Last night I had what I would probably consider my worst experience with  Customer Service. Back in February I had to cancel a flight to Gerogia  that I had booked through Orbitz on Delta Airlines. The airline refused  to give me any sort of refund and instead credited my account so that I  could use it towards another flight within a year. I decided to fly to  Florida in June to visit a few friends that live there. While looking at  flights yesterday the prices were pretty good so I decided it was the  time to book. Orbitz's website told me that in order to book a flight  with canceled flight credit I would need to call their Customer Service.  I spoke to three Orbitz representatives before I was informed that I  would need to talk directly to Delta. They gave me Delta's phone number  and the record locator I would need. I called Delta with the expectation  that booking my flight would be a breeze from there.
My call was answered very quickly, which I was pleasantly surprised  by. However, that's where the pleasant part of my experience with Delta  ended. The representative asked me for my airline ticket number and I  began to give him the number that Orbitz had given me. He interrupted me  part of the way through and told me that it was not the right number,  that the number he asked for would start with "062." I had my  confirmation email from Orbtiz pulled up on my computer and found a  number that said "Airline Ticket Number" but it did not start with  "062." I informed the representative that I had a number by that name  but that it started with "767." The representative then became rude and  told me that he needed the Airline Ticket Number, not the Record Locator  because the date of the canceled flight had already passed. I informed  him that the only numbers I had were the ones I had tried to give him.  Again, the representative was rude and I asked to speak to his  supervisor. Instead of passing me on, he asked me WHY I wanted to speak  to his supervisor. I told him that I felt he was being extremely rude  when I was trying to find the information that he was asking me for. The  representative THEN told me that he needed this information in order to  process my request and that I needed to stop telling him how to do his  job. I informed the representative that I was not trying to tell him how  to do his job, but that I don't work for an airline and therefore don't  know what all of the codes mean and was looking through my email to try  to find the number he was asking for. In the middle of that statement,  the "customer service" representative hung up on me!
At this point, I'm pretty angry. Being assertive is not something I  have always been good at, and in the past I probably would have started  crying when being treated so terribly. I can be rude if I need to be,  but I did my best to remain calm and try to explain to this  representative what I was looking at. Apparently that warranted being  hung up on. I called Delta back and was thankfully assisted by a  different representative. I informed this representative that I had been  hung up on during my last call and she apologized but asked no details  about what happened. I did get my flight booked, thankfully, and it  turns out the Airline Ticket Number I was trying to give the last  representative was the correct one after all. Apparently they drop off  the "062" on all the numbers since they all start with that. I wish  there was a way to call back said representative and actually  tell him how to do his job. Instead I wrote a complaint to Delta  Airlines this morning and assured them that I would never fly through  their airline again. The only reason I called back and booked through  them after my experience with rude representative was because I already  had $400 wrapped up in my canceled flight from February. I have to say  that I was extremely disappointed with the service I was given and the  way I was treated. When posting about my experience on my Facebook page I  got comments from others saying they have also had negative experience  with Delta. All of these reasons, my friends, are why I will never fly Delta again. Please feel free to pass this blog on to any of your family or friends and encourage them to do the same!
Always get the reps name and note the time and date you called. I just did this same thing with the New York State Parks and was able to note the reps name I spoke with.
ReplyDeleteYou do know what the acronym for Delta is, right? Don't Ever Leave The Airport. Good luck on your flight.
Keith