JetBlue Airlines, Jet Blue, JetBlue Airways Corporation, Russell Chew, James Hnat, Mark Powers, Joel Peterson They Screwed Up Multiple Times, then Reneged on Compensation Offer by JetBlue Supervisor, then gave Terrible Attitude Laden Dismissive Customer Service. Nationwide

My girlfriend and I were flying back from New York on JetBlue. Sure, JetBlue costs a little bit more, but we looked forward to the in-flight DirectTV which makes the flight go by faster. I admit that every JetBlue experience I'd had previously was a more than pleasant one, and on the rare occasions I fly when JetBlue was an option, I would always exercise that option or encourage others to. Unfortunately, on this occasion JetBlue turned out to be one of the most piss-poor flight experiences I've ever had and it was only eclipsed by their subsequent complete disregard for an excellent customer and former advocate of their services.

First, my girlfriend and I arrived at the airport to find that our assigned seats were reassigned to opposite ends of the plane. The ticket counterperson was a complete a*s and gave us attitude about it like it was somehow our fault. It was amazing... instead of being remotely apoligetic, they gave us attitude like how dare we question that they shuffled our seats around! Had this been the only melee of the day, the remains of the day would have been salvagable.

Once on the plane we got rude flight attendants who were clearly too busy to assist anyone in our section of the plane. An attendant passed by and was dismissive and said that we needed to talk to the attendant in charge of our section. In our row while still at the gate, we advised that the entertainment system wasn't working. The flight attendants were very dismissive. Once in the air, they still weren't working. We were told by one that we should have said something while still at the gate (we did).

So... the entertainment system is out, and our seats wouldn't recline which was uncomfortable on such a long flight, but we weren't in our seats that much since we spent a good portion of the flight in the isle with attendant kicking the bottom of the seat in front of ours apparently in an effort to get the entertainment system working.

Thankfully, a JetBlue supervisor happened to be in a nearby seat and saw and heard everything that happened and said, "I am a supervisor for JetBlue in our call center, I am really sorry for all of this and I will make sure that your flights are taken care of". While I don't care so much about the $, the sentiment was nice since someone recognized (without even knowing about our seats being reassigned) how unbelievably bad everything had been so far. I gave her my card, and never heard from her so I assumed she'd forgotten.

I then contacted "customer service" and was informed that not only had they not even applied the flight to my frequent flyer account, the coup de graas was that instead of the flight voucher I was told I would be getting by the JetBlue supervisor, I was told that I would be getting a $15 voucher - which frankly doesn't come close to covering my time expended even contacting JetBlue to check the status much less the attitude endured from the moment we arrived at the airport.

The customer service agent kept giving me the "whatever... nothing I can do" BS and finally a supervisor, "Jordan" was torn away from whatever she was doing to get on the line. Sorry for the language, but frankly she was a complete arrogant b----. "Jordan" said I would get nothing other than the menial vouchers offered. She said she didn't care if I was going to file complaints with anyone. When I said I would find remedy by suing, she said she was going to disconnect the call - and also stated that I would get nothing through litigation. I believe I even mentioned that I would be filing a RipOff Report. She did not care. I asked if anyone at JetBlue cared that I was adding JetBlue to our member companies list of banned vendors and that JetBlue would lose $10's of thousands annually in business - and she hung up on me.

I expect what I was promised from the JetBlue supervisor and nothing less - I actually expect more that I've had to deal with this BS and this arrogant customer service manager "Jordan"

I want only a fair, compensatory and reasonable resolution.

JetBlue is now officially on the "Banned Vendor list" and our companies will no longer reimburse our salespeople for flights taken for the company on JetBlue. If I were a shareholder of JetBlue I would be pissed beyond all measure right now.

The irony is... I get free flight vouchers all the time from Southwest that I never use because I forget to use them and they expire - and I probably would have forgotten to ever use this one, however since this was clearly an effort by their customer service department to screw us over and renege on your own employee's representations, I'm taking this personally.

I detailed all of this in a feedback form at JetBlue.com and received the following reply:

From: Dear JetBlue (email omitted)
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 6:10 PM
To: (email omitted)
Subject: JetBlue Airways Flight 711

To: (email omitted)
Re: email received Saturday,01/17/09 6:24 PM, Speak Up 1946874

Dear Mr. (last name omitted),

Thank you for contacting JetBlue Airways regarding your recent experience. We appreciate your taking the time to advise us of the difficulties you encountered on December 14, 2008, Flight #711.

It is our goal to always provide excellent customer service and we are disappointed to hear we did not meet your expectations or ours on this occasion. Please know this level of service is not indicative of JetBlue. We have forwarded a copy of your letter to our Director of Inflight Crew for internal review and training purposes. We can assure you that your concerns will be addressed.

After reviewing your documented confirmation, it is noted that you don't want the Vouchers issued to you. We're aware that Vouchers can't make up for the inconvenience you encountered, however, we hope you will accept them in the spirit intended.

There is no record in your documented confirmation that a JetBlue supervisor was on your flight. Although you are not completely satisfied with our attempts to resolve this problem for you, we feel that we have addressed and responded appropriately. We hope you will give us another opportunity to
serve you again.

We hope to earn your continued support and regain your confidence in our airline and that upon further consideration of your most recent experience, you will also take the opportunity to remember your past jetting experiences on JetBlue when you enjoyed our prompt and efficient service.

Regards,

Alana
Customer Commitment Crew
JetBlue Airways
Crewmember 50962


Did they really say that I didn't have "documented confirmation that a JetBlue supervisor was on [my] flight?"... Oh, I'm sorry. Was I supposed to ask for a copy of the passenger manifest before getting off the plane? Is JetBlue seriously not aware of when THEIR OWN employees are taking comped flights even given the flight number, originating and destination cities, and date? Sounds like a security risk to me if they don't know who is on their own planes in the second to last row on the right side of the plane.

Essentially, they are calling me a liar in this email which infuriates me to no end. Not that there is anywhere to send such a manifest if I had one - JetBlue apparently keeps their physical address very secret on their website. You wouldn't even know they had a corporate address. That's okay, the only address I require is their address to receive service of process.

As for not accepting the "spirit indended" of the whopping $15 voucher, I don't even know what to say. Since they didn't honor the word of their original employee that offered to take care of our flight, why should we even expect that they had the minimal amount of integrity required to even honor the voucher? They don't even have the wherewithall to find out what supervisor was on the flight.

I was thinking during the flight that I would be definitely making some phone calls once it was over, but was at least partially relieved at the time that one of their supervisors was present to see and hear everything since it reassured me that I wasn't completely insane with what was going on. While this offer to take care of our flights was not worth what we went through, at least it was a nice and acceptable gesture - perhaps the next one would be better.

Having worked in customer service, I find myself sending 2 or 3 notes a month sending unsolicited compliments when an employee or company provides excellent service. Only once or maybe twice a year do I receive such deplorable condescending anti-service that requires action worth my valuable time. All companies no matter how good make mistakes sometimes, but it is how they address and take responsibility for those mistakes that defines the company's integrity. In the case of JetBlue, this integrity is non-existent. I am so much more upset at how much they don't give a hoot about my business - and how they handled everything from a customer service perspective, than I even am about the flight, but now my time is vested and I am going to have to demand that the right thing be done.

I will update if and when they ever make good on their supervisor's offer, but I'm not holding my breath.

Doug
Henderson, Nevada
U.S.A.