mikeef

I got an email from Delta today telling me that my account had been suspended for "unusual log-in attempts." Thought it was spam, but turns out that my account really was blocked. And then the fun began.

I spent the next hour trying to get somebody from Delta to figure out what was going on and how to help. They gave me the general customer service number, not the platinum number, so I got a guy with no clue what to do or what was going on. He transferred me to the Platinum desk, where that person wasn't much better. She called somebody in the back office who told me that I had to email them a copy of my driver's license to get the account unlocked. I told her I wanted more information about what was going on, and she transferred me to a supervisor. I asked the supervisor for more details, and why they just couldn't send me a password reset link to my email, and she said that she would check with whatever department handled that. She then transferred me back to the general customer service line.

I finally got a Platinum rep who seemed to have a clue, so she tried to help, but it turns out that the instructions listed on her internal help website were wrong. She was eventually able to find an email address for me to send the information to, although she told me that it would be faster if I faxed it (leading me to have to figure out how to use the fax machine, but that's a different story...). I asked her if she could give me any more details about why the account was locked, since everyone up to that point had been mysterious about it. She said that they didn't tell her anything, but the only thing that could have possibly looked off was that I had booked four reward tickets at the same time a couple of times in the past few months (even though it was for me and three family members, all of whom have the same last name). She also didn't know when it would actually be taken care of. Hoping that I'm not sending the fax into a black hole.

I understand the need for security and I'm guessing that it was a hacker, rather than any action that I might have taken. But seriously, four people and an hour to get this fixed? Not to mention a fax with a copy off my driver's license, rather than a simple password reset email to the address that they know is correct? I'm thinking that there are some kinks in the system.

Mike

davetravels

Have you seen this very recent thread?

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-air-lines-skymiles/1934730-skymiles-account-hacked-points-drained.html

Good luck!

Sorry, I can't figure out why it's not showing up as a link.

RRDD

mikeef

I didn't, but thanks. I got mixed signals on what the cause of the block was.

Mike

mikeef

Here's what I've learned: Nobody really has any clue.

I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with them today. I only called because the representative that I spoke with yesterday said that if I faxed in the materials right away, it would be cleared up by last night. It wasn't.

The first person that I spoke with said that it would take 5-7 days. I asked her why I had gotten a different answer yesterday and she said she'd check with SkyMiles. She then came back and said it would be 7-10 days. I asked for somebody who could get me a definite answer. She transferred me to a supervisor, who really didn't have any answers, since she doesn't have access to that information and SM won't take direct calls. Fair enough. She did confirm for me that the account was blocked because of a potential hacker.

I expressed my appreciation to her for her help and my concern with Delta's approach to the matter. Apparently, I wasn't the only one, but SkyMiles gave the front-line representatives zero guidance on how to handle these calls and representatives to the internal SkyMiles desk got different answers, depending on who they talked to. I told her that A) it wasn't fair to her, since she had to take the calls from angry customers and couldn't give any answers and, B) it was quite sad that Delta doesn't have a standard response for managing these situations. She agreed. I 5ed her and we moved on.

Mike

KevinDTW

How is it that in 2018 Delta doesn't have a clearly defined process for dealing with potential account hacks?

RealHJ

I think that it's quite clear that DL does have a process, it's just that it is not known to anyone but the back-office/security people who deal with it. Probably so for a good reason.

pulpfiction78

I wonder if there's been a recent surge in compromised accounts, resulting in a lot of miles drained, and that Delta has instituted new security measures and still trying to figure out the flow of it all.

jordyn

How is that quite clear if no one knows anything about it?

mikeef

I don't need to know the inner workings of their security. I would, however, like a consistent message that doesn't take six people and 90 minutes to get. A "here's what you tell the customer" explanation would be good.

The woman I spoke with today implied that I was not the only one.

Mike

RealHJ

Because in any investigation, esp. security related, you don't want the public and the possible perpetrator(s) to know anything.

+1000

There should be a consistent message to tell the customer prepared and staff so trained and it so documented in the internal docs, which obviously isn't the case.

As so often is the case, DL totally botches communications. DL just isn't good at - and doesn't put any value on - communicating with its customers. Sad, but true. With DL, the customer always comes last.

jordyn

Well, that explains that it could be true that they have a procedure but just aren't telling anyone about it, but it definitely doesn't imply that it must be true. It's equally plausible that they're dealing with all of this equally ad hoc--hence the seemingly random outcomes for different people.

Often1

It would be far better if DL had a simple customer-facing statement such as, "the matter is under investigation. Because we take these matters seriously and all investigations are different, we do now know how long this one will take. We do our best to complete this in a thorough way."

Something like that does not disclose anything by way of a time-frame and also makes it clear to the customer that there won't be any more detailed information coming.

The alternative is to tell everyone that it may take as long as 90 days, knowing that it won't take that long.

KevinDTW

Maybe, but they should have a way of communicating with an affected customer to tell them what to expect without experiencing what OP described.

Ysitincoach