This is the more common sentiment among our customers (and the employees as well!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMydphnOumY...feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMydphnOumY...feature=related
Our Customer's Love for U
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Iheartflying
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It may be old, but sadly can't see any improvement....
Travel Is My Life
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Travel Is My Life
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They realized they were screwing up in areas such as on time performance and baggage handeling and they took steps to fix that. That deserves kudos. They could have just said who cares and done nothing.
I'll admit that I am not a Tempe apologist and will call them on their BS when they deserve it, however, I'm not totally convinced that the DOT numbers are an accurate indication of just what is going on (at any airline good or bad). Since the DOT just logs the complaint numbers and categorizes them, it proves that the customers know where to write to to get a complaint logged against the airline, but the DOT doesnt actually do anything with the actual complaint being a valid one as far as I know so the numbers can be a little off. Take for instance a certain consumer group that might be upset with a new policy or procedure put in place. The airline has the ability to run their business like they wish (good or bad) and said consumer group has the ability to flood the DOT with complaints that they dont like the way the airline is changing their policy. Now, granted it is a complaint and the DOT will log it, but is it an indication for most consumers as to how the airline will affect their travel? Another one that I see as a potential problem is someone who buys a nonrefundable fare and then wants a refund and doesnt get it. They knew it was nonrefundable when they bought it but thought the airline would give them their money back anyway. They dont get their way and complain to the DOT about not getting a refund (when they werent entitled to it.) It counts as a complaint against the airline and it shouldnt be since it was a nonrefundable ticket they bought to begin with.
This is why I think the DOT numbers would make more sense in the complaint department if they would actually publish the complaints that the airlines receive. If you've ever visited any of the online airline complaint or consumer complaint websites, you'd see that a lot of the traveling public has no clue what they are actually purchasing when they buy an airline ticket (or anything else for that matter). Maybe there should be a push for the DOT to publish the complaints (they could even white out names/addresses, etc) but show exactly what people are complaining about (for all the airlines). There may be only 2 complaints about a specific carrier and it might just be the one thing that is important to you, when another carrier has 30 complaints and nothing pertaining to the things that are important to you when you travel.
Is FFOCUS willing to see about getting something like this done so you can have a better understanding of just what the public is complaining about instead of generalizing all complaints into one category or report?
BoeingBoy
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Well, not quite. DOT forwards a copy of every complaint received to the airline. The airline can, and does get complaints thrown out or applied to another carrier (contract Express, for example). So there are checks and balances in place for the complaints that aren't in place for any other area ranked by the DOT - all the others depend strictly on info submitted by the airlines.
A small excerpt from the 6-7-07 About US article on consumer complaints to the DOT:
In April, US Airways initially received 304 complaints, but Karen, Krystal and Ganell were able to bring that number down to 245, a reduction of 59, or nearly 20 percent.
Jim
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tadjr is absolutely right. The DOT figure is a very skewed figure even if the airline (or any airline for that matter) is able to get some of the complaints get dismissed. There are too many people and groups out there that right away go to the DOT before they've even complained to the airline or if they've complained and haven't allowed enough time for a response. Also too many as tadjr stated complain for BS reasons which those complaints ought to be immediately dismissed. The DOT shouldn't even accept the complaint unless the person filing the complaint can show they've attempted to resolve the situation with the airline.
Ok, so now of the 245 how many are from FFOCUS members upset about losing their bonus miles, how many are people who had nonrefundables that didnt get it refunded, how many had a schedule change and booked via an online agency that didnt advise them of the schedule change, how many had a seat change due to an aircraft swap, how many had issues with......?
Its still not a completely valid way to say X amount of complaints were valid and need to be addressed.
I remember one time my manager was boarding a Metrojet flight and didnt let the lady board. (It was strictly 3 rows at a time). Anyway, about a week later he gets a complaint letter about HIMSELF! The agent that was boarding was very rude to me because he wouldnt let me board when I wanted to, (in not so many words). These are the types of complaints that I'm addressing where the customer feels they were wronged (which they have every right to, but in all actuality arent necessarily right) and the DOT can do nothing but log them. If policy is X,Y,Z and the customer isnt entitled to anything else, then they should be able to complain all they want, but it shouldnt be counted against the airline as long as their printed policies were followed.
I remember reading on one of the consumer complaint websites that someone was wronged by the airline (I forget which one it was, there was so much complaining and half of it was out of left field) because it left 3 minutes early and they were in the bar and the airline didnt make announcements. Then how did the other 100 people manage to get on and leave? These are the types of complaints I'm talking about. People who do not travel, dont know what to do and yet when something like this happens like to complain and blame everyone but themselves.
I think that if the complaint is legit, someone was wronged and it was our fault, then they should admit it and deal with the consequences of it. However, if it was something like the items mentioned above, they ought to be able to refute it and have it dropped in their complaint numbers, but I have yet to see anywhere on the DOT site where they release updated complaint info months later. Much like the news stories plastered across the front page and when its found out they were wrong, they print a retraction in small headlines on the back page just before the classifieds.
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Complaining about complainers.
BoeingBoy
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Your questions are generally more specific than the categories the DOT uses, but.....
No wonder US is at or near the bottom in complaints with a "the customer is wrong" and "US is being cheated" attitude. It's amazing that some airlines can consistently rank at or near the top with all those whining passengers out there and such a flawed system.....
Jim
FF program complaints fall under the "Other" category, which had 15 total complaints. Of course, since the About US article was talking about April 2007, before the bonus miles had been taken away, none of those 15 complaints should have been about losing bonus miles.
That would have fallen under the refunds category, which had 29 total complaints. I would presume that the folks who contest the validity of complaints would eliminate this type of specific complaint.
I assume that that would have come under the "Customer Service" category, with 4 total complaints. Of course, US had taken their money (via a third party) and had the customer's contact info. In exchange for the passenger's money you think US has zero responsibility???
Don't know. Do you know for a fact that such complaints as you listed were in those 245??? Tell us exactly how many....
In other words, if it's not absolutely positively correct, not contradicted by US' published procedures, and "serious" enough, the complaint is invalid - is that what you're saying. Even though US has an opportunity to review the complaint and have it removed.
No wonder US is at or near the bottom in complaints with a "the customer is wrong" and "US is being cheated" attitude. It's amazing that some airlines can consistently rank at or near the top with all those whining passengers out there and such a flawed system.....
Jim
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Truer words have never been written here. Great analysis, Jim!
One has to assume that ALL airline s experience the same kind of complainants. Therefore, the poll is probably pretty accurate. Folks only complain if they don't get what they PERCEIVED that they paid for. They know that SW is a cattle car, so that is what they expect, hence few complaints. They also generally get on time transportation, something they haven't been able to count on at other carriers. As soon as Team Tempe transitions LCC into an "all steerage" airline, we'll see ours drop, too. But then again, maybe they should rank with the likes of Trailways and Greyhound.
BoeingBoy
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Piney, Art, and others are certainly right - creating expectations and living up to them is the recipe for customer satisfaction. I just found it odd that anyone would think 245 complaints were out of line for the month following that little bump in the road called res migration. For a month when US had:
~16,458 mainline flights arrive at least 15 minutes late,
~600 canceled mainline flights,
~37,437 reports of mishandled bags, and
~2,182 involuntarily bumped passengers.
In other words, only 0.4% of passengers (4.32 of every 1,000) who had something go wrong with their trip actually had a DOT complaint count against US. Only 0.5% (5.36 of each 1,000) even bothered to file a DOT complaint. That sure is some conspiracy to skew the results.....
Jim
~16,458 mainline flights arrive at least 15 minutes late,
~600 canceled mainline flights,
~37,437 reports of mishandled bags, and
~2,182 involuntarily bumped passengers.
In other words, only 0.4% of passengers (4.32 of every 1,000) who had something go wrong with their trip actually had a DOT complaint count against US. Only 0.5% (5.36 of each 1,000) even bothered to file a DOT complaint. That sure is some conspiracy to skew the results.....
Jim
Well Jim, just how many 3rd party reservations have you ever seen in the computer system? How many 3rd party reservations have you ever tried to contact when we've had a flight irregularity? Do you know for a fact that all of them have the customer contact in the reservation? (Hint- they dont). You wouldnt believe the amount of 3rd party reservations that have no other contact than the websites 800 number or the travel agency number. No other passenger contact. How is US supposed to get in touch with these customers to advise them? We arent. Thats part of the responsibility of the 3rd party. You book the reservations, if US has a schedule change we notify the booking agent and they are responsible for contacting the customer so I would say US fulfilled their responsibility in this regards by notifying the person who booked the reservation.
Dont know, tell us how many were? Tell us how many werent. Like I said, I wish the DOT would publish the complaints, then we'd all know.
In other words, quit putting words in my mouth. I've seen enough complaint letters when I was a shop steward to know what people are capable of lying about. I'm not saying that 1 or all 245 of them were lying, but I've seen and read enough to know that it does happen. Each one should be reviewed and dealt with accordingly.
I'm still not sure that the way the DOT handles the complaints is an accurate way of dealing with them. I thought the only ones the airlines could remove were about code-share or express partners that did not involve the airline specifically, not because someone was wrong or wasnt due a refund on a nonrefundable ticket. If they can do that, then by all means please correct me and let the numbers speak for themselves. I still havent seen or read anything that the airlines can remove complaints that are proven to be invalid based on the complaint, not just that it wasnt that specific airline in question. Please show me where this is the case and I'll be the first to admit that its a great system then.
