Customer disservice | Complaints

How it all began...

June 13, 1996 - Following a series of unpleasant incidents during a trip to Japan and Hawaii, taken on United Airlines, I sent a polite letter to United Airline's president, Mr. Gerald Greenwald, with a copy to the director of Customer Relations, simply asking for a reply to a number of complaints relating to their service.

July 31, 1996 - Having not received any reply, I sent a follow-up letter to both Mr. Greenwald and the director of Customer Relations.

late August, 1996 - I received a form letter from an individual in UAL's customer relations department, dated July 24, 1996 but postmarked August 22, 1996. This letter completely ignores the substance of my initial complaints and prompts me to set up the "Poor Show" web pages at the University of Toronto. Note that it was not the poor treatment we received from United, but rather, the subsequent disregard for a serious, polite complaint, which led to the creation of the web pages. During the next seven months, the pages grow as I receive approximately 30 additional letters from other former United passengers who also complain about their own experiences with that airline.

September 6, 1996 - I informed UAL of my web pages, and suggested that I would be happy to update both my opinion of the airline as well as the web material, should they find the time to reply with something more substantial than a form letter. I also mention that I am moving to Japan and provide my new address for future correspondence.

September 11, 1996 - We received two flavors of a hostile letter from Michael Kruse (aka "John") of San Jose State University, demonstrating a severe misunderstanding of our initial complaint letter to UAL. These letters prompted us to hold a contest, in which we endorsed and gave away the $100 travel vouchers to the first individual who identified two such misunderstandings in the hostile letters. It didn't take long.

November 11, 1996 - After a lengthy correspondence with a UAL pilot, who was concerned about the events described in my web pages, I sent an additional follow-up note to Mr. Greenwald, complimenting the pilot's concern for customer relations and again, requesting a reply to my initial letter.

January 8, 1997 - A UAL representative sends me e-mail, informing me that they are resending a letter of September 20 (which I never received) and making a reference to their legal department. The promised letter is sent to my former address in Canada, even though I had been using my Japan address ever since September 1996.

January 31, 1997 - The promised letter arrives at my parent's address in Canada, having been forwarded by Canada Post. The letter was written by the same customer relations representative who sent me the form letter reply on July 24, 1996. Coincidentally, the same day that the old letter arrives in Canada, this same customer relations rep notifies me that he has not been employed by UAL for quite some time.

March 24, 1997 - I am informed that UAL's lawyers have contacted the President's Office at the University of Toronto, complaining about my web pages and suggesting that the university can be held liable for trademark infringement. I immediately agreed to remove the web pages and locate them elsewhere, thereby avoiding any legal problems for the university.

April 25, 1997 - The Untied Airlines web site goes on-line, complete with a new logo and more helpful information for prospective passengers.

As one might expect from a corporation that cares little about its customers, UAL took the predictable route of trying to silence a critic (me) rather than deal with their problems constructively. Ironically, if either Mr. Greenwald or any of UAL's Customer Relations employees had taken a few minutes to read and reply to my letter of June 13, 1996, they could have saved themselves lots of negative publicity as well as many hours of their lawyers' time.

The history continues...

August 15, 1997 - After fourteen months, we finally receive an apology from a UAL official, acknowledging that the previous (form letter) "response to [my] complaints has been slow, impersonal and insufficiently candid."

March 31, 1998 - In response to a statement by Tony Molinaro, United spokesman, that "If [someone] had an issue where we disserviced them, we are willing to talk to them about it" I send a tongue-in-cheek letter to United, asking for Mr. Molinaro's telephone number so that passengers could call him collect.

April 6, 1998 - As expected, United's reply to my request was not overly helpful.

October 21, 1998 - With the help of financial contributions from many readers, a new complaints form is put on-line, with the ability to copy complaints directly to Denise Harvill, United's Director of Customer Relations, and James Goodwin, President and Chief Operating Officer of UAL.

October 28, 1998 - A news article is posted to rec.travel.air in response to a UAL employee's posting suggesting that the airline "does care" about its passengers. The article describes the new complaints form and how it is being used to measure UAL's responsiveness to its customers.

February 10, 1999 - After many requests from readers, a browsable database is made available, allowing interested parties to read all of the complaints received since the new form (above) was put on-line.

September 9, 2000 - In response to a query raised by another reader, an email is sent to Denise Harvill, United's Director of Customer Relations, asking her to confirm that she is able to receive messages from concerned passengers. To date, no reply has been received.