While Delta Air Lines has become famous for making passengers wait on hold for telephone customer service, wait times are down from their peaks during the pandemic where it wouldn’t be surprising for a Diamond member to be quoted a day to speak to an agent.
A month ago hold times spiked and reached over three hours. There are fewer complaints in social media these days (some people do complain about ‘merely’ an hour). And when there are extreme complaints it’s usually ‘only’ a ninety minute or two hour hold time.
@Delta I guess Delta can only find one person to work the phones- customer service rating is 0 stars, 2 hours holding already, how many more hours on hold??? pic.twitter.com/oqDfEh6kvq
— NTR (@AztecSix) April 2, 2023
Been waiting on hold for @Delta for over an hour and a half. I’ve probably been on the phone with them 5-6 hours over 3 calls involving an upcoming trip. This is frustrating! pic.twitter.com/VHTkJ588yM
— Michael Lane (@1MichaelLane) April 19, 2023
With so much time on hold it’s easy to call Delta and listen to their hold music and really pick up the beat. One customer did just that. And played the French horn.
Maria D’Ambrosio, a French Horn player for the past 16 years, currently playing with the Bozeman and Helena symphonies in Montana. She called into Delta Air lines and was greeted with all too familiar jazzy hold music we’ve all become accustomed to. The song is “My Time to Fly” by Harriet Goldberg. Rather than simply waiting, Maria broke our her French Horn and played along to the tune.
This is why I stopped using Delta and the same for Jet Blue. Unacceptable customer service, if I can’t talk to someone in 10 minutes, I am adverse to doing any business with a company.
Most airlines are horrible at pickup up the phone, if it continues I will take a train or bus, if they are unable to provide any decent phone support, then I will sit at home and stare at the wall instead of traveling.
I’m only calling when there is no other solution available.
The same airlines that do not train, invest in or empower their telephone representatives do not invest in responsive IT, which necessitates calls to their representatives.
It is a vicious cycle that the airlines do not seem willing to solve. When you do get an agent, be lucky enough to get one who knows and cares enough to seek a solution to your dilemma.
Crazy that they dont at least give a “call you back” feature like AA does. And Delta is supposed to be our premium full service airline for USA!
Not sure if they still do it now, but 20+ years ago Symantec used to have a radio station with a live DJ instead of hold music when you called support. Instead of traffic reports they would let everyone know the hold time for each department.
Having worked for them for several decades I can assure you they’ll have a well thought out excuse for this. They always do. They think their employees are stupid. They think their customers will just let it go or forget about it
Delta definitely has a call back option. I use it whenever I need to speak to a representative.
But then, I am a diamond sky miles, which might make a difference. Different phone number.
Got a smile out of the musician on hold
I thank all these Delta customers for making me realize American sucks less than I thought
Of course it’s not like I need another reason to avoid delta.Extortionate pricing on revenue or award redemption and mobbed clubs made me run long ago!
oh how I hate that music, almost as much as the swill they play in the plane while you board