Customer Service - An Attitude Or A Department

Recently I was flying from Miami to San Francisco. My flight was scheduled to depart at 7:00 pm and delayed until 7:30 pm – due to a mechanical. No problem, I want the plane to be safe.

At 7:30 pm no announcement is made the screens just change to depart at 8:00 pm… okay. At 8:15 pm no announcement is made, and the screens still show 8:00 pm and now no airline employee is standing at the gate. So I, and many others, stand at the counter for someone to show up. All I want is some information (it being power and all) so that I know what to expect – should I eat, should I walk away, or are we going to board any minute.

At 8:30 pm a woman walks over to the counter adjacent to ours, but is looking down and shaking her head and saying “no,” “no,” “no” she sounded like the seagulls in Finding Nemo “mine, mine, mine”. Who could she be talking to? Who is she saying no to? No one knows. Then she looks up to me and says “no”. I said “no, what?” She said, “No I’m not working that flight.” ARE you kidding me?!?! All this and she doesn’t even know what we want and all she can say is No!!!

Then she walks away repeating no… like a parrot. I’m asking is anyone working the flight? No. Do you know when someone will come? No. Do you know what time we will leave? No. You get the idea.

Then the other people in line start to walk away… but I’m pretty fired up, and am happy to stand. Five minutes later, another employee comes to the counter but is on his cell phone. I wait. He doesn’t look up at me, doesn’t say I’ll be right with you, doesn’t acknowledge anything. So I’m listening to his call (well, he is 3 feet in front of me). And I hear “That will be $88 a month. Um Hmm.  For how many minutes?” I am now livid! I bark, “are you on the phone with your cell phone company?” He nods. I said, “Are you working?” He nods. I said, “Can you help us?” He shakes his head no. I am SO furious that I run over to the customer service desk. Thinking it must be a department, because it is clearly not an attitude.

The lady listens; she empathizes and informs me that I need to speak to her supervisor, Frank. She calls the supervisor and asks him to come and talk to me… Frank, the supervisor, is the man who was on his cell phone!

Our flight left 7 hours after it was scheduled to leave. I arrived in San Francisco at 6:45 am – not midnight the night before. The airline sent me a letter apologizing for the delay and crediting miles to my account.  What made me even angrier is that, it wasn’t the delay (again I want to be safe), I’m angry because of the lack of customer service. Clearly customer service is not an attitude in the friendly skies.