Comments for Eric Stoller's Blog http://ericstoller.com/blog | social justice | higher education | technology | Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:44:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 Comment on Orientation video for incoming students by Jeff http://ericstoller.com/blog/2009/07/01/orientation-video-for-incoming-students/#comment-34787 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:34:16 +0000 http://ericstoller.com/blog/2009/07/01/orientation-video-for-incoming-students/#comment-34787 This is great. Simple but I bet has big impact. This is great. Simple but I bet has big impact.

]]> Comment on Orientation video for incoming students by Dennis http://ericstoller.com/blog/2009/07/01/orientation-video-for-incoming-students/#comment-34755 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:57:56 +0000 http://ericstoller.com/blog/2009/07/01/orientation-video-for-incoming-students/#comment-34755 Every time I see a new post, I want to leave a comment that just says "Wow! A post! I thought this blog was defunct!" And then I don't, except for this time, when I sort of did. Every time I see a new post, I want to leave a comment that just says “Wow! A post! I thought this blog was defunct!”

And then I don’t, except for this time, when I sort of did.

]]> Comment on Free (United Airlines) ticket voucher by J http://ericstoller.com/blog/2006/10/16/free-united-airlines-ticket-voucher/#comment-34570 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:03:05 +0000 http://ericstoller.com/blog/2006/10/16/free-united-airlines-ticket-voucher/#comment-34570 A trip back from England had half the lavatories not working and the television not working almost the entire time. I was not bothered by it one bit as I slept almost the entire trip. I received a $250 voucher for this incovenience. I tried ticketing on united.com, but no where does it ask for a voucher number, this brought me to the automated telephone method. I did not want to pay the $25 fee for talking to an agent and it took 10 minutes to get the automated system to know what reservations I wanted. After it asked for my credit card number, didn't ask for voucher, I asked for "help". The agent came on and I told her about the voucher, she immediately gave me the same Address as discussed in this blog, and I confirmed with her twice, as I was sure my voucher would get "lost" in the mail. I asked if the address could be found on united.com, to be certain of the address given, she was unable to locate the URL. I read this blog and took the advice to get delivery confirmation when mailing in my voucher. Boy was I shocked and pleasantly surprised! I mailed the voucher on a monday, had not even had time to check the delivery confirmation, and received e-ticket confirmation two days later! A trip back from England had half the lavatories not working and the television not working almost the entire time. I was not bothered by it one bit as I slept almost the entire trip. I received a $250 voucher for this incovenience.
I tried ticketing on united.com, but no where does it ask for a voucher number, this brought me to the automated telephone method. I did not want to pay the $25 fee for talking to an agent and it took 10 minutes to get the automated system to know what reservations I wanted. After it asked for my credit card number, didn’t ask for voucher, I asked for “help”. The agent came on and I told her about the voucher, she immediately gave me the same Address as discussed in this blog, and I confirmed with her twice, as I was sure my voucher would get “lost” in the mail. I asked if the address could be found on united.com, to be certain of the address given, she was unable to locate the URL.
I read this blog and took the advice to get delivery confirmation when mailing in my voucher.
Boy was I shocked and pleasantly surprised! I mailed the voucher on a monday, had not even had time to check the delivery confirmation, and received e-ticket confirmation two days later!

]]> Comment on Free (United Airlines) ticket voucher by Hayley http://ericstoller.com/blog/2006/10/16/free-united-airlines-ticket-voucher/#comment-34511 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:45:14 +0000 http://ericstoller.com/blog/2006/10/16/free-united-airlines-ticket-voucher/#comment-34511 After having my return flight to Vegas cancelled and being put on one 24 hours later (Nov/08), I spend 2 hours on the phone to United to complain. I was transferred to 5 different people in India and had to repeat my story over and over again. I was finally offered a travel certificate for $150. This didn't really compensate for the hotel that I had to move to for the extra night. Yesterday I called to book a flight for a trip in August (I live in Canada but will be flying out of Detroit). I have already booked and paid for the hotel. I was told the procedure and decided to take it to the airport. I told him what city I live in (I'm 2 hours away from Toronto and about 2 1/2 from the Detroit airport) and he said I could take it to "any" airport so I went to my local airport because I only had 24 hours to do this. **Sigh**.. I got there and as suspected they couldn't help me as we don't have a United counter yet. The woman did go out of her way to call United Canada, and was told that I would have to mail it. She then called the United number for the US. He told her that I should take it to Toronto and she told him that it's a 2 hour drive each way and I couldn't do that. So I now have to mail it. I've made copies of everything and will be mailing it today. If I can send it inexpensively by Priority Post I'll send it that way. I suspect that it will not be the case so I'll have to rely on snail-mail. Has anyone had any luck sending it from Canada to the Dearborn address? Did you get your ticket issued? My biggest concern is that it will get "lost" somewhere along the way and I'll have a huge fight on my hands. I will not fly United ever again unless I have no other choice. Just for the record, this isn't about India or the people there. I realize they probably have a list that they refer to... complaint A, use response #3.. but this is terrible customer service and they may not live in a culture where customer service is all that important. This is not their fault, this is United's fault. If they are going to represent an American airline they must be trained to deal with customer issues no matter where they live in the world. I recently had to send my laptop back to HP and dealt with reps in the Phillippines. I had no issues and their customer service level was what I was expecting.. so I credit HP with proper training. Bottom line, I won't fly United if I can help it after this trip (assuming my voucher gets to the right place and is actually applied to my account and I get my ticket!). I am also sending a long letter of complaint so who knows? :) I would love to print off this blog and send it along but I think I'll be killing a tree or two and I wouldn't be able to afford the postage! Thanks for reading :) After having my return flight to Vegas cancelled and being put on one 24 hours later (Nov/08), I spend 2 hours on the phone to United to complain. I was transferred to 5 different people in India and had to repeat my story over and over again. I was finally offered a travel certificate for $150. This didn’t really compensate for the hotel that I had to move to for the extra night.

Yesterday I called to book a flight for a trip in August (I live in Canada but will be flying out of Detroit). I have already booked and paid for the hotel. I was told the procedure and decided to take it to the airport. I told him what city I live in (I’m 2 hours away from Toronto and about 2 1/2 from the Detroit airport) and he said I could take it to “any” airport so I went to my local airport because I only had 24 hours to do this. **Sigh**.. I got there and as suspected they couldn’t help me as we don’t have a United counter yet. The woman did go out of her way to call United Canada, and was told that I would have to mail it. She then called the United number for the US. He told her that I should take it to Toronto and she told him that it’s a 2 hour drive each way and I couldn’t do that. So I now have to mail it. I’ve made copies of everything and will be mailing it today. If I can send it inexpensively by Priority Post I’ll send it that way. I suspect that it will not be the case so I’ll have to rely on snail-mail. Has anyone had any luck sending it from Canada to the Dearborn address? Did you get your ticket issued? My biggest concern is that it will get “lost” somewhere along the way and I’ll have a huge fight on my hands. I will not fly United ever again unless I have no other choice.

Just for the record, this isn’t about India or the people there. I realize they probably have a list that they refer to… complaint A, use response #3.. but this is terrible customer service and they may not live in a culture where customer service is all that important. This is not their fault, this is United’s fault. If they are going to represent an American airline they must be trained to deal with customer issues no matter where they live in the world. I recently had to send my laptop back to HP and dealt with reps in the Phillippines. I had no issues and their customer service level was what I was expecting.. so I credit HP with proper training.

Bottom line, I won’t fly United if I can help it after this trip (assuming my voucher gets to the right place and is actually applied to my account and I get my ticket!). I am also sending a long letter of complaint so who knows? :)

I would love to print off this blog and send it along but I think I’ll be killing a tree or two and I wouldn’t be able to afford the postage!

Thanks for reading
:)

]]> Comment on Free (United Airlines) ticket voucher by T http://ericstoller.com/blog/2006/10/16/free-united-airlines-ticket-voucher/#comment-34473 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:24:53 +0000 http://ericstoller.com/blog/2006/10/16/free-united-airlines-ticket-voucher/#comment-34473 Hi, I was wondering if there is anyone out there who has tried taking advantage of this overbooking freet ticket system by deliberately reserviing a place on a flight which is likely to be overbooked inorder to volunteer for later flights to get free tickets ? if so, how many free tickets were you able to get and which airports did you choose for this? Thanks T Hi,

I was wondering if there is anyone out there who has tried taking advantage of this overbooking freet ticket system by deliberately reserviing a place on a flight which is likely to be overbooked inorder to volunteer for later flights to get free tickets ? if so, how many free tickets were you able to get and which airports did you choose for this?

Thanks

T

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