The Interested Clan were scheduled to fly to California today - scheduled, but we didn’t. Chicago/O’Hare was shut down by storms which have caused delays and cancellations around the country.
Weather can’t be helped, but customer service can be. United failed the customer service test so badly they could just as well have hung a shingle saying, “We would rather not have customers. Period.”
Here’s how things worked out. We arrived at Baltimore Washington at 0430, plenty of time to catch our 0600 flight. The skycap told us the flight had been canceled. Great. Talking to other passengers (people who had been brought to the airport and dropped off among them) it was clear that United had waited until people were arriving at the airport before canceling the flight. I’m assuming that, since Chicago has been flooded for the last few days, United didn’t have to wait until we were at the airport to cancel the flight.
Not a tremendous start and it got worse. It became pretty obvious, standing in the terminal, that the ticket counter personnel were more interested in making sure the customers who had been canceled weren’t getting in the way of the other passengers rather than taking care of us. In fact, for two hours the ticket counter set up to handle the several hundred of us was manned by one person while a dozen people handled the very light load of other passengers. Brilliant!
I called United on my cell phone fairly early on to see if I could do an end-around and get some better results. After waiting on hold for literally 30 minutes I was connected to United’s Indian call center. Another twenty minutes being told that there was nothing available for me, with the call center employee got me amazingly great results - United could get us to LA tomorrow evening! How could I not be satisfied with that?! I asked the call center person to use a little imagination in trying to rebook us. After being told that he just *couldn’t* get us through Chicago today, I said that I didn’t care about Chicago. I wanted to get to Southern California. I didn’t even care *where* in Southern California. I could do LA, Long Beach, Orange County, Ontario - “we’re flexible” I said. Back on hold, only to be told several minutes later that nothing was moving through Chicago. Thank you helpful Indian.
Back in BWI, a United representative kept on walking up and down the line of us cancelees, antagonizing customers. Super helpful. People would ask legit questions like, “Is there a chance that we’ll be getting anywhere today?” The responses were shrill and defensive, mostly along the lines of, “We’re doing everything we can - do we *look* like we’re standing around doing *nothing* (editor - Yes)? DON’T SHOOT THE MESSANGER! What do you want me to do, make airplanes and pilots just appear for YOU?!”
I’m a pretty easy customer. Don’t lie to me, don’t patronize me and I’m usually okay. Not this time - the frustrating thing was that, as we sat in a non-moving line with no help and no communication, other airlines were actually treating their passengers with courtesy and respect. Those other airlines, facing the same issues as United, started talking to other airlines right away in an attempt to get their customers where they needed to go. Their lines dwindled quickly - people had answers and were then free to go and do what they needed to do.
Not United. After the call center experience I stayed in line to speak with somebody at the ticket counter. Not surprisingly, after standing around for four hours it turns out that all the other options had been snapped up.
I’ve never had any sort of problem like this with Southwest or JetBlue - I’ve had dozens of flights on Southwest and probably half a dozen on JetBlue. In fact, I had food poisoning on a JetBlue flight one time (from a Baja Fresh burrito that wasn’t so fresh apparently) and that was a better experience than what I just went through this morning.
United showed disregard for the customers from the outset by delaying the flight cancellation notification. They continued their show of unconcern by not seeking to provide alternatives for their customers in a timely and efficient manner. Every United representative I talked to was either rude, disinterested. incapable or some combination thereof. The choicest quote of the day was, “I don’t care where you’ve got to be - my responsibility is to get you to Chicago and then you’re on your own.” True quote. The lady’s name was Lori.
I asked if United would cover the cost of tickets if I could get something on Southwest. They were ready to refund my ticket price. Wow, way to stretch yourselves folks. Of course such a deal isn’t going to be favorable. Buying tickets same-day is hugely expensive - that’s why we got our tickets months ago. Still, just to satisfy my curiosity, I called Southwest and asked if they had anything available. The lady who answered the phone was polite and articulate - I didn’t have to press a single button in order to talk to a real person.
Not surprisingly Southwest had at least eight options available before I interrupted the representative to ask for cost (which unfortunately was too hight). I got through the Southwest call waiting system in three minutes.
What’s the moral of the story here, beside don’t support incompetence with your business? Are we supposed to be sorry for the failing carriers like United? I don’t think we should feel sorry for them - United and their friends are failing in the face of competition not simply because their union deals are bad or gas prices are high or because of terrorism. United charges a premium over low-cost carriers like Southwest but it’s no longer clear how they justify this. In every way that matters to me, United is an utter failure. They won’t get the chance to disappoint me again.
