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Talk to someone that speaks English at Delta

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Old Feb 25th, 2006, 11:50 AM
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Talk to someone that speaks English at Delta

Does anyone know a telephone number for Delta that will not be sent to India to be answered by people who don't understand or speak English? All reservations are now farmed out to India. It took me 1 hour to book 2 tickets. I had to repeat and spell everything over and over. Then when I went to look at my itinerary online they spelled my name wrong! I try to call back and speak to a supervisor but I couldn't get someone in the United States even when I called the non toll free number I was connected to India. This is not good business.
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Old Feb 25th, 2006, 04:17 PM
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Just keep trying. Actually weekends are the worst.

(And of course there was the man recently who told me cursed out the woman in India only to discover she was in Atlanta! LOL!)
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Old Feb 25th, 2006, 06:04 PM
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You could have spent 55 minutes figuring out how to book it online (with a short nap) and 3 minutes actually booking it and you would have saved time and, presumably gotten it right.
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Old Feb 25th, 2006, 08:24 PM
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not all reservations can be booked online; for example, if you are doing an exchange, you need an agent. sometimes for ff tickets you need an agent. i empathize with the original poster; there have been times i have had to call the airline because i was unable to book online, and if you get the res center in india, it can be a nightmare.
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Old Feb 25th, 2006, 10:49 PM
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Hey guys, you have problems understanding them, well us Brits have a problem understanding some of your US accents. BUT seriously it is a nightmare having to spell out each word and often with very poor reception as they use the internet phone.
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Old Feb 26th, 2006, 10:07 AM
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Think that's bad try calling "America" Online for technical problems. GEEZ!
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Old Feb 26th, 2006, 01:22 PM
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I have hung up and redialed a few times until I could hear someone with no foreign accent. I never get any good customer service when I am sent to India. They always say I am sorry but that is not possible after explaining whatever for what seems like an eternity. If you are silver, or gold or some sort of medallion member, you can call a seperate line where I always seem to get an American. I now only call them. My husband is gold.
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Old Feb 26th, 2006, 08:32 PM
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Don't call in the late evening and if you are having problems with someone in the outsourced reservations then ask for a supervisor-was recently told that this will reroute the call back to a US agent.
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Old Feb 27th, 2006, 03:49 AM
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Had same problem with UA this summer. I think it is the tradeoff we all suffer for getting what are really inexpensive airfares.

Do not give up hope. Two weeks ago had to speak with live person at UA on a Sunday AM - was ready for disaster. However, got an extremely competent and pleasant person with an accent who was able to spend the time fixing my problem (I asked, and he told me he was in India). And yesterday at Dulles the only person who could successfully help me with another UA-created problem was a person of apparent Indian descent - so I will have to examine if I am harboring more racism than I had thought.
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Old Feb 27th, 2006, 11:10 AM
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I think what we all hope for when we call for anything is that we get someone who knows their business. I know I have a kneejerk reaction to certain accents, but that is a problem within me that I have to deal with.

If anything, it sounds like the agents need better training on their product.

My favorite airline gives bonus miles for booking online, and I think charges more for tickets if you buy by phone or in person. It's rather clear that they think they can improve profitability by lowering the number of phone agents they need. Perhaps Delta is carrying this a step further, making the phonein purchase more difficult to encourage us to greater use of online booking!

I would say that the absolutely best phone support I ever got was on a microsoft product from a technician with what I took as an Indian accent; he knew a complicated area of the system very well, and had me fixed within minutes. The next day, his supervisor, who also had an apparent Indian accent, called to insure that my problem had been fully resolved. I know we have many people from India living here now, but I surmise from the fact that both of them had an Indian accent that I was dealing with outsourcing.

Bias of many sorts lies just under the skin in all of us. I was struck by this when the matter of the ports management company sale first hit the news. Immediately the politicians and media brayers, who I am certain don't even know what port management entails, rushed to condemn the sale, solely because it involves an Arab-owned company; if that isn't racism, what is?
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Old Feb 27th, 2006, 11:28 AM
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Had trouble with an American-English speaking TA in Idaho who got one letter of my name wrong even though I spelled it for her twice. Called USAir and was bounced to a couple of people before learning that I had to call a certain number to get the record changed to correct my name so that I can, hopefully, get the miles. I expect that to take at least another half hour.

Ticket changes, exchanges, can be done online at some airlines' websites.

OP is right about it not being good business. The airlines are losing money and are cutting costs in order to survive.
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Old Feb 27th, 2006, 11:33 AM
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I guess that what I meant by my smarta$$ reply was that you get what you pay for.
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Old Feb 27th, 2006, 02:26 PM
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I must add that my gripe with having a foreigner take my ticket info, is that I cannot understand them half the time. It has nothing to do with racism. It is just a frustrating fact of life that when there is a language barrier, it is not a good business practice. Delta is an american company isn't it?
I have had good reps and bad reps. 9 times out of 10 the bad experience was do to the fact that the person on the other end could not understand my request.
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Old Feb 28th, 2006, 08:43 AM
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I had the same problem with UAL. So I gave up and called back I got another agent a lady also from India but with a much better command of English. Every thing went swimmingly. :-B
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Old Feb 28th, 2006, 10:17 AM
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Clevlandbrown, I had the exact same experience as you just posted about when I had to call Microsoft about 3 months ago. I did talk to a Tech in India..and I couldn't have been happier with the service he provided. It turned out (after he had me do various things with my laptop for 2 hours) that is was my IP that was causing the problem. This tech in India called my IP (he had me on the line as he did a confrence call) and bingo, the problem was fixed.

I too received a phone call from a supervisor (again from India) the next day to make sure everything was alright and that I had been satisfied with the service they provided. I certainly was!
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Old Feb 28th, 2006, 10:27 AM
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Interestingly, many Americans seem to think it's quite lovely to speak with somebody at Air France or Alitalia or Iberia who speaks accented English as a second language.

Just an observation.
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Old Feb 28th, 2006, 10:36 AM
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Delta will soon have an outsourced call center in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Irie, mon.
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Old Feb 28th, 2006, 01:27 PM
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That is the main reason why I love JetBlue. American phone reservationists. Not once do I have ot ask them to repeat themselves.
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Old Mar 1st, 2006, 04:43 AM
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luv2fly...And many of the JetBlue people work from their homes!!One time I was speaking with an agent, and there was absolutely no background noise.I asked her if she was in a vacuum.She said no that she was in her home office in her robe and slippers.
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Old Mar 2nd, 2006, 04:35 AM
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Interesting segment on ABC News last night....The new/emergng Middle Class,in India, young university educated,fluent in English, is LARGER than the entire population of the USA.....
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