"your average wait time to speak with a service representative is ...
May 25, 2021 8:06 AM Subscribe
... 8 hours and 14 minutes": Problem moving Delta ecredit to Sky Miles account. Am getting an error on the Delta website; automated system at one point said something about snail-mailing documents instead, but now I can't even find my way back to those instructions.
Last April I had a flight booked on Delta and received an email at the time announcing that all flights had been cancelled due to the pandemic and that I would therefore have two years to use an ecredit in the amount of my cancelled flight. Fine.
However, lately I've been trying to redeem this ecredit on the Delta website, but when I enter the ticket number and my name as instructed I get an error ("not associated with your Sky Miles account"). Calling customer service to talk to a person gives me the estimate above (fwiw, even calling in the middle of the night only brings the wait time down to three hours or so - sheesh).
Anyway, my specific question has to do with the one time I managed not to end up immediately dumped into the service queue: somehow I said something that made the automated system tell me to the effect that if I printed and snail mailed my information to Delta, they could resolve the matter. Great. But I was driving at the time and couldn't write down those instructions. So, anyone know what the system was talking about, or even how to get back to that instruction script? Admittedly, I've lost all patience with Delta's "customer service" at this point but need to get my new flight booked asap. Thx.
Last April I had a flight booked on Delta and received an email at the time announcing that all flights had been cancelled due to the pandemic and that I would therefore have two years to use an ecredit in the amount of my cancelled flight. Fine.
However, lately I've been trying to redeem this ecredit on the Delta website, but when I enter the ticket number and my name as instructed I get an error ("not associated with your Sky Miles account"). Calling customer service to talk to a person gives me the estimate above (fwiw, even calling in the middle of the night only brings the wait time down to three hours or so - sheesh).
Anyway, my specific question has to do with the one time I managed not to end up immediately dumped into the service queue: somehow I said something that made the automated system tell me to the effect that if I printed and snail mailed my information to Delta, they could resolve the matter. Great. But I was driving at the time and couldn't write down those instructions. So, anyone know what the system was talking about, or even how to get back to that instruction script? Admittedly, I've lost all patience with Delta's "customer service" at this point but need to get my new flight booked asap. Thx.
Have you tweeted them? It’s annoying but in my experience airline stuff gets resolved a lot faster when it’s public. Granted I haven’t tried this with Delta, but it’s worked well for me with the other US legacy carriers.
posted by goodbyewaffles at 8:26 AM on May 25, 2021
posted by goodbyewaffles at 8:26 AM on May 25, 2021
I went through a similar situation with Delta (rescheduling a pandemic cancelled flight) and got super frustrated with the telephone system as well. One thing that was suggested to me (thanks reddit stranger) that almost seems like a cheat code/hack: try messaging them on facebook. I got a response within 30 minutes and they were able to completely rebook me via messenger. So much easier and simpler than trying to get through to a person on their customer service line.
posted by _DB_ at 9:00 AM on May 25, 2021
posted by _DB_ at 9:00 AM on May 25, 2021
Response by poster: Alas, am not on twitter or FB (although the rationales definitely make sense). Fwiw, didn't see an email option on the Delta site but will check again.
posted by 5Q7 at 9:21 AM on May 25, 2021
posted by 5Q7 at 9:21 AM on May 25, 2021
Will it more or less than 8 hours to create a throwaway Twitter account and tweet at Delta?
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 10:39 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 10:39 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I have solved so many customer service kerfuffles via Twitter. I encourage you to create an account using the browser on your computer. You'll get a better sense of the navigation, won't have to muddy up your phone with an app, and won't be tempted to go down any rabbit holes because you'll just be using it for customer service issues.
Once you create the account, you'll send a message to @Delta. (Note that you don't see much customer interaction on their main tweets tab; click "tweets & replies" and you'll see that they either answer easy questions in the open, or direct you to send them a (private) direct message (DM). Once you tweet them, they'll generally make it even easier by replying with a button IN their reply to send you directly to their DMs. They'll usually sign their open and DM tweets with their first name or initials, so later you can say, "Peyton said I should XXX but when I did, YYY happened."
It says something (not very good) about most big companies customer service that sometimes the only solution is to go via Twitter, but it usually does the trick.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 12:24 PM on May 25, 2021
Once you create the account, you'll send a message to @Delta. (Note that you don't see much customer interaction on their main tweets tab; click "tweets & replies" and you'll see that they either answer easy questions in the open, or direct you to send them a (private) direct message (DM). Once you tweet them, they'll generally make it even easier by replying with a button IN their reply to send you directly to their DMs. They'll usually sign their open and DM tweets with their first name or initials, so later you can say, "Peyton said I should XXX but when I did, YYY happened."
It says something (not very good) about most big companies customer service that sometimes the only solution is to go via Twitter, but it usually does the trick.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 12:24 PM on May 25, 2021
I called Delta at 8 AM this past Saturday AM. The recording estimated they'd call me back in 2.5 hours, but it was more like an hour. So they may be overestimating wait times. Turns out I can't transfer an e-credit to my wife so screw them. We're flying free on United instead of free on Delta.
posted by COD at 2:45 PM on May 25, 2021
posted by COD at 2:45 PM on May 25, 2021
Best answer: This also happened to me with Delta. I contacted them via their complaint form (https://www.delta.com/us/en/need-help/overview) and they emailed me back (wecare@delta.com). They issued me a travel voucher instead, which I haven't used yet. I'm hoping it's not as useless as their eCredits.
posted by perhapses at 8:54 PM on May 25, 2021
posted by perhapses at 8:54 PM on May 25, 2021
Response by poster: Welp, looks like the tech approach it is: first, the complaint form then, if that doesn't work, trying them on twitter.
Fwiw, interesting to see how customer service has evolved in recent years (not that the older methods necessarily worked that well). Part of me thinks Delta and other big companies might purposely be under resourcing call centers in order to force service traffic through newer (cheaper?) platforms, like they did a while back with bill paying (making the paper approach a real hassle, etc.).
Anyway, we'll see what happens. Thanks to all!
posted by 5Q7 at 11:13 AM on May 26, 2021
Fwiw, interesting to see how customer service has evolved in recent years (not that the older methods necessarily worked that well). Part of me thinks Delta and other big companies might purposely be under resourcing call centers in order to force service traffic through newer (cheaper?) platforms, like they did a while back with bill paying (making the paper approach a real hassle, etc.).
Anyway, we'll see what happens. Thanks to all!
posted by 5Q7 at 11:13 AM on May 26, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by RoadScholar at 8:21 AM on May 25, 2021