I am dissapointed

A week or so after I started this blog, I began an e-mail correspondence with a Delta employee. She (well, I assume it was a she since her e-mails have been anonymous) told me that Delta had instituted a new program designed to greatly improve their customer service. She told me to contact Delta about my bad experience and, she told me, that I would be "pleasantly surprised" with how quickly my complaint would be addressed. Well, I have sent fedex letters to the number one and number two people in their customer service department. It has been ten days with no response from Delta and I am surprised and not pleasantly so.

I had high hopes that this person, who spoke so highly of her organization and how they were turning things around, would be right and I would get a call or an e-mail from the higher ups at the airline. Unfortunately, their lack of action reinforces what I and the hundreds of people who have e-mailed me already know-Delta doesn't give a rat's behind about their customers.

I'm sure this Delta employee won't last long anyway-she is nice and treats people with respect.

Here is another post from the mailbag. This is from "anonymous" who experienced the "new and improved " customer service this Delta employee was talking about:

I have flown all the major airlines, and have found they can all slip up, but none compares to the horrendous experience of flying Delta. United may have a few surly employees, but none show the incompetence of their Delta counterparts.

On my most recent Delta nightmare started at check-in at Atlanta. The desk agents must have attended the Taliban school of customer service, and were yelling at everyone who had a question. I was one of the fortunate passengers who made it through without getting an earful for committing the crime of flying the airline and paying these peoples' salaries. I checked in two and a half hours before my flight took off, had a direct flight, the weather was good, so I figured it should be a fairly relaxing travel experience. And it was, until I got on the plane and was crammed into a 757 seat that looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the Reagan administration.

When I landed, the airport felt like a soap commercial compared to the filthy jet from which I had just deplaned. I then spent 45 minutes waiting for my bag, which never made it. In the midst of yelling at other passengers whose bags they had lost, the local baggage office staff gave me the 800# for tracking my poor, lost suitcase. I asked how they could lose a suitcase on a direct flight for which I checked in so early, but logic did not seem to be their strong point.

The 800# was a joke. It was almost always busy, and when I got through, I was on hold for nearly an hour before someone picked up. The people I spoke to were useless, the only thing they could tell me was that my bag might be on the next flight. That was an OK answer right after I landed, but not five days later when over 50 more direct flights had come in from Atlanta. After learning that it would be three months before I received compensation, I decided to speed up the process by going to the airport. At this point, Osama bin Baggage Man at the baggage office refused to help me get a claim form, or to give me any information on my bag.

Not having any more time to deal with this lame airline, I decided I had to accept the loss. Considering that the Atlanta hub makes O'Hare look well run, I hope I don't have to fly Delta again. But next time if they ask me if my bags have been with me at all times, I'll make sure they stay with me after I board the plane.