As an airline employee I am taking another stance. The place for that article was not in front of the customers but perhaps in a back room. I agree it was in poor taste but I think many on this post are being way too sensitive. And for those other airline employees - you have never done ANYTHING wrong ??? You are perfect and have never gotten any complaints about your "service" with a customer? Living in an imperfect world I would find that extremely hard to believe, not to mention millions of other employees who deal with the public other than airline employees. In other words, you think that employees of Macys, McDonald's, Hertz, movie theaters, restaurants, toll booths, etc., etc., couldn't or shouldn't have anything negative to say about the customer (out of earshot of course).
Get real, being politically correct 100% of the time is not possible in an imperfect world. Wake up and slap that cemented phoney smile off your face. I may not be rude to a customer but if I want to call him/her an a--hole after they walk away when they have been rude,dumb and nasty to me, I am not going to worry about some holier than thou, "sinless" coworker who actually believes that people like this don't exist. I keep an eye out for those like you who are ready to rat out/write letters in an instant with no real facts.

I also work in a service industry. Anyone who has read "House of God" knows that dealing with people can be difficult, and often times we service providers develop "abnormal" or "insensitive" defense mechanisms.

The problem is not with these defenses - else we'd go crazy - but in blatantly flaunting them before those being served. This crosses the line from a method of dealing with stress to significantly damaging the relationships we count on for our jobs.

I would get a photo, and then write a letter. Those responsible should held accountable.

I must say that what surprises me even more than this event itself, are some of the posts from people in the airline industry. I cannot understand how you can possibly justify this... (good grief!!) Lets not forget that biting the hand that feeds us is not exactly in our interest.


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Gaucho100K

Out of earshot, and in a back room, OK. But this has been visible to every passenger helped at that particular terminal daily for the past months. It is VERY MUCH in view, as I was able to spot it when BoSoxFan first wrote about it.

I waited for 3 months after BoSoxFan's August letter before mentioning the article-- and my letter mentioned the article as reflective of a worse experience in the office. I am frankly surprised that for 3 months, the article has remained in the same visible place.

For what it's worth, this is one of 2 customer service letters I've written to NWA in the past 3 years-- the other letter opposed not giving frequent flyer credit for CyberSavers. I am very "Minnesotan" in many respects, including not complaining, but voting with my feet, as Merry mentioned above. However, I did decide to write the letter on the other customer service matter after a month of consideration.

[This message has been edited by Viajero Joven (edited 11-14-2000).]

After I wrote about the first e-mail about 2 weeks ago, I later replied to tell the Customer Service rep that I would be in Mpls again this weekend, and I would check the city ticket office to see if the article is still there. It was, so I sent a follow up letter. Here is NWA's reply:


-------------------------------------
Dear <Viajero Joven>,

Thank you for your additional comments. I am glad that your trip to Minneapolis went fine.

I am sorry that the email that the City Ticket Office in Downtown Minneapolis did not take down the newspaper clipping. I appreciate you taking the time to let me know that the newspaper clipping was still up.

I contacted the City Ticket Office myself and advised them to take down the news clippings right away if it has not already been taken down.

The supervisor I spoke did not see the newspaper clipping that you described. She placed me on hold and checked numerous times. I also provided her with YYYY name and asked her to speak with YYYY to see
if it was her article. She advised that she would do this.

Please let me know if you encounter this again. I will escalate this concern to a higher executive to ensure that the newspaper clipping is removed.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact Northwest Airlines. I hope that we have an early opportunity to serve your travel needs.

Sincerely,

ZZZZZ
Supervisor, Customer Relations
Northwest/KLM Airlines


--------------------------------------

I won't be in Mpls for... oh wait, next Friday... but could someone else (BoSoxFan?) check and see if it's still there? It's at the closest terminal to the "Take a Number" machine, facing Marquette.

I guess we all have to deal with a disagreeable passenger (customer) occasionally and we all vent off the phones or at home. However, the subject of this thread is the fact that this is blatantly put where the flying/buying public can read it. Why don't we just put up signs saying, "Sorry we don't want your business, go away. But before you go let me slap you across the face."
Now I am not prissy, but to the best of my knowledge, I've never had a complaint lodged against me in this job. I try really really hard to understand where my passenger is coming from if they are upset or angry and we never know what is happening in that person's life that we don't know about. Maybe they lost the last sale, maybe they just came from a meeting where they have been chewed out, maybe they're missing a big family do at home and maybe their spouse is having a fit because they're always gone. Possibly it has been one too many flight delays or one two many CSR's having a bad day. My job is to help that person to the best of my ability and represent my airline the best way I know how. If this is wrong or if this somehow makes me a bad person then so be it. But I believe that 99 9/10 of the flying public are nice people and I will continue to act that way. If they're not nice, I'll still be nice, maybe I can turn their day around.
I sincerely hope that none of my passengers ever end a call to me feeling that I didn't do my absolute best to try and assist them. These people don't sign my paycheck but without them I wouldn't have a paycheck, or medical benefits, retirement, profit sharing and on and on. My job is Customer Service and I hope I always deserve to be called a Customer Service Professional.

[This message has been edited by RDURES1 (edited 11-15-2000).]

Wow...I wish I had seen this thread earlier.

The article was located and removed yesterday. On behalf of NWA, I
apologize to all customers who were offended by this situation.

My understanding is that the article was given to one of the
agents by a customer. Very funny and all that, but someone
showed extremely poor judgement in deciding to post it for all
to "enjoy". At any rate, once the Manager of the MSP area CTOs was
made aware (simultaneously by me and a customer's email) he
made sure it was removed. We will also make sure it's made clear to
the CTO staff that they can't do this...it should be obvious, I know.
We also need to follow up with Customer Relations about why the CTO
Manager didn't hear about this when the first complaint was made.

Thanks for posting this, BoSoxFan. Sorry I did not see it sooner.

On my job, I'm very careful about putting articles and other stuff up. There are people who can get very and easily offended (there was a big issue raised by a woman over a website for the adult sitcome "Married with Children." Seems something printed off the site ended up in her hands and it was war!)

(I also hated the show IMHO.)

SO I guess the best advice is watch what you post. I probably would not have even noticed the article in my rush. But nice eyes BoSoxFan.

Great postings RDULES. AND you too MJW, nice response as always. It's good to see you here again.

(OMNI: Could you e-mail privately. I have an issue that needs to be taken care of. Promise e-mail will stay confidential.)


[This message has been edited by Catman (edited 11-15-2000).]

I am glad this story ended well. I think it is all too easy to interpret the anger or disgruntlement of one employee as the policy of an entire airline. Northwest's response, finally, showed that is not.

One other comment: it is a dangerous thing to defend this kind of offensive material as "venting", or even to say it's o.k. "in the back room." Wherever it is, it creates a corporate culture of customer-as-enemy, and that culture is in neither our-the passengers'- interest, or the airline's.

That was outrageous!!! I hope that agent got fired. Sadly, this is not the first nor last time this type of attitude is displayed at NW. Couple of weeks ago my sister who happens to be an "experienced frequent flyer" went into the SFO ticket office to purchase her reservation. She requested paper ticket for this particular transaction and the lady at the counter replied: "YOU DON'T WANT A PAPER TKT BECAUSE THEY GET LOST AND YOU WILL BE CHARGED AGAIN" and proceeded to just give her a receipt for an electronic ticket without her consent. She was insulted by such unprofessional behavior.

Thank you very much MJW!

With apologies for my being "difficult" in the past,

-Mark

I missed this thread until now. As a CS fanatic I'm apalled by this whole issue. That it was allowed by the office mgr. is even worse.

And to MJW...as always you are 'on the case'. You are a class act. Sure wish DL had you ...

"Smithers, fire that man!"

------------------
Time..... is on my side.

Release the hounds! This is exactly the type of thing the airlines WANT to hear about. I am absolutly sure NWA is unaware of, and would be appalled to discover. Any customer service sensitive business would be. Hopefully they will thank you for "reporting" the situation to them.

From the latest person who actually did report it to Customer Service:

The correspondence was:
Letter 1: informed NWA of situation
Letter 2: Form letter response: "we will get on this"
Letter 3: Replied I would look for article during a trip 2 weeks later; informed that I had learned of the article through an online frequent flyer forum"
Letter 4: "Thank you for your additional comments. They were forwarded to to the CTO supervisor"
Letter 5: I saw the article again at the CTO. There is ongoing discussion about it on the online forum at www..... link to this thread. I recommend NWA address the situation.
Letter 6: "I contacted the ticket office directly and 'advised them to remove it right away'. They couldn't find the clipping right away but I told the supervisor to take care of it. 'Please let me know if you encounter this again. I will escalate this concern to a higher executive to ensure that the newspaper clipping is
removed.'"

I think the CS agent took notice when I replied that the article was there.

Frankly, I don't want anyone fired over this, and I say this as the person who brought the issue forward recently. However, I agree that it sends a very negative message to customers. Maybe this is the Minnesotan in me: I see it as NW being a little too casual in their confidence that they have the MSP market so locked up that they don't need to worry about pleasing the customers. I don't think that article would have stayed in, say, an LA ticket office where NWA has to compete hard, and where customer service is more crucial in winning passengers.


[This message has been edited by Viajero Joven (edited 11-20-2000).]