03 June 2008

Lawyer suing airlines for $1 million for rudeness

Initial reaction to a lawyer suing Delta Air Lines for $1 million for incompetence and rude employees has been favorable, according to various reports.

Richard Roth said he and his family, including his 80-year-old mother celebrating a birthday, had a stressful and costly horror trip to South America.

Mr Roth said Delta misplaced his luggage, which meant he had to buy new clothes for himself and family members after arriving in Buenos Aires.

During the ordeal, Roth's court papers say, several Delta employees were "nasty," "rude," "obnoxious" and "totally disrespectful," according to the AP. Those who were courteous were generally not effective in assisting him, he said.

A Delta spokeswoman said she could not comment on pending litigation.

Mr Roth of Scarsdale, NY, said he arranged for his mother to fly to her native Argentina during the 2007 Christmas holidays. He said he and his family were scheduled to fly from the Westchester County Airport last December.

In Atlanta, a gate agent refused to let Roth and his family onto the jet for the connecting flight, although the plane was sitting at the gate with the door open, according to court papers.

Mr Roth said that after he and his family spent two nights in Atlanta, a ticket agent told him Delta could not get him to Argentina for weeks. So they flew to Florida, spent a night there and bought tickets on an Aerolineas Argentina flight to Buenos Aires.

by David Wilkening

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Your Comments (2)

I wish I had done that.

I am increasingly amazed at the rudeness of gate employees. I asked an American Airlines employee for her name so I could report her behavior. She readily gave it to me and American Airlines ignored the problem. My story is similar in result. Thanks to American Airlines I completely missed Paris on the first leg of a cruise. I avoid them whenever possible.

By Patricia Buschette, Thursday, June 5, 2008
What else is new?

The airlines are getting slammed with negative press of late - I believe much (most) of it has been fairly earned. The "problems" with ineffective, incompetant, uncaring or downright rude customer service are not limited to the airlines. They appear to be epidemic. It is rare that I can complete a call to a "Customer Service" department without my blood pressure rising about 50 points. The prevalent response seems to run to "That isn't out fault, it's (our supplier), (another vendor), (any other available scapegoat's) fault. When did SERVICE become a 4 letter word?

By John Lavelle, Thursday, June 5, 2008