There’s a post about a United Airlines customer service interaction that’s going viral on X, as it has been viewed millions of times in just 12 hours. More than anything, people are just confused, so let’s analyze this a little bit…
Continue reading: United Airlines Agent Calls Customer Rude, And The Internet Is Confused
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Folks, customer service, especially AI, is no longer designed to actually help; it’s designed to save the company money, increase profit.
We need air passenger rights legislation like EU/UK 261, Canada’s APPR, so that we get compensated when airlines fail us; also, we should bring back Rule 240, where the airline has to get you on the next available flight on any carrier, if you want to proceed with travel.
There are better ways to do this. Stop cucking and shilling for big businesses who don’t care.
Seriously. How often do we call in for help seeking a live agent only to have the phone menu gas light us and tell us most questions can be answered on their website. It's like.... we would not have spent extra time trying to find their 800 number on a Reddit page hoping to get a live agent if their site actually solved our issue.
You're dealing with AI and AI sucks when it comes to multi dimensional tasks. I live with AI every day. It's being jammed down our throats because a chat bot while inferior to a human being will always be cheaper than a human being. Even a human in India or China.
My advice? As far as airlines YOU CAN do your own research. Find an open seat on a flight that meets your needs and request it. Likely your request will be granted. If you are like this clown and think there's someone out there that's going to research all the options for you, you are in fact a clown.
@ George N Romey -- Don't you think AI would be a little more composed than to have such an attitude, type in all caps, etc.?
Ahh, so close, George. See, you know this is a problem, because you, too, are experiencing it first-hand, but, instead of acknowledging that this is a bigger problem that sensible regulation could improve, you double-down on the personal responsibility myth. No, you cannot ‘do your own research’ out of this. These for-profit corporations are not playing by any rules other than to separate you from your money. Individuals cannot ‘win’ against this. We should, in the aggregate, fight it, but ultimately, we need effective government to ensure consumers are actually protected here.
One awaits the arrival of Walter Mitty, he will tell us all how customer service should really be handled …. 🙂
What exactly was hateful or ignorant about said statement? Be specific without generic platitudes or safe spaces.
Jim, facetiously questioning whether nearly 3 billion people are ‘understandable’ isn’t even thinly-veiled xenophobia… c’mon man. Don’t encourage Alert or anyone else.
I work on the corporate side at United. The agents who staff Agent on Demand are actually the same United employees you’d normally find at airport help centers handling rebookings and customer assistance.
Instead of working directly at the counter, they’re typically stationed in a back-office area at the airport with a computer while covering the AOD role. The whole idea behind the system is that when one hub is dealing with major delays or cancellations, agents at other hubs with downtime can remotely assist those customers.
So yes — the AOD agents are direct United employees working from airport back offices, not outsourced contractors.
One time, I called into United and my call was escalated a couple times. Eventually, the last person I spoke to said that I should call United for my issue. When I asked what he meant since I had called United I didn't get an answer and he just hung up.
So they appear pretty useless and unhelpful then. Rather than solve a problem, they made it worse. I thought it was a bot given the poor level of assistance.
If you still believe that you can get friendly, competent help in an acceptable timeframe by calling the hotline of a big US based company….
good news is I have bridge on sale
bad news is, sorry, the story with the easter bunny…..
Yeah it's surprising to see this kind of interaction via AOD. I've separately used the in-app messaging service which is more professional (likely more quality controls) but they usually are not helpful and doing basic things can take way too long. Those support reps usually don't have the same access as more senior call center folks or in-airport agents though.
I'm not necessarily excusing Paula, but if flights are all booked for the same day and next day, when Sierra says "what now...", I'm not sure what he/she is expecting at that point.
Got it, so no answer. I never said I agreed or disagreed but there are serious issues with Indian call centres (for example) due to understanding to the target market and the industry is moving g away from them. That is not phobic, just the situation that over 250 Fortune 1000 companies have noted on public record. Alert might very well be prejudiced, but random outrage with no specifics is not addressing that.
I’d’ve also settled on xenophobia. Prejudice could also suffice. Bias seems too neutral.
Jim, sane-washing Alert’s prejudice isn’t helping anyone or anything. The reality is that call centers, whether in the US (for the few that still exist), or in Ireland, Mexico, Africa, Asia or elsewhere are disappearing/downsizing because of these new technologies, which do not necessarily make things better, in fact, often they make things far worse ovefall (less jobs, globally; software designed not to solve problems for customers, but merely designed to save costs, increase profits.) So, celebrate if you’re an oligarch; but, for everyone else, no bueno.
Not sure how a person on a travel/aviation website could respond this way. It's United's responsibility to get her on a flight, period. That could mean standby tomorrow, a flight the day after with a hotel, booking her on another airline at United's expense, etc. Or as an alternative, proper compensation. There are always options and those options need to be described to the customer, who may not have the experience to know.
Paula did a terrible job and should be talked to. The customer has options in this situation other than a United flight today or tomorrow. There's other days, standby, other airlines, compensation etc. Then again, some people on Twitter are also trying to get Paula fired, which seems equally unacceptable.
Great non-sequitur but you still have not specifically said what is hateful or ignorant about his comments, then some feckless non-sense about 'sane-washing' (who comes up with this stuff? lol). I asked you a simple, specific question, to back up your post and words, which you cannot answer. Fair enough, I have to fire 100s a year that screw-up like that so I am no surprised. As for call centres, I run companies with many of them, and the points I noted are factually accurate. The fact AI sucks, or the lady needing help was a munter is irrelevant.
It is not ignorant to point out call centres with non-native, first language English speakers normally get low marks, and scores are being moved out of India daily. So much so they are back-filling by scamming in some cases; but I digress.
Just wanted a simple, cogent answer to what example backed up your initial, off-colour post.
When I worked for Amex Black Card...... every key stroke was recorded (to make certain that we did what we said...) and needless to say, every word was recorded. Given the nature of our "special" Card Members, our team leads reviewed our calls weekly. Mistakes and use of the words " No " and "Can't" were highly discussed.
This (the UA reps) lack of service is sadly common. I see no effort to help her customer whatsoever .
Maybe they use all US-based agents- the "tiktok generation" is barely literate and that might explain the complete lack of nuance, context, and follow-up in the chat. At least foreign call centers give their staff some training...
It is @1990. Many stereotypes are there for a reason. Truth isn’t bigotry or racism. Sorry. As Jack Nicholson stated “you can’t handle the truth”
@Omarsidd,
You are so right; there seems to be no one (or very few) of newer generations that do not display any compassion or desire to stick to a problem or troubleshoot etc. They are basically anonymous and want to rush off a call if they don't know the answer. Ridiculous and how is this any different than an AI robotic response. Disgusting how in such situations that help is almost non-existent and people have to somehow figure out the problem, navigate and advocate for themselves.
My guess is this is the move to AI customer support. I've had a similar experience with a different company (rental car) in which the responses were NOTHING like an actual CS agent rather a computer generating responses with ZERO empathy toward the affected consumer, me.
If this is NOT AI, then customer support training, across the spectrum has changed to curt, non-helpful, and more demanding of the customer then helpful TO the customer.
Surely the agent is just needing a tip? We all know how tipping makes CS so much better