Anyone ever write a letter to corporate?

[s0me0nesmind1]

I've been having some issues with an airline lately - Whereby I had a credit on my account for a previous flight. Well - the airline attempts to hide this credit on my account by making it incredibly tricky to find. You have to enter the confirmation number of the original flight that the credit was under along with the First/Last name of the person flying.

What they COULD do... since the flight was assigned to me and my membership is to show it on my account at all times.... But obviously, they want you to forget about it... like I did with mine.

Anyhow, I discovered a $96 credit on 2 airline tickets I had previously (1 for me, 1 for my wife) to total approx $200. It showed that it expired in 1 day and I quickly tried to use it... Except... Ohhhh... You don't have to USE it by that date... I have to fucking FLY by that date or it expires. Deceiving and conning much? First they try to hide it so you forget about it, then you have to have your actual flight by that date.

Needless to say, I was screwed out of $200. I tried calling. I tried emailing. All of them were useless and basically said there is nothing I can do. I have a $200 credit that isn't expired yet that I can't use. I'm at the point where I want to write a letter to corporate (which I haven't had such a large situation to call for it in my life yet). Anyone have any experience with this? Be it flights or just random companies you had a major issue with. Did writing a letter to corporate help get the issue resolved?

Anyone have any tips on how to get something out of this? I'm pretty pissed off. I also travel just about every damn week for work and have a high status with them currently. I have no problem switching to their competitors.

 

[Rakehellion]

Let's all write a strongly-worded letter.

I'll start:
Dear assholes...

 

[Rakehellion]

I've been having some issues with an airline lately - Whereby I had a credit on my account for a previous flight. Well - the airline attempts to hide this credit on my account by making it incredibly tricky to find. You have to enter the confirmation number of the original flight that the credit was under along with the First/Last name of the person flying.

What they COULD do... since the flight was assigned to me and my membership is to show it on my account at all times.... But obviously, they want you to forget about it... like I did with mine.

Anyhow, I discovered a $96 credit on 2 airline tickets I had previously (1 for me, 1 for my wife) to total approx $200. It showed that it expired in 1 day and I quickly tried to use it... Except... Ohhhh... You don't have to USE it by that date... I have to fucking FLY by that date or it expires. Deceiving and conning much? First they try to hide it so you forget about it, then you have to have your actual flight by that date.

Needless to say, I was screwed out of $200. I tried calling. I tried emailing. All of them were useless and basically said there is nothing I can do. I have a $200 credit that isn't expired yet that I can't use. I'm at the point where I want to write a letter to corporate (which I haven't had such a large situation to call for it in my life yet). Anyone have any experience with this? Be it flights or just random companies you had a major issue with. Did writing a letter to corporate help get the issue resolved?

Anyone have any tips on how to get something out of this? I'm pretty pissed off. I also travel just about every damn week for work and have a high status with them currently. I have no problem switching to their competitors.

You can complain. They might give you some $50 vouchers or free drinks or something. But you had a credit that you knew about that you didn't use before the expiration date. It isn't their fault that you didn't bother to use it.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

You can complain. They might give you some $50 vouchers or free drinks or something. But you had a credit that you knew about that you didn't use before the expiration date. It isn't their fault that you didn't bother to use it.

I did not know about the credit until the day before it "expires" or I would have GLADLY used it on the countless flights I had with them. Again, they don't list it on your account. While flying if you have a change in pricing, etc... and have a credit - other than being told you have a credit, there is no way to reconcile it. You have to find the section for looking up credits, then enter the confirmation number of said flight (along with First/Last name) and look it up to see if theres a credit.

I fly all the time, so remembering that they gave me a credit to some certain flight at some time period is ridiculous to remember on the spot.

I discovered it after finding the page and running through ALL confirmation numbers I could pull up in my email history.

 

[pete6032]

Was it Delta? They always hide stuff like that.

 

[Rakehellion]

I did not know about the credit until the day before it "expires" or I would have GLADLY used it on the countless flights I had with them. Again, they don't list it on your account. While flying if you have a change in pricing, etc... and have a credit - other than being told you have a credit, there is no way to reconcile it. You have to find the section for looking up credits, then enter the confirmation number of said flight (along with First/Last name) and look it up to see if theres a credit.

I fly all the time, so remembering that they gave me a credit to some certain flight at some time period is ridiculous to remember on the spot.

I discovered it after finding the page and running through ALL confirmation numbers I could pull up in my email history.

So you didn't know there was a credit at all, but you found it by fishing all of your confirmation numbers? Couldn't hurt to call them up. You probably won't get your $200 back, but you might get something.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Was it Delta? They always hide stuff like that.

It's actually Southwest Airlines. I held good respect for them over the major ones with avoiding fees and such.

This is the link I'm referring to on how you can find your credit: https://www.southwest.com/flight/travel-funds-search.html

Again, attaching it to your actual account that you login to would be easy as fuck.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I've had great success writing to corporations with problems or complaints. A well worded letter from a customer can go a long way and if you have a legit problem most are happy to help to keep your business.

That being said, the only time I ever tried to talk to an airline it was like talking to a brick wall. They flat out didn't care about anything. They've run their businesses like shit forever and keep getting bailed out, so they have no real incentive to try to do things better. Screw the customers, fail, get government subsidy, stay in business. Why change? If you were dealing with a company in almost any other sector I'd suggest you write a good letter. Since it's an airline, save yourself the time and the aggravation and move on with your life.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Big companies really don't care about what you think unless you're a major shareholder, but it does not hurt to do it anyway. The letter does not even get to whoever it's destined to, there is a department that filters it out. If there's any kind of threat they'll take legal action, but anything else just gets shredded. Same with government. Though surprisingly with government you may actually get a response, but it's most likely automated. I've emailed the PM about issues before to express my concerns and actually got a response that was semi related to what I emailed, figure it's better to do that than not do anything at all.

Airlines are probably some of the most apathetic companies though.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Think of it this way. You were fine before you ever knew you had that credit. Now that the credit has expired you're right back where you were when you were fine.

 

[Spacehead]

I also travel just about every damn week for work and have a high status with them currently. I have no problem switching to their competitors.

If you do write you'll probably want to include that part.

Good luck.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Corporate doesn't care about, read or, track your letters. Thank you for your money, come again.

 

[waffleironhead]

It doesn't hurt to try. Ive sent plenty of letters to corporations over the years. Almost all made good on my issue. Most recently I sent a letter to the IRS to get some fees and penalties removed. To my surprise they did.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Big companies really don't care about what you think unless you're a major shareholder, but it does not hurt to do it anyway. The letter does not even get to whoever it's destined to, there is a department that filters it out. If there's any kind of threat they'll take legal action, but anything else just gets shredded. Same with government. Though surprisingly with government you may actually get a response, but it's most likely automated. I've emailed the PM about issues before to express my concerns and actually got a response that was semi related to what I emailed, figure it's better to do that than not do anything at all.

Airlines are probably some of the most apathetic companies though.

Corporate doesn't care about, read or, track your letters. Thank you for your money, come again.

I think you both would be surprised.

I've heard tons of stories about letters to corporate actually doing something - while all their efforts on the phone or email were pointless. Part of it doesn't surprise me, if you know how to send a letter via USPS it means you definitely aren't as stupid as 90% of the population.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

It doesn't hurt to try. Ive sent plenty of letters to corporations over the years. Almost all made good on my issue. Most recently I sent a letter to the IRS to get some fees and penalties removed. To my surprise they did.

How did they go? What issues did you previously have with corporations that warranted a written/mailed letter? Just curious.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I think you both would be surprised.

I've heard tons of stories about letters to corporate actually doing something - while all their efforts on the phone or email were pointless. Part of it doesn't surprise me, if you know how to send a letter via USPS it means you definitely aren't as stupid as 90% of the population.

I believe in exceptions, I've just never experienced any. I've worked for very large corporations and seen letters sit on a secretary's desk until the file overflowed before being dropped into the circular file because their boss didn't have time to deal with them.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Be sure to use lots of exclamation points.

 

[boomerang]

Dear Airline Executive,

I stupidly forgot ...

 

[ultimatebob]

Corporate doesn't care about, read or, track your letters. Thank you for your money, come again.

Yeah... unless you can get a few thousand people to dogpile on your cause by getting it on sites like The Consumerist, you're not going to make much progress with them.

Maybe you should record your next call with customer service and see if you can get them to go off script and say something stupid?

 

[effowe]

Yeah... unless you can get a few thousand people to dogpile on your cause by getting it on sites like The Consumerist, you're not going to make much progress with them.

You could write them an open letter to their Twitter account. That has thousands of eyes on it on a daily basis and may gain more traction than one sent via conventional means.

 

[Mixolydian]

I've written letters to corporations many times. It often resulted in getting free products

 

[WelshBloke]

Let's all write a strongly-worded letter.

I'll start:
Dear assholes...

... Fuck you, your airline, your wife, mother and children...

 

[ultimatebob]

You could write them an open letter to their Twitter account. That has thousands of eyes on it on a daily basis and may gain more traction than one sent via conventional means.

Bitching to a company on Twitter is starting to lose it's effect. Most big corporations now have professional handlers for their Social Media. They are experts in making it look like they give a damn about your problem (AKA: The "we apologize for the inconvenience, we'll have someone look at that right away" style response) without any actual escalation to anyone who matters.

Hell, most of the social media groups are outside contractors who aren't even employees of the company in question. Unless you catch an employee doing something scandalous like selling porn on the side, you're not going to get a lot of attention going that route. Trust me, I've tried.

 

[Brainonska511]

I never did it for an airline, but I have done it for another company.

I had a gift card for a certain retailer of athletic footwear and wanted to buy some soccer cleats. Their retail store said to me that they don't sell them in the city and I should perhaps try a Sports Authority (great suggestion, I'm sure they take gift cards from another store) or online.

So I go the online route. First package I get - left cleat is correct, right cleat is a different color and for a different sport. First time they tried to fix it - claimed 1 day shipping, but the package never showed up. CS was a joke and sent stuff around in circles. Second time they tried to fix it (now almost 2 weeks after I started this entire chain) - the wrong size arrives. They actually followed up that time, but I told them the wrong size came. So they finally tell me the product I want is not available.

I eventually get something I want, but then I wrote a letter to their corporate office to complain about the whole oreal. I ended up with a gift card (LOL, since that's how it all started) and an apology via phone call from someone in charge of their online division. Used 95% of the gift card in the retail store to buy some socks and a small sports bag and have never shopped their since.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

UPDATE: I spent about 15-20 minutes typing up a decent letter explaining my complaints and frustration with their customer service as far as addressing my issues via phone/email. Most of it was a typical response, but in the end, I was issued a $96 credit - which is basically 1/2 of the credit I found was. Overall, not too shabby.

So basically... sending a letter to corporate does pay off :biggrin: