Few things I feel the need to point out. First of all, I'm sorry you had a bad experience and would love for you to give Delta another chance, but I somehow feel like you won't. Anyway, on to your post...
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However, there were storms and our flight was postponed. The storms subsided and we expected to leave on an 8 something flight since the 6:30 flight was cancelled. The 8 something flight turned into a 9:15 flight. The Delta rep at our gate appeared friendly, personable and concerned at first but then it became obvious she couldn’t care less about anything other than her own comfort level.
Frustrations began to rise, especially for people who had been waiting for 10 – 12 hours with needs to get home. It became apparent there were no planes coming and this was a ploy to keep the customers either from revolting or going to another airline or just a terrible inability to conduct proper customer service. We were told a flight crew was the problem, then we were told the air craft was the problem, then we were told that the flight crew was here but if we didn’t get on the plane in a hurry they could opt to use their “too many hours” reason to not fly anymore that night. They did of course opt to use that…which we knew they would.
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You say it was apparent that no airplanes were coming in to the airport. Then how exactly do you expect there to be an airplane or a crew to get you out? If there were no airplanes coming in or going out, rest assured other airlines were in the exact same situation and changing to one of them would have gotten the exact same results. The fact that the reason for the delay changed from crew to airplane back to crew makes me think that they indeed were trying their best to get another crew or airplane for you and were doing swaps. Unfortunately none of them panned out apparently. The FAA has set a limit on how many hours a pilot can work in a day/week/month/year and if they reach that maximum there is no bending the rules. They can't fly. The maximum is 16 hours in a 24 hour period. That is not just flight time, that is duty time. That clock starts ticking when they leave the hotel that morning, or when they sign in at the airport at their base. If they are sitting around delayed like you were, the clock keeps ticking.
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The Delta rep at our gate who is probably 25 with no other responsibilities than her one job announced we needed to get in line since the plane was cancelled. Someone asked the question, “get in line for what?” (actually a legitimate question which shouldn’t have had to be asked). The rep said something to the effect, “I don’t have to take any attitude, I will help the next 5 people and the rest of you go down to gate 40 across from Wendy’s.” This was inaccurate directions by the way.
In any event we went to the ‘help’ area for Delta and stood in a line of 100 people waiting to get some direction about what would happen to us next. By the time we were helped, the hotels were booked and there were no flights until the following morning. It is obvious that had our Delta rep at our gate assisted us rather than acting the Princess and not putting up with “attitude” we could have at least obtained hotel accommodations.
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Whoa Whoa Whoa... do you know what all her "one" job entails? Obviously not. You have a very warped view of what is expected of her (other than good customer service obviously) if you think it is easy or simple, especially on a bad weather day. If you were in line with hundreds of people, don't you think that makes it pretty obvious it was a pretty bad day at the airport for everyone due to the weather. If the weather was as bad as you say, I guarantee the hotels and flights were booked long before you even got in line. That is not Delta's fault. There are a limited number of available rooms in ATL near the airport, they filled up. What would you want them to do? Build a hotel of their own that can hold 300,000 people? We'll get right on that. As far as you getting a room had the gate agent helped you, do you think she had some secret stash of rooms? Or super powers? The hotels were full, no one could have done anything about it.
This, and many other complaints like it, boil down to this... The WEATHER was bad that day. There is nothing Delta or any other airline can do about that. Believe me when I say that as employees, we want to get everyone rebooked and on their way just as bad, if not worse, than you do. It is not fun to be working on a day like that, just like it is not fun to be traveling. Realize that we do our best, but do not have unlimited powers or resources. And while our employees should always be doing their best to provide excellent customer service with a smile, I'm sure you know that on a day like that, patience wears thin, people get tired, and attitudes flair for both passengers and employees, and sometimes customer service suffers. Ideally it would never happen like that, but in reality it does. Best of luck in your future travels, may you never have bad weather again.