United Customer Service
So I have been a loyal client of United for years now and I really want to vent a story. Most commonly I do not chase too much down with them because its totally pointless and they will not help. But I am a 1K, or 100 thousand mile customer, not a small score to have in their eyes.
So on my way back from my last business trip to Sydney I purchased several cases of wine and had the bottles very carefully backed for shipping. I know that United throws bags and boxes no mater what is written on the box, these boxes had 5 large Fragile stickers on them and marked glass as well. When I got into SFO I found 1 of the cases in the normal collection area, the other was in the freight pickup sitting on a large flat cart.
It turns out one of the bottles was obliterated from miss handling, typically being dropped or thrown. I waited hours to talk to someone about this and finally the manager of Untied international starts to walk towards me. He hears something on his radio and immediately does an about face and out the back without talking to me. I asked the assistant manager to have him call me. I even provided my 1k-mileage number, cell phone number, address and email.
At this point I didn’t care about a financial re-imbursement but an apology for the way this was handled, the assistant manager did not even apologize for this obvious screw up. Instead she promises that he would call me and talk to me about what happened. NO, CALLS AT ALL!
Wow go United! It was bad enough when they jacked their employees of their benefits and they started to hate the clients, but holy crap!
So on my way back from my last business trip to Sydney I purchased several cases of wine and had the bottles very carefully backed for shipping. I know that United throws bags and boxes no mater what is written on the box, these boxes had 5 large Fragile stickers on them and marked glass as well. When I got into SFO I found 1 of the cases in the normal collection area, the other was in the freight pickup sitting on a large flat cart.
It turns out one of the bottles was obliterated from miss handling, typically being dropped or thrown. I waited hours to talk to someone about this and finally the manager of Untied international starts to walk towards me. He hears something on his radio and immediately does an about face and out the back without talking to me. I asked the assistant manager to have him call me. I even provided my 1k-mileage number, cell phone number, address and email.
At this point I didn’t care about a financial re-imbursement but an apology for the way this was handled, the assistant manager did not even apologize for this obvious screw up. Instead she promises that he would call me and talk to me about what happened. NO, CALLS AT ALL!
Wow go United! It was bad enough when they jacked their employees of their benefits and they started to hate the clients, but holy crap!
Labels: Customer Service, travel, United Customer Service
by Aaron Shear
6 Comments:
neat
This is pretty sad! I just made 1K a couple of weeks ago and was looking forward to much-improved customer service. Hmm... guess not :(
It's hard to leave when you get system wide upgrades at 1k.
I just got 3 more cases through without them breaking this time. Maybe there is hope, but I am not going to hold my breath.
Aaron:
I am not United Airlines but I do work in Operations for United. Ill answer on their (our) behalf, accordingly, from what you posted.
United Airlines (and most airlines) make their money/profit on cargo and freight; its a staggering 80%. Although you purchased the wine in Sydeny, due to security regulations, liquids are not permitted in the cabin and they have to be "checked" with the normal baggage.
United handles over 12 million pieces of baggage daily and they are restricted to unimaginable fines for every minute that an aircraft is delayed. Delayed is defined as each minute past the scheduled departure time. An aircraft is considered "Out" when the pilots release the parking brake...at which time the clock "stops." Those brakes cant be released until EVERY passenger, EVERY door, EVERY overhead bin, and EVERY piece of luggage is "secured." You can imagine how difficult it is to turn a plane the size of a 747 in an hour. It has to be off loaded, cleaned, and reloaded with not only passengers, but luggage as well. These are not mandated by United Airlines itself, but by the US Govt., more specifically, the FAA. Unfortunately, during the chaotic ballet, some things get mishandled.
The sad part is that you are a 1K passenger and United brushed you off, for the most part. You see, 9/11 had a severe impact on aviation as a whole. The world economy cant and couldnt survive without aviation. Terrorists knew this and set out, specifically, to disrupt the flow "pattern." Aviation has not been the same since, security wise and economically. Becuase of this, United and EVERY other airline has had to find ways to save money. Our customer service is handled, largely, by India and Indonesia, for no other reason than to save money. United and a few other airlines will ALWAYS be here, simply for the fact, that airline travel is far too important to let die. I would call the 1K Desk and demand a travel voucher at the very least. What I suggest to folks of 1K or GS level is to visit your local airport. Alot of times, we, as Customer Service Reps, spend more time with "you guys" than your own families. What I am saying is that there is usually a rapport with the local Reps and 1K/GS travellers. Bring it up to your local United Rep./Supervisor and maybe they can do something for you.
Hope it helps and sorry for the loss of wine. What a sin:)
Wow Thomas, thanks so much for explaining that. Most of the employee's of United are very nice and really try to help the customers. The few bad apples, like the International Manager at SFO is not and should be removed.
I will try to contact the 1K desk again and ask them for help. They blew me off last time.
I still fly way too much and I am comfortable with United so I have not changed.
Post a Comment
<< Home