West had time to staff up and get all of the new-hires and temps fully up and running. That didn't happen.

All of those customer contact data had been saved, thanks to the savvy of Deborah Thompson and her staff, but HP refused to listen. So, in the process, and by taking the typical el-cheapo route, it shot itself and the customer in the foot (again). It's just another example of the way HP does business:

DP: Fire!
DP: Oops, SK have you aimed yet? No? Uh Oh.
DP: Elise, are we ready? We're not? Crap. It's too late. We fired already. What do I do? What should I say? Maybe they won't notice.

3. Those customers who are getting responses in two to three days...are they getting "real" letters, or more form letter pabulum? Obviously, in the OP's case, it was ineffective pabulum, eh?