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| - This company has the worst customer service procedures I have ever encountered. The people are nice -- as they stick to a script that doesn't allow for any deviation, including empathy -- but Allegiant customer service seems to be set up to completely avoid having to actually give service.
I purchased a ticket on Tuesday for a Sunday night flight. On Friday I received the distressing news that my daughter had been diagnosed with cancer. I needed to completely change my plans for the next few months. Of the people I spoke with at Allegiant, only one said I'm sorry to hear that. First I went directly to the airport. The young lady put my "excuse" into the computer system, but said I had to call customer service to ask if they would forgive the hefty change fee and simply refund the ticket.
The customer service number is notorious (so I found after reading numerous reviews) for not being available. The standard answer is, "I'm sorry. We have too many calls. But go to our website and chat live with a travel expert." After many, many attempts, I finally got through after listening to a message that reads time backwards: Your wait is . . . 10 minutes and 15 seconds. Your wait is . . . nine minutes and 56 seconds. Your wait is . . . 11 minutes and 5 seconds.
The customer service rep told me, with no apologies, "I'm sorry. We don't have a medical policy." When I asked her if she thought i was making up my daughter's cancer to get out of paying for a ticket, there was silence on her side of the conversation. So, as I was agreeing to pay the $50 fee + airport costs, she pushed the wrong button and dropped the call. She later called back and left a voice message saying Allegiant had dropped the call and she hadn't made any changes to my ticket, so be sure to call back.
I next went to the website, only to find that Live Chat allows you to ask only basic questions, certainly nothing that requires a decision. I logged into my itinerary and clicked on Cancel Flight. When the confirmation screen popped up, I clicked on it. Then I got a message saying there was a server error, and my request couldn't go through and that maybe the itinerary had been loaded wrong, I assume by Allegiant malfunctioning computers. (Keep in mind tickets have to be canceled 24 hours before the flight and I was running out of time.)
I finally reached someone on the phone -- two hours later -- who was helpful.
This is not my first bad experience with Allegiant. Out of three previous flights, two of them were hours late. I read on an airline rating site that this airline only has a 56% on-time rate.
Not only was this a bad customer service experience, but I got the distinct impression that airline personnel were reluctant to accept what I was telling them, as though many people claimed their daughters had cancer to get out of paying. But then, since you have to pay for any type of convenience with this airline, maybe I forgot to pay the "act like you care" fee.
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