[annoyed in STL]

I saw the poor woman who posted about missing a catscan. This makes my post seem a little silly but I'll post it anyway because IM SO ANNOYED

Here is my letter I penned today to Southwest
January 5, 2009


Dear WHOEVER CARES:

I just got off the phone with your inflexible employee Karen in customer service (#2843). I find it amusing that she spent several minutes telling me how flexible you are at Southwest yet by the end of the call, there was nothing that was able to be done to solve my problem.
I purchased a ticket last January for travel in Feb. It went unused. In November, I used that credit to purchase what I thought was one ticket to Chicago, but evidently it also went toward my daughter’s ticket too rendering it useless after Jan. 29.

Keep in mind this entire trip to Chicago was to take a four-year-old girl to the American Girl doll store. Don’t lose sight of that.

We are traveling with a friend who had to change her plans. So we wanted to switch the trip to Jan. 30 and 31. I understood there was a chance we would have to eat one ticket because of the expiration, or pay the $50 to extend it. BUT to my surprise, because a WHOLE $12 of the credit was used on my daughters ticket, we would have to pay $100 to extend it and GUESS WHAT, not only that, it couldn’t be DONE IN TIME to allow us to travel on Jan 30th because we would have to WAIT for that ticket to expire.

So thanks to your flexible re-booking options, I CANT REBOOK MY TRIP TO TAKE A FOUR YEAR OLD TO GET A DOLL!

This is extremely frustrating to me and it was clear Karen felt she would have absolutely no repercussion to not helping a customer. It’s a sad day when even Southwest has faltered when it comes to making customers happy. Frankly, if I want to get screwed, I’ll stick with American where I at least have an assigned seat.

So for a one-day extension, or a $50 charge instead of a $100 charge or just saying OK, you’re a good customer of ours, we’ll make this one exception, you’ve made me mad enough to write this letter and tell everyone I know about my experience. Too bad for you. I hope it was worth it.

[countrynewsman]

I guess age is catching up with me 'cause I'm REALLY confused.

[PHXFlyer]

I too did not know what to make of this title.

I know little about WN's policies and procedures regarding soon to expire or expired credits. I fly them occasionally but have never had the need to cancel a trip and use the funds at a leter time. The only relevant clause in SWA's Customer Service Commitment is as follows:

If you apply an unused ticket, Ticketless Travel funds, and/or other Southwest Airlines travel credit toward the purchase of a new reservation, your new reservation record will reflect the expiration date of the oldest ticket, Ticketless Travel funds, or Southwest Airlines travel credit used to pay for the new reservation. The Ticketless Travel Funds expiration date will be printed on your new Ticketless Travel Itinerary and Receipt and the expiration date of the new paper ticket (if exchanged at a Southwest Airlines Ticket Counter) will be printed on the face of the paper ticket.

(emphasis mine)

My advice is if you didn't like the answer you got from Karen (#2843) simply hang up and call again. I didn't see where you ever requested to speak with a supervisor but that might be worth a shot. Just be forewarned that if Karen was accurately explaining the policy to you then even a supervisor may not be able to override the policy. Many airlines now are micro-managing their employees even at the supervisory level to ensure that policies and procedures are followed consistently.

As for your letter, I would take a moment and ask yourself, "If I were a manager at Southwest Airlines, would I take this letter seriously." Starting your correspondence with "Dear WHOEVER CARES" and including adjectives such as "inflexible" and "screwed" along with statements like "too bad for you" are a sure-fire way of having your concerns dismissed. I realize you are frustrated, but keep it short, to the point, and professional.

[uvwx726]

Patient: It's been one month since my last visit and I still feel miserable. Doctor: Did you follow the instructions on the medicine I gave you? Patient: I sure did. The bottle said "keep tightly closed." .................................................. .................................................. .........................................warhammer gold warhammer gold FFXI Gil guild wars gold Gaia gold http://www.warhammergold119.com/

[shmedly123]

I booked a reservation back in August 08 for December 08 with $47 left over from a January 08 flight. I checked back in November and had found that my flight had gone down so I took the fare difference($240) and was going to apply it to a trip this spring. Apparently because I used the $47 toward the flight the "1 year expiration date" now becomes January...meaning i had less than a month to use the $240 credit since my flight didn't take place until December.

I tried calling customer service and politely explained to them what had happened and after a long conversation and after the conversation started to escalate as the rep was being very condescending I decided that I would just eat the $50 in order to get the remaining $190.

Then the rep came back and was a little to excited to tell me that since there were 3 people on my ressie that she would be charging me $150 and that's when i asked to speak to a manager.

The manager told me to pound sand

[countrynewsman]

Administrator....please ban hotwalnut. We don't need this type of behavior.

[jimworcs]

There must be some kind of cultural gap going on here, but I have not clue what hotwalnut is talking about or to what his posting refers. Is he bonkers or me?

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by countrynewsman

Administrator....please ban hotwalnut. We don't need this type of behavior.

Already reported. Let's see if the "moderator" will actually grow some and do something about it!

Originally Posted by jimworcs

There must be some kind of cultural gap going on here, but I have not clue what hotwalnut is talking about or to what his posting refers. Is he bonkers or me?

Actually, it's not you! Cheers!

[countrynewsman]

I reported this character again, but apparently the Administrator is not interested in handling this.

[pattis]

Looks as though all the grade schools must be out today

[countrynewsman]

No, Pattis...just the pre-schoolers.