Startup Lessons, Courtesy of United Airlines’ Crappy Customer Service • Hacker News Board

Re: Startup Lessons, Courtesy of United Airlines’ Crappy Customer Service

#131

Post by Tamerlin » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 9:37 PM UTC

zacharycohn wrote: post #75

Tamerlin wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO this is actually a problem. We're so used to being treated like crap that we take it for granted and accept it. If you have six widget, and you sell seven, you have to give the 7th a refund, otherwise it's fraud. When an airline has six seats and sells 8, the extra two buyers get the shaft, and that's ok?

Well, when you get bumped they put you on another flight, and often offer free flights to the people who volunteer to get bumped... So it's not really fraud. They don't just strand you at the airport.

No matter how you slice it, they're selling you something that they already sold to someone else.

Re: Startup Lessons, Courtesy of United Airlines’ Crappy Customer Service

#132

Post by faboo » Fri, Dec 03, 2010, 3:03 AM UTC

jasonlotito wrote: post #30

stanleydrew wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I choose not to pick up the product at the time we agreed upon without notifying you, causing you to make decisions about inventory and perhaps selling the product to someone else, and then return to you demanding the product at a later date?

Poor example. Implies you being forced to do things you would otherwise not have to do, which wasn't in the original example. Better would be: If you rented me an apartment and I didn't move in right away. It would be unfair for me to demand a refund for the time I didn't move in, but it would also be unfair for you to rent the apartment to someone else if I already paid you for it.

Multiple leases I've signed had provisions about failure to take possession. If I didn't move in right away, or moved out early, I still owed the full rent for the lease period, but the owner could rent the place out to somebody else. (whether or not that's enforceable in a particular municipality is an entirely different matter)

Re: Startup Lessons, Courtesy of United Airlines’ Crappy Customer Service

#133

Post by wdr1 » Tue, Dec 07, 2010, 4:40 AM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #60

...I certainly never take to using WePay’s corporate blog as a pulpit for my attacks. Then don't. Ever. Here's why: It's standard knowledge that your second leg will be canceled if you miss your first leg. It's been that way for 30 years. You have just demonstrated your inability to deal with a standard curve ball. No big deal. As individuals, we all run into that from time to time. You also complained about customer…

> You also complained about customer service (in the airline industry, no less). That's like complaining about the weather.

You should try Southwest. I started flying with them because of their rates. Now I'll stay with them forever because of their customer service.