Delta Airlines/Horrible Customer Service

Delta Airlines-Salt Lake City, Utah Airport.

Following is the complaint sent to Delta Airlines after the horrible

experience two friends and I had at the Salt Lake City Airport on June

23, 2007:

I didn't put my flight or ticket numbers because I don't have the info

in front of me.

I'm emailing you regarding your customer service at the Salt Lake City,

Utah airport on Saturday, June 23, 2007.

Two friends and I had a lay over in Salt Lake City on our way home from

Fargo, North Dakota to Portland, Oregon.

It was our first time flying and so everything was new to us.

We found the gate we needed, (C2), in Salt Lake City and got settled in

for the long wait, (4 hours), until we could catch our connecting flight

home.

The time was getting closer to when our flight should be, and there was

still nothing mentioned...At that time there was a flight to Spokane at

our gate.

We heard a Delta employee call for "Zone 1" passengers to board the

flight to Spokane. His wording to the passengers was, in my opinion,

extremely rude and condescending.

He announced to the passengers, "We're loading Zone 1 only. If you're

not Zone 1, then we aren't going to board you, so don't try it. We

can't accomodate you right now, we want only Zone 1. The cleaning crew

is trying to get the plane cleaned, so you'll just have to wait until

they're done."

A short time later, this same employee got on the loudspeaker and

announced that other zones could then board. However, he said that

there had been a problem with the computer system, therefore even

passengers that had originally had assigned seats probably didn't have

them now. He went on to say that they, (Delta personnel), didn't have

time to sort it out for every passenger, that the passengers would just

have to get on the plane and deal with where they were sitting. He went

on to say that if a passenger felt that they just had to have the

original seat they'd been assigned, they were free to approach other

passengers and see if they'd be willing to trade seats with them. He

said that there was nothing Delta could do about the problem, they were

too busy with "more important things than seat assignments", to have to

deal with it...His final words were, "we're running behind, we just need

to get you on the plane to Spokane as quickly as possible and we'd like

to avoid anymore hassles than we're going through already, so if you can

deal with where you're sitting, we'd appreciate it".

My friends and I couldn't believe that we'd just heard all that over the

loudspeakers. We all work in customer service and would NEVER dream of

speaking to ANYONE, a customer or otherwise, like that! We mentioned to

each other that we were glad we weren't any of the passengers going to

Spokane!

After that flight left, it should have been our flight next at the

gate...But it wasn't...And also by that time, the Spokane flight was

running late, which would have made our flight late also, (we were to

have left at 11:21 a.m.).

It was 11:20 a.m. when my friends and I discovered that the next flight

out at our gate was NOT our flight; so we went to find out at the desk

why it wasn't.

The woman at the counter of Gate C2, asked what we needed and my friend

asked about why our flight wasn't next.

The woman looked at my friend, pointed to my friend's ticket and said,

"do you see that, it says 'subject to change'...your flight gate was

changed, don't you understand that"?

My friend asked why there had been no announcement made over the

loudspeakers, (there hadn't been, as I mentioned, we'd been there from

the time we got off the plane from Fargo, to that point), and she was

told that she needed to pay more attention, that there had been an

announcement made...My friend said no, we'd been there the entire time,

there hadn't been, because we'd been listening for any mention of

flights to Portland, Oregon since we'd gotten there 4 hours earlier.

The woman all but said my friend was lying, THREW her ticket back at her

and said, "there WAS an announcement, and besides, you should be

checking the departure schedules, that's YOUR job as a passenger". My

friend didn't know what she was talking about, (remember, we've never

flown before), and the woman just got angry and said she didn't have

time to explain, for us to just go to where our flight had been moved.

The woman at the counter then FINALLY told us our flight had been moved

to Gate C5...So we rushed down there to try to make our flight. We

needed to be on it as my friend was scheduled to go to work almost as

soon as we got back to Portland, Oregon.

We got down to Gate C5 and the plane was still there. We went up to the

counter and explained what had happened. The door for boarding was

still open and connected to the plane; we only had carry on luggage, so

there should have been no problem with letting us on...But the woman at

C5 said absolutely not...They weren't going to hold the plane even

though they could because it wasn't THEIR problem we were late.

My friend tried to explain what happened, and the woman at C5 just said

there was nothing she could do, that "it isn't my problem you missed it,

you'll learn next time, won't you". She then told us to go talk to the

man at the counter next to her about rescheduling our flight.

By then my friends and I were pretty upset. My friend that needed to be

to work tried to explain to the man at the counter what was going on and

about how upset she was about being treated so rudely.

THAT man looked at her and said, "well I don't like YOUR attitude and if

you want ME to do anything for you, you'd better straighten up and talk

to me decently". My friend just looked at him, bit her tongue and

walked off...Leaving me to deal with him.

He looked at me and said, "am I going to have trouble with you too, or

are you going to be civilized?"

I said I'd be civilized and tried to explain why my friend was so

upset...He didn't care...I tried nicely, (I didn't want to get him

angrier), to explain that we'd been treated badly and that he wasn't

being very nice either...Didn't matter...He just went on about how HE

was doing US a favor and that if WE expected HIM to help us we'd better

be nice and kind, or he wouldn't help us at all, we could just deal with

it on our own...Basically I was told, "you do what I tell you and how I

tell you, or you get nothing."

So, I gave in...and was nice, (I had been the whole time, I never raised

my voice once, even when this guy YELLED at me)...He then told me that

he'd see about getting us on a 2:30 flight to Portland, but that he'd be

doing us a favor by bumping three passengers from the flight to get us

on it. I told him thank you, I appreciated that.

My friend was sitting in a chair near the counter and was on the phone

to her boss explaining what had happened, while I was dealing with the

guy at the counter. Evidently the guy at the counter was still

listening to what my friend was doing, because he heard her say

something about no announcement made, and about how rude everyone was

treating us, and the guy got angry again.

My friend was far enough from the counter that he didn't yell at her,

but he looked at me and said, "that's it, you're not getting on the 2:30

flight, I'm making you wait until 7:30...I don't have to give you that

flight either; but I'm not giving you the 2:30 flight if she's going to

act like that and talk about me like that". Mind you, I'm 47 years old

and this is a guy who had to be at least my age if not older...He was

acting like a baby!

I told him, "she's upset, she's talking to her boss, she's trying to

keep her job, she just wants to go home".

The guy tells me that he doesn't have to put up with that kind of abuse

from passengers, that he's doing his job and if we don't like it, then

too bad; don't ask him to do favors for you if you aren't going to be

decent to him.

It was so hard to still be nice at that point, but I felt that if I

didn't we'd never get home, so I just got very passive and again said to

the guy about how we just want to get home, we were tired, we're new to

flying, we didn't know about checking for departures and there were no

announcements made over the loudspeakers about changes to the Portland

flight.

The guy then LECTURES me, not quite yelling, but almost, about the

following:

1. We ALWAYS make announcements about flight changes; therefore YOU must

have missed hearing it...Pay more attention next time.

2. As far as not knowing about checking for departures...(His exact

words here)..."So what? That's not my problem. If you're going to fly,

then know what you're doing. If you don't know what you're doing, then

stay out of airports and don't fly until you do know."

3. He then tells me he'll go ahead and put us on the 2:30 flight to

Portland, even though three people on that flight will have to suffer

because of us...And that he won't charge us the $75 per ticket to do the

change, even though he should...That this was, (again quoting exactly),

"completely YOUR fault, and has nothing to do with any negligence on

Delta's part."

His parting words to me at that point were, "I went easy on you and gave

you what you wanted. Don't miss another flight, because I won't be so

nice next time, do you understand me?" He said it in a tone like he was

talking to a 2 year-old.

At that point, I was already so angry and holding it all in just so we

could get home, all I said was "thank you", got my friends and took off

to wait another 3 hours at another gate.

I have NEVER been treated so badly in my life! I kept my temper, didn't

raise my voice, did what was asked of me and was still told how rude I'D

been!

My friends and I were made to feel looked down on, like we were second

class citizens...That we weren't good enough to even talk to...That we

were liars and that WE were causing trouble and were stupid.

I felt that the man at the counter who changed our flight was on a huge

power trip...I felt like I was being made to jump through hoops at his

discretion, just to get any help from him. It was extremely degrading,

especially when I didn't do anything to him, not even raise my voice.

And even if I had, these people work in customer service! As I said

earlier, my friends and I work with the public also...Not one of us

would ever DARE to talk to a customer, or treat a customer the way we

were talked to and treated...We'd be fired immediately.

I'm not trying to say that the customer is always right...But for

heavens sake, we were trying to get some help and trying to understand

what was going on...The last thing we needed was to be degraded,

devalued and made to feel like we were just stupid nothings and nobodys.

That's why I'm writing to you about this...I'm still VERY, VERY angry

about all that happened. I felt that I didn't dare express any of this

at the time, for fear we'd never make it home. As it is, my friend may

or may not still have a job because of what happened. I just knew at

the time I couldn't get angry back at the man at the counter, or he'd

make us even later in to Portland and my friend would definitely have

been fired.

At this point, having been treated badly by almost every Delta employee

I've encountered, I honestly don't feel that anything will be done about

this issue; however, if you choose to do nothing about this, at least

I've gotten my feelings out and said my peace.

Hopefully something WILL be done about this however, otherwise I just

don't know how you stay in business. I know at this point in time that

my two friends and I will NOT be flying with Delta Airlines again.

Thank you for your time.