View Full Version : USAIR Worst Customer Service, TWICE!!!


glenndc
Dec 3, 04, 3:47 pm
A couple of months ago, I was mysteriously bumped off a flight. USAIR had my confirmation number but for some reason they couldn't find me a seat on a flight.

I filled out a comment card then related to my reservation cancellation mystery, and I received a $100 travel voucher from them weeks later.

So when my girl friend recently wanted to go overseas, she booked online and told me and I called in a similiar reservation right after her. The phone CSR mentioned that the ticket would be $491, but that I could go into the 1776 K ST NW (Washington DC) USAIR office and ask the agent there to take $100 off (for a total of $391).

The next day, I went to the office at 3 p.m. (I knew that office was closed for lunch between 1-2 p.m.). I got there and the agent wasn't absent (another mystery), but a sign noted that she would be back by 3:10 pm. I wasn't upset at that, but when she came back in a rush, she had the audacity to ask me to move the sign down in a non-courteous manner (she being rushed and I looking like a low profile customer- as I telecommute from home and look somewhat non-professional as I don't have to shave and dress up in my monkey suit on the days tha I go to work!).

When I came up to the counter and told her that I had a voucher and wanted to apply $100 off my $491 ticket, she looked up my customer record and then noted that there was not much she could do. She then called a CSR hotline and asked me to step to the side and listen to the speakerphone for an attendant to come thru (which was odd, but possibly an internal matter she had to discuss with a supervisor). When she finished helping another customer and another CSR came on the phone line, she talked to that CSR and notified me that the ticket was now over $700 and that if I used the ticket voucher of $100, it would now be $600 or so.

When I then asked her why a CSR told me the previous night over the phone that my ticket was $491 and that I could go into the USAIR office in DC to get a credit of $100 per the voucher, she told me that she couldn't help me as the price was now much higher and that usairways.com purchases are different than purchase at her office. When I told her matter-of-factly that I was told otherwise by the CSR the previous night (I was told I could go in and get the discount), she said there's nothing she could do.

But what really upset me was how she kept saying "It's not me" and her tone of voice and harried demeanor- she acted discourteously blunt when I was speaking to her (I know better than to raise my voice and was as calm and polite as somebody could be given the circumstance). To be frank, I was surprised that somebody could be so crass after 1) Coming back from a break and asking a customer who has been waiting patiently in line (during supposed office hours) to take down a sign, 2) Putting a customer on speakerphone with a USAIR CSR while she worked with another customer, 3) Came back with feedback that there's nothing she could do, and then 4) Having the sheer chutzpah to be discourteously blunt and try to talk down to a customer who was respectful and as considerate as possible given this affront.

In short, USAIR gives me a coupon due to a cancellation, then their employees tell me mistruths and then a CSR acts all arrogant like I'm the one causing the problems. So much for customer service- Stay away from USAIR if you can.

cedric
Dec 3, 04, 6:02 pm
Such hostility! Bumps occur on any airline. It's a fact of doing business with them and they do it for a good reason (which comes down to fares would be much higher for everyone if they did not). If they got you to your destination within a certain amount of time, then technically you were not owed anything - so $100 I would call an extremely nice customer service gesture.

As for the voucher, I can think of only one North American carrier that will allow you to mail in a paper voucher in order to ticket. Fares change and are not guranteed. The phone rep simply booked you a seat on a flight - as you saw, the next day the fare changed. Could have happened (and frequently does) with any carrier. As for being asked to monitor the speakerphone, I agree that this was not exactly professional, but on the other hand if you were the next in line and just saw the agent sitting on the phone on hold not doing anything, you'd probably also have a valid reason to complain. She was simply trying to make the most efficient use of time for everyone involved. Finally, taking down a sign so that the agent can process you faster doesn't seem like all that much of a big deal to me. I might be a little miffed at the overall experience, but to call it the "worst customer service" title is overeacting a little, no? I've had worse customer service at the coffee shop down the street, and that's not saying much.

BTW, welcome to Flyertalk.

GadgetFreak
Dec 4, 04, 8:04 am
Write down your experience, book the ticket on UA and send a copy of what happened, the UA ticket and the voucher with "NO THANKS" written on it back to US headquarters. It wont matter but it is the right thing to do and you will feel better (at least I would ;) ). Welcome to Flyertalk!

ClueByFour
Dec 4, 04, 12:16 pm
Such hostility! Bumps occur on any airline. It's a fact of doing business with them and they do it for a good reason (which comes down to fares would be much higher for everyone if they did not). If they got you to your destination within a certain amount of time, then technically you were not owed anything - so $100 I would call an extremely nice customer service gesture.

Don't defend the practice of bumping. The business about "higher fares for everyone" is a strawman.

FWIW--regardless of the technical nuances of the situation, when I've been involuntarily bumped by US and anyone else, they get me to my destination on the airline and flights I want in the class of service I want. Every. Single. Time. It's just a matter of applying as much pressure to them as they do stupidity to the overbooking situation.

Don't accept this crap at face value. For any of us that sell something to anyone, treating our customers and/or clients like the airlines treat their customers (or at least the legacy airlines) would result in our firms being in the same financial shape as the airlines. I don't believe this to be a complete coincidence.

ClueByFour
Dec 4, 04, 12:17 pm
Write down your experience, book the ticket on UA and send a copy of what happened, the UA ticket and the voucher with "NO THANKS" written on it back to US headquarters. It wont matter but it is the right thing to do and you will feel better (at least I would ;) ). Welcome to Flyertalk!

I started doing something like that when US tried the "no status mile" fiasco a few years ago. It gets attention.