Delta Airlines and the "India Service Center".

[DawnCt1]

I had a huge problem with the Delta call in center in India. They totally screwed up my boss' reservation. They also could not answer most of my questions. She ended up transferring me to the frequent flyer line. The guy I talked to there told me to always call the line they have directly. That is what I will definitely do from now on.

Jeanelle

I have called the Frequent Flyer number and ended up in India as well. If you mean the Medallion number, you will always get the USA. I have called it and gotton help even though I am not "entitled" to it. They have always been gracious about helping me. For a routine call you should be able to call the regular number and be understood. It is more of an issue of being understood than understanding.

 

[DawnCt1]

American's favor cheap flights over service,

We are getting what we pay for.

That being said, usually I have no difficulty understanding their English. In fact, their English seems more "proper' than that of many Americans. My problem is usually they are reading from a script of sorts - meaning they have no real in depth knowledge of their subject matter (in a citical thinking kind of way). They seem to be following computer based algorythms.

It's not "understanding", its a matter of being understood. Even when I can barely detect any accent, there is almost always a communication issue. No matter what you call about, you will always be offerred a "car or a hotel", even if a seat isn't available. It doesn't instill confidence to know that the agent can't recognize that you won't need a car or a room if you can't get there.

 

[horseshowmom]

I've had this with other businesses as well, and it's really frustrating. Most of the time, I just cannot understand them. Sometimes it helps to be transferred to somebody else, sometimes it doesn't.

I recently read an article about this, and it said that U.S. companies are starting to reconsider sending these call centers out of the country, because of the large numbers of complaints (and because of the effect on their bottom line when people refuse to use their company anymore).

OT, but DD has this situation crop up in her classes at the university. She's had two teaching assts. in lab classes that were very hard to understand.

Next semester, she has to take microeconomics, and all of the instructors are foreign. She's checked with some former students and looked at the previous teacher assessments (completed by students at the end of the class). Basically, what she found was that every single one of the instructors were marked very low as far as being able to understand them. She did find out from other students that one of the teachers writes everything on the board (along with saying it). That's the one she's going to take. It shouldn't have to be that complicated.

 

[welovedisneyx4]

I hate this call center outsourcing w/ a passion!!!

I havn't had a problem w/ the airlines, but w/ Dell computers. If I had known this about Dell, I would not have bought my computer through them. I am not very computer literate at all and it doesn't help when I have problems that I have to call and speak w/ someone I can't understand and who is reading from a script. I got really mad at them the other day b/c they wouldn't give me an American and I went off on them. I told them I bet you don't have a script for this call!!!

I have worked in a call center as well and had to deal w/ accents from New Orleans to Boston and other Northern cities and even very thick southern accents that I had trouble understanding. But I worked w/ the customers to understand what they needed and was not working from a script. My compassion for fellow customer service workers goes out the window when they don't know what they are talking about!!!

DELL COMPUTER COMPANY---I HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for letting me share that!

 

[DawnCt1]

I hate this call center outsourcing w/ a passion!!!

I havn't had a problem w/ the airlines, but w/ Dell computers. If I had known this about Dell, I would not have bought my computer through them. I am not very computer literate at all and it doesn't help when I have problems that I have to call and speak w/ someone I can't understand and who is reading from a script. I got really mad at them the other day b/c they wouldn't give me an American and I went off on them. I told them I bet you don't have a script for this call!!!

I have worked in a call center as well and had to deal w/ accents from New Orleans to Boston and other Northern cities and even very thick southern accents that I had trouble understanding. But I worked w/ the customers to understand what they needed and was not working from a script. My compassion for fellow customer service workers goes out the window when they don't know what they are talking about!!!

DELL COMPUTER COMPANY---I HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for letting me share that!

Call back and ask for the Spanish desk in Spanish. I will bet that they will transfer you.

 

[ILUVMYBRIT]

I work for a US airline and our reservations and customer service desks were outsourced a few years back to "save money". Well,finally,after many complaints from customers whose reservations were so messed up or whose names were mispelled to the point that we couldnt find their reservations, they are finally bringing most of it, if not all of it,back in to the US. I will tell you what I told our customers...write to the CEO of the company or see if they have a consumer affairs department that handle these kinds of complaints. I would get passengers yelling at me and I would simply write down the number for consumer affairs and tell them that I understood their feelings but I couldnt fix the problem but if enough people filed complaints then eventually the people who make these decisions would have to listen. It seems to be working.
Also, many of us tend to feel badly about telling someone that you can't understand them. I have come to the conclusion that you cannot do that anymore. If you are having a difficult time understanding someone or think they cannot understand you, tell them that and ask to speak to someone who speaks english better or to speak to a supervisor.

 

[yeartolate]

It's not "understanding", its a matter of being understood. Even when I can barely detect any accent, there is almost always a communication issue. No matter what you call about, you will always be offerred a "car or a hotel", even if a seat isn't available. It doesn't instill confidence to know that the agent can't recognize that you won't need a car or a room if you can't get there.

My primary experience with call centers in India has been Dell. Their English is superb. My problem was that they were reading from a script and were not experts in their field. But their cheap labor is what gave me a cheap loaded computer.


But again, I think Americans value a cheap flight first. Cheap means - a low fare ticket or use of frequent flier miles. These things come at a cost. Call the airline and tell them how much is angers you and let them know you will be flying Southwest from now on. They know what is happening is bad customer service. Your dollars are what will change the mind of a CEO . These older airlines are frequently facing bankruptcy. They are doing what they can to stay afloat.

I can rarely weasel an ultracheap flight on Jet Blue and i will never be able to accrue enough points for that free flight, but the customer service is over the top excellent!

 

[welovedisneyx4]

Call back and ask for the Spanish desk in Spanish. I will bet that they will transfer you.

Thanks Dawn, I meant to put that in my post that I would try that next time and got so mad about Dell, I forgot!!

 

[DawnCt1]

But again, I think Americans value a cheap flight first. Cheap means - a low fare ticket or use of frequent flier miles. These things come at a cost. Call the airline and tell them how much is angers you and let them know you will be flying Southwest from now on. They know what is happening is bad customer service. Your dollars are what will change the mind of a CEO . These older airlines are frequently facing bankruptcy. They are doing what they can to stay afloat.

I think Americans want to fly affordably. I wouldn't classify the use of frequent flier miles as cheap or free. While they are only allocated so many award seats, those seats are paid for by the credit card company and those flown miles are paid for with consumer loyalty. I will pay somewhat more for a Delta flight because I can earn miles and I prefer Delta Song to Southwest. I like having an assigned seat. I like being able to go on line and pick out my seat. I think the Grenstein is doing everything he can to keep Delta afloat and I would rather "work around" the inconvenient obstacles and voice a verbal complaint than to take my business elsewhere.

 

[LoraJ]

I like Delta. There is no airline program that builds miles and rewards consumer loyalty faster than Delta with their American Express affiliation. If you can get past India, they will bend over backwards to help you. To avoid the whole voice menu thing when you first call, hit 9-4, 9-4. You will save a couple of minutes. And practice your Spanish.

My local airport is a Continental Hub. I have a ton of FF miles with them. I get them from Amex, a Contiental Card, grocery shopping, etc. My only complaint with them was their airfare was too high that I had to book Delta which ended up being nothing but aggrivation. I sent in this complaint to them via their website and they called me up at home to apologize and would forward the price difference to whomever blah blah blah. When I complained to Delta about everything they put me through, all I got was a form letter email.

By the way, when I was on the phone with that woman from Delta, I asked to speak to someone else and she wouldn't transfer me. After I spoke to Contiental I called back and tried to get a supervisor, but it didn't work. You shouldn't HAVE to ask to speak to someone in Spanish to get someone who speaks English. You should be able to get good customer service from the start.

My boyfriend doesn't like to fly and is picky about airlines. Before it was Continental or Delta, now he's willing to try out Jet Blue if we can avoid Delta.

As someone else stated, I am trying to make an effort to avoid companies who outsource their call centers. It isn't always possible though.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I am an outsource call center person. It seems the new thing is to have agents out of the home--no overhead and you only pay them for actual time spent on the phone. If more businesses did this--it would certainly cost less than India and open the door for more opportunities to those like me.

 

[LoraJ]

I am an outsource call center person. It seems the new thing is to have agents out of the home--no overhead and you only pay them for actual time spent on the phone. If more businesses did this--it would certainly cost less than India and open the door for more opportunities to those like me.

I like the idea of bringing these jobs back to the states.

 

[yeartolate]

I think Americans want to fly affordably. I wouldn't classify the use of frequent flier miles as cheap or free. While they are only allocated so many award seats, those seats are paid for by the credit card company and those flown miles are paid for with consumer loyalty. I will pay somewhat more for a Delta flight because I can earn miles and I prefer Delta Song to Southwest. I like having an assigned seat. I like being able to go on line and pick out my seat. I think the Grenstein is doing everything he can to keep Delta afloat and I would rather "work around" the inconvenient obstacles and voice a verbal complaint than to take my business elsewhere.

I think you proved my point. You would rather work around inconvenient obstacles than take your business elsewhere. So you are getting value.

If bringing the jobs back stateside meant more expensive fares or more limited use of your Delta Miles, would you stay loyal? It is a personal decison.There is no right or wrong answer. But Americans vote with their pocketbooks and right now America is saying "screw customer service - I want my stuff cheap"

The "Spanish" desk thing will eventually backfire. I have heard the advice on several national TV programs so at some point the hint will no longer be useful. Just like many tips on the DIS are supergreat, but when the other 70000 of us actually use the information --- the tip at that point is virtually useless or the company gets wise and closes the loophole that allows the tip to work.

 

[DawnCt1]

The "Spanish" desk thing will eventually backfire. I have heard the advice on several national TV programs so at some point the hint will no longer be useful. Just like many tips on the DIS are supergreat, but when the other 70000 of us actually use the information --- the tip at that point is virtually useless or the company gets wise and closes the loophole that allows the tip to work.

I don't think that Delta's spanish desk will refuse to talk to a customer just because they do not speak Spanish, just as the Medallion desk doesn't refuse a call. The International desk also is in the USA and they will help with domestic flights. Perhaps if more Delta customers take advantage of that loop hole the Miami call center will expand. I can't imagine that an airline that flies internationally would cease providing bilingual service. Particularly one with so many flights to S. America and Puerto Rico. Flights booked on the telephone are already charged an additional $10 so they are recooping some of those costs.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I think you proved my point. You would rather work around inconvenient obstacles than take your business elsewhere. So you are getting value.

If bringing the jobs back stateside meant more expensive fares or more limited use of your Delta Miles, would you stay loyal? It is a personal decison.There is no right or wrong answer. But Americans vote with their pocketbooks and right now America is saying "screw customer service - I want my stuff cheap"

The "Spanish" desk thing will eventually backfire. I have heard the advice on several national TV programs so at some point the hint will no longer be useful. Just like many tips on the DIS are supergreat, but when the other 70000 of us actually use the information --- the tip at that point is virtually useless or the company gets wise and closes the loophole that allows the tip to work.

The thing is--people do vote with their pocket books and I get better customer service with another airline while yet accruing skymiles.

customer service is not rocket science and does not have to be expensive. It is basically costing them twice as much time and effort (and whatever % of additional expense) to have to handle a call 3 times--or have a stateside agent correct a problem. That is wasteful spending.

 

[DawnCt1]

customer service is not rocket science and does not have to be expensive. It is basically costing them twice as much time and effort (and whatever % of additional expense) to have to handle a call 3 times--or have a stateside agent correct a problem. That is wasteful spending.

You are correct. When enough calls end up being transferred then Delta and other companies will no doubt assess whether they are spending their money appropriately.

 

[jgmklmhem]

OT, but DD has this situation crop up in her classes at the university. She's had two teaching assts. in lab classes that were very hard to understand.

Next semester, she has to take microeconomics, and all of the instructors are foreign. She's checked with some former students and looked at the previous teacher assessments (completed by students at the end of the class). Basically, what she found was that every single one of the instructors were marked very low as far as being able to understand them. She did find out from other students that one of the teachers writes everything on the board (along with saying it). That's the one she's going to take. It shouldn't have to be that complicated.

I can explain this one. Most of the people you are speaking of are graduate students who are working on their PHD's of Master's and are teaching assistants (something graduate students have been doing forever). The problem arises when American's in general are not going into certain fields anymore and graduate depts are letting in many many foreign students. My class in grad school for chemistry was almost 50% foreign...mainly because there were not enough qualified domestic students to fill the class up. I was a pretty decent student and I got into 10 different grad schools with all pretty much begging me to come by offering more money and perks (none were top 10 but almost all were top 40). I ended up making my choice based on the research of a professor I wanted to work with. I remember seeing the ratio of applications and it was about 1 to 100 domestic to foreign. So this issue isn't exactly the same as the call centers. It is defiaately not a cost cutting move (other than using grad student labor....but that is just part of the grad school experiance) since in many ways foreign students are way more costly than domestic.

 

[yeartolate]

You are correct. When enough calls end up being transferred then Delta and other companies will no doubt assess whether they are spending their money appropriately.

And if they have to spend more on customer service where do you really think the money is going to come from???? If I thought that better call line service would have folks flocking back to Delta and improving their bottom line, I would feel differently.


Frankly, if I flew Delta, I would prefer that they tuned up their internet site so I wouldn't need to call them at all.

 

[Jillpie]

Ask for an American rep!!!! I don't hesitate to do this every time. I have lost my patience for the script reading and their inflexibility. It might take a few minutes to get an American, but it is soooo worth it in the end.

 

[DawnCt1]

And if they have to spend more on customer service where do you really think the money is going to come from???? If I thought that better call line service would have folks flocking back to Delta and improving their bottom line, I would feel differently.


Frankly, if I flew Delta, I would prefer that they tuned up their internet site so I wouldn't need to call them at all.

Delta and all airline web sites have the same glitches. When a flight time gets changed, equipment gets swapped out, the PNR is loaded with schedule change and confirmed entries and any reserved seating vanishes. Another problem that occurs, and seems to occur across the board is that when flight times change and an "illegal gate time" occurs, that can only be straightened out with a phone call. The PNR needs to be cleaned up manually before seats can be reselected on line and the reissue center need to select another flight that works. This happened last week on our January flight to FLL. I got the non stop that was too expensive at the time because of a flight time change with an illegal gate time. Flight changes usually always work out to my advantage. That has to be done by a human being on any airline.