United Airlines Poor Customer Service Denver Colorado

I didn't mean to start a flame war, James, but when you say I was illogical (with no common sense) and implied that I am naive, I consider that to be quite rude. I'm sorry I called you 'dummy,' but I didn't attack you first.

I'm not the kind of customer (or person in general) that makes a big stink about nothing. I've worked in customer service most of my life, and have little tolerance for people with no intelligence.

My communications with United about this matter were polite and professional. I never threatened them ("I'm going to tell all of my family, who fly 1 million times each year not to use you!!!") and I never wanted them to give me a stack of cash for the problems. All I really wanted was a simple "We're sorry, we screwed up."

But instead of apologizing, they called me a liar on the phone, as well as via email and snail mail.

That's poor customer service, no matter WHO is at fault. Check out this link for two stories that are somewhat similar: http://airfare.michaelbluejay.com/united.html

I didn't mean to start a flame war, James, but when you say I was illogical (with no common sense) and implied that I am naive, I consider that to be quite rude. I'm sorry I called you 'dummy,' but I didn't attack you first.

I'm not the kind of customer (or person in general) that makes a big stink about nothing. I've worked in customer service most of my life, and have little tolerance for people with no intelligence.

My communications with United about this matter were polite and professional. I never threatened them ("I'm going to tell all of my family, who fly 1 million times each year not to use you!!!") and I never wanted them to give me a stack of cash for the problems. All I really wanted was a simple "We're sorry, we screwed up."

But instead of apologizing, they called me a liar on the phone, as well as via email and snail mail.

That's poor customer service, no matter WHO is at fault. Check out this link for two stories that are somewhat similar: http://airfare.michaelbluejay.com/united.html

I didn't mean to start a flame war, James, but when you say I was illogical (with no common sense) and implied that I am naive, I consider that to be quite rude. I'm sorry I called you 'dummy,' but I didn't attack you first.

I'm not the kind of customer (or person in general) that makes a big stink about nothing. I've worked in customer service most of my life, and have little tolerance for people with no intelligence.

My communications with United about this matter were polite and professional. I never threatened them ("I'm going to tell all of my family, who fly 1 million times each year not to use you!!!") and I never wanted them to give me a stack of cash for the problems. All I really wanted was a simple "We're sorry, we screwed up."

But instead of apologizing, they called me a liar on the phone, as well as via email and snail mail.

That's poor customer service, no matter WHO is at fault. Check out this link for two stories that are somewhat similar: http://airfare.michaelbluejay.com/united.html

I tried to be nice, and got called a dummy.

OK. Wow Dustin, 25 whole flights! Man, I bet the airlines send a limo for you when you book a flight. I mean a world traveler like yourself deserves all the comps.

Look, next time stay home. Your budget is so tight that your wife can't afford to miss work. That says it all right there. Furthermore, there's always the chance one of you will become ill again and we certianly can't have that. So give up your coach seats to someone else next time, OK? You know who I mean, someone with the common sense to write down the confirmation number.

Or, better still, "Go, go Greyhound", Dustin! Enjoy!

James, your logic is faulty, not mine.

>>>It was immediately apparent to me that the original poster simply doesn't travel enough to know what to expect.

You actually quoted me after this saying "out of the 25 or so flights I've been on..." You know EXACTLY how much I travel because I posted it. Dummy.

And I know what to expect, so don't patronize me. We arrived 2 hours before each flight, we brought car seats for our kids, we brought our son's birth certificate in case we needed proof of age, etc. I even had our original confirmation numbers listed on our itinerary, which I had printed from an email and brought with us.

The only thing we weren't prepared for was the incompetence and lack of respect from United's employees.

>>>Well, I hope you've never used your homeowner's insurance. But by your logic, you should cancel it immediately, right?

Is this supposed to make sense? If your house burns down and all of your paperwork gets burned up, the insurance company SHOULD have your policy in their computer, right? You should be able to give them your name, SS number, address, etc. and have them pull up your file. I expected the same of the airline. Unfortunately, their employee didn't enter us into the computer correctly, so there was no record of the transaction. NOT my fault.

>>>But since you aren't psychic, you had no way of knowing that you would be sick. Fair enough. Neither did the airline.

No duh! You mis-read my post. I don't blame the airline for my sickness, and I didn't expect them to be psychic.

However, if they had not screwed up, I wouldn't have been sick on our departure date. "But you could have gone out later!" you say. Riiiight. My wife could have missed more work, putting us out more money. That's a great plan.

The fact is, on our budget we needed to be home ASAP. I would rather be sick on an airplane than stuck on the ground.

But the fact still remains: if the airline hadn't screwed up, I wouldn't have been sick on the day we left. That's a fact.

Dustin,

A friendly word of advice. Make sure you read the fine print on those vouchers before you use them. Typically, they can only be used on "full fare" purchases.

What this means is that if you can find the same tickets online for $200, don't assume that you can use the vouchers for these. The full fare rate may be $500, and it would wind up costing you more to use the voucher.

About the only way you would come out ahead is if they either offered you a totally free flight, or cash.

It was immediately apparent to me that the original poster simply doesn't travel enough to know what to expect. This was then confirmed in the followup.

"Why didn't I get a confirmation number? Because out of the 25 or so flights I've been on in my life, I've NEVER needed the confirmation number. Not once."

Well, I hope you've never used your homeowner's insurance. But by your logic, you should cancel it immediately, right?

But the (il)logic continues:
"As for my being sick, if the airline had booked us for the correct day as promised, I would have been home on Jan. 5, and in the comfort of my own home when I got sick on Jan. 6. The airline's screw-up made me sit in the airport/airplane while sick."

Uh, no. How's this instead? Had you chosen not to take this trip at this particular time, you "would have been home on Jan. 5, and in the comfort of your own home when you got sick on Jan. 6. Your decisions made you sit in the airport / airplane while sick."

But since you aren't psychic, you had no way of knowing that you would be sick. Fair enough. Neither did the airline.

When dealing with a company that is totally dependent on the weather, common sense would dictate that things ARE going to go wrong every now and then. I would suggest that travelers should be prepared for that possibility. Keep your essentials in your carry on bag, keep your confirmation numbers handy, keep a photocopy of all your ID numbers, credit card numbers, etc. It will come in handy someday.

Delta Skymiles Platinum Member

I find it hard to believe that you read my initial post and came up with that response.

I wasn't mad at the airline for the ice storm. I wasn't mad at them that I got sick. I wasn't even mad (at first) that they lost our luggage.

The problem was simple: I called in and re-booked for the next day, but their employee screwed up and never booked the seats as she said. I was pro-active in the situation (I didn't go to the airport, wait a few hours, have the flight delayed, etc.) and it ended up screwing me over.

Why didn't I get a confirmation number? Because out of the 25 or so flights I've been on in my life, I've NEVER needed the confirmation number. Not once. If the airline gives me the number I write it down, but in this case it wasn't offered and I didn't think to get one.

As for my being sick, if the airline had booked us for the correct day as promised, I would have been home on Jan. 5, and in the comfort of my own home when I got sick on Jan. 6. The airline's screw-up made me sit in the airport/airplane while sick.

And one other thing: this site didn't leave enough room for the entire story. There were other things. An example: on Jan. 6, the day we finally made it home, we arrived at the airport to leave and found our flight delayed.

The desk agent said "Since you'll be delayed into Denver, I'll just put you on another United flight from Denver to Portland."

My wife, trying to avoid the problems we already ran into, said "They told us yesterday we can't do that. They said we have to fly from Denver on Alaska Airlines and United can't change our itinerary."

The agent yelled "I've been doing this for 16 years. I think I know what I'm doing!"

She was without a doubt the rudest customer service agent I have ever encountered.

One last note - do you really think I'd take the time to file this on ripoffreport if I made the whole thing up? That's ridiculous. My vacation with my family turned into a nightmare because of this airline and they refuse to admit it. Case closed.

First of all, if you were changing flights on the phone wouldn't it make sense to get either the confirmnation number which the operator has in front of them or their name.

Is the ICe Storm the airlines fault?

The airline delayed you another day because they could see into the future and know you would get sick?

Three Hundred in Coupons vs the 160 you claim yo were out sounds like you are coming out ahead.

If you really felt you were mistreated you wouldn't even use the coupons that they gave you.

Sounds like you are trying to get something for nothing and United tried to make it right but you still rip them on this web site and are more than willing to use the "freebie" that they are giving you.