The Downfall of American Business

When does American business fail? Some of it may be their inability to compete with foreign markets. It may be their reliance on the goodwill of the American consumer. Tonight, it was their inability to deliver quality customer service.

Last July my family and I were voluntarily bumped from a Delta Airlines flight in Denver. It was the mystical confluence of a full flight, temperatures that exceeded 95 degrees and a runway elevation nearly a mile high! Delta had a fly a plane with empty seats to be within safe flight margins. They were offering a credit worth $400.00 each (there's six of us) and a later flight. We jumped at the chance! Then we moved! One of the rules is that you have to use the the vouchers within 1 year.

We're talking about going to Disneyland in October, so I called Delta tonight to find out if the one year rule was to the time of booking or the time of the actual flight. It seemed like a simple question, worthy of 2 or 3 minutes of my time. I couldn't have been more wrong. I'm not sure where the gentleman I spoke with was physically located, but he was definitely from India. I explained the situation and asked my question. Not bad. 3 minutes gone. He asks for a reservation code. I look around, wondering why my question required a reservation code. I finally found one and gave it to him. He puts me on hold. A few minutes later he comes back on (the wait doesn't bother me - I'm watching the Avs). He explains to me that the code I gave him was from a voucher that had been used on a flight that got cancelled in January and was good until the following January. That's great, but it doesn't answer my question. I explain that I have a total of six of these vouchers with various amounts of money on them. So he asks for a different code and I give it to him. More Avs action. He comes back on and says I have 400 dollars of credit on that one. Yeah, I know! What I want to know is, can I book the ticket now for travel in October, which is after the one year mark? Hold. He comes back. He asks for a credit card number! Are you kidding? I just need to know if I can do this! I ask to talk to his supervisor. He wants to know why. Why? Because you don't understand English and I'm asking a simple question! Ok, he says. Hold. The Avs have just scored two goals in the 3rd period at Minnesota! I don't really care. Someone picks up...please, please speak English as your first language...it's the same guy! He proceeds to tell me that what I want to do is fine. Excuse me? You just spent the last 26 minutes trying to figure out what I wanted and when I want to talk to your supervisor you suddenly understand the questions I've been asking? I'm not an idiot! I'm furious!

I decide to go online to log my complaint. But I need to have my SkyMiles number. Don't have it. I need to call the special number for SkyMiles members to get it. I can do this. It's specifically for their frequent flyers. The young lady that answers the phone did a good job, although it was obvious English was not her first language. I file my complaint and ask that a representative call me between 9 and noon MDT tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.