Natalie flew to Maine to compete in the College Nationals Ski Race in March of last year and on the way back she changed planes in Chicago. When she got home she found her skis damaged like they had been dropped on their end from something very high. They could not be repaired. I spent lots of time and aggravation on this. United finally sent me a flight voucher for $500 and we used it to go to Hawaii this spring. Lynn sent me this youtube video and it surely hit a chord with us. Same airport, same airlines, same trouble. If you have nothing better to do, read my letters to the agent in charge of us. He kept calling us liars and then he would lie to me. If only I could have done a music video! After a year of trying to get United to pay for his damaged guitar, Dave Carroll made this video and got their attention.
Dear Randy,
I can't tell you how disappointed I am in your response to Natalie Brower's damaged ski. You have seen it and Melissa has seen it. From the very beginning this has been a very painful and very time consuming complaint, starting with not being able to get a hold of anyone on the phone at United a few hours after the flight. The computers were broken and the phone conversations were terminated over and over until 4 hours later we finally got through and filed our complaint. We were given instructions and followed them. Salt Lake's office threw away the report, and then found it. As she was instructed, Natalie brought the skis back to the airport from Provo and was told to bring them back another time because you had to see them. You are saying the only way we have any recourse is if Natalie showed the skis at the airport before leaving the night of her flight. Why then did we have to keep bringing the skis back? You are saying that she must have been the one to ruin them and yet you keep asking us to bring them back. I brought them back 4 days later and had wait and wait to see you. No one offered to take a picture the first trip or the second trip to the airport when you saw them. The skis have since been used several times and I can't believe you or anyone else would think a month later picture would serve any purpose at all. The bag has been to Bend, Oregon and is now on its way to Mammoth, Ca with her brother and cannot be seen until next Monday. Again, why would a bag that has been used everyday for a month be any evidence at all at this point. What we have done every step of the way is what someone at United told us to do. We have been given the run around and still nothing has been done and you are asking us to do more with no assurance that anything will be done again. We will not be using United again for any flights. We will be telling fellow skiers about the experience and will encourage them to also not use United when bringing skis. We will be filing a complaint to add to the much higher complaints about airlines in the media today. On Thursday of this week I will file a formal complaint with the airlines and hope to speak with someone in a position to listen. I will be writing a very long detailed complaint of the whole process. The time I have spent on this is just unbelievable. I don't want to be strung along any longer. Please send us a check for $250 and we will not bother you again.
Thank you
Lorna Brower
I can't tell you how disappointed I am in your response to Natalie Brower's damaged ski. You have seen it and Melissa has seen it. From the very beginning this has been a very painful and very time consuming complaint, starting with not being able to get a hold of anyone on the phone at United a few hours after the flight. The computers were broken and the phone conversations were terminated over and over until 4 hours later we finally got through and filed our complaint. We were given instructions and followed them. Salt Lake's office threw away the report, and then found it. As she was instructed, Natalie brought the skis back to the airport from Provo and was told to bring them back another time because you had to see them. You are saying the only way we have any recourse is if Natalie showed the skis at the airport before leaving the night of her flight. Why then did we have to keep bringing the skis back? You are saying that she must have been the one to ruin them and yet you keep asking us to bring them back. I brought them back 4 days later and had wait and wait to see you. No one offered to take a picture the first trip or the second trip to the airport when you saw them. The skis have since been used several times and I can't believe you or anyone else would think a month later picture would serve any purpose at all. The bag has been to Bend, Oregon and is now on its way to Mammoth, Ca with her brother and cannot be seen until next Monday. Again, why would a bag that has been used everyday for a month be any evidence at all at this point. What we have done every step of the way is what someone at United told us to do. We have been given the run around and still nothing has been done and you are asking us to do more with no assurance that anything will be done again. We will not be using United again for any flights. We will be telling fellow skiers about the experience and will encourage them to also not use United when bringing skis. We will be filing a complaint to add to the much higher complaints about airlines in the media today. On Thursday of this week I will file a formal complaint with the airlines and hope to speak with someone in a position to listen. I will be writing a very long detailed complaint of the whole process. The time I have spent on this is just unbelievable. I don't want to be strung along any longer. Please send us a check for $250 and we will not bother you again.
Thank you
Lorna Brower
I just got off the phone with Helge Guetzlaff from Atomic. I wanted to be sure I was getting the details right in my report to United. He told me the exact same thing he told us both at the airport. He did not change his story at all. He did say that he knew we did not pay $1200 for the skis. He said that another person at Atomic knew about the problem, but had not seen the skis and did not say that United could not have done the damage. I am very disappointed in you. You have accused us of not being honest with United when you were not being honest with me at all. You do not have 4 expert witnesses claiming that the damage could not have been done by United. We were never asked to bring in an invoice showing what we paid for the skis. We were told to find the value as close as we could and the replacement cost which is what the $1200 amount referred to. The skis were sold out and needed to be replaced with the new model. We are not asking for that amount. We are asking you to follow your own website customer service policy. You are not looking so good at this point. If we need to we will also file a claim with Small Claims Court. With them we will ask for the full amount allowed. Please send a check and have this be over.
Lorna Brower
1 comment:
That is terrible! It makes me so angry when "customer service" is no service at all. It's very frusterating when something that should take an hour, takes weeks and months. I just went through a year long run around with my health insurance company, and by the time I got it filed "properly" they said my time had expired to be reimbursed. You bet I made a stink about it, and was then reimbursed and apologized to.
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