I originally put up this page to share my bag
experience with United Airlines. Since then, I've found many other
stories which make mine pale in comparison. And while it's
true that all airlines have some unhappy customers, United takes the
cake. They consistenly rank at or near the bottom of customer
satisfaction surveys. They're far and away the worst.
NBC called United "The
worst airline ever." (Granted, they were talking about
United's financial failings, but certainly having the worst customer
service in the business has something to do with failing to achieve
profitability.)
The San Diego Union Tribune ran a horror story about customers which United
screwed over.
United went bankrupt in 2002. Due to
quirky nature of bankruptcy, they've been able to keep operating anyway.
Below is a music video by Dave Carroll about how United
broke his guitar. The silver lining for him was that the song
skyrocketed in popularity and helped his career.
I'll keep my original story below for posterity, but
really, what you see above is all you really need to know.
When a company makes a mistake it's easy
to forgive them. When they make two,
it's harder. When they make twenty, it's impossible. Here is a classic
example of poor service from a commercial airline.
I can't help you with your baggage or other airline
problems
The #1 way people find my website these days is
by doing a search for "united airlines
baggage" -- about 14 visitors a day. United must be losing a
lot of baggage if so many people are searching the Internet for how to
get their bags back, every day!
Since I posted this page countless fliers have
written to me to tell me of their baggage and other woes with United
and ask if I have any special phone numbers or tips to help them. But
it should be obvious that if *I* was unable to get proper service from
United, then how would I be able to help you? I can't.
There's nothing I can do for you.
Amusingly, a fair number of writers think that *I*
am United Airlines and they write demanding a resolution to their
problems. How they could draw that conclusion after even a casual
glance at this web page is beyond me. Usually these missives from an
AOL email address.
One thing that's clear from all the messages I've
received isn't just that United loses baggage on a frighteningly
regular basis, more importantly they don't care. Just as with
my experience, readers haven't been upset by their baggage loss as
much as they've been shocked at how United employees have been
unconcerned, rude, and incompetent when the readers made inquiries
to try to get their lost bags back. This underscores what I related in
my own experience: United doesn't care.It's as
simple as that.
Since I started this page I discovered a massive site dedicated to exposing
United's poor customer service, called Untied.com. They do have a
complaint form you can fill out which they will forward to United,
though I'm skeptical that will help much considering that United
doesn't care.
Again, I'm sorry that I can't help you.
There is no need to write me about your airline woes for any reason.
Good luck. -- MBJ
Rather than make you read the whole story, let me
summarize my experience in brief.
United lost my bag.
The agent who took my report guessed at some
of the bag's characteristics rather than asking me, thus describing the
bag wrong, thus making it harder for United to find it -- though I
wouldn't learn about this particular screw-up until later.
When I tried to call United I was subjected to
possibly the most lengthy and annoying phone system in the world.
The computerized system gave incomplete and
innaccurate information about my missing bag.
When I finally got to talk to a rep, I made it a
point to complain about the phone system, asking that the complaint be
relayed to management, but the rep clearly didn't care and certainly
made no effort to apologize for my frustration.
The bag wasn't delivered when United said it should
be.
Some of the agents I talked to were simply...stupid.
There is no other way to describe it. The details are in the story.
United called me at a number I specifically told them
not to call me at, rather than the one I had insisted they use, causing
me to miss their call.
I left my home to go to another phone to call United
again since my phone wasn't working, and when I left I put a prominent
note on my front door written in thick, black permanent marker telling
the bag courier (if he arrived while I was gone) that I would be back
in five minutes.
That 5 minutes turned out to be 10 minutes because of
United's absurd telephone system. Sure enough, the courier arrived
while I was gone, and sure enough, he somehow missed the note. He
likely knocked right on it.
When the bag was finally delivered, I saw that the
handle was broken. There was no apology, much less any offer at
compensation.
I wrote to United, and a manager from my local
airport called me and said she'd be reviewing the case and would get
back to me with some kind of offer of compensation. I told her I was
more concerned with knowing that future United customers wouldn't be
treated the way I was, but that I would still entertain her offer.
Naturally, I never heard back from her.
I tried to call United to speak to this manager, but
they refused to put me through. I explained that she had contacted me
first, and that I never heard back from her as she'd promised, but they
didn't care.
Naturally, I haven't flown United since.
After I first wrote this page in 2004 I lost a bag on
another carrier. My experience that time was completely
different. The customer service agent I dealt with was friendly,
helpful, and competent. Airlines lose baggage, that happens, and it's
forgivable. What matters is how the airline handles it when it
happens.
The story
On Nov. 13, 2004 I flew from Chicago to my home in
Austin on United Airlines. My bag did not arrive with me. I went to
the United baggage office at the airport and informed the clerk ("JR").
She immediately started asking me several questions and filling out a
form. During this uncomfortable time I had no idea what was going to
happen. It would have been better had she started by saying something
both reassuring and helpful such as, "Okay, I'm going to get some
information from you so I can locate your bag. It's unusual that a bag
is ever lost for good -- probably it's still just at the last airport
because it didn't make it on the plane somehow. Once it gets here to
Austin we'll send a courier to deliver it to your home, probably either
later tonight or tomorrow...." But instead she just asked a bunch of
questions, wrote the answers down and fiddled with the computer while I
wondered what was going on and what would happen. She finally told me
that the bag was in Chicago because it had been retained by the
Transportation Administration for some reason, that they could get it
on that evening's last flight to Austin, and that it could probably be
delivered to me by midnight. She said they would call first.
Mistake #1: Agent did not brief me with helpful or
reassuring information when I made my missing bag clam.
Upon arriving home I realized that United would not be
able to call me because my telephone equipment was in my bag. I went to
a neighbor's house to call United to inform them of that, and was
disappointed to be greeted with a voice-activated menu system. Such
systems are slow, cumbersome, and annoying -- they often hinder rather
than help you. In this case, it was of course impossible for me to
describe my problem to a computer and so I needed to talk to a real
person, but in their infinite wisdom United decided to force
customers to talk to the useless computerized agent instead. There was
no way to bypass it. I hit the zero key several times but the
computerized agent kept telling me it didn't understand my selection. I
had to tell the computer "delayed bag", and then "Austin, Texas", and
then my last name, and then confirm that it had gotten my last name
right, and then listen to the computer tell me it had no idea where my
bag was but that it had the bag on a "priority trace". This directly
conflicts with what JR told me at the airport, which was that the bag
was in Chicago. Finally the computer said I could talk to a real person
by saying "agent", though when I did so it toyed with me further by
saying, "I think you said 'agent'. Is that correct? If yes, then say
'yes'..."
Mistake #2: United forces customers to use a slow,
cumbersome, annoying computerized phone agent, and provides no way to
bypass it.
Mistake #3: Computerized agent gives incomplete,
inaccurate information about the status of missing bags.
Preventing
problems with lost baggage
1.
Carry on anything that's important. Don't
put cash, credit cards, jewelry, medicine, business documents, etc. in
your checked baggage. Carry it on with you.
2.
Put your name & contact info INSIDE the bag.
Write it with a Sharpie on a piece of cardboard at least as large as a
sheet of paper. If the tag gets ripped off the outside of your bag then
there's still ID inside.
3.
Take a picture of your bag and carry it with
you. If your bag is lost then have the agent staple it to the form.
That might help if they put the wrong description on the form, like
they did with me.
4.
Don't fly United. Not only are they more
likely to lose your bag, they don't care if they do.
5.
Don't write to me. Don't write to me for
help of any kind with your lost baggage. I'm not an ombudsman
or a help desk, and I already have over 5000 messages in my In Box. I
can't help you. Don't write.
After being on hold for a while I finally got an agent on the line. The
very first thing I did was to tell her that I found the computerized
agent to be annoying and unhelpful, and to ask that she relay that
information to management. She halfheartedly acknowledged my request
without apologizing for my poor experience. This is a classic customer
service mistake, because ignoring a customer's complaint just makes
them angrier, which I know from my years of working in customer support
and training support reps. But this is typical for United -- through
the many, many calls I would make United agents never once acknowledged
my complaints about poor service even once.
Mistake #4: Agent didn't acknowledge my stated
frustration with the computerized phone agent.
I then explained that I was calling because United
wouldn't be able to contact me about delivery since my phone equipment
was in my bag. The agent then asked me for all the information I had
just given the computerized agent. Their system is so lame that it
doesn't even relay the information I already gave.
Mistake #5: Voice-activated computer agent doesn't
do something as basic as relaying customer-provided information to the
human agents.
I asked the agent to replace the phone number they had
on file for me with my neighbor's phone number. The agent then said she
felt my bag would still arrive later that evening.
It didn't. I went to my neighbor's house after
the flight was to have arrived to call United again and I went through
the same ordeal as earlier: The computerized agent again forced me to
talk to IT rather than to a real person, it told me again that my bag
had not been located, I again had to tell it a couple of times that I
wanted to talk to a real agent, and it again didn't relay my
information to the real agent.
When I got the agent on the line she put me on hold so
she could call the Chicago airport. After several minutes she came back
and said that Chicago didn't answer. She tried again. When she came
back she said she thinks they located the bag but that the tag had been
ripped off, and said that Chicago described the contents as including
"dress shirts and casual shirts". (Duh.) That the Chicago office would
think that that is actually a helpful description rather than a
patently retarded description is disappointing.
Mistake #6: Chicago office gave an inadequate
description of the bag and its contents.
I informed the agent that I did indeed have casual
shirts and dress shirts though I had no idea how that would
differentiate my bag from every other bag on the planet. I described
the contents in better detail and also the distinctive features on the
outside of the bag. I asked what information they had about the
description so I could verify it was correct. The agent said that it
was listed as a wheelable bag with a retractable handle. This is wrong,
and I never described the bag as such. I then looked at the report
filled out by the agent in Austin and saw that she took it upon herself
to list the bag as having a retractable handle, though she never asked
me whether it had a retractable handle and I never volunteered that it
did.
Mistake #7: Austin agent failed to get a proper
description of the bag and pulled an incorrect description out of her
own head, making it harder for my bag to actually be located.
I told the agent that my bag didn't have a retractable
handle and that the Austin agent must have assumed so when she filled
out the report, since she never asked me. The phone agent corrected the
information in the system but completely failed to apologize for the
fact that the original agent entered the wrong information. This is the
First Rule of Customer Service: Apologize for Mistakes, especially
when the customer brings it to your attention. But United consistently
failed to do this.
Let's separate United's mistakes from the bag being
detained in the first place. The fact that my bag was initially
delayed might have been out of United's control. They did apologize for
the fact that my bag was delayed on my first call, though that doesn't
concern me because I presume the initial delay was not caused by
United's incompetence. However, when I ran into problems because of
United's mishandling of the inquiry, it simply added insult to
injury when the fact I received poor service was ignored.
Mistake #8: Agent did not apologize for previous
agent's screwing up the missing bag report.
At this point something else became clear: Despite the
computerized phone agent's assurance that they had the bag on a
"priority trace", it was clear that nobody was taking an active role in
trying to locate the bag. Rather, Austin just felt that the bag was in
Chicago somewhere and that it would turn up in Austin when Chicago was
done with it. I thus consider the phone agent's assurance as outright
deception.
A reader writes:
Great website. My husband is a janitor at the
airport here in Portland, Oregon, and he says that he sees tons of
people there who have lost their baggage, most of whom flew United.. He
never thought much about it until I mentioned it. -- Maria
Mistake #9: United lies when its phone system say
that the bag is on a "priority trace".
The agent said the next flight would hit Austin around
1:00pm the next day and that my bag would likely be located and arrive
on that flight.
The next morning I again went to my neighbor's to
call United, and was again subjected to the computerized agent which
would not let me bypass it, slowly demanded information, falsely told
me that my bag had not been located, finally let me talk to a human
agent. I spoke with an Indian agent who told me that the bag had
been located in Chicago, would arrive on the afternoon flight, and
should be delivered to my home by about 2:00pm. She tried to confirm
that they should call the phone number they had listed before delivery,
and I said no, because that was my neighbor's phone, since I had to
call United from my neighbor's house since my telephone equipment was
in my bag. The agent asked, "So you want to change the delivery
address?" I said, "NO! Please deliver to the same address you have down
for me. You just can't call me there because my phone is in my missing
bag."
She then asked me to call back about the time the bag
was supposed to be delivered. I replied, "I can't do that, because I
have to leave my home in order to call you, and I might miss the
courier." She said, "I don't understand what you mean. Why would you
have to leave your home in order to call?" I paused for several seconds
because I was stumped at trying to think of a simpler way to repeat
myself, but then she chimed in with, "Oh, you can't call because your
phone is in your bag." Bingo! She said they would have the courier
deliver it without calling first.
Mistake #10: Some United agents are incompetent.
By 3:00pm my bag had still not arrived. My neighbor was
not home so I walked to a public telephone to call United. Before I
left I put a bright green note on my front door written with a thick,
black marker that said, "Luggage
Courier: I will return in five minutes. -- M. Bluejay". When I got to
the store and called United I was again subjected to the computerized
agent which would not let me bypass it, slowly demanded information,
falsely told me that my bag had not been located, finally let me talk
to a human agent only after a multi-step process, and did not relay the
information I had given it to the human agent.
I told the agent that I had expected my bag to arrive an
hour ago. She replied that there was a four-hour window for delivery.
This was news to me, since no previous agent had mentioned that. I told
her that if that was the case then previous agents failed to mention
that important fact. Typically, the agent did not even acknowledge my
concern.
Mistake #11: No United agents except the last one
mentioned that there was a four-hour delivery window. In fact, a
couple of them suggested specific delivery times.
Mistake #12: The final agent did not even
acknowledge my concern that no previous agents bothered to mention the
four-hour delivery window.
I returned home and waited.
When someone leaves me a voicemail message the message
is emailed to me so I'm able to hear messages even without a phone. At
4:30pm I received a voicemail message from the courier, John, asking me
to call him. This tells me that United did not change my number to my
neighbor's number as I asked, since they would have no way to reach me
at my home number.
A reader writes:
Great story. Wish I would have known before I flew
United. At least you made it through to an individual on the phone. I'm
still waiting on luggage from a connecting flight in Chicago to Dallas.
I was told it would arrive yesterday between 1:30 p.m. and 12 a.m. What
a window! Either way I keep playing with Simon their voice activated
crap for brains computer. Maybe my luggage will arrive by Christmas,
when I get to head back to Dallas to be with family.
...
... ... ...
Well, after trying to talk to a live human being
all day and being hung up on repeatedly because no one was available to
talk to me, I was finally transferred to their operator system (I
guess). I waited on hold for 30 min. before I talked to someone, who
finally informed me that my luggage had been sitting somewhere in the
Killeen airport since 2 p.m. yesterday.
I was quite upset. Not only because it was now
almost 48 hours since my plane arrived, but also because it had been
sitting 20-30 minutes away and no one bothered to update the computer
or to give me a simple phone call.
The operator tried to contact the Killeen airport
but could get no answer. She suggested the airport might have closed at
6 p.m. She offered me $50 in travel certificates and I asked if that
was supposed to make me trust them with my luggage again. She seemed a
bit flustered and asked me what I wanted her to do. I told her I just
wanted my luggage, like I was promised Sunday night at DFW. Secondly, I
added that a free flight might be nice, only if I ever decided to trust
her company again after losing my luggage.
She told me she couldn't give me a free flight and
added that the airline had not lost my luggage. I pointed out to her
that indeed it had been lost. Their computer reported to me that it was
being delivered to my house (which by the way they had the address
wrong) and all along it was sitting in Killeen. Also as of our phone
conversation, she couldn't contact anyone to confirm my bag was even
anywhere near where her computer now said it was. I told her to do what
she could and I thanked her for her time.
Luckily the Killeen airport answered when I
called, and was still open when I went to pick up the bag. The bag and
contents were just as they were when I left Roanoke Sunday afternoon..
Jonathan Blundell
Dec. 21-22, 2004
Editor's note:
While we're sorry to hear about Mr. Blundell's
experience, we can't say we're surprised. Yet again, this goes well
beyond the fact that his bag was delayed -- the problem was his
experience in trying to get it back.
The proper response to a customer's question of
"Am I supposed to trust your company again because you're offering me
$50?" is simple: "No, we're not offering you the $50 to try to win back
your trust, we're offering it because we let you down and this is the
best way we have of saying we're sorry. If you don't want to fly with
us again then that's your decision and I would completely understand
your feeling that way. Nevertheless, we still want to try to make it up
to you for the bad experience you just had."
Many middle managers would cringe at the above
statement because they think it further pushes customers away, and
those who think that have a complete lack of understanding about
customer service and aren't fit to be managers. Customers never want to
hear excuses or be offered bribes and as long as they're treated that
way then they'll never trust you. The ways to regain a customer's trust
-- indeed the only ways -- are to show that you understand
the customer's concern and to offer a genuine apology. Once a
customer has been treated poorly, solving the initial problem
(e.g., returning a bag) or throwing a consolation prize at them without
explaining why it's being offered, is insufficient.
It's a shame that these simple concepts are not
blatantly obvious to some companies. Maybe I should go back into
training customer service staff....
Please don't write to share your stories
about poor experiences with United. I'm not publishing any
more. If I did that that's all I'd do. If you had a bad experience with
United, I'm sorry that happened to you but I don't need to know about
it.
My neighbor was still not home so I walked back to the
public telephone to call the courier. Thankfully I did not have to go
through a computerized agent. The courier said that he had been at my
house but no one answered the door. The only time I was away was when I
had gone to the public telephone earlier for a few minutes to call
United, and that must have been when he had been there. Had United's
phone system and representatives handled calls quicker then I wouldn't
have been at the pay phone for so long and I likely would not have
missed the courier.
I asked the courier if he had not seen the bright
green note on the door that said I would return in five minutes? He
said he had not. Likely he knocked right on it. I would
count this as another, blatant mistake but the
courier is independent and not employed directly by United.
I knew United had given him a number I told them not to
use, but did they at least give him my neighbor's number too, which I
said I wanted to be the contact number? They did not, they gave
him
only the bad number.
The courier said he would return at 9:00pm with my bag.
Mistake #13: United had the courier call me at a
number I told them not to call me at. They also didn't give him
the correct number at all.
As I write this I am still waiting for my bag.
UPDATE: At 9:20pm, the courier arrived and delivered
my bag -- with a broken handle. United must have known the handle was
broken before they handed it to the courier, but United made no effort
to contact me to offer compensation or replacement. Perhaps they are
hoping that my bad experience in dealing with them will discourage me
from continuing this comedy of errors by calling them to file a claim.
Mistake #14: United offered nothing at all for the
fact that my bag arrived broken.
P.S. I filed a complaint on United's website, referring
them to this page since all the details are here. If United
responds to this article, expect them to miss the point by focusing on
the fact that my bag was delayed rather than understanding my *real*
complaint, which is how they mishandled the problem with my
missing bag.
United's Response
On Nov. 17 I received the following email from United:
Dear Mr. Bluejay,
Thank you for contacting us. Customer Relations staff
does not have access to other websites, and we are not able to access
the url that you provide.
I understand, however, that your comments may related
to baggage issues. Given your situation, you will need to contact our
Baggage Services staff by calling 1-800-221-6903. Or, you may email
them from our Home Page by clicking "Contact United", then under "Post
Travel Services", click on "Baggage Services/Lost and Found". Please
provide your comments in text form. We appreciate this opportunity to
be of assistance and look forward to serving your travel needs.
Regards,
J. Esmail
United Airlines
Customer Relations
Mistake #15: In an organization as large as
United, customer service can't find some way to access the web to see a
customer's complaint.
Mistake #16: Most companies would be concerned if
they had an idea that a customer was relaying a bad experience with
them to the world via a website, and would want to check it out. Not
United.
United's Second Response
After I received the notice above I went to United's
website and pasted the contents of this web page into their contact
form. Below is the response I got.
Above I predicted that if United replied I expected them
to miss the point and to focus on the fact that my bag was delayed
rather than understanding that my *real* complaint is how they mishandled
my inquiries on the matter and how their customer
service is lacking. That's exactly what they did.
Dear Mr. Bluejay,
Thank you for your prompt response dated November 17.
Your constructive feedback is appreciated and we welcome hearing from
our valued customers.
However, because your concern involves the handling of
your baggage, I have forwarded your inquiry to our Central Baggage
department, they can best respond to your inquiry. A representative
will be in touch with you as soon as possible. If you have further
questions or feedback, you may reach them by calling 1-800-221-6903 or
by emailing them from our Home Page by clicking "Contact United", then
under "Post Travel Services" click on "Baggage Services/Lost and
Found". Meanwhile, thank you for your patience.
We look forward to serving you.
Regards,
J. Esmail
United Airlines
Customer Relations
Mistake #17: United can't understand a written
complaint even when the specific grievances are enumerated individually
in bullet form.
United's Third Response
A few days after this I received voicemail message from
a United manager in Austin. I called her back a few days later and she
apologized for my experience and, appropriately, seemed to understand
that my issue was not that my bag had been delayed so much as it was
the way they handled that problem. I had been waiting for the
opportunity to talk to United so that if they asked me what it was I
wanted, I would say, "Please see the specific grievances listed in my
complaint, and make sure that other customers don't have the same
experience," -- which is what I did. The manager acknowledged this and
also said that she would research my case to see what kind of
compensation she could offer me, and then get back to me on that. I
explained that I was more interested in United's addressing its
customer service problems than in remuneration, but that I would
consider any offer they wanted to make.
I can't help
you with your baggage
Since I posted this page, countless fliers have
written to me to tell me of their baggage woes with United and ask if I
have any special phone numbers or tips to help them. But it should be
obvious that if *I* was unable to get proper service from United, then
how would I be able to help you? I can't. There's nothing I can
do for you.
Amusingly, a fair number of writers think that *I*
am United Airlines and they write demanding a resolution to their
problems. How they could draw that conclusion after even a casual
glance at this web page is beyond me. Usually these missives from an
AOL email address.
One thing that's clear from all the messages I've
received isn't just that United loses baggage on a frighteningly
regular basis, more importantly they don't care. Just as with
my experience, readers haven't been upset by their baggage loss as much
as they've been shocked at how United employees have been unconcerned,
rude, and incompetent when the readers made inquiries to try to get
their lost bags back. This underscores what I related in my own
experience: United doesn't care.It's as simple
as that.
Since I started this page I discovered a massive site dedicated to exposing
United's poor customer service, called Untied.com. They do have a
complaint form you can fill out which they will forward to United,
though I'm skeptical that will help much considering that United
doesn't care.
Good luck. -- MBJ
I never heard back from this manager. Unfortunately
I cannot call her because I neglected to record her telephone number or
name. My only option at this point is going through United's voicemail
hell again. This whole thing is just comical. United has failed every
step of the way. Every time they had an opportunity to do something
wrong, they took it.
Mistake #18: The United manager never called me
back after promising to do so.
On Dec. 28th, 2004 after over a month of waiting I
decided to try to contact the United manager to pick up where we had
left off. I thought I would call the Austin office and ask to talk to a
manager, but when I picked up the phone book I discovered that United
didn't bother to get a listing in the alphabetical white pages -- not
even a nationwide customer service number (unlike their competitors,
which are listed clearly). I checked the previous year's directory and
they're not in there, either. Of course nothing surprises me about
United anymore.
Mistake #19: United didn't bother to get a listing
in the phone book.
I found the customer service number on their website
(though inconveniently not on their home page -- it was two clicks away
from home), 877-228-1327. I dialed and waited the typical ten minutes
before I could talk to somebody. Victor Pedroza answered, I explained
that I was left hanging by a manager in Austin, and asked for the phone
number of the Austin office. Mr. Pedroza refused to provide it, saying
my only recourse was to write a letter to the Austin office. I
asked whether he thought that was reasonable -- after all I've been
through, and after being left hanging by United, was this really the
best they could do? If they were going to insist on being stingy with
the phone number to the Austin office, could they not leave a message
with a manager to get back to me? Was this really the best they could
do?
Yes, this was really the best they could do.
Mistake #20: After a United manager left me
hanging, United refused to provide a phone number for the Austin
office, refused to leave a message about my case with a manager, and
provided no recourse for me besides having me write a letter to the
Austin office.
At this point I gave up. I could spend time printing out
and mailing a copy of this page but there's no point. It's pretty clear
that United simply doesn't care.
As it stands, after all of the above I have nothing
to show for my efforts -- neither any kind of meaningful indication
from United that they will truly make any effort to improve their
customer service operations, nor any kind of compensation for my bad
experience as a customer. Indeed, my most recent experience with United
underscores that nothing has changed.
This excellent animation from TrueMajority shows in
graphic detail (using Oreo cookies) how ridiculously, large
the military budget is, and how we could solve many domestic
problems with a modest 12% cut. A must-see. (watch
it now)
If you liked my guide to Cheap Airfare, you
might like some of my other sites:
