xooz

In this social media fixated world, I wonder if calling out a gate agent by first name in online forums would be seen as qualifying as "abuse"? Or does the interaction have to be face/phone to face?

FlyDeltaMD88

What I'm about to say isn't fair to all gate/ticket agents, there are some wonderful, wonderful individuals at all airlines who go above and beyond to make everyone happy, and I regularly encounter them on most of my trips.

That being said, there are some horrid, horrid "humans" who somehow convince HR/recruiters (maybe they're relatives?) at the airlines that they are customer service focused, get hired for the flight benefits, and then proceed to wear a scowl as they show up to work everyday.

Individuals like Matt who works for AA at SAN is one of them, and the worst part about it is the airlines refuse to go after gate agents, they pretty much have the most secure job within the airlines, short of a union mechanic/FA/pilot with high seniority. They pretty much will never be fired unless they outright assault someone, and they know it to, which is why those individuals like Matt will remain as an AA Gate Agent until the day he quits/retires. It's a shame because they make the rest of us look bad and discourage people from using the airline in the future.

mikebor

Oh give me a break. We're on hold for 10 hours and we can't express our displeasure to the agent? Even have a sour tone? And we should be banned for that? You fit right in with this nonsense.

gooselee

Nobody is getting banned for just complaining to an agent about hold times or even being a little irritated. But a) it is quite true that there is virtually nothing the person on the other end of that line can do about hold times and b) self-control is a behavioral skill that mature adults usually possess.

There is a difference between "I'm really frustrated that I was on hold for so long and we're still unable to fix this award ticket that got jacked up." and "You ****** piece of **** you ******s left me on hold for half a day and you're too dumb to figure out how to replace my award ticket."

Yes, there's a lot of area in between those two examples, but if you're one of the people worried about your interactions being on the border of getting you banned, now may be a good time for you to learn how to shift your default slightly more toward the former. Having empathy and being kinder to random CS employees costs you nothing - incidentally, this is the exact shift in behavior DL is trying to promote by this announcement, too.

mikebor

What about, "this is ridiculous I've been on hold for 10 hours now, what the heck is going on with your airline random agent? Can I speak to a supervisor? Hello supervisor, you know there was no way to even get a callback and I had to wait 10 hours to finally get an agent. This is absurd! I'm not yelling ma'am I am frustrated."

You get the issue you want taken care of and the supervisor notes in your account that you were rude and yelling and angry. Now there is BS documentation noted in your skymiles account when imo the supervisor should be empathetic with the customer.

Sorry but unless someone is cursing and being absolutely belligerent there should be no reason for Delta to document your account if you slightly raise your voice or express your frustration. Unfortunately Delta is known for having lots of agents and supervisors who LOVE to document accounts for petty nonsense. And the sick part is the customer usually doesn't even know it's being entered. This new policy by Delta is ridiculous and is misplaced. Instead of making it easier to ban accounts they should be working on fixing their terrible website and reservation phone system.

WillBarrett_68

I think what some of these people are telling us is that, for them, there literally is no difference between these, they are apparently incapable of informing someone that they are displeased without also abusing that particular person. That's lierally the only explanation for the handwringing we're seeing here, they can't conceive of any other way to comunicate their frustration.

cmd320

No one is saying that. This has been explained to you a number of times, there are malicious employees out there who will themselves abuse this policy in order to avoid dealing with customers. It may not be a normal or common occurrence, but it will happen. If you’ve never experienced an employee on a power trip, then good for you, however I can assure you you will at some point if you fly enough. Good luck.

RooseveltL

I agree with you. I don't think it is professional or necessary - if emotions are too high wait until they calm down. My reason for warning there are some regions of the country whereas foul language is acceptable in regular speech. An irate passenger from Boston or Philadelphia likely is different from irate individual from Colorado or Portland. Doesn't make one better than the other they just use different terms. I worked with a former VET who cursed with everyone customers, colleagues even his boss whereas I rarely if ever curse during the workday.

HaleiwaFlyer

So the entire dialogue in that example was a rant and a complete waste of everyone's time. Not sure what that person's hypothetical call wanted the agent/supervisor to do? Magically make the wait time less? Wanted an empathetic response of "we are sorry....." and have agents/supervisors play consumer psychologist to listen to grievances?

Why not just say, "As feedback, the current phone wait time is 10 hours and the prior callback feature is no longer present; possible to bring the callback feature back during long wait times? Here is my issue <insert issue> and question <insert question>"

Businesses document rude and angry customers because those customers lack the insight to notice that they are actually being rude and angry during their communication events, and perhaps warn others who will interact with that person. These customers continue to do so, until the businesses no longer want to spend the time and resources to appease them.

mikebor

Huh?

Seriously what is wrong with some of you people? Should we all be stepford robots and just keep saying thank you agent can I have another? Good grief.

mikebor

Um I have so much to say to this but I don't think you will ever actually get it so I'll pass. See above reply and apply it to you too.

HaleiwaFlyer

Definitely, I think we all have been at boiling points with flight issues and talking with representatives to get issues resolved. The difference in scenarios is self awareness and emotional intelligence. Some people recognize they need to cool off/calm down first before interacting with another human being versus individuals who don't have the emotional intelligence to understand that.

More businesses are cutting ties and no longer willing to provide services individuals who lack emotional intelligence. My personal belief is that, this is a good thing for everyone involved.

IggySD

Do you have specific examples of this happening or are these hypothetical situations? If the customer doesn’t know that the notation has been placed in the record, then how is it that DL is well known for having agents put all of these “unfair” notations in innocent people’s records? This sounds like “lots of people” are saying something with no actual people saying it. I’ll admit I’ve been away from these boards for a year or so but I don’t recall there being a ton of threads about people finding out they were noted as being a difficult customer by DL which if what you’re saying is true I would expect.

sethMCOflyer

Many people ITT can’t recognize the difference between voicing frustration with a broken system and insulting another human.

“This waiting time and lack of response by Delta is absurd.” vs (screaming) “You’re a brain dead idiot who is probably a dirty _____ living in ______.”

ATOBTTR

If you're having to ask, you clearly don't understand the difference between being frustrated at a situation and stating that frustration versus saying it in a way that is taking out that frustration on someone who is in all or most cases not responsible for the situation at hand. If you're yelling at an agent because your flight is delayed or canceled due to weather (as I've witnessed many times), I have no problem with Delta saying "Enough - take your business elsewhere" because clearly the agent being berated isn't responsible for the weather or for the FAA limits in what weather can be flown in and what can't be flown in. That's not being a "stepford robot" - it's recognizing that a company should be able to fire customers who mistreat employees for things the employee is not responsible for.

+1 - This
The ones who are worried about these rules from DL are the kind of people who probably frequently engage in the latter (maybe they felt it got them somewhere) and up to this point it's gone unchecked and been tolerated. Now they're worried it won't be tolerated and they may have to forfeit their status and accounts if they can't learn to control their behavior and not insult other human beings.