It's late here--past my bedtime, for sure. But I am so full of ANGST right now, I surely won't be slumbering any time soon. Instead I am going to gripe. You've been warned ...
My little brother is leaving on a mission to Zurich, Switzerland on May 7. We decided that we'd like to take a trip to see him one last time before he disappears for two years. In keeping with that goal, I pulled up the dreaded search-for-a-decent-flight chair and began typing away. Because we live in a city that, apparently, is not the most desirable tourist location (why not?!), the flight options are always limited. We generally end up driving 3 hours to a bigger (better?) airport for a drastically cheaper flight. But this time, I got lucky. I found an affordable option, nonstop, Delta direct out of our very own airport. (Cue heavenly chorus.)
Dates were double-checked, and the five-screen process of data entering began. I was just moving to the final "verification" screen, when DUN, DUN, DUNNNN (that was supposed to sound musically ominous) I got a lame "Whoops!" message. I'm sorry, but "Whoops!" just doesn't cut it at this stage in the game. Something more akin to, "We are terribly apologetic, we know you must be about ready to throw something at your computer due to our stupidity, but our system is completely lame and has just failed you miserably," would certainly have been better received. I tried and tried and tried again (with a little begging thrown in), but "Whoops!" kept flashing its insincere grin at my increasingly furious face. Argh.
But I really didn't want to miss the rate; it could mean flying with a stop (yuck) or, worse, driving 3 hours and then flying with a stop. I hate flying a measly state away with a stop. What a waste of time! So I attempted to phone Delta to make the reservation with a "customer service specialist". In the interest of time, suffice it to say that four "specialists" later I can assure you that label is used LOOSELY. First off, I think Delta has outsourced their customer service department to India because all four men I spoke with had thick Indian accents. And hey, they were nice, but I didn't understand a third of what they said and vice versa. I may be wrong, but conveying accurate information seems to be a fairly crucial aspect of taking/receiving flight reservations. I envisioned myself getting to the check-in counter, come April, and not being allowed to board because my ticket read "Bmary Clinam". I do not exaggerate--just getting my name spelled took 5 minutes. "M as in what?!" I kept saying. (Note to any would-be customer service agents out there: It doesn't help to say "F as in gjkdsodf;e" if the word you use as reference is incomprehensible.) Double argh.
True to my lucky night, my phone cut out just before I could give my credit card number, so wouldn't you know it--I sit here typing with NO reservation at all to show for the hour I spent talking to "specialists". The kicker is that I did finally discover (thanks to a tiny red word on the website which my desperation eventually led me to click on) that Delta was having routine maintenance done tonight for 2 hours. HELLO! #1. Why didn't the "online service specialist" I spoke to very first tell me that?! And #2. I don't care if it's midnight in the Eastern time zone, it's only 9:00 pm for me and that is a perfectly reasonable time for me to be making a reservation. Schedule your routine maintenance at 2:00 am ET. It makes so much more sense.
Well, now I'm just yelling, so I'll tone it down. Even if none of you bothered to read my grumbles, that's okay. I'm sure feeling better.
10 comments:
Well I don't fly that often so I can't relate but I definitely know what it is like to need to vent. I am glad you felt better after you vented! I do understand what you mean about outsourcing of customer service! It is hard enough to deal with customer service reps when you can understand them, but when you can't forget it!
Oh, I can sympathize. And even though your hour was well worth the rant, it did make me chuckle. I know, I know, not worth the trouble. I agree with the Indian customer service. They are all very kind, but not so helpful due to the language barrier, which kind of makes it a moot point. Better luck today?
Oh my gosh! I'm sitting here laughing to myself. You describe the experience so perfectly. I seriously think I have hearing problems. ANY type of background noise while I am on the phone - traffic or a dishwasher - can make the conversation useless. Then you throw in someone with an accent....not pretty. I am SO SORRY for the maddening frustration. Hopefully everything is as easy as pie on your second try!
Hope you are able to get a good flight, to date I have rarely had a good flight in or out of Fresno, what is the deal? Congrats to your bro, we feel out of the loop and this is the first I had heard of this Switzerland news!
It is so true about delta using reps in India. Every time my dad has to get us flights to Utah from here he has an impossible time getting them due to the accents and not being able to understand each other. Why do they do that? I realize they can pay them less, but wouldn't you think that having happy customers would be more important? I don't know, call me crazy, but I would rather have happy customers so that bankruptcy wouldn't be in the future AGAIN!
I get SO frustrated with companies that outsource to India. I'm sure their workers are plenty intelligent, but that doesn't do any of us any good if we can't undertstand each other. I hope you are able to book a decent flight. (((HUGS)))
Thanks for the solidarity, team. Yes, thankfully that post took me so long last night that the "scheduled maintenance" was completed and I was able to book our flights at the same rate in about 7 minutes. That was the icing on the cake.
And Crystal, the flights aren't that great--$304.--but at least affordable. So, $1300 dollars later, we are heading to Utah in April. I swear that should read, "Hawaii". But alas, Utah it is.
Oh that sounds terrible. I've never had to spend time finding flights but I've done it with other things so I kind of know how you feel. I think you should be heading to Hawaii for that price too. Leave your cute girls with me and go to Hawaii, you deserve it after that annoyance. I'm glad we'll get to see you soon.
Unfortuately, I too have delt with Delta's long and annoying customer service just 3 weeks ago. I was on the phone for 45 minutes after my reservation wouldn't go through online...however my customer service "specialist" person was not from India...thank goodness. I can sympathize with your Delta woe's. Glad you got the same price you were hoping for.
I can sympathize with you completely...I have a story or two. Including the time they broke my stroller and refused to pay to repair it (try running through the NW terminal in DTW with a baby and 3 bags and no stroller..NOT pretty)....oh and the time they lost my car seat in transit and the only loner they had at the arrival airport was far too small for Warren to be riding safely in...yea...I can feel your pain.
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