Live data from Hacker News

A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

bloomberg.com

31–40 of 87 posts

Re: A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years ago I started crating email aliases on my mail server for various things. I would typically make an email alias for a company that was [company-name]@my-domain.com and use that as my contact email for correspondence with said company. So, I was doing something with the DMV online - and I created the alias "dmv@my-domain.com" to communicate with them via... They sent their lawyers after me and sent me cease and…

How do they deal with the 50ish other DMVs?

A lot of other similar state agencies have different names, DOT is popular, I've also seen MVD. DMV procedures are a great illustrator of bubbles; a lot of things vary wildly (for example, what happens to sequential plates when a vehicle is sold), but most people don't realize there could even be a different procedure, or if they do, they think most states do it the same way they do.

Re: A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

#32
post #21
post #18

Tweets are a terrible communication channel for solving customer service related issues. I run a customer support team, and almost all of our customer service related tweets end up with us either emailing the customer directly (if we can identify them) or asking them to email us so that we can get more information about their issue/concern. Text at least gives you a private chat where you can give information that yo…

The only reason to go public with a complaint on Twitter is lack of faith in the dispute resolution process - which is usually justified. I once had an insurance company reach out to me after I posted about them on Livejournal . They connected me to someone with the ability to fix problems! Must have found me through search as well.

I once had a problem with my old bank (Citi, IIRC) and tweeted them. They connected me to a CSR 'on steroids' who solved my problem lickety split (I gave him my number, he called immediately, I told him the issue, hung up and he called back within 5 minutes to say 'problem solved').

I was amazed that such people w/in big corps exist. Be nice if that were the rule and not the exception.

Re: A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

#33

Slightly off topic. As someone who values privacy a lot and doesn't give out phone numbers much at all, I prefer other ways to communicate with service providers where the user identifier is easier to switch/change (changing one's phone number is a lot more tedious than changing email addresses because many people, at least from the last two decades, have the habit of using multiple email addresses segregated by usag…

Years ago I started crating email aliases on my mail server for various things. I would typically make an email alias for a company that was [company-name]@my-domain.com and use that as my contact email for correspondence with said company. So, I was doing something with the DMV online - and I created the alias "dmv@my-domain.com" to communicate with them via... They sent their lawyers after me and sent me cease and…

That's when you change the alias to the DMV lawyer's name.

Re: A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

#34

Slightly off topic. As someone who values privacy a lot and doesn't give out phone numbers much at all, I prefer other ways to communicate with service providers where the user identifier is easier to switch/change (changing one's phone number is a lot more tedious than changing email addresses because many people, at least from the last two decades, have the habit of using multiple email addresses segregated by usag…

Years ago I started crating email aliases on my mail server for various things. I would typically make an email alias for a company that was [company-name]@my-domain.com and use that as my contact email for correspondence with said company. So, I was doing something with the DMV online - and I created the alias "dmv@my-domain.com" to communicate with them via... They sent their lawyers after me and sent me cease and…

I do the same thing - I make an email alias for nearly every organization that I do business with. It was surprisingly easy to set up with GSuite.

This has the side benefit of making it obvious who's responsible for selling my email address and makes it easy to ameliorate being signed up for unsolicited email lists by burning the email address. (A popular tech journalism outfit has been the worst offender in recent years.)

Re: A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

#35
post #18

Tweets are a terrible communication channel for solving customer service related issues. I run a customer support team, and almost all of our customer service related tweets end up with us either emailing the customer directly (if we can identify them) or asking them to email us so that we can get more information about their issue/concern. Text at least gives you a private chat where you can give information that yo…

Yea, I was in San Diego airport checking into my flight to London with BA and someone at BA had messed up bad (I'd missed a connection inbound due to their fault).

The check in staff was completely useless, kept sending me to AA people to solve it even though it was BA metal and ticketing. AA sent me back, and again and again. Called support, outsourced and completely useless. Flight was getting closer and closer. Tweeted about it and that team actually solved my problem within 15 minutes being polite and on the ball.

Re: A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

#36
post #18

Tweets are a terrible communication channel for solving customer service related issues. I run a customer support team, and almost all of our customer service related tweets end up with us either emailing the customer directly (if we can identify them) or asking them to email us so that we can get more information about their issue/concern. Text at least gives you a private chat where you can give information that yo…

No way, tweets are great. It's the only way I've been able to connect to airlines immediately (once after waiting on hold for 4+ hours). Most quickly jump to private DMs. No more phonetic spelling my confirmation number over a bad phone connection. Problems get taken care of really quickly, but even it they aren't, I'm able to do other stuff while I wait, unlike waiting on hold, which really saps attention (constantly hearing ads that start with "Hello, I'm your customer service representative. Ad text here.").

Re: A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

#37
post #18

Tweets are a terrible communication channel for solving customer service related issues. I run a customer support team, and almost all of our customer service related tweets end up with us either emailing the customer directly (if we can identify them) or asking them to email us so that we can get more information about their issue/concern. Text at least gives you a private chat where you can give information that yo…

No way, tweets are great. It's the only way I've been able to connect to airlines immediately (once after waiting on hold for 4+ hours). Most quickly jump to private DMs. No more phonetic spelling my confirmation number over a bad phone connection. Problems get taken care of really quickly, but even it they aren't, I'm able to do other stuff while I wait, unlike waiting on hold, which really saps attention (constantl…

This could also work for texts, if they were answered in a reasonable amount of time. As you say, being stuck on a voice-only communications channel that demands 100% of your attention is really expensive, and it's bad for accurately conveying information.

Edit: highly relevant and insightful http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2012/01/21/the-politics-of-... http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2012/01/21/the-politics-of-...

Re: A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

#38

I'm disappointed to see more companies trending towards text messages. Text message should be used only for time-sensitive communication, but some companies (like my network carrier) text me to let me know things like my bill was auto-paid. I'll be in the middle of coding and my phone goes off, so I stop everything I'm doing to see that my monthly was autopaid. With email, I check it every 2 hours to minimize distrac…

You can mute messages from certain contacts on both android and iOS. You'll get a notification, but it won't make a sound or wake your phone.

Re: A New Way to Tell Your Airline You Hate It

#40
post #18

Tweets are a terrible communication channel for solving customer service related issues. I run a customer support team, and almost all of our customer service related tweets end up with us either emailing the customer directly (if we can identify them) or asking them to email us so that we can get more information about their issue/concern. Text at least gives you a private chat where you can give information that yo…

No way, tweets are great. It's the only way I've been able to connect to airlines immediately (once after waiting on hold for 4+ hours). Most quickly jump to private DMs. No more phonetic spelling my confirmation number over a bad phone connection. Problems get taken care of really quickly, but even it they aren't, I'm able to do other stuff while I wait, unlike waiting on hold, which really saps attention (constantl…

It is also my experience. I think companies react very quickly to tweets in the fear a tweet becomes viral.
Post reply on HN