Delta no longer is reservation calls to India

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

ATLANTA (AP) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. no longer is outsourcing reservation calls to Indiaafter years of complaints from customers who preferred to speak to someone in the United States.
Chief Executive Richard Anderson told employees in a recorded message late Thursday night that the world's biggest airline operator is in the process of bringing all customer calls back in-house in the U.S.
Customer calls were no longer forwarded to India as of the first quarter of this year, Anderson said. Foreign call centers remain in Jamaica and South Africa, though Anderson indicated that staffing at those locations likely will be reduced in the future as the global financial crisis cuts call volume.
"The customer acceptance of call centers in foreign countries is low, and our customers are not shy about letting us have that feedback," Anderson said.
Difficulty understanding the call center agents in India was a concern among some customers over the years.
Atlanta-based Delta said in 2002 that it would send some reservations work to India to save money. In 2004, amid an earlier bout with hard financial times, Delta shuttered one of its three call centers in India.
At the time, Delta said outsourcing some call center functions had saved Delta about $25 million a year.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines outsourced some reservation calls to India. In 2007, Hawaiian Airlines outsourced most of its reservation call center to the Philippines.
A United spokeswoman said Friday that some of the call center work the airline was outsourcing to India has been brought back to the U.S., though some reservation calls are still forwarded there. United also has call center operations in Chicago, Detroit and Hawaii, she said.

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

Hooray

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

Yippppeee! I am one of those customers who would clearly hang up on the Indian call center, and send an email to the Delta feedback.....not only was it difficult to communicate with the agent, the static on the line made it impossible to hear them....also, many times, they worked from a script, when your question was "outside the box"....useless .... when you call with a specific unusual question, you rely on the CSR to have a brain which can process the information and seek or send you to the right answer.

I hope this becomes a trend....anyone hear if RCI is moving their Mexican call center back to the US?

[davhu1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close davhu1]

Yippppeee! I am one of those customers who would clearly hang up on the Indian call center,

Me too after talking to one having to spell every word I say. Finally hung up without completing my reservation.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

A minor plus that does not make up for the huge negatives inflicted on its ff program SkyMiles such as the 3-tier award chart and huge fuel surcharges still imposed ($200 +) on award tickets ex-EU.

And who is the biggest airline in the world is up for debate, as it depends on how you define ''biggest''. European LCC RyanAir also claims the distinction of being the world's largest international airline based on passengers boarded. And in terms of in-flight service, DL is looking more and more like RyanAir all the time.

[Tinkerbell Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tinkerbell]

Northwest Airlines did not use foreign call centers for reservations. Since NWA and Delta are merging their operations, I wonder if Delta will use the NWA reservations agents that are based in the US?

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Here is some info on some of the things DL/NW has done to its ff program:

www.dlsucks.com/nwados.pdf

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

My theory is that if a U.S. based company wants to have foreign call centers, and people who are not able to communicate answer their calls...I will hang up.....I call again, hang up, and again, and again....I figure, if they moved their operation overseas to save $$$, then I will inflict some cost on them by calling over and over until I get an English speaking agent.....it must cost them something for each call they process, whether it is completed or not.....I advocate this as a policy to communicate in a clear way that we are dissatisfied with being greeted with incomprehensible agents.

As for Delta, yes, they have really been rotten to their FF and loyal fliers....maybe, maybe....will they be improving or no....one can hope...but as with all things, money talks....so walk with it to someone who is more appreciative of your loyalty. (Hear that RCI?...)

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

My theory is that if a U.S. based company wants to have foreign call centers, and people who are not able to communicate answer their calls...I will hang up.....I call again, hang up, and again, and again....I figure, if they moved their operation overseas to save $$$, then I will inflict some cost on them by calling over and over until I get an English speaking agent.....it must cost them something for each call they process, whether it is completed or not.....I advocate this as a policy to communicate in a clear way that we are dissatisfied with being greeted with incomprehensible agents.

As for Delta, yes, they have really been rotten to their FF and loyal fliers....maybe, maybe....will they be improving or no....one can hope...but as with all things, money talks....so walk with it to someone who is more appreciative of your loyalty. (Hear that RCI?...)

As long as Jeff Robertson (or JeffBob as he is called on Flyer Talk) is running the ff programs at Delta, expect a continuring decline. Indeed they will compete with USAirways to lead the race to the bottom in ff programs.

As to walking, I walked on Delta to NWA back in their last round of anti-customer moves in their ff program (see Save SkyMiles! ), and now with their takeover of NWA, I have walked to Continental.

If you have elite status, here is how to get a status match elsewhere:

www.dlsucks.com/nwaseis.pdf

I understand that Alaskan Airlines and BMI will also do status matches.

[x3skier Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close x3skier]

For some reason, I always was connected to either a call center in Salt Lake City or somewhere else in the USA or Canada(?) and always received excellent service. Never had to talk to India (that I was aware of) on a Delta call but plenty on other airlines or other companies like Dell Computers. According to the Wall Street Journal, Untidy Airlines and Useless Air are also starting moving back to the USA. Even Chrysler had stated to move back which is a good thing IF they stay in business.

Glad they are moving so I can completely avoid having to deal with Peter Sellers sound alikes for any reason.

Cheers