Delta - failure to disclose

When the grandfather of my friend's husband died just recently they were quickly figuring out how to fly (without spending their daughter's college tuition money) from Washington D.C. to Austin, TX for the funeral. The first thing they did was check various airlines for bereavement fares.

Southwest - "We treat everyone equally. All last minute tickets are sold at last minute prices."

Delta - "We don't sell bereavement fares. Then, why do you have on your website to call this number to ask about bereavement fares?"

Finally, my friends decided to cash in credit card miles through American Express in order to get their airline tickets. The American Express lady was so nice that she even made the phone calls to various airlines to determine what flights were available for immediate departure to make it to the funeral. It turned out Delta had the best schedule that met their needs. One ironic thing though, delta refused to be tied into a conference call so the American Express lady was the go-between. She would talk to Delta, then repeat the information Delta said to my friends. Once the miles were transferred, my friends called Delta directly to process the transaction and were quite surprised when Delta told them there would be $200 in fees and a credit card was needed. They were not informed by Delta of the high cost in fees prior to transferring the miles over to Delta. And now, that the miles were transferred, there was nothing that could be done about that. Other airlines has fees that were much less than $200 to process late last minute frequent flyer travel.

After a much heated discussion, the ticket agent reduced the fees to $50 and my friends made it to the funeral.

Why? Why do companies insist on sticking it you without fully disclosing increased prices, fees, etc? I'm shocked that so many people are willing to put up with this and not take the time to fight against it.

Update: October 4, 2007

It turns out that Delta charged my friends the complete $200 and when they called to inquire about the full charge the lady refused to reduce it back to $50 even though the notes on the account said that $50 would be charged. My friend's husband promptly wrote a letter to Delta's management about the situation.

More AT&T Woes

Imagine my lack of surprise when I received a Disconnection Notice from AT&T today in the mail for failure to pay my bill last month. Considering that they forced me to give them a credit card to have on file to automatically charge my credit card each month (apparently being a Cingular customer for the past few years doesn't count as being an AT&T customer), and that I had confirmed with someone that my credit card was charged, that wasn't enough and they just had to send me the notice.

So I called the 1-800 number and explained the situation to the lady who was just as shocked as me for having received the notice. Especially since she could see that the bill was paid. She called the "disconnection people" and they said, "oh that was an error." Gee, thanks.

Meanwhile, I asked the lady helping me (who thought all of the issues were absolutely insane) if the credit had been applied to my account for the DSL issue. She looked and it hadn't been. Ugh! Can you feel my frustration? So she said she would put some notes in and transfer me to the right people and they would have to take care of the matter. Yeah, that didn't work. She transferred me to the technical issue resolution people who spent 30 minutes trying to transfer me to the billing department who then promptly hung up on me.

I so did not mean to waste an hour on the phone with AT&T tonight, but luckily some magazines came in the mail so I did some reading.

The saga continues...

Possible AT&T Solution

After two more phone calls to AT&T to try and get resolution I might actually be getting somewhere. I reached a person who was said it was ridiculous that I was having this much trouble getting a problem addressed, that she grabbed her manager as he walked by and took care of it right then and there. We will see on the next bill if it carries through and I certainly hope it does.

I am amazed that the two managers I spoke with were so rude about the situation and I am amazed that they threatened to pull the tapes but in the end would not do it.

I did contact a lawyer, like I said I would. Ummm, he never returned my phone call. I was told on the phone that I'd spend more money fighting it than I would get. I told the person that it was principle. The bait and switch move that AT&T did is NOT RIGHT. And who knows how many people they do this to. It's wrong. Shouldn't we stand up to the big companies? I think so. We should demand better service.

Free Pizza!

(Event occurred July 7)

Now this is an extreme example of good customer service. Back in July, a friend and I were out shopping and were starving. We decided to order the 3 pizzas at $5 a piece from Pizza Hut. We paid for our order...went shopping some more, picked up our pizzas, went home and realized we got all cheese pizzas which was not what we ordered. My friend went back to get the right pizzas and Pizza Hut not only made the right ones, but let us keep the old ones, and refunded all of our money! So my friend gave one of the cheese pizzas to our local homeless guy and the other ones went to her neighbor.

Why I regret getting AT&T DSL Service

It all started on June 19th....

I heard on the news that AT&T is offering $10 DSL to people now! It's such a secret that they aren't advertising it on their website.

But, never fear because I'm here! I've done the hard work of figuring out how to place an order. I even had to "chat" with an online rep because I spent 30 minutes looking myself and couldn't find it.

Start here.
Click on "See if you qualify" which is under the $14.99 basic plan. (It's written in blue and underlined. It's above the words, "learn more". Answer the following 2 questions and then enter your phone number for an availability check. If you don't have a phone number, you'll have to order phone service. Note: Within 6 months AT&T will offer DSL without requiring you to have phone service. But, heck, their cheapest phone service (25 calls per month) is only $7.00. The two together is still tons cheaper than my cable internet.

Finally on August 14th...(yes, it took that long to make up my mind to switch)

I was so excited to get my phone connected yesterday and the DSL set up today! Now, I just have to remember how to set up the wireless to work with the new DSL. That's a project for another day.

But, I have to say, I'm quite disappointed in my phone service. There is so much static on the line I can't have a conversation with anyone. What a bummer.

So, of course I have no idea how to troubleshoot a phone issue. I started with the phone a friend let me borrow until I go buy my own phone. Picture this, it's a Minnie Mouse phone. Well, it's been 7 years since I've had my own land line!

I try a different DSL filter, a different jack, a different phone (another from my friend) and the noise is there every time. Then I go outsideto try the phone at the box junction to the house. I unplugged the line to the house, plugged it into the phone, and what do you know - it still has static. So the problem is outside of the house (thank goodness).

It took AT&T two trips to out here to resolve the problem. The first time they basically "dialed" down the static. The second time they had to lay a new phone line (it was buried about 5 days later) because the original line was frayed.

August 29th....

I'm not impressed. I'm extremely frustrated!

I called AT&T today 3 times and was disconnected the first 2 times and the third time I could not get through to a human being. I find this customer service experience to be unacceptable and reflect poorly on the AT&T brand name.

Earlier in August I decided to get rid of my cable internet (that I had since 2002) and go with AT&T and DSL. I ordered a phone line and DSL online ($10 a month for the DSL) and had trouble submitting the order. The website told me it was having technical difficulties and to call AT&T. I called AT&T and somebody completed the order fo me. They said they needed a credit card from me and that's why the online order didn't go through. I guess that's because I haven't been an AT&T customer since 2001 when I last had a landline. I made sure that the guy submitting the order verified that the phone was $15 a month and the DSL was $10 a month as that was the reason I was switching. I had heard on the news that AT&T wasn't advertising this $10/month special, but that it was there, just hidden in the background.

Today I received my first bill. I was charged $14.99. I called AT&T and was transferred 3 times as I had to explain the problem each and every time and everyone said they couldn't help me, they didn't have access to the online pricing. Then, the last time I was transferred they just hung up on me (accidentally I would assume). That call took 45 minutes. The next time I called, I explained the situation yet again and he said he couldn't help me and that no manager was available to help me. So he transferred me to a phone number and gave me the number. The number said it was NO LONGER IN SERVICE! And then it hung up on me. WHAT? You must be kidding. This call took 20 minutes. I called back again and after being on hold for 15 minutes I gave up. My shoulder hurt from holding the phone and there isn't a speaker phone on the phone I'm borrowing.

Next, I tried getting in touch with AT&T via their online email method. I had barely gotten 1/5 of the story down and it said I was out of characters. WHAT? How can I explain the problem with just 250 characters? You must be kidding.

So, I don't know how to resolve my problem. AT&T doesn't seem to know how to help me and can't transfer me to the right person. What do I do?

September 5th....

The nightmare continues. Why did I switch? Is saving money really worth it? And why do big companies think they can get away with crappy service? I just don't understand it.

So yesterday I call AT&T again and after another hour of being transferred around the country....and numerous people I finally had someone help me who was able to credit the account the difference for a year of $10 vs $14.99 DSL. Now, I don't know which is my favorite of the people I spoke with - it could be the lady in retention who couldn't help me because she only had access to California and Nevada accounts and then when she transferred me to the Texas retention people she sent me to someone who was definitely not able to help me. So he transferred me back to billing (which is where I start every 1 hour session with AT&T, and finally I got the nice lady who helped me.

But...today a manager called me (who returned my phone call from last Thursday). Umm, that was the longest 48 hours ever! And she was adamant that they could not honor the $10 DSL price because when the AT&T website tells you to call them when trying to place an order online it means you did not qualify for the online promotion. I explained to her that it was not clear at all and had I known that I would not have placed the order. Then she tried to tell me that the $10 DSL was for low-income people only. Then, she tried to tell me that you had to meet certain credit ratings to get the $10 DSL. And since I was told to call AT&T and I had to give AT&T a credit card in order to get an account that means I didn't meet the credit rating to get the $10 DSL. What? Are you kidding me? None of that is clear. First of all, the website said it ran into trouble and told me to call AT&T to finish my order. At no time did it specify I needed to give them a credit card, at no time did it tell me I couldn't get the $10 DSL. Then, when I called I explained to the guy what I wanted to order, he submitted it (after getting my credit card), and before he did that I made sure he ordered the right things. $10 DSL. Only reason why I was switching.

The manager was not helpful at all. Took the credit (from yesterday) away. Finally she said she would research the matter and pull the tapes from the conversation. Yes, please do I told her. I bet she thought I was lying and I would back off if she said that. Heck, I wish I had thought of it first. So - they will pull the tapes. They will hear me order the $10 DSL. They will confirm that he said nothing about $14.99 DSL.

But - then what? She already made it quite clear she couldn't honor the $10 DSL because it's an ONLINE promotion and they have no access and no capability to give it. She did offer to give me one month free. I told her no. After investing 5 hours on the phone chasing this issue down I'm not giving up that easily. No company should be able to get away with such poor customer service. It's horrible. The fact that it takes 20-30 minutes to reach a person is bad enough, the fact that you get transferred 3 times on average in one call just sucks, the fact that it takes a week to get a resolution is unacceptable, the fact a manager calls you a week later is pathetic, the fact that manager takes away your credit is unforgivable!

What is happening to customer service? Why do people put up with this crap?

September 7^th….

The manager at AT&T called me back late this afternoon and informed me she did her research and my original submittal online did not go through therefore I was not eligible for the $10 DSL. I asked her if she had pulled the tapes like she said she was going to do and she said she didn’t say that. Ok, so either I make stuff up, I don’t understand what they are saying, or they lie. She told me that the call placed for the order was not to her department/organization and those tapes could be in another state and she can’t pull them. I asked her who could pull them and she said only the manager of the original representative I spoke with. I asked for her manager to speak with me (of course it won’t be until Monday or Tuesday) now that it is late on a Friday.

So what is this? This is a bait and switch. You go online to order something, the website says it’s having technical difficulties, you call the number it tells you to call, the representative completes the order without telling you the prices are going up and not what you are verbalizing to him that you ordered, and then they charge you the higher price and refuse to honor the original price or credit the amount.

So, tonight I received a referral to a lawyer who specializes in Consumer Law and I’m going to do something about this situation. It’s wrong what AT&T is doing.

AT&T's Mistakes

Mistake #1: The manager says that when you receive the technical error page that it means you didn’t qualify for the special. How am I supposed to know that? It didn’t say that to me. It just said it ran into difficulties processing the order. It made it look like an error on AT&T’s side.

Mistake #2: The representative who finished my order did not tell me that I could not receive the $10 DSL pricing. In fact, I recall him reiterating it to me.

Mistake #3: It takes a week (3 phone calls each lasting 1 to 1.5 hours) to get to a person who can help me. No problem should take that long to find a representative to assist you. Most people would have given up after the first phone call.

Mistake #4: AT&T’s phone representatives don’t know how to transfer you to the right department. I was disconnected twice and transferred to a blatantly wrong department once. One disconnection occurred when the transferred me to a number that was no longer in service and the wrong department was when I was sent to ‘retention’ and the person could only access accounts in Nevada and California. Ummm, I don’t live in either of those states.

Mistake #5: Saying you are going to pull the tapes and don’t. Was it supposed to be a threat?

No, really, I do want to cancel my cable service!

(Event occurred in August 07)

I have Earthlink Cable Internet and have had it since 2002. I decided tonight to cancel it because I keep having billing issues with the cable provider. It used to be Time Warner Cable (TWC), but this past spring Comcast took over the market. Ever since I have moved, month after month, the billing has been screwed up. I call everytime and it takes on average 30-45 minutes to clear up. Once again this month by bill was far more than it should have been. I call comcast, they say call Earthlink. So I did, and they said they would fix it. I called Comcast back today (to actually disconnect my service) and first I asked them about my bill and f they fixed it. They didn't. Oh, they said. We are Comcast we don't have agreements in place with Earthlink to provide service, fix billing, or disconnect service. I told them that wasn't my problem. I have been with Earthlink through TWC for over 5 years. That was for them to figure out how to deal with it. So he eventually figured out how to cancel the account. But he didn't ask me when I wanted it to take affect. So we will see if he actually processed it for August 16th. If he didn't, I'll be without internet for a week. And yes, I was transferred and eventually got the billing straightened out.

So, that's 1/2 the story. When I called Earthlink (before calling Comcast) to cancel the service, they don't communicate with the cable company and they told me I had to call them to cancel the actual cable service while Earthlink is just canceling my email service. Ugh. Too much! Make it stop!

The Rules at Cheddar's

(Event occurred in Jan 2007)

What an interesting evening. Tonight I met up for dinner with a bunch of volleyball players I have met over the years. They had a tournament in Galveston today and went out to dinner afterwards. We went to Cheddar's, a new chain restaurant that opened up back in Sept/Oct here.

So it turns out they have A LOT of rules and odd behavior! It's very comical. Read on...

When we first arrived we asked for a table to seat 10 and the hostess just gave a look and said it would be a really long time since there was a table of 15 ahead of us and they only have three tables that seat large parties. She didn’t know how to handle the situation. At one point she asked us, "So what do you want to do?" The reply to her was, "Seat us, either at one table or 2 tables of 5." This didn't get a reply and eventually someone beside her asked if 2 tables of 5 would be ok. Of course (didn't we just say that?) it was as long as they were in the same area.

Then while we waited in the bar to be called to our table we tried to order drinks and an appetizer. The majority of the people in our party had played in a volleyball tournament all day long and were quite hungry. The waitress took the drink orders and consulted with a manager and promptly told us she couldn’t put the order in until the table next to us left. We were six people seating around one of the tables that seats 4 people. Apparently it’s a rule. Well, the people next to us never left. We got our drinks (and she asked for everyone’s id…even the 40 and 50 year olds in our party).

Of course one drink was not what was ordered and the waitress left us confused (as she left the drink on the table) and then walked away. She returned telling one of the women at our table that the manager will have to speak to her about removing the drink. (Did we do something wrong?) The manager came and we told her the wrong drink was delivered, a regular margarita was ordered. Ok that’s fine the manager replaced it. Isn't it odd that the waitress couldn't replace the drink on an order she screwed up? This whole exchange took quite a bit of time. Meanwhile, everyone would just love to have an appetizer. The people next to us still hadn't left yet.

So we move onwards to the table (one table for 10) and things went much smoother until the food arrived. Everyone’s food arrived except mine. Turns out there is a rule against how many orders can be put in at one time. My food arrived 15-20 minutes after everyone else’s. What I don’t understand is why weren’t the salad and soup two people ordered considered appetizers so that my food could come with the group.

What odd rules!!! But really good food. I had the ribs tonight and they were delicious!

Air Canda: 1, US Airways: 0

(Event occurred in Feb 2007)

I spent this past weekend up in Canada visiting a very dear friend of mine. Right before I walked out the door (really!) I had an automatic call from US Airways telling me my flight was delayed by 99 minutes because the inbound aircraft was delayed. I can only assume it was coming from somewhere out East where snow and cold weather was blanketing the country.

I called US Airways and was able to get a seat on Air Canada. Yeah! The flight was leaving only 25 minutes later than my originally scheduled flight. After getting to the airport I quickly learned that I couldn't check in for my flight because US Airways didn't release my e-ticket to them (or something like that). I had to go to the US Airways counter to get them to do that. But of course, after waiting in a long line I learned their computers were down. I tried to get them on the phone via the 1-800 number. 15 minutes later I had them on the phone and tried to tell them the problem. They said there wasn't a problem and the Air Canada person should be able to pull up my reservation.

Only she couldn't. I went to give her the phone, but what do you know, we got disconnected. However, she was now able to see my reservation, she just couldn't access it. Also, she said that my middle initial was attached to the end of my first name and since that didn't match my passport she couldn't give me the ticket. She told me to go back to the US Airways counter.

So I did. I was very frustrated by this point (over 30 mins of being at the airport and getting nowhere). Finally, a US Airways person was able to help me (earlier when I asked, a lady told me only one person could help me and he had a long line waiting for him). This new lady was able to print my tickets with my name the proper way and released my e-ticket to Air Canada.

Back to Air Canada. Now there is a longer line there, but my new friend at the counter pulled me up to the front. I kid you not, another 20 minutes (at least) passed before I had my boarding passes in hand. Even though the tickets printed with the name the right way, in the e-ticket it was still wrong. She couldn't print my Air Canada boarding passes that way and it took her FOREVER to outsmart the system. But I commend her because she DID outsmart the system and found a way to make it work. She didn't give the every so common excuse - I can't help you the system won't allow me. I can't tell you how many times I hear that today at stores or from people over the phone.

Kudos for Southwest Airlines

(Event occurred in April 2007)

One of my coworkers discovered that the price for a flight she recently bought was heavily discounted all of a sudden. She had paid $120 to fly from Houston to Austin round trip and now the price was $60. Now, had this been any airline they would have said, sorry there's nothing that I can do. But, this was Southwest, an innovative and flexible airline. She called and was told all she had to do was go online and book the cheaper ticket and then cancel the previous ticket. The money would go be saved via an electronic voucher under her frequent flyer number. Sure, it's not cash back in your pocket. But, she was just going to use the money to book another ticket anyway! 2 trips for the price of 1. Now - that's customer service and innovation! And thank you for not charging a $100 change fee!!!!

Thanks Cingular!

(Event occurred in May 2007)

Two years ago when I moved to the apartment I had the hardest time getting out of my cell phone contract with Sprint, even after they tried to troubleshoot the problem for 6 months. The bottom line was moving a mile away my cell phone no longer worked. But, finally I was able to move on to Cingular which worked absolutely great at my apartment.

Now, having moved again (this time about a mile and a half away) my cell phone doesn't get very good service. I don't necessarily believe it's entirely the network's fault as the cell phone has slowly been dieing over the past few months. First the phone would hang up on people when I opened it up. Then the front display died. Now the main display dies about 50% of the time. So yesterday on a whim I called Cingular to explain that the phone is dying and my contract ends at the end of June. In addition I told them about the poor service in my area. I asked if I could get out of my contract without a penalty. The customer service agent said to wait while she researched it. I waited, she asked, and magic - I was out of my contract. Piece of cake. I have absolutely loved having Cingular has a wireless provider. I don't think I have a single complaint about them.

Is there intelligent life at Earthlink?

Event occurred in April 2007

I'm dead serious. I doubt there is intelligent life at Earthlink. I've had nothing but headaches for the past 6 months every time I've had to call them. This time, it's about moving my service in 2 weeks. Those in India keep telling me there is no service where I am moving and there isn't service where I live now. Hmmm....interesting, because then who have I been paying for the past 6 years?

I basically have to beg to be transferred to someone in the U.S. Then, this guy can't help me because I need to speak to someone in customer service and he doesn't have access to figure out if I really do have service or not. No, really, I'm on the internet now. And, by the way, online it tells me that there is service where I am moving to.

So he transfers me to customer service in the same city. That guy is completely clueless. I'll grant him one thing, he was in the billing dept, but really the guy wasn't that bright. He said he would transfer me to customer service (still in the U.S.)....ummm the next call ended up in the Philippines.

So I hung up on him, but I warned him first! I told him that it wasn't his fault, but that he couldn't help me and I didn't want to waste any more of my time.

Luckily, one guy had given me a priority phone number to use in case we got disconnected so I called and finally got a human with a brain! It turns out that they need to downgrade my account to dial-up (in name only), so the installation people (those in the Philippines) can then move the account.

Ugh. It's way too complicated. And the fact that I had to talk to like 5 people for them to figure that out is very unsettling. Welcome to global customer service, we do it cheap without quality.

So that guy (the one I thought had a brain) misrouted my call and I ended up with the DSL people (in who knows what country).

Now, I'm back in India (yes, this is real time.) And it's really loud in the call center. As usual. I don't want to hear the conversations of others as I'm trying to resolve a problem.

Why don't I just cancel it? Oh yeah, because who wants to go through the hassle of changing their email address. It's more of a nightmare than changing your street address!

Now, an hour into this ordeal, the call was disconnected. Thank you Earthlink!!! Lovely doing business with you. Fabulous customer service (NOT!)

So how exactly do I move my service?

A new blog...

Tonight we started this blog after one too many encounters with poor customer service in America (regardless of where the call center is located in the world). I don't understand why so many people put up with poor customer service? Why is it the standard in this country? Why don't we stand up for good service? Why, as companies get bigger, does their service decline?

The purpose of this blog is to highlight the most ridiculous and unacceptable examples of poor customer service in America. And, of course, we won't turn our backs on the excellent examples that are far and few between.