Whatever happened to basic common sense?

You know, I’d love to tell you about a nice night with a good dinner at some cool San Antonio joint that was open …

But.

Damn United Airlines came up with one of the all-time worst customer service situations of all time and I don’t know what’s happened to that face to life but no one seems to have the least of common sense and I’m sure you’ve all shared something like this, which is as much a part of this rant as the specifics.

We get in the 1:30 p.m. flight to Houston – no, you cannot get to San Antonio directly from here and who wants to go near O’Hare – and about 4:05 p.m. we get bundled off because some computer part wouldn’t work.

Now, I can totally understand mechanical issues with planes and have no problem with delaying or cancelling them, it happens.

But when the full plane unloads – I’d say 80-90 customers already pissed and many with connections – to find one – ONE!!!!!! – customer-service rep to re-book everyone, it was stunning to me.

Surely in the nearly three hours we waited someone could have alerted someone that a whole bunch of people were going to need help, quickly, if they were to get out.

But, no. Soon there were two of them – one arrived an hour later to board another flight – and it took almost two hours for them to suggest we should go back and clear Canadian customs and head up to the ticketing counter to find out what they could do for us.

If I’d had those two hours, perhaps I could have found another connection – through Chicago or Dallas or even Denver – that might have made it possible to get to San Antonio. I don’t know, but I never had the chance to find out.

And when I mentioned – 15 minutes into our wait – that I’d go to another gate to see if anyone could help me, the little dude who was obviously talking just to hear his voice because he made no sense at all told me, and I quote, “there no other agents available, they’ll be here soon.”

Nearly 90 minutes later, I ripped the kid for the blatant lie and all I got was a blank stare.

Like I said, specifics suck and show a total disregard for the paying customer, the fact no one in the five hours we spent on the plane and waiting to rebook had the common sense to think, “we need to get some people here and in a hurry” is stunning. What ever happened to people using their brains?

And after I take my 6 a.m. flight Wednesday to Washington to get to San Antonio right after shootaround ends, you can be sure I’m changing every United flight I have booked to some other carrier.

They don’t care about me, I won’t give a rat’s bum about them.

Merry Christmas.

End o’ rant.

-

The guy enjoyed a beer every now and then and he hung around at the ballpark and the racetrack and lived his life precisely they way he wanted.

His desk looked like mine and his room did, too; at his heart he was a pretty good guy who had great friends and treated everybody pretty well.

And if you don’t think Oscar Madison wasn’t a role model for me … well, I’ve failed.

RIP, Jack Klugman.

But you know what? Before he was Oscar, he was pretty good. And this has to be on the list of top movies, right?

-

Oh yeah, the Raptors?

Talked by text and e-mail to a few folks last night, still no timeline or news on Valanciunas – figure they want to go over the situation as a staff.

As soon as I get to see someone in person in San Antonio, I’ll let you know.

-

So, hands up everyone who’s going to a mall or some shopping area today?

Are you nuts!?!?!?

Have fun but, man, I don’t quite get it. Isn’t even more crowded than before Christmas as there’s no real deadline facing you?

-

Who liked those monochromatic uniforms?

Nah, me neither.

Guess I could almost handle the Oklahoma City blue but when I saw video of those hideous New York jerseys I was kind of taken aback.

They didn’t strike me as particularly orange, nor particularly nice, and I imagine there were hundreds of truly casual NBA fans who were watching their first games of the year going “who’s that?” an awful lot. Regular fans could tell by body type and playing style but I bet there were some confused newbies watching games.

-

You know, the whole travel part can suck big time (the 200 people waiting to get into a closed customs hall at 4 a.m. was delightful) and then you run into Danny (and I hope I spelled that right) who is a Silent Irregular and he says hello at the gate for a pleasant conversation after the Starbucks was procured and the day’s not too bad.

-

Oh yeah:

Ugliest Christmas Day uniforms had to be Houston’s. Silver does not translate well onto TV.

-

Time to keep making a move?

If you look at the HOTH and the next three weeks, you have to see some reason for optimism. After all, after this three-games-in-four-night trip they are home for a season-high six-game homestand, no back-to-back, a nice rhythm of Wednesday-Friday-Sunday-Wednesday-Friday-Sunday that should give them some time to practice and catch their breath.

The worry?

I know this sounds silly but if they start looking ahead, they’re dead. They are not good enough to look past any one game and what lies ahead of them – if they start paying close attention – is fool’s gold.

Not sure how easy it will be but Dwane has to keep on them – hard – so they don’t look past the very next game.

-

 

 

Comments

[draw something cheat]

I Am Very Happy To Read Of Your Blog.Really Great Post.Its brilliant.

[coachd]

Hi Doug,
I guess the exciting life of a beat grunt isn't always glitz and glammer is it? Not to defend the young customer rep, but he was probably told by his higher ups to say that.

[WT]

Sorry I laughed a little when I read your rant about UA. I even read it aloud to my wife. We had the similar situation in Sacramento with UA. Will definitely never fly with them again. Hope you have a good flight home! (Ps. At least you're not stuck in a crowded store at 8am with rabbid shoppers...note, I'm on a bench while the wife is shopping)

[Cluck Kent]

Merry Christmas Doug to you and Super Family and all the Super Irregulars. Very sorry to hear of your United troubles.

[Heath]

Jack will forever be Quincy for me. The original CSI.

Sorry about the flight. I gave up on United about 10 years ago.

[Richard]

Hi Doug. Hope this cheers you up!

youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

[DaveB]

The uniforms were ugly. If the NBA wanted to attract new fans with the Christmas day games, they botched the opportunity.

LeBron was called for his first foul in 254 minutes last night. It is amazing that a player who plays as aggressively as he does doesn't get tagged for a foul in over five games. This is a clear case of what I hate most about the NBA, the lack of foul calls on star players. The comment that rookies have to earn the respect of the league (which sure seems to be true) undermines the game. At the end of the game last night, Westbrooke was fouled on a three point shot but it wasn't called. another game determining non-call. In this case, I think he was fouled by Wade.

Last year I flew from Ottawa to San Antonio through Newark. It was a pleasant experience. I guess you are a little too far West to be routed through Newark.

Hopefully the HOTH reward you with a good performance tonight for all your troubles. I won't be watching because two of my daughters and a son-in-law will be coming home today for Christmas. One daughter was working in the Emergency Department of a London hospital yesterday. Here is her facebook status; "How I celebrated Christmas in the ER: I bought one of our Listerine drunks a coffee. Merry Christmas!". It is a whole different world in emergency departments. My other daughter and son-in-law spent Christmas day with his parents and will come here today. My wife and I had a quiet day yesterday.

Hopefully the rest of your flights go better. Safe travels.

[JHK]

And orange translates well into TV?
Knicks were the ugliest IMO.

[Sean]

Hey Doug:

Belated seasons best to Casa Smith. I can commiserate on the lack of common sense that airlines seem to deliver on a daily basis. But every now and then, just to defy convention, some one gets it. I has a lost luggage incident a few years back on a Provincial Air flight from St. John's to Goos Bay. I was amazed that the first response from the ticket agent in Goose was "I'm sorry" and how could she help. She searched for the bag, told me to buy whatever I needed (opportunities in Goose Bay, were somewhat limited) and she would continue to look. My bag enjoyed the weekend in Montreal, but every employee I spoke with first apologized and then tried to help.

The difference when humanity comes first!

Sean in NL

[Ren]

Sorry for your travels, Doug.
Just adds, I suppose, to the crappola of not being at home with the family.
Well, my little man and I will be watching and following tonight !
See you then

[Jonathan M]

This will be a long comment Doug, but let me share my Xmas day flight story.

Maybe 6 or 7 years ago, flying on Christmas Day from Toronto-Tokyo, with Air Canada. Early flight, everything seems fine, we board as normal. Then we sit, and we sit, and we de-ice, and there's something wrong and the engineers are coming to check, and they're diagnosing it, and after 4 hours we're still on the runway. While there was at least one Japanese-speaking flight attendant, they aren't relaying the occasional messages from the pilot, so some of the Japanese passengers with little English are only catching a few words. Pilot: "We believe it's just a small malfunction, we don't foresee the need for anything drastic such as the need to change engine". Several panicked Japanese passengers, in unison: "Change engine?!?"

After 4 hours, they decide to go back to the gate and let us out. We sit a couple of hours. I overhear at the counter that Air Canada is setting up a $10 food voucher at whatever grill joint it was in the terminal, and immediately head there before anyone else knows. After they make the announcement, there are 250-300 people in a queue, and by the time 2 hours later when the last people got to the front, they were out of everything anyhow.

A couple of hours later, we're told everything is fine, and we re-board. But then they say that according to food safety guidelines, they have to check the in-flight meals, and we wait an hour for that to be done, and sure enough the food would have passed its best-before date, and so we need to wait for more meals. More time goes by while they make some more near-inedible in-flight grub. Then, we pass some union labor deadline for the crew, as with the 13-hour flight they'd be working too long, so we need another entire crew. We deplane again, and wait another two hours or so.

So, 12 hours later, we finally take off, with a brand new crew who have no idea what had transpired. They're in Santa hats, all cheery, and then I hear them at the rear of the plane (I was in the back row) asking each other "Why is everyone so angry?!?", so I filled them in on the ordeal. No one had even given them a quick briefing.

We arrive all grumpy and unwashed many an hour later in Tokyo, but are asked to remain in our seats as an Air Canada representative is coming to address us. We wait 45 more minutes in our seats, hoping that we're going to see someone from Air Canada commit hara-kiri to apologize. Instead no, as an apology we get I think it was a $50 or $75 off coupon code for our next flight booked through the Air Canada website.

And a very merry Xmas to you too Air Canada.

[Mike kovacs]

Wow sorry about the horrible way you spent Christmas! Haven't you learned by now that 'common sense' isn't common?

[m]

Why do people still fly Air Canada? Mostly Westjet for me.

[sportschic]

Sorry to hear that your Christmas was even less merry than expected! I have to say that my last time flying United, where there were difficulties was actually handled well. I was flying from Austin to San Francisco, and they announced that the flight would be delayed for two hours, and they explained why. They also said that they would be making a similar announcement every twenty minutes until boarding time, unless there was a change, at which time they would announce *that*. This is different from your scenario (and much easier to handle), but I've found that in cases where there is a flight delay and nothing can be done about it, what the passengers really need is information! When they tell you nothing or leave you sitting at the gate wondering what's going on, that's really annoying.

Anyway, may the rest of your travels be much better -- btw, you should have put in #United on your tweet to the blog -- perhaps you might get some United attention ...

[sportschic]

Forgot to add a comment about the fashion. The silvery ones were HORRIBLE! The orange ones only slightly better. The Lakers weren't terrible, but was the point to obscure the logos so casual fans wouldn't know the teams? I guess the least offensive (to my eyes anyway) were the Thunder, but that was a bad idea. I hope they're not really expecting to sell these?

[Kate C]

I liked the concept of the Christmas Day uniforms (tone on tone) but thought some were more successful than others. Agreed that the silver/grey Houston uniforms were NOT flattering. Best comment of the day from ESPN's DDL Live, on the Knicks-Lakers game: "Syracuse vs Pillowcases". That aside, I like the uniforms, but suspect they would not be good across a season on TV, as there is not enough contrast.

Sorry to hear of your travel woes, but hope all is okay now. As another commenter alluded to: "Common Sense... isn't".

Kate C

[David in Oakville]

Sorry for your troubles with United Doug. Hope the rest of your journey is far more pleasant and rant free.

Let's hope the Big Easy is the start of the next five game run... GO RAPS!

So, if you're Oscar, does that make Not Grace Kelly Felix?