Listen, you panty-faced, feck-wads…
No, that’s not right.
Dear American Airlines,
I remember a time when the steward/ stewardess wasn’t a skyb*tch, but more like a triumphant, proud, member of a customer service team…there were peanuts and “are you comfortables” and cocktails when you weren’t. But, now…
No, not right either.
One day they may even charge for the view…
Dear American Airlines,
I tried to redeem some frequent flyer miles with you. I’ve been collecting them for years. I paid the extra (annual) fee, so that I could collect these miles when using my debit/ credit card for every purchase I made. I was conscious of selecting the right option when paying with my card ALL THE TIME, so I could collect these miles. For a year or more, you were never far from my mind.
Then something happened…I tried to cash in and you fecked me. You fecked momma at the airport when I was tired and looking to get home.
I had originally made my reservation, but I left it within the system to decide if that was the flight I wanted to take. Less than ten days later, I booked the flight by redeeming the miles. I had to pay taxes on the flight. I paid them. But, THEN when I arrived at the airport for my RETURN flight, you told me that I had not officially “booked” the flight within the required ten days to redeem the miles and you MADE ME PAY FOR MY FLIGHT.
I’M SO ANNOYED WITH YOU THAT I’LL NEVER FLY AMERICAN AGAIN.
You could’ve solved it all with a phone call. You had my number on every stupid piece of information that I filled out online.
Yet, like a sh*tty date, you never called. You, instead, ditched me at the last minute. It’s enough to turn me into a lesbian or a train rider.
A very disgruntled,
Sweet Mother
That HAPPENED to me last summer and I’m pissed about it. I’m coming upon my yearly SF trip again and I can’t stop thinking about it. I wish I was more of a letter writer…a letter write who complains and shouts and chastises when they’re treated wrongly by a company.
It may look beautiful, but I’m guessing everyone on this plane is irritated…
But, I’m not. I fume and then I move on to something else.
I think that’s what the big corporations want you to do. That’s why you have to dig through 17 pages to get to their customer service numbers. That’s why they put you on hold when you want to lodge a complaint and then transfer you to 4 different people who make you repeat your story because they can’t bother to read the screen in front of them.
They want to break you. They want you to give up. So they can do whatever they want and you will say nothing.
Mostly, I say nothing because I’ve never been a letter writer. There’s a part of it that just feels like it’s too much work.
I’ve written love letters to my Wifesy, but that’s about it. I have to want you and our continuing relationship so much that I’m willing to put pen to paper and find a stamp.
I feel that way about Wifesy. I don’t feel that way about American Airlines.
I wish I was a take-no-prisoners, fight for the right of the consumer, letter writer. I wish I was a coupon clipper. I wish I was a rebate, sender-inner. I’m not. I’m a forget and silently seethe-type.
What about you? Do you write complaint letters? Do they ever get you anywhere? Or do you prefer to write love letters? Maybe, you simply refuse to write anything longer than 140 characters…
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Sweet Mother 
I tweet ….publicly pointing out a companies faults has gotten me more action than…hate to admit it…than date night. Only thing, you need to be direct, logical and willing to get your point across in 140 characters. It’s amazing how willing they are to accomodate you when your “tweet” is familar to others.
i was so annoyed with them. i don’t expect anything in return. feck ’em, i won’t fly with ’em anymore. i’ll pick anyone, but… i love that you tweet complaints tho. 😉 i tend to tweet love, as i did for homoquotables… xoxox, sm
Just an FYI: American Airlines has a Facebook page. Try tossing your complaint over there. You’ll probably get some satisfaction.
As for letter writing, I save that for love letters, too. They make my lady giggle.
i know. i can’t imagine the negative energy it takes to put pen to paper and then send a complaint letter that no one will ever read anymore… can’t do it. but, me too… loooooooove to give ’em to my lady. xoxox, sm
I’m gonna be honest with you…I’m a real big betch when it comes to shit like this. I can’t stand horrible customer service or when they try to shaft you. But it does take a lot of work and you must not give up, otherwise all your hours of shifting through bullshit will be worthless.
I’m a letter writer. I’m a complainer. I’m a person who WILL stay on the lines and talk the ears off of every fucking person they transfer me to UNTIL they give me my money back or some form of compensation.
And that, Sweet Mother, is how I got back $800 from the 24 Hour Fitness location that tried to screw me over. It took me a year. But those asshole managers no longer work with the company and I have my money.
holy feckin’ shit, vy. that is truly, balls-to-the-wall, awesome. it definitely takes some kind of patience and fortitude that i don’t possess. but, i love, LOVE, that you do. and that you got that $800 back. the whole thing reminds me of, ‘the legend of billie jean…’ have you ever seen that movie? loooolll. xo, sm
I don’t do it often because it’s draining to have so much hate in you for so long to accomplish something like that. I’d much rather move past it. But sometimes, I just do what I have to do because it’s what’s right 🙂
Haha no I haven’t! Now I have to! 😛
For me, a pointed email accomplishes more than hours on the phone.
i often feel like i email off into the abyss…
Corporations have special accounting journals just for when they eff people over. I think you’ll find that if you complain you get stuff for free. I never thought that until I met my husband, but then I learned. I would only advise you to complain about your food in a restaurant *after* it is already in front of you (and don’t accept a replacement, either, because they might spit in it). I got some ridiculously undeserved perks from DirecTV because I threatened to disconnect and move to Turner Cable. HAHAHA! Work your bitch muscles… they are stronger than you can imagine.
i have a friend who is exceptionally good at this. i, however, am not. this post was my flex and now i’m tired. lmao. xoxo, sm
Well, you have to start somewhere. 😉
I bitched to Air Canada when their bereavement fare was higher than the regular fare. I was booking a flight for my brother’s funeral, so I was extra pissed off. Shouldn’t bereavement fare be cheaper? But no, apparently that’s never the case. Feck all airlines.
FECK ALL AIRLINES, INDEED. they have lost their ever lovin’ feckin’ minds. honestly, they used to be about service. now they’re like a public bus. you never know what the feck is goint to happen.
I write postcards. When I go away I write about 5 a day. Usually right at the end of the dating the hotel bar with a drink. Email me your address Sweet Mother and I’ll write you one from Paris tomorrow.
Complaint letters, rarely.
Portia xx
HELL YES! i would love a postcard from you. addy coming your way. xoxox
I love talkin’ on the telephone rather than writing letters, emails or texts. I used to phone in complaints, but now you have to get by eight pit bulls to get to the president of a big company,like Ma Bell, let’s say. And let’s add that I never have gotten through to the big guy/girl. The people I do finally get to, after lengthy rest stops on hold, (obviously engineered to simmer you down because you’re so happy someone finally answers).absolutely RAPE you. I’ve been promised things that would have satisfied me, only to wind up getting charged more than I was already paying. They must have a bonus system.
I have a friend that always opts for a letter to the editor. Sometimes it gets printed, but the guy he’s really trying to reach really doesn’t give a sh*t anyway. But, my friend gets off his rant and says he sleeps like a baby. My advice to you, Sweetmother, if you’re going to SF, is be sure to wear a flower in your hair. XO
PS
That’s so I will recognize you if we happen to be in the same place at the same time.
the flower will be a tulip. something sweet to offset my personality. loooool. i hear you there. rapage indeed. i hate the corps. they have you by the lady/ man balls and they know it. they know you can’t feckin’ walk there, so you have to fly with someone… so, they’re all d*cks… but AA pissed me off like no other and i swear i’m gonna find another one. and sf – san franfeckincisco! xoxo
Or where ever the f*ck SF is.
I don’t write /letters/ to friends or family, unless I’m on a long trip or something. But as I’ve gotten older I have become a complaints letter writer. And when I’m truly angry I make sure those letters are registered so the company in question knows it cannot deny having received said letter.
Why? Because it works. It’s called an audit trail and it’s part of the game the corporations play. One letter won’t move them, but they know that if enough ‘bad’ letters pile up some higher authority is likely to become involved. That means money, and that means it pays to soothe a disgruntled customer.
Sadly the whole frequent flyers thing is a thinly disguised scam. If you tweet this I’ll RT it. Maybe enough people will get on board to make a difference.
i tweeted it a couple of times, but maybe i should’ve used a better title like AMERICAN AIRLINES SUX OR AMERICAN AIRLINES BLOWS… bc their robots or whatever they have are not picking up my noise… xoxo, sm
lmao – I’d vote for American Airlines Blows!
I’m a letter writer. And a phoner. I decided to become one after a friend who worked for an insurance company told me that the ONLY people who got their fair entitlements were the ones who made noise, because the majority of people just settled, saving the company billions…
so interesting. ‘the squeaky wheel gets the oil,’ i suppose. it’s just that with customer service like it is these days, it all gets exhausting quick. sigh. xo, sm
Yup, I remind them they’re a Federally regulated industry that was bailed out by tax dollars in 2008, and perhaps my congressman and senators, as well as the President of the United States, not to mention the Consumer Protection Agency, will be hearing from one of their constituents on the matter. And then I follow through. Not nasty about it, just report my experience! xoxoM
and i bet that gets results. i can be complaint-lazy tho. and agreed that if it was a super wrong like a crime or something like that… i’d follow it out to the fullest extent. but, here the company is more guilty of APATHY. like every other big tail wagger out there… ugh.
I know. It takes all kinds SM. I’ll intimidate the shit out of them with political action, you can whine them to death. One way or another, we’ll be pains in their butts! lol xoxoM
Name ‘n shame ’em! I have done this on twitter before and got action out of them quicker than you can say “oops I did it again!”. Admittedly not with American Airlines though! 🙂
don’t tell me it was with RyanAir…because they have to be the absolute WORST. you can take about 1 hanky and a folded t-shirt on to that airline without having to pay extra fare, more than that and you’re fecked… and i hated that there were no frequent flyer miles in the uk. or at least i didn’t come across them… am i wrong? xoo
Haha! RyanAir is absolutely dreadful! I avoid them at all costs! I’d much rather fly on SleazyJet (easyJet) than RyanAir – robbing bastards they are! There are a few frequesnt flyer miles programmes here in the UK – there’s the BA Avios, FlyBe has got the Rewards4all, Monarch Airlines has got Vantage Club and Virgin (who started doing domestic flights here now) have their Flying Club so there are a few kicking about now…
Oh Sweet Mother, I feel your pain. I truly, truly do. This is the reason I use frequent flyer miles for free magazine subscriptions. I won’t write my usual epic comment I reserve for topics like this for which I feel strongly. Suffice to say, my husband swears that my boarding passes were coded with some sort of bitch alert that seemed to get me one of those “special security screenings” for a couple of years after a trip where we were treated so badly by United Airlines that I almost had a “defining moment” with a flight attendant.
i may turn them all in for mag subscriptions and be done with them. i get those letters all the time and it seems like maybe the best route bc everything else is just hogwash. and oh how i wish i had seen that almost ‘defining moment’ loooool. love you, honie. xoxo
Put it on their Facebook page. Put it on your Facebook page. Tweet it repeatedly. Nowadays, you have to spread the word that these companies don’t care because if you just write a letter to them, no one important will likely ever read it, much less respond to it. Voice your complaint so that everyone else can hear and be less likely to give them their business. I know I won’t be flying American now.
i may do that… if i can muster up the strength… sigggggggh. feckin’ sigh. xoxox
It’s actually a good thing you don’t write letter well, since no one at American Airlines or any other large corporation bothers reading them. I’m cursed with the occasional need to write letters to these faceless boobs (no offense to actual boobs – I’m a big fan). No one writes back, no one cares, they’re in it for the bucks and they don’t care about customer loyalty.
On the bright side, maybe the next time I’m tempted to write a scorching letter to yet another conglomerate, I’ll recall this comment and talk myself out of it.
i’m so with you. i don’t think anyone reads them, i don’t think anyone gives a sh*t. it’s so lame. so lame.
perfectly good letter writing skills – going the way of the dinosaurs
hear, hear… or quill, quill…lool
I am consistently approached by friends who have been wronged. They want me to write those letters for them. Why you ask? I am the MASTER of compliant and compliment letters. I will never pay for another oil change at Jiffy Lube, my own university banned me from their Facebook page because I rallied the troops and wrote a very strongly worded letter to the BBB about my schools shady financial aid process (they now send my checks over night). I have gotten several kids at Best Buy promotions and bonuses. Oh yeah – Five Guys still owes me dinner for four.
Give me the details. There may be a free flight in there for you yet!
sophis, this is AMAZE BALLS. i loved that your uni banned you from their fb page. that is just AWESOME. and i’m with you, some ppl (like yourself) are just GOOD at this type of thing. man, i should hire you. loool. bc i give up too easily and it’s funny, i don’t give up with much. but, i find this kind of thing exhausting. one day, i’d LOVE to hear about how you now get free oil changes for life at jiffy lube. loooool. much love, sm
The Jiffy Lube one was easy. The kid left my oil cap off just before I took a six hour drive to San Francisco. I made it to just about San Jose when my engine died. They fixed my car and free oil changes for the life of the car. So I don’t still get them, but that car lasted me much longer than they thought it would 😉 Also, I am unemployed and if you have money to pay for letter writing I am your gal! (I can’t believe I just said “gal”…
i’m a broke-assed unemployed gal myself. loool. but, thank you for the offer. and i could read about your complaint stories all day. they feel perfectly and wonderfully triumphant. 😉
Another funny thing about my school, is while I am not allowed on the FB page – they just invited me to be the degree banner carrier at graduation. Heh.
somehow i find that completely awesome…
I feel like I beat down ‘the man’. I am proud that even though they hate me, they choose to honor me. It’s like being some sort of martyr without having to die for the privilege. 🙂
ha, ha, so well said, so well said…
As we are sitting here going back and forth, I have decided to write your letter for fun. If it works out for you – great! If it doesn’t work – it will still be a nice writing challenge for me and you can just keep supporting my blog in return. Fair? I think so. I am just going to go off the information in your blog – I like writing challenges. 🙂
I worte your letter and sent it to your email address: sweetmotherlover@gmail.com
I’ve tried kvetching via social media about poor customer service and am always amazed when I hear from everybody BUT the company. Only once did I get a response — almost immediately — and they corrected the problem & then asked me if I would post that they fixed it. Since they were nice and made a nice adjustment to my car repair bill, I did. As for the airlines, last time I complained to an airline (in a very hot and crowded baggage claim) the woman told me that she wasn’t going to help me. When 2 other colleagues came to help, she stopped them when it was my turn and made them wait on someone else. Finally, I got a 4th person to help me & problem was addressed (more or less) before the first person started yelling at him for helping me because I had been “pushy”. I was stranded for 2 days before I could fly home while my luggage went on a tour of New England before returning to the midwest. I haven’t flown US Airways since.
ugh. the audacity. the absolute audacity. to what? punish you like a child because you had a complaint? what a terrible, terrible customer svc agent. but, i am soooo with you. i’ve seen ticket counter agents behave like this before and i’ve always found it abhorrent. it’s as if they know they’re the key holders to your destination and they’re going to hold that power over you like little trolls. absolutely disgusting and i’m sorry you had to go thru it. xo, sm
The worst part? I was at LaGuardia so long, that by the time I got into the city — where I had a standing invite & keys to place to stay at a friend’s — it was raining so hard that I couldn’t get food delivery service. I went to bed on my friend’s sleeper sofa cold, hungry & angry — and wondering if perhaps my friend, who had not returned any calls to her cell phone, was out of town & I was going to sleep on the horrible sofa all night when there was a bed going unused in the same flat! That would have been the icing on the cake. Laughed about it when my friend returned home, surprised to see me, at 1am.
I haven’t flown AA in 20 years. I am in Paris, my mom dies and they charge me $2000 plus (remember, this is 20 years ago $$$) to get home on and earlier flight for the funeral!!! They (AA officials) assure me it will be reimbursed no problem. This additional money is on top of the return ticket I had already paid for. Well needless to say many letters, phone calls, death certificates sent and months followed by years later, NADA! Not a dime, not a sorry, not a ticket (even domestic), not a bag of peanuts or a drink offered. I have not flown them since! I know a great guy that pilots for them, but I know to separate the lowly employees from the corporate shills.
wow, joanne. that is the worst story EVER. they suck a huge one. i feel like people don’t go out of their way anymore for the customer, for the little guy, and it really really sucks. truly. and i’m sorry that happened to you at such a difficult time. and then to get banged with a huge airfare tag on top of it? well, it’s just too much. huge fail, AA, huge fail. xoxo
I live in Dallas, this means I fly AA. I have been flying them for years because I fly for business. Some years I fly every single week. Over the course of more than 20 years I have accumulated enough air time to be one of their “elite”. This means I am a One Million Miler. Actually, I am nearly at the Two Million Miler mark. What does this get? Not much, I don’t have to qualify for gold every year, I am gold for life. When I hit Two Million I will be platinum for life. Big Deal.
The one thing I have learned with all this flying though, complaints pay off. Didn’t get treated well on the flight? Complain. Booking didn’t go well? Complain. Agent at counter was an ijit? Complain. Lost luggage? Complain.
Don’t just take it, complain. Don’t complain to customer service either, complain to marketing. Complain on their Facebook page. Go find a couple of the nice little rating sites, complain their as well.
Complaints work. Complaints get your money back or free tickets.
ok, i’m seriously going to post a link to this post on their fb page with the title why you shouldn’t fly american airlines… it’s worth a shot. and i can’t believe you have that many miles. you’re like george clooney in that movie. have you seen the one i’m talking about? xoxo, sm
Email or tweet – I have done it from the ticket counter. Typically if you take the time to contact them in some way they will get back to you about a resolution. Posting it on their FB page puts it out there for the world to see. It’s bad PR not to respond and try to make you happy.
it sounds like i should really post a link to my post on their fb page… hmmm, i’m sure i can conjure up the will to do that… then i’ll fall down from the emotional exhaustion of it all. well, not really, but you know… loool. xo
When you post to their page they either have to address it or delete it – if not it’s there for the public to see.
i posted the feckin’ thing.. now it’s in god’s hands or the social media mgr’s… loooool. i’m sure they’ll delete it. xoxox
Hooray for you!
I write complaint letters… in my head.
That’s not completely true. I’ve sent a few complaint emails and gotten coupons in return.
oh, kylie, that’s hilarious. you have no idea how many i’ve actually written in my head… and they are usually shouting… loool
Good thing we have blogs!
seriously. 😉
I had a similar experience last year with Singapore Airlines – I complained by phone, no response. I complained by email – automated reply from the “head of customer service, Australia” saying how important my email was and they would reply soon… never did. I let that one go.
Then the same airline tried to stuff my daughter & family around when they travelled from Australia to Rome with their baby (at first refusing to guarantee seating them together in the baby row, for a total of 18hrs flying!!)… I wrote a huge rant on their facebook page, which was joined in by quite a few other people, hey presto, someone from their “social media” section asks me to contact them with the details because they really want to fix it up! They only take notice when its going to affect their publicity.
‘they only take notice when its going to affect their publicity.’ oh how true, how true. they have become out of control, the airlines. it’s like common sense was lost. seriously. well, maybe i’ll go further with it. not sure tho. xoxox, sm
Sell your miles. Switch to Virgin America (they can take you to JFK as well).
And let me know when you’re comin’ to SF you fecker!
i’m planning ahead for my punchline dates. prob won’t be till the summer. but, i can tell you i’m not flying AA. i will however check out virgin… xoxox
i have never written complaint letters but im a letter writer… as in i have written love letters and thankyou letters and im lucky to have you around letter….i have written to letters to my very good friends and someone i was once very close to…
Sweet Mom i think i can express myself better with a letter …
i bet you’re a great letter writer, lil miss… xoxo
I’m tired of suffering in silence. So now I complain. Especially if they have a feed back form online.
i should maybe investigate that… so much more fun kvetching there tho…
Don’t be surprised if they read this post. I once commented on another blogger’s post about customer service and mentioned my experience years before with a big retailer. Someone from that retailer replied to my post with an email link to try to make amends. I was astounded. Complaining on social media is probably the best way to go in today’s world because it’s public. Nobody sees a letter except the recipient. But blog posts, tweets, FB comments? That’s a huge audience to see a company’s bad business policy!
not a peep from them. and i don’t expect one. that’s the problem with these huge corps. they don’t give a flying wang about the little guy and it’s just sad. every now and again i get good customer svc at a grocery store or something like that, but i haven’t had any from an airline in years. xoxo, sm
I’ve been wronged (biggest example is by my graduate school program) and I vowed to write a letter and then never did because it was too much work, and by the time it was safe to write a letter, I was out of the program……Passive-aggressive treatment was far healthier, right?! 😉
How about a phone call to the many, many different people in customer service? It is tiring and consuming but you are heard. I have a friend who’s a little battle axe on the phone and she always gets cheaper hotel rooms, discounted flights, and good deals on car rentals. She talks, she waits, and she doesn’t budge much. She knows what she’s entitled to and she goes for it.
Me? I write the letters in my head and say the world is not fair.
I don’t write complaint letters because I usually forget about it and let it go. I don’t really write love letters but I do love writing postcards to my sister or friends. Those are fun, especially ones you find in junk shops that are for places you’ve never been.
Are you doing any more shows when you are up here? Please let me know, I’d love some more Sweet Momma in my SF existence!