[Sam]

When I was about to leave STL, on 21st Morning, I had to purchase a small bag, and went to Delta baggage agent's office to claim it (about USD 18+, it was a small amount, but I wnated to see the process now and learn it, basically, so that I can handle the bigger claims later, if any), the yesterday's helping black lady (now I know her name is Zina) checked my 2 nos. of complaint files (the one old, and the other newly created the previous night when my baggage did not arrive by the last flight at airport, to now send my baggage to Tokyo, my original destination) and figured out that the baggages in fact returned the same day, first morning flight. She took me to the carousel, and I found my 2 bags lying there.
Zina was extremely helpful, and she spoke to her supervisor, who was present there, straightaway, approved my additional reimbursement of USD 18 (on top of previous day's USD 125, which was the max. limit, as per Delta printed documentation) and also helped me to now check in 4 luggages (2 additional was pretty small, one was a newly purchased netbook and another the small packet of my purchased undergarments, weighing less than 5 kilos) on an economic ticket, whereas I was allowed only two luggages and honestly did not have time to repack them, in the arrived suitcases, as I was to take the return plane to Tokyo.
However, I like to stress that while I found 2 of the Delta agents were really helpful (both Zina and Keiko san of japanese origin, and they clearly went out of their way to acomodate or resolving my problems), the others were not even a good listener. Particularly I completely failed to understand, how an 1-800 agent can work without listening to me completely, and was trying to send out my stuff to West Indies St. Lucia, instead of holding back them at Atlanta to return them to me at STL, and finally after I intervened in the same call, made her understand what I actually want, and she confirmed that she has taken care of it, it still went out to St. Lucia. As per the STL agent Keiko san, that 1-800 lady put a remark on my file that I spoke to her only, and no actions! I also found personally that whenever Zina or Keiko san was calling their colleagues in different locations, no one responded to them. Someone heigher up in Delta should make a note of it, and should try to arrange some customer support classes for them. Clearly I felt some were not following what they should have been doing or should have been hired to do for us.
Finally, I found that my suitcases were opened (it was unlocked by me, for the sake of TSE checking, if necessary), which I also asked them to do, to ensure and verify that they are sending my luggages only and none of the others, I found that nothing were taken out, which I started to doubt, given the performance of some delta employees. This was a pleasant surprise too.
It was a great lesson for me, as well, to learn how the customer service can differ from people to people, at the same position, handling my case (one white lady, I do not know her name, was most non-committal on anything. Anything I asked her, she felt she is getting hard time from me. Since she was the first person to write my complaint, i asked her, where the lost luggages get dumped over, and she thought I was giving her hard time. In fact I was afraid, as she was a lady and I was a male foreigner, I felt that as a foreigner I can be landing up in trouble, if I ask her uncomfortable genuine questions. She also apparently did not do anything to trace my luggage the entire first day, after writing the complaint and possibly sending one message. She, I felt ensured that she just does the 'official' work, and that's it. Not like others, where Keiko san took me to Northwest airline counter t get some sort of info., of Zina san writing message after message to different airports, calling them personally etc. This I guess, someone from Delta team should notice and make these high performing ladies the teacher in their internal training session. I could keep my cool just because of those two ladies Kaiko san and Zina.)
And thanks to justme, for keep following me up. Further, I also noticed the Delta sent me a mail, after getting to know about it from DOT. FYI, delta never replied to my mail, sent to them directly, on this issue.