UNBELIEVABLY bad customer service!
In the beginning of June I went to Burlington, Vermont. My trip back, on June 8th was probably the absolutely WORST travel experience I’ve ever had. It wasn’t because my flights were delayed by weather, or because I ended up having to spend the night in the Chicago airport, or even because my luggage was slightly misplaced in Portland. It was my trip from hell because of really, really, REALLY lousy customer service.
I understand weather is sometimes unpredictable and planes can be late because the weather is terrible somewhere else and that screws up the whole system. When that happens, I expect the airlines to be understanding, informative and, if necessary, provide at least blankets and pillows for those who end up stranded in the airport.
However, on this June day, the United Airlines staff were uninformative, unhelpful and apparently didn’t give a damn about the passengers. We were ignored, blatently lied to and treated like cattle. I spent about 4 hours in line, routed from one place to the next, without EVER talking to a customer service person. And when I finally did, I ended up with someone who didn’t know anything at 1:30 in the morning and unable to get back through security … so I slept in baggage claim!
After I got home (very, very pissed off), I submitted a customer service complaint online and wrote a detailed letter (read the full letter ). Tried faxing that to the Customer Service fax number, but it was disconnected. When I called, I spoke to someone in India who gave me a different fax number – also disconnected. So I mailed the letter United’s President and CEO, Vice-President and COO, Senior Vice President, and Customer Service Manager.
In response to my on-line complaint, I received a form letter saying “we are currently experiencing a high volume of emails, so please accept my apology for not being able to respond with a more personalized reply.”
On June 21st I received a letter from “Customer Relations” with a $150 coupon towards a United Flight. I still haven’t decided if I will ever fly on United again … even with the coupon.
I had a computer hiccup while trying to make a mileage plus reservation and so called and explained the situation and the agent said the fee would be waived. of course, united charged my credit card anyway and when I call united back (in the Phillipines btw) they said I had to send the confirmation # and each passenger # to an email address to get a refund. why can’t they just refund the errant charge when the agent admitted that the fees were waived?
pathetic, united is a third world airline running shitty old planes at best.
United Airlines Complaint 3/09/2012 — Houston-Bush Intercontinental (IAH) Airport
On March 09, 2012, we arrived at Houston-Bush Intercontinental (IAH) Airport at 6pm (from Cancun). Our flight in Cancun was delayed because of the weather situation so we missed our flight in Houston (along with 30-40 others going to Omaha). The United agent in Houston booked us on Stand-By for the 9:25pm flight to Omaha. Multiple times I tried to ask how the Stand-By list worked and no one at United could give us a clear answer. We asked to be booked on the next available flight to Omaha just in case, but the agent at the desk was so sure we would make the 9:25pm flight to Omaha, which we didn’t because everyone who had tickets for the 9:25pm flight made it in time, so no one on Stand-By made that last flight to Omaha on 03/09 (there were around 30-40 people on Stand-By).
Passengers were communicating with one another since United had no information or service to provide. When speaking with other passengers, they were saying United agents were telling them there are no flights available to Omaha until at least Monday or Tuesday, but when we went to the United website, there were tickets available for Sunday 3/11/2012, for $660 per person from Houston to Omaha. This made no sense.
Only two service centers were available and the one I was at only had one United employee. We stood in line for seven hours and had no help before they closed the desk at 1AM. We called United customer service but was never transferred to a customer service agent. I tried to talk to three different employees but they told me they couldn’t help me and just ignored me.
They gave us a coupon for a free shuttle with a number that wasn’t working (we all tried calling and couldn’t get through), just like when trying to call United customer service.
I experienced the worst customer service to date; not just by an airline but by a company in general. I fully understand the bad weather resulted in massive flight delays and cancellations. I also understand that United moved to a single passenger reservation system which also caused issues at IAH. However, my complaint is targeted at the extremely rude customer service we received from United and the severe lack of communication and organization. It is alarmingly frightening that such a huge organization has no tactical plans in place to deal with such a crisis; let alone a customer service policy for United employees to follow. If United believes they do have plans in place to deal with this related crisis and customer service policies and strategies to assist customers, they need to be re-evaluated. The pre-flight video by CEO Jeff Smisek is ironic as he discusses United employees treat their customers with dignity and respect, and will do everything thing they can to take care of their customers. I wish this was the case on March 9th at IAH but it was not. Many of us felt disrespected and lost on what we needed to do. United employees were condensing and many showed they simply didn’t care.
As a business professional, the service was completely unacceptable. United did not provide their customers any comfort, resources, alternative options, or quality service during this chaotic situation. The general vibe of customers was that they would not be leaving for days. This resulted in many not trusting United to take care of them, including myself, which led to finding an alternative option. We left IAH and went to Houston Hobby to fly Southwest the next day. Therefore, we need to be compensated for the United flights we did not take and the cost of our Southwest flight, based on every issue stated above and the need for me to find a solution since United was incapable of doing so. United’s lack of customer service, communication, and organization, has put a significant financial burden on myself.
I NEVER NEVER! FLY UNITED. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! ALWAYS AMERICAN AIRWAYS OR VIRGIN AMERICA
Hello, we have bad experience with United, baggage had arrived in the middle of our trip in Tunisia, I claimed the losses, and in correspondence, those Indian employees, seemed like they don’t read my letters or do not know English, just have generic one fits all answer, and the major answer is not to pay any claims for 5 days delay of luggage in country like Tunisia, without toothpaste, clothes only what you fly with, some receipts were provided, by they just ignored. Teresa
For those of you that want to complain, call the United CEO directly Glenn F. Tilton at their Chicago Hdqtrs. Everyone should be calling this number and inundating whoever answers until someone who can really helps talks to you. 312 997-8000!!!
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United did the same thing to me, so nothing has changed. But what is sad is they bumped my son last week put him through the mean crappy service and 34 hours with no sleep no apology. Well geuss what, today my fiance booked his mom on United through chicago Ohare, same thing, they bumped her, made a 66 year old woman sleep on the park benches in the terminals. Do they care NO. There are no excuses for this, it is their fault things are messed up and the customers should not be punished for this. Oil prices went up so what, that doesn’t mean punish all the consumers. United Airlines should be ashamed of themselves.
Anne-Marie, I read your blogs – what a lot of terrific research! As I posted to your blog, I got $150 from United as an attempt to placate me. I really wasn’t going to use it, but it was too tempting – so I used to it offset part of my guy’s fare to Burlington for the Soap Guild 2008 Conference.
I’m crossing my fingers – and packing a pillow and blanket in my carry-on just in case!
Hilariously, the same flight I’m taking to VT for the Soap Guild convention is the same flight I just took for another trip two weeks ago. I had the trip from He** just like you did.
What is it about that flight???
I did a big research post about them:
http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2008/03/random-united-facts.html
and then posted about my nasty time with them here:
http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2008/03/non-stop-direct-or-just-not.html
I am currently dealing with a horrendous lost bag situation. I am advising everyone to never fly them again. So upsetting. I will be posting a blog and bulletin with details on the issue.
I haven’t heard anything else from United and am still undecided about using their airlines again. That coupon is tempting, though!
Marie, your story makes me relive some of my awful flying experiences! I fly a lot and I’ve had bad service from most of the airlines. The statistics show that only 64% of flights (or some awfully low number!) take off on time now – so flying is even more fraught with tension and difficulty than ever before.
It’s been about 3 months, have you softened in your position towards United at all? =)